tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4953197308467900912024-02-07T19:49:13.368-08:00Adventures in NarrAn online journal of a D&D 5th edition campaignDirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10485617570272641386noreply@blogger.comBlogger47125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-495319730846790091.post-83520692037522073312020-05-03T21:58:00.001-07:002020-05-03T21:58:21.854-07:00We're Back! And We're on Fire: Quarantine Edition<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>'memeber when we used to play D&D? Well we finally played again, on Roll20, and here's what happened...</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
After resting up and getting some healing potions with the friendly mongrel folk, 'Tok, Mogg and Skogg, the party sent out down a winding passage way towards the temple, directed by Skogg. What they came to was a mass of rubble from a cave-in, but a small tunnel wound its way through the debris. Deciding it was too small for most of the group to travel through, they decided to go the long way around, a second option given by Skogg.<br />
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While the rest of the group went back to the mongrel folk village, Grabby scouted ahead, crawling this way through the rubble with a hooded lantern. He eventually came to an open chamber filled with the ruins of an ancient stone structure. He saw a small group of cultists in robes, some wearing helmets adorned with the distinctive ram horns of Orcus. Two of the cultists were guarding a spiral staircase that led deeper into the earth. From another passageway, two bugbears entered the ruins, dragging the carcass of some sort of insectoid creature, with a pale chitinous hide.<br />
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After seeing this, Grabby made his way back to the group and reported what he saw, and under Skogg's direction, they left the village and returned to the fungal forest and made their way back towards that had first entered the Underdark. Eventually they came to two passages, one described as, "creature, *animal sounds*, narrow ledge, " by Skogg, and the other, "fire, *animal snort*, fire."<br />
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Choosing the arrow/snort/fire route, the party pushed forward to a massive cavern. The cavern stretched across a deep, black expanse, with large platforms of rock throughout, connected by rickety rope bridges. Far across the expansive cavern, a ledge could be seen with a crossbowman standing guard.<br />
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Disguised in cult robes, Ander, Boots, and Audrey began to make their way across the bridges, immediately noticing the bridges had been soaked in pitch. Although the sentry had noticed them, he didn't seem to be concerned about their presence. Once they made it to the last rock platform before the final bridge, they had no choice but get their allies across. Ander cast a fog cloud upon the ledge where the guard stood (and they could tell there were more just out of sight) and called out for the others to race across to their position.<br />
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Now alerted, but confused, the guards fell back away from the magic fog into a passage way behind them.<br />
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Ander, Boots, and Audrey waited for their companions, focussed on a well lit passage way near by with rough stone stairs leading down from above, and the din of several people/creatures making their way down towards them.<br />
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Lorintz and Shamus weren't far behind Ander and the others, but Skogg and Break were still far behind, with Grabby in the middle. Soon, several figures made their way down stairs into the light, the first being a bugbear, who fell quickly to several arrows from under, and arcane bolts from Boots. After the bugbear hit the ground, a human guard just behind him help the bolt of his crossbow to a sconce, lighting his pitch soaked bolt, and let it fly at the closes bridge. The bolt struck its mark, immediately igniting the bridge with Shamus and Lorintz on it on fire. Luckily, the two were close enough to the end that they'd be able to run off.<br />
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A second guard made his way down the stairs, and following suit, fired another flaming bolt at the bridge that Grabby was just a bout to finish crossing. It too hit its mark. Deciding not to leave his fellow party members behind, Grabby dashed through the flames back towards Break and Skogg as the bridge became quickly engulfed in flames...Dirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10485617570272641386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-495319730846790091.post-3036482651782704952018-01-25T23:56:00.001-08:002019-11-03T11:49:26.091-08:00Let the Music Play, Down at Mongrel Rock<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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July 20, 3430, Age of Kings<br />
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After arming Grak and Ora-Tok (or just "Tok" as they called him) with some swords, the ventured to the end of the hall and opened doors that led into a large chamber beneath the keep's courtyard, open to the moonlight above through a thick, iron grate. In the middle of the room was a stinking heap of sludge with the odd bone jutting up through its surface—this was the killing chamber for the victim's of Cauldron Keep.<br />
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Not wanting to waste any time with the keep's occupants on alert, the party double backed to where the captain had escaped and Grabby eventually managed to pick the lock. They descended down some stairs to the next level that led into a long corridor. They moved down the hall, passed three doors, and entered a large room at the end of the hall. Inside was a grisly laboratory lined with shelves of books, a broken and desecrated statue of St. Eliah, and several wooden tables with various body parts, gore, and the mutilated remains of several mongrel folk—this obviously upset Tok. After a brief look through the lab, the group continued out of the room and down a set of stairs that descended into darkness.<br />
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Grak informed the party that it was about a twenty minute walk down the stairs. So the party descended, with Ander far in the lead to scout ahead. Eventually the stone walls and stairs gave way to rough cavern walls and crudely carved steps, and a faint green glow could be seen further down.<br />
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When the party made it to the bottom of the stairs they looked upon a scene which none (except maybe Broak) had ever seen: a vast underground wilderness with various mushrooms of all sizes, mysterious incandescent foliage casting the dull green glow, air filled with glowing motes, and the sound of flowing water. The ceiling of the cavern was high enough to be obscured by darkness, with the occasional stalactite jutting out from the blackness.<br />
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(GM's note: the rest of this update is being written over three months after the fact, so memories will be hazy)<br />
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Following Tok's advice (with Grak objecting, stating it was most likely a trap), the party headed off to the right of the vast cavern, as Tok seemed to imply it was the safest path and they could take refuge in his peoples' subterranean village. As they made their way through fungus and moss laden cave, the sound of human voices could be heard up ahead and the party stumbled into a patrol of more guards.<br />
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A melee ensued through a narrowing of the cavern, creating a bottleneck which both sides were reluctant to enter, preferring to attack with ranged weapons from cover. At one point, Ander cast a fog cloud spell to handle the stalemate, allowing the party to rush forward. In an exciting turn of events—<br />
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—404 error, exciting battle lost to memory— </div>
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(The only thing I recall is a comedy of errors of characters and NPCs stumbling into one another and cavern walls inside the fog cloud) </div>
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—greatest battle of all time!!</div>
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During the battle, Grak and Tok and stayed at the rear, when the dust had settled the party returned to find Tok seriously wounded—attacked by Grak—and Grak the bugbear nowhere to be seen.</div>
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The party carried on through the caverns directed by Tok, following a stream, passing through a dense fungal forest with a central lake. Eventually he led them to secret passageway in the rock that led to his village.</div>
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The cavern opened into a grand chamber, with large, natural stone steps circulating around the cave, with hollows and openings filled with various wares—the hovels of the mongrel folk. In the centre of the chamber was the grisly remains of the village: a large pile of mongrel folk bodies, charred black. As a distraught Tok surveyed the destruction of his village, two more mongrel folk came out from hiding—Mogg and Skogg. The two survivors recounted the events to Tok and the party, a group of men in robes accompanied by a group of bugbears attacke dthe village, killing everyone and taking a few prisoners away with them.</div>
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Skogg, the villages greatest warrior told the party that there was a shortcut through a collapsed cave that the party could navigate their way through to get to a ruin where the raiders seem to be stationed.</div>
Dirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10485617570272641386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-495319730846790091.post-47646403100919072912017-11-12T15:49:00.000-08:002017-11-12T15:49:11.109-08:00Unlikely AlliesJuly 19, 3430, Age of Kings<br />
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<i>DM's Note: Due to life being busy it's been nearly a year since we've played, but I'm hoping to get back at it soon. There's one more update that I neglected to post, so I'm going from an almost year old memory on this one! </i><br />
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As the battle continued in the bottleneck, the guards eventually began to see things weren't going their way, so the wounded captain yelled out to fall back. As the remaining guards ran from the party, Ander managed to fell a few more with well placed arrows, only to see them turn around a corner and out of sight, but the party gave chase fearing they'd come back with a larger force.<br />
<i> </i><br />
Audrey led the charge after the guards, but as she turned the corner she was met with the blade of a guard's sword (a critical hit, if I recall) that dropped her to the floor, bleeding out on the flagstones. As the rest of the party caught up they were greeted by the last of the guards with captain unlocking a set of doors. By the time they party had cut down the rest of the guards—and Broak had heroically dodged passed swinging swords to stabilize the gravely wounded Audrey—the captain had snuck away and locked the doors behind him. Grabby immediately set to trying to pick the lock but was unsuccessful.<br />
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Knowing they couldn't catch up to the captain any time soon, they turned their attention to strange sounds they heard coming from beyond a set of double doors where they had just battled the guards. They went through the doors and came to a hall lined with cell doors, four on each side of the hall, and ending in a set of double doors marked with black gunk on the floor around it.<br />
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The first door they inspected had a ravenous ghoul swiping his clawed arm at the party through the small barred window in door. The next had a man rocking back and forth babbling—he had clearly lost his mind. They came to an imprisoned bugbear who engaged them, introducing himself as Grakk (a name they heard two other bugbears mention outside on their way to the keep) and telling them how he was imprisoned for murdering two guards, but if they were willing to release him, he'd lead them to a hidden treasure beneath the keep, and he'd take his band of bugbears far away from the keep—he doesn't like working for the "pale skins, doing their dirty work."<br />
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This conversation got the attention of another prisoner, a mongrel man—with the head of a bugbear, one leg like that of a giant bird, and a tentacle for an arm—named Ora-Tok (goblin for "bad smell"), he warned the party not to trust the murderous bugbear, and how the bugbears slaughtered his people deep in the caverns beneath the keep, all the while Grakk warned them not to trust Ora-Tok as well. Not totally trusting either one, the party was willing to release both prisoners to help them find their way beneath the keep, but keeping their eyes on both of them for any treachery...<br />
<br />Dirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10485617570272641386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-495319730846790091.post-11393313641514606962017-01-22T22:33:00.003-08:002017-01-22T22:33:28.329-08:00Into the Depths of Cauldron KeepJuly 18 to July 19, 3430, Age of Kings<br />
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<i>(DM's note: quite some time has past since we played these games, and this is two sessions combined, so I'll be keeping it short)</i><br />
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Once everyone manage to get inside the sentry tower, they found a lone guard eating a bowl of pottage down below, unaware of the party. The group was also aware of a guard patrolling the top of the tower, as well as at least two more walking the walls.<br />
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Quietly descending the stairs, Grabby unsheathed his sword and Mr. Shiney, once he was half way down the stairs, he quietly mounted the banister and leapt off, landing on the guard below—sword first, killing him instantly. The rest of the group move down to meet him and found a single way out: a locked door. After several attempts to pick the lock, Grabby abandoned the task as they thought of another way to move around the keep unnoticed.<br />
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A guard entered above from the wall, calling out to the now dead guard, to tell him his shift was to begin (it had just turned midnight). As the guard came down to see why his ally wasn't responding he was quickly dispatched by arrows and bolts.<br />
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The party decided to have an illusion created to fool the guard on the roof of the tower, but as Grabby's spell was quite limited, and he had no line of sight to where the guard was (and Boots tried to mimic the guard's voice) things didn't go as well as planned as the guard called out for another guard to enter the tower.<br />
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Eventually two more guards entered the tower and the party attacked them from the floor level, but unable to kill them, the guards fled and raised an alarm.<br />
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Now that the keep was alerted to their presence stealth wasn't much of a concern, so Audrey picked the lock on the door with a sledge hammer.<br />
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The group ran down a dark staircase to first level below the keep. They entered a well stocked kitchen and servery and tried to barricade the door behind them.<br />
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Quickly moving into a hallway they came across three closed doors, the sounds of sleeping men could be heard on the other side of each. Accidentally waking the guards by opening a squeaky door, the party engaged the drowsy, and ill-equipped guards, killing them with little difficulty.<br />
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<i>(DM's note: the following is from the next week, when Boots' player wasn't available)</i><br />
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Moving down another hall they came to a room that was a dead end and housed some tables, chairs and decks of cards—sort of a gambling den for the guards.<br />
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Before the could backtrack, the sound of several footsteps were heard coming their way. Quickly peeking around the corner, a large group of guards was coming towards them. When the guards realized where the party was, they called out to them to surrender, informing them they were greatly outnumbered.<br />
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Naturally, a battle ensued, with the party hanging back in hopes of bottle-necking the guards, with Grabby and Ander hanging back to provide covering fire, while Audrey, Broak and Lorentz engaged them hand-to-hand, and Brother Shamus healed the wounded. (At one point Ander accidentally shot Broak with an arrow, and Grabby tried to duck and weave between Lorentz's legs, only to trip him up).<br />
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<br />Dirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10485617570272641386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-495319730846790091.post-66245607727525181642016-11-29T01:34:00.000-08:002016-11-29T01:34:45.831-08:00The Road to Cauldron KeepJuly 4 to July 14–18, 3430, Age of Kings<br />
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Once inside the church the party was greeted warmly by an elder priest who led them into the main hall. Once inside Lorentz spoke to the priest about Brother Shamus, who was currently in the church's study. While the priest was fetching Brother Shamus for the group, they were led downstairs to a simple dormitory where they could leave their gear before returning back upstairs to the dining hall to have a meal of pottage, bread and wine (and ale for Broak).<br />
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Eventually a heavy-set priest came in and greeted the party as Brother Shamus. They laid out their plan to him (without giving too much away) and they enlisted his help after a small donation to the church.<br />
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They then went to bed for the night, enjoying the modest comfort and protection of the church.<br />
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* * *</div>
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The next morning, after breakfast, they went out to find their horse and mule fed and watered, and their carts washed. They said their goodbyes to the priests, and set out north up the road with their new traveling companion.</div>
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* * *</div>
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The next few days saw better weather and an empty road. After three days of travel they saw the forest to the west start to become withered and dead looking. Eventually and old road broke off from the main road, marked by several iron cages with the long dead remains of prisoners inside—this was the road heading up to Cauldron Keep. In the distant forested foothills a small plume of smoke could be seen rising from the thick forest ahead.</div>
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They made their way west up the old road, although there wasn't heavy traffic, Ander was able to find several groups of tracks, only a few days old moving up and down the road towards the forest. They past by several more cages with their grisly contents, and the occasional sun-bleached skull on a stake along the road. </div>
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As they entered the forest the two elves noticed an unnatural aura about the forest—the trees seemed to be dying, or in a perpetual state of autumn, there were no birds chirping, and there seemed to be no sign of wildlife, but they pressed on.</div>
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As they got closer to the keep and the sun passed below the mountains, they thought it best to move off the road and make a plan. While they did this, Ander scouted ahead and made his way to the keep, where he saw the old keep, and a handful of sentries armed with crossbows walking the walls. Not wanting to risk detection, he returned to the group to pass along what he had seen.</div>
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When Ander returned the party noticed torchlight flickering between the trees coming up the road. They swiftly moved back to the road to flank whomever was coming up the road towards the keep, waiting for a signal from Boots if they should attack, leaving Gerhardt and the carts back at their camp.</div>
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After a short wait a large group could be seen making their way up the road. Leading the way were four armoured mercenary-types armed with swords and crossbows, three bugbears (two of which were pulling a wagon laden with goods, and three tied-up humans with bloody sacks over their heads), followed by 12 filthy, crazed-looking men dressed in tattered robes, all carrying massive flails, all muttering to one another. Ander could make out the bugbears speaking in Goblin to one another about "not trusting the pale-skins," and "asking Grakk what he thinks they should do."</div>
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Greatly outnumbered, they decided to hold back and let the train pass by in the dark.</div>
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Once safe, the party took their time marching around to the rear of the keep—which seemed to be the least guarded area. Grabby and Ander silently climbed the old stone wall and made their way onto the parapet where they kept low to avoid detection. They then secured ropes for the other to climb up and join them. Once everyone was up they carefully opened the door to the nearby sentry tower.</div>
Dirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10485617570272641386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-495319730846790091.post-55533544728476672852016-11-26T16:36:00.001-08:002016-11-29T01:04:26.837-08:00A Bulette to the Head... and Every Other PartJuly 4 to July 12–14, 3430, Age of Kings<br />
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Our intrepid band of adventurers continued to push on northward down the road in the rain. As they walked the could feel slight tremors in the ground throughout the day, but never seeing or knowing what could be causing them—were they natural, or something else?<br />
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* * *</div>
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As the sun dropped beneath the mountains to the west they headed off the road and set up their camp. Lorentz informed them that in the next couple of days they should come across a road-side temple, The Church of His Eternal Glory. There, they may be able to enlist the services of a Brother Shamus, a cleric Lorentz had worked with in the past, to join their band. </div>
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After eating dinner, the tremors persisted and seemed to be getting stronger. Suddenly a blood-curdling squeal of a boar could be heard off in the darkness. As they grabbed their weapons and rose to their feet, two giant boars rushed into their camp, wild-eyed and full of fear. They came to a sudden stop at the edge of the camp, seemingly surprised to run into the party—but willing to fight their way through them!</div>
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Ander backed off to cover to launch a continuous volley of arrows into the boars, while Lorentz and Grabby engaged one, and Audrey and Broak flanked the other, while Gerhardt stood with the pack animals to keep them calm, tied to a tree. At one point Broak dealth a stagger critical hit to a boar, causing him to relive his horrible past, stunning the boar and causing him to scream and cry, falling to his knees briefly.</div>
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As they fought on, the rumbling in the ground began to grow. As they were wearing the boars down, the ground shook violently, and the tree the pack animals were tied to cracked, rocked to the side and was uprooted in a cloud of dust and leaves. The horse and the mule were wrenched onto their sides, and Gerhardt was pinned beneath a tree branch and the thrashing mule.</div>
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The boars, equally surprised by the sudden uprooting of the tree, were caught off guard and the party slew them both, just as a massive shape emerged from a hole where the tree once stood: a land shark! The beast leapt through the air, coming down with horrible force on Audrey, dealing a massive amount of damage. Several of Anders' arrows bounced off its thick hide as the other party members rushed into the barbarian's aid.<br />
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Grabby climbed a nearby rock outcropping to gain height over the beast, but the wind shifted and wafted the delicious scent of halfling to the land sharks nostrils—it's favourite meal! Excited by the prospect of a halfling morsel, it once again jumped high into the air, landing on the rock outcropping, but Grabby managed to avoid the brunt of the attack, and rolled off the rock, and into the shadows below where he briefly hid from the hungry beast.</div>
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In his weakened state Grabby moved around the camp in an effort to stay away from the land shark while the others continued the attack. Lorentz switched to his crossbow which he quickly broke the bow string with a critical fail. <br />
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<i>GM Note: Audrey's player was also rolling for Lorentz this session, and she rolled miss after miss, with several critical fails for both characters, leading to much frustration for her that night.</i></div>
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As they wore the beast down it manged to deal a devastating attack to both Audrey and Broak, leaving them bloody and unconscious on the ground. But within moments the others managed to bring the creature down, and they managed to finally help Gerhardt get out of his tight spot between the tree and the mule.<br />
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Audrey and Broak were eventually brought around, and had their wounds bandaged and they made it though the rest of the night without incident.</div>
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<i>* * *</i></div>
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The next two days of travel saw nothing but rain and a grey sky. Late in the day they came to The Church of His Eternal Glory (a church devoted to St. Eliah), and entered past two rigid-looking paladins guarding the front gate...</div>
Dirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10485617570272641386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-495319730846790091.post-53543180682256026412016-09-20T20:46:00.001-07:002016-10-16T16:01:02.443-07:00A Giant BattleJuly 4 to July 10–12, 3430, Age of Kings<br />
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<i>GM's note: this report is a few weeks old in my memory, and it's the second time we played it through. We discovered that gaining advantage while flanking became too powerful during fights with single adversaries. This battle and the next are both do-overs with adjusted rules. </i><br />
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After much squabbling over what to do with the nine-fingered bandit, the group decided to let him wander off into the darkness. But before he could get to said darkness, Ander notched an arrow and let it fly, striking the bandit in the back and killing him.<br />
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After even more squabbling, they opted not to search for his bandit camp, and press on with the journey at hand.<br />
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The next morning the set off as weather got colder and rainier, and over the next day the rain was they only thing they encountered.</div>
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The next day, late in the morning, through the drizzle they could see a scene of carnage ahead on the muddy road. As they got closer they were met by the remains of a very one-sided battle: two bodies violently smashed into the ground, one on top of the other, making difficult to determine right away how many corpses there were. Ander found the tracks of several sheep nearby, and some very large humanoid footprints moving further down the road. </div>
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Ander scouted ahead and found a hill giant resting upon a rock outcropping, happily tearing into the bodies of dead sheep for lunch. He went back and alerted the others, who all decided to attempt an ambush on the giant, while Gerhardt and the carts stayed back.</div>
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So they crept through the rain (except for Boots, who decided strolling down the middle of the road would be a better approach) towards the feeding giant. Quickly noticing Boots, the giant stood up to engage the intruder as his allies attacked from all angles.<br />
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Ander stayed across the road firing arrows at the giant while Lorentz also kept a safe distance and attacked with his crossbow. Broak and Audrey took a more direct approach (as barbarians and fighters do) and Grabby struck from behind with hit-and-run tactics, while Boots supported with magic from the road.<br />
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During the battle, Audrey took quite a pummeling from the giant's stone hammer. Eventually Boots cast a cloud of daggers leveled with the giant's head, keeping his allies out of harm's way. Which eventually led to the giant charging out into the road after Boots.<br />
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Eventually, after many arrows, bolts, bruises and cuts, the hill giant fell into the mud, dead from his many wounds from the puny party. <br />
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And on the lighter side:<br />
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Broak, about to take one for the team... that's just his finger, perverts!</div>
Dirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10485617570272641386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-495319730846790091.post-79381025539976430292016-08-13T16:09:00.003-07:002016-08-20T15:40:09.316-07:00A Lousy Dwarf SentryJuly 4 to July 10, 3430, Age of Kings<br />
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With their hired help ready to go, the party set out on the road heading north out of Leedshire. After the first day of travel they spent the night in the hamlet of North Leedshire where they decided to carouse and spend some money. Money was won, money was lost, and Broak found himself waking up next to a very large woman in a brothel the next morning.<br />
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After Broak met back up with the others, they set back out on the road. The long journey ahead to the area where Cauldron Keep would take about another ten days, with Church of His Eternal Glory being the only point of civilization along the way. The further north they traveled the less frequent they saw other travelers on the road—but it was an otherwise uneventful journey for several days.<br />
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* * *</div>
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On the sixth day of their journey they set up camp as normal and Broak took the first watch. Just an hour into his first watch Broak noticed three rather rough looking men coming down the road towards their campsite. As they approached on said called out, "Well, well, weel, what 'ave we 'ere?" in an intimidating manner—bandits. </div>
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As Broak moved to put himself between them and the camp he noticed several more bandits armed with crossbows creep out of the shadows surrounding the camp (they rolled a very good stealth check to sneak up on the group).</div>
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The bandits wanted to take the party's horse, mule and two carts, as well as some coin. Naturally Broak wasn't about to let this happen. Audrey, Lorentz and Grabby were roused by the commotion (Gerhardt remained soundly sleeping). With their crossbows leveled at most of the party, they knew any sudden movements would be answered with a crossbow bolt.</div>
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Not wanting to give the bandits anything a melee quickly ensued with Broak making an attempt at the first attack against the bandit leader. Boots remained motionless with a bandit just ten feet from him, but Ander, Grabby, and Audrey leapt into action, risking injury. Even Lorentz the sell-sword rolled over, grabbed his shield and leapt to his feet to combat the threat. <br />
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Several bolts were fired at the party and Ander worked his way around the camp firing off arrows at their foes, while Broak and Audrey moved in to attack the leader and his two henchmen. Broak suffered a terrible bleeding wound at one point during the battle. When their numbers were whittled down, one bandit made an attempt to steal the horse and escape, but was promptly shot off by a well placed arrow from Ander. Boots cast a sleep spell which managed to put one bandit to sleep.<br />
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Without his armour, Lorentz was taking a beating from one of the bandits but eventually managed to best him with some assistance from the party.</div>
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Eventually the bandits and their leader all lay dead—and one lay asleep.</div>
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Surrounding the lone bandit with their weapons at the ready they woke up the rather frightened man. The party started to push him for information on the whereabouts of the bandits' camp, which he refused. Eventually this led to Ander wanting to resort to torture, so he cut off one of the defenseless man's fingers to get answers, which made Grabby and Broak feel like this was getting out hand. The nine-fingered bandit then gave up that his camp was to the west, through the mountains in Toln Swamp...</div>
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<i>Now I need to read up on alignment and torture.</i></div>
Dirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10485617570272641386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-495319730846790091.post-9200917935052562812016-07-07T20:20:00.002-07:002016-07-09T15:54:12.402-07:00The Dwarven ColumboJuly 1 to July 4, 3430, Age of Kings<br />
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After dispatching the bugbears, goblins and ogre, the party took a quick rest, and Broak caught up from sleeping in, and Boots decided to head back home (ie: his player was away, and will be for a while). Sweating profusely in the midday sun Broak joined his friends and they headed on to Leedshire.<br />
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After two more days of travel in the unusually hot weather (I have a random weather generation system) they arrived in Leedshire in the evening, found an inn, then got some dinner and some sleep.<br />
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* * *</div>
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The next morning they decided headed over to Gower's manor to help track down hi missing item. After being let in they were greeted and offered wine and Gower told them how:<br />
<br />
<i>An elf, dressed like a flouncing dandy going by the name Aladnaril, put me under a spell and compelled me to bring him the key. I’m afraid if that key falls into the wrong hands... I had no idea... this whole time...</i><br />
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He then asked a sagely looking old man surrounded by books and scrolls that was sitting at the table to show them an illustration in a book: a goat headed man in robes holding a ceremonial dagger of a nude body on an altar. From the body, three streams of blood flow down the side of the altar, then converge before flowing into the carvings all over the key, out of the key and towards a gaping hole in the ground spewing flames, and dark shaped of demonic creatures emerging.<br />
<i> </i><br />
Feeling this was some sort of Orcus cult at work with Hiller, they knew they'd have to track him down—fast. They continued to feign no knowledge of the key's location as Gower told them he believed the key may still be in Leedshire. The party also questioned one of the guards that encountered the imp the night the key was stolen to keep up appearances, as well as the old sage, to see if there was anything he could tell them where a cult of Orcus may be operating from on the island.<br />
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After leaving they discussed where they might find someone in town that could help them. Broak decided to head to a church of Saint Eliah in hopes a brother of the cloth could help. He found a helpful priest who pointed him in the right direction: an old man by the name of Englehart Neff, who once worked at a place called Cauldron Keep to the north—a prison where heretics and cultists were incarcerated and executed for their crimes that now lays in ruin. Broak thanked the priest and gave some coins for the collection plate and met up with the rest of the party and headed to a tavern—where he was told they could find Englehart.<br />
<br />
After asking around they found out that Englehart frequented The Rusty Crown Tavern. The quickly found the old man, placated him with food and drink and he told them his story:<br />
<br />
<i>About 50 years ago I was soldier who was shipped out here, and my first post was at Cauldron Keep, way up north on the island. It was a terrible place, it’s where all the traitors, heretics, demon-worshippers and the worst of the worst were sent to meet their fates. At the close of the War of the Fiend, many of these ner-do-wells fled the mainland to avoid the purge that was coming and came to Leeds. But, wanting to protect the kingdom’s interests, the military presence was increased here.</i><br />
<i><br />The keep was converted into a prison—a small prison, no one sat in a cell for very long. Bounty hunters, watchmen, mercenaries from all over and anyone who could find these vile folk rounded them up and brought them up to “The Pot”—as we called it.</i><br />
<i><br />In the courtyard of the keep was a massive iron cauldron, filled with boiling oil that hung over an iron grate. We tossed them in the pot, we poured it on them, we cooked ‘em night and day. Vile odour, it was.</i><br />
<i><br />A lot of people died in that courtyard. The captain at the time, Captain Tendler, started stringing up the corpses along the road up to the gate, so the prisoners on their way up could see what was waitin’ for ‘em.</i><br />
<i><br />I was there for a good six years, and as time passed we had less and less to feed The Pot with. Then, around 3377, a strange old man purchased the keep from the king. Most of the guards were let go and replaced by this old guy’s guard, me n’ a few others stayed on for another few months before we left of our own accord—there were strange goings on down there.</i><br />
<i><br />Last I heard the place has fallen into ruin, people avoid that place, the bodies are still strung up as far as I know, the place reeks of death. ‘Lotta folks say the place is haunted—wouldn’t surprise me.</i><br />
<br />
<i><i>Now, the old codger that took over the keep looked ancient, and his skin was pale and tight and he never seemed
to speak to anyone—except for the head of the guard—and I think it may
have been his son, or maybe grandson. That captain, he was a mean bastard, him and
that vile son of his... Hiller was his name. Now his son, maybe 10
years old, he’d pull wings off birds, beat dogs with irons.</i> </i><br />
<i><br />Some nights we heard what sounded like chanting from deep in the dungeons. Now I was never permitted past the second level of the dungeon, but I heard there a few more that went deeper.</i><br />
<br />
They got some vague directions from Englehart, thanked him and decided they had make their way to the north of the island after Hiller and his men, and hopefully get to the key before he could do anything evil with it. The party quickly assembled their gear, and decided to hire some hands to help them for what lay ahead.<br />
<i> </i><br />
At Mercenary Square they found their old friend Gerhardt, who now had a mule and cart (with ale!) that they hired to join them. They also hired an irritable sell-sword named Lorentz Becken. Once their payments were secured, they headed out of the town up the road to the north in the afternoon to track down Hiller... <br />
<br />
<br />Dirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10485617570272641386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-495319730846790091.post-37523155511257743092016-04-30T17:28:00.002-07:002016-07-03T13:58:23.814-07:00Another JobJune 29 to July 1, 3430, Age of Kings<br />
<br />
Eventually Boots made it back home and got himself cleaned up. The next day the group decided to head into West Leedshire late in the day to hand the key over to Captain Hiller. They set off without Broak—he slept in (and so did his player).<br />
<br />
When they arrived at the village's garrison they were welcomed in and sent right up to see Hiller. After a brief discussion about why Yarrick wasn't delivering the key, they handed it over to Hiller, who was very appreciative of their success. They celebrated with a glass of brandy, and saw a friendlier side of Hiller that they had never seen before.<br />
<br />
Soon after, Hiller wrapped the key in a piece of canvas and handed it off to one of his men, instructing him to "go and get things prepared." He informed the party that he would be leaving the next morning to head north to deliver the key to his employer. He explained that he would be leaving Sergeant Clauberg in charge in his absence, and to talk with him if Ander's bounty problem should come up.<br />
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After meeting with Hiller the party headed back home for the night. As they left the garrison, they saw several of Hiller's men loading up horses for the next day's journey.<br />
<br />
As they approached their property, they saw a horse tied up outside, and a man loitering nearby. As they got closer they recognized their old friend, Willem—one of Albrecht's guardsmen. Willem greeted the party and then told them why he was there on Albrecht's behalf:<br />
<br />
"A friend of Albrecht's named Gower in Leedshire had something very valuable stolen from him the other night, and he'd like to hire you to help track down the thief."<br />
<br />
After informing the group that he didn't have any other details about the theft (obviously, the party knew exactly what it was), Willem gave them a small purse of silver for advanced payment on behalf of Gower. Being late, they invited Willem to stay for the night, which he did.<br />
<br />
Away from Willem, the party discussed their options and decided to speak with Sergeant Clauberg in West Leedshire in hopes of finding out where Hiller was going, track him down, and steal the key away from him to return to Gower, all without—hopefully—implicating themselves in the theft.<br />
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* * *</div>
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The next morning they parted ways with Willem after telling him they would pay Gower a visit and then headed to the garrison in West Leedshire. When they arrived, they spoke with one of Hiller's men, but Clauberg wasn't there. The guard they spoke with didn't seem to know where Hiller was heading, so they made up a story about a death threat against Hiller and they needed to warn him. But the guard didn't waiver as he <i>really </i>didn't know where Hiller was heading, and informed them that Clauberg would be available later in the day. Realizing they weren't getting anywhere, the party decided to head to Leedshire to speak with Gower.</div>
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As they headed east down the road in the midday heat, they came across a broken down and looted cart. The remains of two men and their horse lay dead on the road, butchered. The contents of the cart seem to have been removed, just a few sacks of grain, torn open and leaking their contents remained. Ander quickly found some fresh tracks on the road: several humanoid creatures, larger than a man had slaugthered these people.</div>
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Cautiously moving down the road they crested a hill and saw, about 200 yards down the hill was a motley group: An ogre, 4 bugbears, and a giant boar pulling a supply laden cart. Leaving their horse and cart behind, they stealthily moved down the sides of the road to intercept the creatures.</div>
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<i> </i></div>
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<i>* Please note: I'm writing this two weeks after the game, so this will be a short battle report *</i></div>
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Before they could get close enough to attack, a goblin leapt out from the roadside to warn the ogre and bugbears about the party's approach (there was a goblin scout ahead and behind the ogre and bugbears, the one trailing them managed to roll high enough stealth checks to avoid being spotted by the players). </div>
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Once they realized they were made, they began their attack. Ander managed to hang back from a great distance (with his faithful dog, Skrapeth) and continuously pelt the creatures with arrows. Audrey dove into the fray, working herself up into her barbarian frenzy to deal a lot of damage, as well as soak a lot up herself.</div>
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Boots was able to use his new spell, <i>Cloud of Blades</i>, on some of the bugbears, and Grabby attempted to cast a <i>Sleep </i>spell which was completely ineffective. They managed to bring down the ogre first, but the bugbears proved more problematic. Using some ruins as cover, Grabby played a game of cat-and-mouse with two bugbears, but was eventually rendered unconscious and dying on the ground. Boots had a similar experience as he was swarmed by the goblinoids (and an uncharacteristic move of moving in to help Audrey fight off her attackers). Another goblin archer (the scout that was ahead of its party) eventually made his way back and also engaged in the battle.</div>
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During the battle, the giant boar became agitated and took off down the road. Eventually all the bugbears and goblins were also dispatched, but at the cost of Boots and Grabby becoming terribly wounded. Audrey managed to stabilize Boots, and Ander rushed in to save Grabby.<br />
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<i>* Please note: Because of people away visiting family, trips to Vegas, etc. the game probably might not resume again until late May/early June/and possibly now July *</i></div>
Dirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10485617570272641386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-495319730846790091.post-71836239754796103222016-04-17T15:57:00.003-07:002016-04-17T15:57:31.205-07:00How (not) to Make Friends and (negatively) Influence People<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
June 28–29, 3430, Age of Kings<br />
<br />
After Grabby got washed up, the party retired to the inn for the night.<br />
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* * *</div>
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The next day they decided to set out and search the town for their contact, Yarrick. Knowing there was a bounty out there, Boots thought it might be best to slip away back to their manor and await his companions. But as he stepped out the doors of the inn, he saw three watchmen making their way down the street, being a 6'7" elf, Boot knew he wouldn't blend in on the street, so he quickly made his way back to their room. </div>
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Grabby and Broak set off to find an armourer to purchase a set of splint mail for Broak (which he would buy with his gambling winnings from the night before).</div>
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Audrey and Ander went to The Wealthy Rest Inn in hopes of finding Yarrick, whom they had no idea what he looked like. On their way there, they noticed a heavy presence of the town's watch everywhere, and instead of patrolling in pairs, they were now in teams of three. Also being an unusually tall elf, Ander drew many stares from the watchmen, but none acted on their suspicions—but three watchmen did follow them through the streets to the inn, unbeknownst to them.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
After several hours in the tavern, a group of three watchmen entered and stood near the entrance, obviously interested in Ander.</div>
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Audrey decided to approach them, they showed her Boots' bounty sheet and wanted to know more about Ander. She gave them very little to go on, and eventually Ander entered the conversation. They asked about "Aladnaril" to which they both claimed ignorance. When asked about where they were staying in town and for how long, Ander spoke truthfully. They gave them each a bounty sheet, bid them farewell and left. Audrey and Ander stayed in the inn a bit longer, discussing what their next move would be.</div>
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Returning to the inn, they found the three guards they spoke to waiting outside the entrance, they nodded knowingly to them as they passed by. Returning to the room where Boots was sulking, (Grabby and Broak had already returned at this point) Audrey and Ander entered to warn Boots about the guards outside. </div>
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Casting a glance outside the window, Ander noticed more guards outside on the street—they seemed to be surrounding the inn. Knowing the guards were coming, Boots heroically hid his nearly 7' foot body under a bed as the other discussed what t do next. Just then there was a knock on the door, "Watch of Leedshire, open the door!"</div>
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Audrey opened the door a crack to see three guardsmen (not the ones they had met previously) who tried to push their way in, but Audrey pushed back. Realizing she would eventually lose the shoving match she backed away and the three guardsmen burst into the room. They immediately locked eyes with the Boots who was still under the bed. "It's him!" they shouted as they leveled their spears at the party. Before anyone could react, the guard standing in the back drew his sword and leapt forward, impaling one of the guards and dropped to the floor on top of his dead body. The other guard, shocked by the sudden attack couldn't react in time as Grabby cast a <i>magic hand </i>spell to quickly close the door and from under the bed Boots cast an <i>eldritch blast </i>which knocked the guard off his feet... and a blasted a hole through his chest, killing him instantly.</div>
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Their guard savior was, of course, Yarrick, who took some time berating the party on their inability to keep a low profile. He quickly informed them the town was on high alert because of Boots' actions, and added, "...should I even ask about the demon that was seen fluttering around the next night!?" He paused for a moment, trying to think of a way to smuggle them out, and eventually asked everyone but Boots to leave and to not draw any attention to themselves and that they would now have to be the ones to deliver the key to Hiller. And they complied. Yarrick went to the room next door and used his watch authority to kick out the patrons within, and moved Boots into their room. Yarrick then wounded himself in the shoulder and explained to Boots that he would return to the other guards and tell them he was alone in the room and attacked them, killing the other two guards, then teleported away. He then instructed Boots to remain in the room until he returned for him later that night.</div>
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The rest of the party left the town within the hour, as they were also informed that the gates would be closed after night fall. They managed to make it through the gate without problems and made a safe journey back to their manor. </div>
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* * *</div>
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After dark, Yarrick returned to the inn and smuggled him out the back once the guards in the area had dispersed. He led him down back allies and unoccupied side streets to an open grate that led to the town's small sewer system. He told him to follow the passage north where his contact would be meeting him and expect payment to lead him out. With that, Yarrick wished Boots luck and left, leaving Boots to the dank, dark (and smelly) sewers.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
After a short walk in the dark he saw torch light up ahead and approached a figure standing there waiting for him. When Boots came into the torch's light he was greeted with, "Ugh, one of you?!" It was Greenan, the leader of a band of thieves they had had encountered when they were stealing a map for Albrecht (and Ander shot him in the ass with an arrow). </div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Greenan immediately got down to business and asked for 50 shillings. Having the money on him, and being physically incapable of challenging the thief, Boots decided to intimidate Greenan into a lower price—which simply confused Greenan, "the price just went up to 75."</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
That was a price that was now too much for Boots, so he offered him "...an amazing spider that can do tricks!" (all this time Yattering had been a spider on Boots' collar.) Greenan took the spider and immediately crushed it and pressed Boots for the money. Boots handed over his 50 silver and then claimed poverty. After Greenan pressed him for more, Boots did what Boots does best, and made the situation worse and cast <i>charm person </i>on Greenan—which he was fortunately successful with.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
With Greenan now his friend, Boots was led out of the sewer and hoped to continue on his own, but being a loyal friend, Greenan refused to let his friend wander through the wilds on his own. After lying to Greenan about where his home was, Boots resorted to simply running as fast as could away from the helpful thief.</div>
Dirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10485617570272641386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-495319730846790091.post-90431597421077939632016-04-04T23:05:00.001-07:002016-04-09T15:59:48.181-07:00A Dirty Lil' Halfling<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
June 27–28, 3430, Age of Kings <br />
<br />
We're back! (Finally!) <br />
<br />
Under the cover of a moonless night, Grabby set off with Boots from the inn through the drizzle to Gower's home in search of the mysterious "arcane aura" from the nearby house. Once there, Boots hid himself in a nearby alley while Grabby kept to the allies behind the manor house.<br />
<br />
Audrey went out to feed Gerald the horse, only to have him stomp on her foot, sending her limping back to her inn room for the rest of the night (this is also why Audrey's player was away tonight). <br />
<br />
After the previous day's theft, security was heightened: two pairs of sentries circled the perimeter, one stood guard on a second floor balcony, and three more walked the yard with a pair of mastiffs. Grabby was able to slip between the shadows and silently secure a grappling hook to the manor's roof and scale to the top without being noticed. He crested the peak of the roof, and in the darkness was just barely able to make out the shape of a large, 30 pound iron key wedged between the roof and the chimney.<br />
<br />
Unbeknownst to him, Grabby was being watched by Boots' imp familiar, Yattering, who circled silently high above. He carefully picked it up the key, and rather than try to fit it into his pack, it might be best to toss the key over the top of the roof and down into the alley below, where the mud and garbage of the alley—additionally softened by the light rain—should stifle the sound of the key landing.<br />
<br />
What could go wrong?<br />
<br />
With a mighty heave, Grabby launched the key over the peak of the roof... and came up short. The key landed on the roof's shingles, breaking some and sending others sliding down the steep roof. The key itself loudly slid down the roof and came to rest on a gable. This, of course, alerted all the guards that something was afoot.<br />
<br />
Thinking fast, Boots sent his imp to fly to a nearby home in the opposite direction, materialize and start throwing tiles off to create a diversion. Soon the mastiffs were barking, the guards in the front ran to see the commotion that was happening caused by the imp, while two more headed to the alley to see what the initial disturbance was.<br />
<br />
After quickly stuffing they key into his pack, Grabby cast a <i>minor illusion</i> of a woman in the alley below him to distract the guards. Sure enough, they saw her and called after her and began to pursue her. One guard kept on the pursuit, while the other stopped when he noticed the rope dangling from the roof.<br />
<br />
Having to move from its rooftop cover, Yattering flew into view over the shocked guards. Dropping their spears and pulling up their crossbows, the stunned guards scrambled to fire at the small demon now fluttering overhead. Stunned by the sight of the demon, another guard in the yard ran for the alarm bell and began ringing it madly. Unfortunately for Yattering, the sentry posted on Gower's balcony was already armed with crossbow and fired a bolt which landed squarely in the imp's chest, nearly killing him. Calling Yattering back to safety and to once again become invisible, Boots began to move down the darkened alley away from the action, all the while listening to the imp's curses telepathically.<br />
<br />
At this point Grabby had to keep moving to get away from the commotion, from the din of the guards, dogs and the alarm bell, lights from within homes nearby began to flicker to life, and the yells of watchmen echoed down the vacant streets. He leaped down to the street below, tumbling prone. Once he was back on his feet he made a dash across the street to another alley—hastened by the sound of a guard yelling, "Go get 'im!" and the sound of a barking mastiff breaking into a run.<br />
<br />
The Yattering safely back with his master was quickly banished for the time by Boots as he slinked back to the inn to return to his allies while Grabby was left to fend for himself.<br />
<br />
Charging down the dark alley, Grabby managed to find a pile of garbage against a wall that he dove into and proceeded to cover himself in filth and refuse to hide from the angry mastiff and his handler. Luckily, the stinking garbage and darkness shielded Grabby as the mastiff ran down the alley and past the halfling. Not wanting to take any chances, Grabby continued to lie in the pile of filth for an hour until the commotion died down, occasionally having to brush rats away that were crawling over him to find a meal.<br />
<br />
Eventually he pulled himself up from the rain soaked pile of trash and mud and made his way back to the inn. Once safe inside the inn he was quickly kicked out and told to wash off in the stables—inn keepers don't take kindly to soaking wet, garbage encrusted halflings.<br />
<br />
The rest of the party went out to find Grabby stripping down and washing himself in a horse trough, triumphantly telling them the story of how he found the key they were after, and claiming to even sense a "magical aura" emanating from the rooftop (this was role played, and strengthened further by possibly a D&D first—Grabby failed an <i>insight</i> check against his own <i>deception</i> roll to see if he truly believed that he saw a magical aura). Confused by Grabby's ability to sense this arcane force, and fact that the very key they were after was mysteriously planted on a rooftop, the party had a better idea what was going on when Grabby blurted out, "I sensed the magical aura, just the same as Mr. Boots!" In addition, Ander had recently checked a bounty board to look for any new postings and found a fresh bounty for Boots posted, which he brought back to the inn.<br />
<br />
This squarely put all suspicion on Boots, along with the bounty sheet Ander produced from his pack...<br />
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Dirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10485617570272641386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-495319730846790091.post-7486253855277402472016-02-27T11:58:00.002-08:002016-02-27T11:58:47.549-08:00A Long AbsenceJust to keep any followers in the loop, the group hasn't disbanded, we just haven't been able to play due to birthdays, events, and Hawaii.<br />
<br />
Hopefully we'll be back swinging swords and stealing other people's things soon...Dirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10485617570272641386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-495319730846790091.post-57914041556816051392016-01-23T16:08:00.000-08:002016-01-23T16:08:56.693-08:00Friends and Thieves<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
June 26–27, 3430, Age of Kings<br />
<br />
Once in Leedshire, the party found beds and food at The Fanciful Anchor Inn to rest for the night and stay there until their task was completed.<br />
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* * *</div>
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<br /></div>
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After breakfast the next day, they headed out to get a look at Gower's residence and make a plan. They easily found the the collector's home mid-morning: an inn converted into a single family home. A short wall surrounded the grounds of the large manor and had a separate cottage for guards and hired hands. They spotted two groups of two guards—one with a guard mastiff—patrolling the grounds. On one of the exterior walls of the manor was an alarm bell.</div>
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Boots stepped away to summon his imp in a nearby alley. From there, his imp, Yattering, transformed into a raven to take a closer look at Gower's manor. Looking in through windows inconspicuously, the Yattering was able to get a basic layout of the home, and saw that much of the large estate was filled with antiques, art and various bric-a-brac. </div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
After circling the grounds they returned to the inn to formulate a plan. Knowing that Hiller's men would remove the threat of interference from the local watch they decided that Ander and Grabby would break into the home via the roof of a neighbouring building, while the rest of the party provided support from outside if things went south. (The bell was a point of great concern which took up most of the conversation)</div>
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Once their plan was worked out they decided to spend the rest of the day tending to menial tasks—including Grabby and Audrey gambling down in The Fanciful Anchor which netted them both a nice profit for their efforts.</div>
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During this time Boots decided to investigate the manor himself. Sending Yattering to the manor again he spotted Gower and another man sitting at a table eating and drinking. Through Yattering Boots cast <i>charm person</i> at the two men, charming them both. Once this was done Boots approached the guards at the gate and requested entrance to see "his old friend Gower." After some back and forth with the guards, and introducing himself as Aladnaril, he managed to convice one of the guards to get Gower to come to a window to see that his old friend was at the gate.</div>
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Eventually Gower came to a window and waved to Boots, an elf he had never seen, but somehow knew he was a friend. Boots entered the manor, introducing himself with his new alias and joined Gower and his friend at the table.</div>
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After niceties were exchanged, Boots led the conversation to an old, large iron key that was in Gower's collection of rarities. Shortly Gower and Boots were in a cramped room filled with ancient weapons, armour, statues, books and shelves overflowing with all sorts of items so Gower could dig through the mess to try to find the key. Within minutes (and Gower rolling a natural 20 to search) Gower found the key and brought it back to the table so they could discuss it—which quickly became about Boots purchasing the key.</div>
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Despite "Aladnaril" being an old friend, Gower wasn't about to part with this key for pennies without knowing its true value. Gower could have another expert take a look at the key to get a better idea of its value the next day, but knowing his spell would only last for about another half-hour, Boots tried to pressure the sale.</div>
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Gower decided to meet him in the middle and go upstairs to his study in an attempt to find some information on the key. Taking the key with him, he went upstairs. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Getting nervous as time passed, Boots went upstairs to continue to pressure Gower as he pulled stacks of books off a shelf. Opening a window to "get some fresh air" Boots let in a now invisible Yattering to keep an eye on the key. Knowing his spell would end within minutes, Boots gave Gower a quick excuse to get going and made a hasty exit from the manor, leaving his imp familiar in the room with Gower.</div>
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Finding a secluded alley nearby, Boots waited, maintaining his psychic link with Yattering to view the scene through the imp's eyes. Sure enough Gower came to, now aware that a starnge elf had charmed him, he ran out into the yard yelling at his confused guards to "find that elf!" Enraged, Gower ran around the yard to assemble more guards to join in the search and called fro the town's watch. </div>
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During the chaos, the Yattering materialized in the study and grabbed the heavy key, lugged it to a window, and with great effort manged to fly out the window to the roof of the manor next door to wedge the key behind the manor's chimney. His task completed, Yattering returned to Boots and they two headed back to the inn.</div>
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Back at The Fanciful Anchor Boots managed to (easily) convince Grabby that he had returned to the manor to further scout out the area and sensed a "strange, magical aura" on the roof of the house next door, and that he should sneak up to the roof to investigate it. </div>
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"After all, it could be worth money!"</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
And Grabby was in...</div>
Dirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10485617570272641386noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-495319730846790091.post-5479285915705764262016-01-14T21:56:00.002-08:002016-01-16T18:31:02.135-08:00Shadowy Dealings and a "Friendly" Ogre<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
June 25–26, 3430, Age of Kings<br />
<br />
As a group, the party decided to return to West Leedshire and confront Cpatain Hiller. Once they arrived at the garrison they were informed that only Audrey and Ander could enter to see Hiller. Reluctantly the two entered while their allies waited outside.<br />
<br />
Once inside Audrey and Ander surrendered their weapons and entered Hiller's chambers. Inside they were met by Hiller and two of his lackey watchmen. Offering them a drink they sat down to discuss the situation.<br />
<br />
Hiller used Ander's current status as a wanted criminal as leverage his position, informing Ander that, at the moment, he was intercepting his bounty postings, and that only he and his closest men were aware of the situation. If Ander and Audrey were willing to act on his behalf to perform certain duties that would be frowned upon coming from a watchman, he'd make sure that no bounty board in the area would see Ander's bounty sheet. Apparently Captain Hiller also has operatives in Leedshire that would intercept the sheets as long as Ander and Audrey cooperated.<br />
<br />
With that, Hiller told the two what he needed done—or rather what his employer needed done, never revealing who that was. A wealthy collector of rare and ancient items living in Leedshire was in possession of a large, ancient iron key. He showed them an artist's rendering, as well as an actual charcoal relief of the key itself so that Audrey and Ander knew what exactly they were looking for. Hiller didn't give them much more information other than where the collector—a man by the name of Gower Taubert—resided in Leedshire, and that on the 27th he'd make sure that his men in the local watch would be on patrol in the area. He reassured them if they saw any watchmen in te the area they'd turn a blind eye to anything that they might have to do to gain entry into Gower's guarded property.<br />
<br />
Agreeing to the conditions Audrey and Ander left Hiller's garrison and returned to their waiting allies and filled them in on what was going on then headed back home for the rest of the day.<br />
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* * *</div>
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The next day the party woke to a raging rain storm. Despite the terrible weather conditions they decided to set out to make the day long journey into Leedshire so they could spend a day scouting the area out. Loading into their cart, pulled by their faithful old horse Gerald, they set out onto the muddy road to Leedshire.</div>
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* * *</div>
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At about noon, as Gerald slogged through the mud and rain, a large figure flanked by two man-sized could be seen standing on the road ahead of them in the hard rain. Realizing this was most likely trouble, those on the cart leapt off to find cover—but walked right into an ambush.</div>
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As Ander moved to the side of the road to find cover, he was greeted by a goblin's arrow. Suddenly, several goblins armed with short bows leapt from bushes and tree branches firing down on the party. Once the attack started the ogre and his two orc allies rushed down the road towards the party to engage them.<br />
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Due to the heavy rain and strong winds, most ranged attacks were futile, but one arrow managed to find its mark: Gerald the horse. Gerald's legs buckled as he fell into the mud, slowly dying from the wound.<br />
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Grabby managed to engage some of the goblins by sneaking up on them and cutting their throats while Ander, Audrey and Broak engaged the other in melee. </div>
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Broak took the ogre head-on. As the ogre swung its massive mace at Broak, an orc moved into flank the dwarf. As the ogre was staggered and off balance from his attack, Broak saw an opening and manged to strike the ogre in the side of the head with a critical hit, stunning him. But due to the nature of Broak's warhammer, he once again experienced the killing blow to his lover, falling to his knees screaming in emotional anguish. Now, in the middle of the battle, both Broak and the ogre stood stunned before one another.</div>
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Once close enough, Boots cast a <i>charm person</i> spell on the ogre, taking over the brute's simple mind as it recovered from Broak's stunning blow—and then quickly ran behind the ogre to get cover and commanding the ogre, "Old friend! attack those orcs and the goblins! Protect us!" Which it did.</div>
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As an orc engaged Ander in combat, the ogre rushed up behind the orc and slammed his mace into the unsuspecting creature, killing it instantly. </div>
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At this point only a single goblin remained, who quickly leapt from his tree and dashed off into the wilderness defeated.</div>
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Ander quickly moved into heal Gerald so the horse could continue the journey into Leedshire. Boots thanked the ogre for his service, wished him well and sent him on his way as they departed for Leedshire. <br />
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Dirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10485617570272641386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-495319730846790091.post-58536632650215486402016-01-05T01:35:00.000-08:002016-01-06T20:15:09.441-08:00Dwarf Sleuths, Ghostly Girls and Crooked CaptainsJune 23–25, 3430, Age of Kings<br />
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Audrey and Ander managed to make their way back to their manor on the outskirts of West Leedshire, making sure to avoid heavily traveled areas, and met up with Grabby and Broak who had already made the trip back.<br />
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While Grabby and Ander spent a few hours washing their mud and filth soaked belongings, Boots made his way out of his cellar study to greet his companions and hear of their heroic tale of sucker punching a woman in the face and getting into a scrap with the local militia.<br />
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The rest of the day was spent resting up and recovering from the morning's events.<br />
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The next day, as everyone was meeting for breakfast on the main floor, Grabby slept in late upstairs. He was suddenly roused from his slumber when he heard the voice of what sounded like a little girl whisper into his ear:</div>
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"Wake up!"</div>
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Sitting up, Grabby glanced around the empty room expecting to find someone right next to him only to see nothing. Then, a glint of steel caught his eye in the folds of his blankets. There, lying at his hairy feet, was Mr. Shiney, his prized magic dagger. He grabbed it and ran downstairs (wearing nothing but the hair on the tops of his feet) proclaiming he had found Mr. Shiney. No one believed his "mystery voice" that woke him, and the rest of the party assumed Grabby had simply left the dagger at home...</div>
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After eating, the group discussed their situation and decided that Boots and Broak would head back into West Leedshire to see if they could gain any information on the previous day's events. Making their way to the village's militia garrison, they were greeted by two guard who would not permit them entry, but said they could come back the next morning for a meeting with a Captain Hiller.</div>
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So the two left the garrison and split up. Boots went to see if he could get any information, using his imp to peek into windows and homes, but returned with nothing. Broak headed to the Pale Lamb Barroom to see what he could learn. </div>
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After eating another breakfast, Broak learned that a local man named Mertin Hoch was the most recent person go missing (as you may recall, there was a posting for missing people in Mercenary Square from very early in the campaign). Finding Mr. Hoch's residence, Broak was greeted by Mertin's wife, Mariora.</div>
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Through some Columbo-esque detective work, Broak was able to find out that Mertin had been meeting recently with a certain Captain Hiller about a possible job with the village's watch. She gave Broak a small wooden chest that had arrived a few days before Mertin's disappearance from the Captain. The chest was empty, with no other clues, Broak left with the empty chest to meet back up with Boots to return home.<br />
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The next day Broak and Boots returned to the garrison for their meeting with Captain Hiller, a middle-aged man with some fresh scrapes and cuts on his face from a recent altercation. They entered his chambers where he was accompanied by two of his watchmen, both had a very casual manner to them—which Broak felt was odd considering they were in the presence of their superior.<br />
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After the initial greeting Broak and Boots asked questions about Mertin's disappearance, and seemed to hint at the Captain knowing something about it, which did not go over well. They only information they were told was that the chest contained a tabard for the village's watch as Mertin was to soon begin training with them. Before tensions could rise much higher they were asked to leave, which they did.<br />
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Once at home they told their allies about their encounter with Captain Hiller. Later that evening Ander spotted a horse and cart accompanied by a group of figures moving towards their manor through the thick fog that had fallen on the area earlier in the day. As they got a little bit closer he could make out the livery of the watchmen from West Leedshire.<br />
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As they approached Boots came outside to greet them, and once again met Captain Hiller and six of his men. The two exchanged pleasantries and Captain Hiller asked for the whereabouts of an elf named Ander and a "north woman" wanted for questioning in an assault on a citizen and an assault on himself and other watchmen from two days ago. Boots responded saying that they used to live in the manor but left abruptly the other day, where, he didn't know.<br />
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At that, sensing deception, Captain Hiller feigned regret for having missed them and handed over Ander's bounty sheet, informing Boots that if he did happen to see Ander that he should report to his garrison within the next 24 hours to "clear up this mess." The captain then went on to make some veiled threat against the rest of the party (particularly to their manor house) and threatened them that he may have to get Albrecht involved. Clearly, Captain Hiller was not the most upstanding citizen his position conveyed.<br />
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With that, he gave Boots a smug grin and returned to the cart where he and his men returned to West Leedshire.<br />
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Dirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10485617570272641386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-495319730846790091.post-50755143527048203062015-11-19T21:33:00.001-08:002015-11-23T01:45:47.663-08:00The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Halflings...June 23, 3430, Age of Kings<br />
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As Grabby arrived home at the cottage it began to rain. The exhausted, shamed, hung-over, rain-soaked, muddy, naked (he may have eaten his cabbage loin cloth at some point) and love stricken halfling walked in, and threw himself face down on the rug by the smouldering hearth.<br />
<br />
Sitting nearby, Ander tried his best to ignore the whining halfling that was complaining about his heartbreak to anyone who would listen (no one). After vomiting into the fire place, Grabby picked himself up and decided he would attempt to win Audry Wachs (we'll call her Miss Wachs to avoid confusion). After calling out Miss Wachs' name several times, this of course awok Audrey from upsatirs who then came down to see what was going on.<br />
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Over the course of breakfast—and Ander fashioning a burlap sack into clothing to cover Grabby's shame—Grabby convinced the others to help him get back his belongings. And he would also hope to win back Miss Wachs' affections.<br />
<br />
They set out after breakfast and made the hour long trek to West Leedshire. Grabby's first stop was to pick up some clothing—the medieval fantasy equivalent to Gap Kids. Grabby then devised his plan: Ander and Audrey would go past Miss Wach's townhouse to she i she was home while Broak and Grabby stayed out of sight down the street.<br />
<br />
Still raining, Ander and Audrey approached the door and saw some halfling-sized leather armour, clothing, and other items piled in the wet, refuse clogged gutter—but his weapons were not present. Carefully tying the wet mess together into a bundle, Audrey knocked at Miss Wachs' door. Eventually Miss Wachs opened the door, perplexed as to why a burly north-woman and an elf would be calling. Audrey confronted her about stealing Grabby's belongings which quickly escalated into Audrey punching Miss Wachs in the face. Seeing the assault, three bystanders ran to Miss Wachs' aid to see what was going on, one of them quickly ran off to get the local watch.<br />
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After a tense standoff while Miss Wachs struggles to try to close the door on her assailant, two memebr of the watch and a sergeant showed up to break up the scuffle and determine what was going on. Demanding to know why Audrey struck a defenseless citizen, the watch demanded Audrey and Ander drop their weapons—this did not go over well with Ander.<br />
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Ander threw the soggy belongins at the sergeant a brief, but non-lethal melee broke out between the watch and Ander and Audrey. Seeing they might be overwhelmed, Ander cast a magical fog over the area, obscuring everything around them in a thick, white fog.<br />
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Despite not be able to see one another, the melee continued on between the five of them, and Miss Wachs was finally able to slam shut her door. At one point, the sergeant gained the upper hand and managed to force Ander onto the ground and pin him down in attempt to place manacles on him.<br />
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Watching this from down the street, Grabby decided to rush in and help his comrades, while Broak approached from a back alley. Groping blindly, Grabby manged to find his things and even deliver a <i>shocking grasp </i>to one of the watchmen.<br />
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While fog shrouded melee carried on, Broak decided to break in through a side window into Miss Wachs' home in hopes of retrieving Grabby's things. Seeing a dwarf smash a window and crawl in, Miss Wachs—naturally—began screaming hysterically. Not wanting to draw any more attention the situation, Broak made an attempt to silence the terrified woman by slamming her over the head with butt of his hammer in hopes of knocking her out. It worked a little too well: he rolled a critical. Miss Wachs fell to the ground unconscious with a bloody gash across her forehead, and due to the arcane nature of his weapon, Broak succumbed to its power (he failed his Wisdom saving throw).<br />
<br />
Out on the street, those involved in the street fight could hear the terrified screams of Miss Wachs inside, suddenly cut short, then immediately followed by another, more Dwarfish scream. Broak fell to his knees screaming in emotional agony as he relived that fateful killing blow so long ago. Eventually composing himself and wiping the tears away from his cheeks and beard, he set about ransacking the home in hopes of finding Grabby's things.<br />
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Outside, amid the dense fog, Ander managed to squirm free of the sergeant's grasp and crawl his way out of the fog. Audrey easily evaded the other two guards and ran head-long into a wall before finding her way out. Grabby, with his gear in hand, also managed to feel his way out of the fog. During this time two more watchmen arrived from the south side of the street and couldn't see through the fog and could only hear the angry yells and the confused state of their allies within. Audrey fled through back alleys and met up with the filth-caked Ander, both unaware where their two allies were.<br />
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Meanwhile, Grabby disturbed by the horrific scream that came from Broak crept down the space between the two townhouses to peer into Miss Wachs' home, which had a broken window on the first floor. He peered in to see Broak (who had just finished scouring the home and come up empty handed) and Miss Wachs—slumped and motionless with a face covered in blood against the front door. Broak forced his way out the window after convincing Grabby Miss Wachs was just unconscious.<br />
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By this time some of the watchmen had organized themselves and started moving out down the back alleys to make their way around the mysterious fog. Just as Broak had pulled himself out the window and was standing next to Grabby one of the watchmen passed by the alley and saw the two standing there—curiously close to the melee that had just occurred. Without hesitation—and the quick thinking worthy of a 90s action film—Grabby grabbed Broak by the face and said, "Quick! Kiss me!" Disturbed by the sight of a dwarf and halfling kissing passionately in a dirty, rain-soaked alley, the watchmen simply yelled out, "'ey! Get outta there!" They had avoided the watchman successfully, and perhaps taken their friendship to a new—and most likely uncomfortable—level.<br />
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<br />Dirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10485617570272641386noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-495319730846790091.post-65160906932969736262015-10-27T23:17:00.001-07:002015-10-27T23:52:50.876-07:00Grabby Scores!June 21–23, 3430, Age of Kings<br />
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After a quick rest, the party moved down the north hall that ended in double doors, flickering candle light could be seen from between the door cracks. Cautiously opening the door the group gazed into a 20x20 foot room, brightly lit by hundreds of lit candles along the walls. The centerpiece of the room: a massive stone statue of Orcus, Demon Prince of the Dead. Several human skulls were scattered about the bloated demonic statue's cloven feet. Infront of the statue sat a stone altar, stained dark from long dried blood, and sitting atop it: a copper goblet with Orcus' visage carved onto it.<br />
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Broak, with great subtlety, decided to approach the altar and bring his warhammer down upon the goblet, smashing it, then exited the room. From here, the rest of the party noticed a wooden chest tucked away into the south-east corner of the room. Opening the chest they found 3 dark, hooded robes—similar to the one worn by the mysterious man in the other room that Ander caught a glimpse of—and 2 heavy iron medallions on chains depicting the icon of Orcus. Odd findings for a goblin lair, indeed.<br />
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Taking the robes and medallions with them, the party doubled back to the chamber they had entered through, and continued down the unexplored south hall.<br />
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The hall wound around to 2 more rooms that lay in ruin: a small chapel devoted to St. Eliah, now destroyed and desecrated, and a small room that was once the personal chambers of a priest. Finding nothing they headed down a hall that lead further to the south that opened up into the woods.<br />
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Satisfied with what they had found, they decided to journey back home for some much needed rest, and to cash in on their sack full of goblin ears.<br />
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* * *<br />
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Deciding to go out and celebrate and resupply, the group left for West Leedshire. Before hitting the taverns, Ander decided it was time to purchase a new war dog, luckily he managed to find one, named Skoobius, and bring it along with him and met up with the others. Deciding to tavern-hop between The Pale Lamb Barroom, The Silver Rose Tavern, and They Grey Cauldron Inn (all randomly generated names, by the way!) to do some drinking, gambling, and other random carousing (ie: I used the carousing random table in the DMG).<br />
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Audrey and Broak managed to have an uneventful, but profitable night playing games of chance and even managed to find a new friend named Bartlen Gormell, a local labourer.<br />
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Grabby managed to find himself wrapped up in a whirlwind (and drunken) romance with a woman named Audry Wachs, which ended rather poorly the next morning when she awoke to find Grabby trying to leave her townhouse with armfuls of silverware and other bric-a-brac.<br />
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Meanwhile, Ander, wanting to take a darker turn, sought out the pleasures of illicit substances—which seemed to have worked. He awoke the next morning, his head pounding, in a barn in the outskirts of the village, his weapons and brand new war dog were nowhere to be seen. It was a long walk back home.<br />
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Deciding the previous night was a source of wholesome entertainment, they decided to head into the village of West Leedshire once more for a night of carousing. Not wanting to tempt fate a second time, Ander simply purchased the last available war dog, Skrapeth, and headed back home for a night in.</div>
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That night Audrey made out the same as the previous night and Broak manged to make another friend, a visiting dwarf merchant by the name of Baern Krondar. The 2 dwarves headed out on their own and Broak wasn't seen again until the next day.</div>
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It seems Grabby didn't learn much from the previous night and sought out Audry Wachs in a desperate attempt to redeem himself... and "git some." He managed to find her and once again the 2 got drunk and wound up back at Audry's home...</div>
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Grabby awoke early the next morning in a stinking alleyway strewn with garbage. The horribly hung over halfling then realized he was completely naked, apparently robbed of everything by his vengeful lover. Slowly making his way to his feet, Grabby managed to find a piece of cabbage to cover his shame and fashion himself a makeshift cabbage loincloth. </div>
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Furious with the thought that someone else had Mr. Shiney (his trusted magic dagger) in their possession he made his way back to Audry's home, thankful it was still very early, and few people were in the street this early in the morning. </div>
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Looking through a first floor window he looked inside, and only saw a man, fast asleep on the floor by the smoldering fireplace. Deciding it might be wisest to retreat back home to get some clothes and nurse his hangover (that and it is a well known fact that hungover halflings wearing nothing but a cabbage leaf are not very intimidating) he wandered off down the lonely road back home. </div>
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A small halfling, a giant walk of shame.</div>
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Dirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10485617570272641386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-495319730846790091.post-13016463772469733582015-10-19T01:48:00.000-07:002015-10-24T14:12:45.266-07:00A Bad Day for Broak and Grabby<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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June 21, 3430, Age of Kings<br />
<br />
After spending the day in town to resupply and gather themselves, the party set back out to find the goblin burrow in the woods.<br />
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After traveling for the day, Ander managed to lead his companions to the entrance. Lighting a lantern the party squeezed down the narrow passageway, clogged with stones and deep tree roots. The pathway twisted and turned as the party pressed on through the claustrophobic space until the found a hole that dropped into a flagstone room. Tied to thick roots were three chains that hung into the chamber below—the means by which the goblins could come and go.<br />
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One by one the party descended into the chamber 40 feet below. Once there, they found themselves in a 20 by 20 room, with a corridor leading to the north, and another to the south. From the north, the sound of goblins speaking could just barely be heard—so they headed towards the sound.<br />
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Coming around a corner the voices got louder, and the hall descended down a staircase that ended in a set of double doors—the voices were coming from the other side. Several goblins could be heard talking with one another, and another 2 or 3 could be heard squabbling of a game of cards (Ander speaks Goblin). Realizing the goblins were unaware of their presence, the party burst into the room to launch an attack.<br />
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Sitting around a table, playing cards, were 4 goblins, and in the far end of the room were another 8 goblins relaxing among a pile of dirty animal furs—jumping to their feet when the doors burst open. <br />
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The party launched their attack, with Broak and Audrey leading the way. In an epic—an somewhat comical—feat of agility, Audrey leapt into the fray by launching herself off of Broak's helmeted head with her foot. As they began cutting down the goblins, 2 broke for a corridor that led to the east.</div>
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Positioning himself near a group of goblins and the table, Grabby made a gesture with his hand and spoke some arcane words that unleashed a thunderous crack that shook the chamber, dislodging small stones and dirt from the ceiling—and alerting everyone in the area—sending several goblins flying through the air, landing on their backs. In addition, the heavy oak table flipped through the air, sending cards and shillings all over the room. The table landed squarely on a goblin that was knocked onto his back, crushing him with a crunch and a muffled scream.</div>
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The 2 goblins that had fled were making their way to a door, and out into a corridor heading to the south. The party tried to chase the 2 down as they fought their way through the goblins, Ander chased them in to the hall just in time to see them escape through another set of doors at the end of the hall. Just before they slammed the doors behind them, Ander got a brief glimpse of what appeared to be a human wearing dark robes move in the room beyond.</div>
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With the rest of the goblins laying dead on the floor, the rest of the party spilled into the hall and down to the doors to continue their assault. From the other side of the doors and argument could be heard between what sounded like a human, and deep, gruff voice that spoke with a Goblin accent. </div>
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"We need more time," said the gruff voice.</div>
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"We need more, just get it done!" responded the human voice, which followed by the sound of grinding stone.</div>
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Not wasting anymore time, the party was about to charge into the room, but the gruff voice, speaking in Goblin, shouted, "Get back out there!" and the doors swung open by 2 goblins suprised to see the party standing right there.</div>
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Inside the room were several more goblins, and 3 hulking bugbears. In the room sat a table with a sizable pile of random loot on it.</div>
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Ander fell back down the hall to provide cover from a distance as Audrey and Broak fought the goblins hand-to-hand, while Grabby provided support against any that got through. Eventually the bugbears manged to make their way to the front line to engage Broak and Audrey, dealing devastating hits to them both. Broak suffered a horrible cut to his abdomen that bled profusely (<i>House rule:</i> criticals with slashing weapons cause d6 bleeding at the end of a character's turn, unless they use a standard action to staunch the wound).</div>
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As hits were delivered between goblins, bugbears, Audrey, Broak and Grabby, a goblin who was lurking in the room made several failed attempts to cast spells on some of the party, who eventually resorted to blasting them with magic missile spells down the hall.</div>
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Broak, realizing he was in a bad spot with his wound still bleeding, hastily pulled a vial out labeled "VAPORS" in Dwarvish that he had found from their previous adventure, took a chance and chugged it down. The gambit payed off as is body suddenly became ethereal, and his smokey incorporeal form bagan floating back down the hall away from the battle so he could be healed by Ander. But Broak's tactic quickly turned south, despite being ethereal, his mortal flesh was still bleeding profusely, as he floated back he suddenly felt woozy and passed out from the blood loss—causing his form to revert back to its physical form. Everyone in the hall, ally and foe alike, was shocked to see the dwarf that had just escaped in a puff of smoke suddenly rematerialize just 10 feet away, and fall flat to the ground with a heavy <i>THUD</i>.</div>
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As the battle carried on Grabby also fell unconscious from his wounds with, when things looked their darkest, the tables were turned on the Bugbears with some well placed arrows from Ander, and a critical strike from the now raging barbarian, Audrey.</div>
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With the bugbears defeated and the few goblins left (that had now retreated into the room) Audrey and Ander roused their uncnoncious friends and led the charge back into the room. They found one goblin trying to grab as much as he could from the loot on the table, and another that was standing in the corner of the room in the opening of an open secret passageway—the spell casting goblin was now already long gone. Killing the goblin in the passageway, the party chased after the last on as he dodged past the party and down the secret hall, but was felled by one of Ander's arrows.</div>
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With the battle over, and Audrey very exhausted (she had gone into her barbarian frenzy twice so far), the party looked through the spoils. Finding plenty of coin, some red gems, and an iron ring set with a diamond bearing the icon of the demon prince of the dead, Orcus.</div>
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The party decided to find a safe location to rest and heal their wounds...</div>
Dirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10485617570272641386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-495319730846790091.post-73689860045274417622015-09-27T23:59:00.000-07:002015-09-27T23:59:14.903-07:00Predator and Prey
June 20–21, 3430, Age of Kings<br />
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Grabby managed to get close enough to the entrance of the hidden tunnel to hear Ander's response when he called out for him. Ander and Grabby then hid in the narrow passageway and waited for their companions, not daring to call out and reveal their position.<br />
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Meanwhile, Broak was (rather foolishly) trying to make it past the dragon to get back to the camp site to reunite with his chainmail as Audrey blindly ran through the darkened forest, avoiding goblins, and more importantly, the angry, acid-breathing dragon. She managed to find a large tree to hide next to as she heard the dragon descend upon an unfortunate goblin—one that happened to be close to the hole. Ander and Grabby hid silently as they heard the dragon tearing the goblin apart just yards away from the entrance to the hole.<br />
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By this time Broak had managed to grab his armour and made his way back into the forest, avoiding the dragon's path. As he was doing this, another goblin fleeing the dragon had doubled back to the camp, only to have the dragon come crashing down upon it. The dragon began investigating the campsite, rooting through the things the party had abandoned, and destroying some of their wolf pelts in the process. Both Audrey and Broak were too scared to make move, but knew they had to find the hole where Ander had fallen, but not entirely sure of its exact location.<br />
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Feeling pressured to move, knowing the dragon would likely eventually find her, Audrey decided to light a torch and drop it at the base of the tree where she was hiding and make a run for it, hoping the fire would draw the dragon's attention. She ran towards the area of the hole, tripping and stumbling her way through the forest as the dragon turned its attention toward the fire.<br />
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Once Audrey was close enough to the hole, she managed to find Ander and squeeze herself into the narrow tunnel with Grabby. Periodically Ander would peek out to look for their dwarven friend, still unsure of his location, having last seen him at the camp site gathering his armour.<br />
<br />Unable to find anything, the dragon took to the air and began circling overhead, looking for its prey. Scanning the forest for movement while Broak stayed hidden, not daring to move, the dragon eventually gave up and flew off into the night.<br />
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Lighting a torch and calling out to Broak, Ander managed to get the dwarf back to the party. At this point, exhausted and beaten, they decided to spend the rest of the night sleeping close to the tunnel's entrance in case the dragon returned and needed to make a quick escape.<br />
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The next morning they gathered their three viable wolf pelts, collected 11 ears from the fallen goblins, and made their way back home to regroup before returning to the hole to explore what must be the goblins' lair.<br />
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They arrived back home in the evening and went to bed.<br />
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In the morning they set out for town to collect their bounties on the pelts and ears.Dirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10485617570272641386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-495319730846790091.post-10559266048782874482015-09-21T23:18:00.002-07:002015-10-19T01:50:38.824-07:00Where's That Goblin Hole?June 19–20, 3430, Age of Kings<br />
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(note: Boots' player was away this session) <br />
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After dispatching a pack of wolves for their pelts to sell to a buyer back in town, the party got a fire going and Audrey and Ander set about skinning the wolves. Well after midnight they managed to get six pelts worth selling and strung them up in a tree to start drying them and decided to get some rest.<br />
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While the party slept (or meditated in Anders' case) Grabby sat up on a low tree branch to take watch. Just as he was getting ready to wake Audrey for her shift, he noticed the flicker of torch light moving through the dark forest. Through the darkness of the woods, passing behind trees and bushes, he could see two distinct torches, and soon heard the chatter of goblins.<br />
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The torches stopped, and so did the chatter: the band of goblins seems to have noticed the party's camp fire. Grabby used his new <i>Mage Hand</i> spell to rouse Audrey awake, at this point, Ander was alerted to the approaching goblins and awoke the snoring Broak.<br />
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In the darkness, one torch moved to the left flank, the other to the right as Audrey, Grabby and Ander all dug into ambush positions—and Broak made an attempt to hurriedly put his armour on.<br />
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Without warning, four goblin arrows whistled from out of the darkness, not from either torch's location, but from the south—three of which sank into Broak's armourless belly (one of which was a critical hit) causing him to stumble back. Realizing a force of goblins was hidden in the nearby tree line, Ander cast a magic fog onto the campsite to provide cover from the attack.<br />
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From within the fog the sound of several confused goblins could be heard and even more began to come out from the dark tree line, having avoided the fog. The torch bearing goblin clambered up the boulder near Audrey, and another two emerged from the trees, weapons drawn, rushing at the barbarian. Audrey broke into a frenzy and swung her halberd wildly, cutting the two rushing goblins down (rolling a critical and maximum damage on both dice) and scampered up the boulder to skewer the third goblin, and flung his corpse into the middle of the fog (once again rolling maximum damage).<br />
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Soon, more goblins began to make their way out of the fog to engage the party. Broak, the half-dressed dwarf, quickly found himself swarmed as Ander fell back to a position of cover to pick off goblins with arrows, and Audrey and Grabby jumped into the fray to help Broak.<br />
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As Ander was leaping to and from cover to take down the goblins from afar, his quiver got snagged on some of the ruins he was using as cover, snapping its strap, sending his arrows spilling all over the forest floor. Embarrassing. As he was ducking back into cover, an ominous rush of air passed by overhead—something large had passed by over the treetops, sending leaves and small branches raining down. All the others engaged in melee hadn't noticed anything.<br />
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Just then a large dark shape came crashing through the forest canopy into the midst of Anders' fog, thinning it out. A roar could be heard and a large, shadowy form moved violently from withing the fog, and the death screams of goblins could be heard. As the fog dispersed, a dragon stood amid the terrified goblins, the body of a limp goblin clenched in its jaws—the dragon from their encounter under Orespire Mountain. The dragon, seeming to be only aware of the goblins, now glanced around, realizing the presence of the party. Its eyes then locked with Audrey's, seeing the thief who stole from its treasure hoard, the dragon narrowed its eyes at her and yellow-green fluid seeped from around the goblin in its mouth. Acrid fumes whisped from the dragon's flaring nostrils and the goblin's body who was dissolving it its mouth, which then fell into two separate heaps in front of the dragon.<br />
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Not wanting to wait around to be next, the party and the goblins all began to dash towards the dark forest to escape the enraged dragon. In the confusion and dark, Ander tripped and fell into a narrow passageway. As he stayed hidden. Ander could hear the goblins running and shouting something about "finding the hole," and "it's around here somewhere."<br />
Dirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10485617570272641386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-495319730846790091.post-29431268485681023252015-08-20T11:07:00.000-07:002015-08-20T11:07:11.845-07:00UpdateSorry for the lack of updates lately, it's been a great summer here on the west coast, so it's not always easy herding the nerds on Sunday nights. Hopefully we'll be back soon for the next thrilling installment. Dirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10485617570272641386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-495319730846790091.post-11153514811624138942015-07-04T14:49:00.001-07:002015-07-04T14:50:20.921-07:00Wolves in the NightJune 18–19, 3430, Age of Kings<br />
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After a few awkward questions to Boots from the party about the stink of sulfur coming from the cellar, the party got on with day and settled into their new home.<br />
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The next day they geared up and traveled back to West Leedshire to take a look at the bounty board to see if Ander's bounty sheet had showed up, pick up Broak's chain mail (which was being repaired from his run in with a grey ooze in the kobolds' lair) and to look some work (to test out their new level 3 abilities). On the board they found postings for a few things:<br />
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<i>"The nearby forest be infested with goblin-folk, the town of Leedshire will give a bounty of 5 shillings for every left ear of a goblin brought in."</i><br />
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—The Noble Houses of Leedshire </div>
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<i>"In the last month several people from West Leedshire have gone missing, usually while in Leedshire Forest. It is thought they may have encountered goblins coming down from the mountains. We seek anyone's help in bringing them back, or discovering what befell them."</i><br />
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—Families of the missing</div>
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<i>"Six of my sheep been melted into sum kind of glop! Nuther 8 vanished. Gives you 50 shillings and a sheep to find out what's done this en stope it!"</i></div>
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—Farmer Giles Ackermann</div>
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<i>"I wish to procure six wolf pelts in fine condition for winter clothing, at a price of 100 shillings each."</i></div>
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—Devis Starck, Leatherworker, West Leedshire</div>
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Grabby and Audrey decided to set off to the village's tavern, The Pale Lamb, to see if they could gather any information on the missing people. With some breakfast ales and pottage in them, they spoke with a server and the bar keep, but weren't able to get much information other than a few names of some of the missing people (two of them being the Sprecher brothers, Hans and Fritz).</div>
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With Anders' knowledge of goblins and forest survival skills, they eventually opted to hunt down the marauding goblins in the nearby woods.</div>
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They set out and late in the day, once deep in Leedshire Forest, Ander picked up the trail of some goblins that had passed through in the last day. Knowing the goblins wouldn't be out during daylight hours they decided to find a spot to make camp and wait for nightfall. Still wary of the dragon they encountered, and wanting to get the jump on the goblins, they decided to go without a fire.</div>
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Broak decided to take first watch after nightfall while Audrey and Grabby slept (Ander and Boots would meditate when they felt like it). A couple of hours later the howls of wolves could be heard throughout the forest drawing nearer and nearer. </div>
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Soon a pack of ravenous wolves led by two alpha worgs stepped into the clearing and quickly set upon the party. The worgs led the charge, attacking immediately. Audrey quickly awoke and woke Grabby with a swift kick, then shed some light on the area with her lantern.</div>
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A melee quickly ensued as the pack worked their way into the campsite. Boots was able to cast <i>Mirror Image</i> on himself to confound the attacking beasts (and to defend himself). One by one they managed to kill the wolves, and with a few well placed arrows from Ander, managed to kill several with minimal damage to their pelts.</div>
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At one point Grabby was separated from the rest of the group when a wolf started to drag him off into the forest, but he managed to wriggle free and slay it. When the battle was over, seven wolves and two worgs lay dead at their feet. <br />
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Dirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10485617570272641386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-495319730846790091.post-77533552692508218282015-06-18T23:01:00.002-07:002015-06-20T15:52:44.480-07:00The Yattering and BootsJune 16 – 18, 3430, Age of Kings<br />
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After a harrowing night spent shivering deep within Leedshire Forest, the party awoke to find themselves all at level three. Oh yeah, and Boots was there, too.<br />
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Grabby went with the Arcane Trickster path, presumably to cause mischief more than anything else. </div>
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Ander went with the Hunter path, taking the Colossus Slayer feature which should come in handy should one of his arrow's actually find its mark. He can also cast heal light wounds now, so that should help everyone out quite a bit.</div>
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Audrey took the Berserker path because, well, she's a barbarian. She also realized that when she rages she gets significant damage reduction, that could have helped earlier.</div>
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Broak decided on the Battle Master path, granting him access to maneuvers, which I'm curious to see in action.</div>
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Finally, Boots took the Pact of the Chain path, selecting an imp (of course) as his chosen fiendish familiar.</div>
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After traveling another day, the party reached Leedshire and returned to Albrecht's estate. They dropped off some of their gear and were beckoned by a guard to report to Albrecht.</div>
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Going into the manor they passed by a familiar guard named Willem (a guard friendly to the party) who was standing outside of Albrecht's study. Upon entering the weary party was greeted by Albrecht who was anxious to discover if they were successful in their task or not. Audrey pulled out the Forge Hammer much to Albrecht's delight, which he greedily took from her and carefully studied it. He quickly composed himself and handed the relic off to Gotri, his dwarf bodyguard who was standing nearby, to place it in a secure location somewhere in the manor.</div>
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Quickly dispensing with pleasantries, the got right down to business: payment. True to his word, Albrecht puled out a formal looking piece of parchment, signed it, scribbled down a note, folded the two papers together and put his wax seal on them and passed them off to the party as well as the keys to the manor. They were now the custodians of a manor on the outskirts of the village of West Leedshire, about a three hour march outside of Leedshire. In addition, they were given a horse, cart and a cask of ale to celebrate with to carry them to their new base of operations. </div>
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As the party left the study, Albrecht asked Ander to stay back so he could speak with him in private. When the two of them were alone Albrecht called Willem in to the study to hand Ander a folded parchment...</div>
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It would seem Ander's past had caught up with him. Surprisingly, Albrecht seemed unconcerned by this turn of events, and simply warned Ander that Willem had found the bounty posted early in the morning in Mercenary Square, which he quickly brought to Albrecht. </div>
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Knowing that the bounty was most likely posted at all of the gatehouses leading out of town (Ander <i>did </i>notice a gate guard staring at him when they had returned earlier) it may be difficult for him to leave town.</div>
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Returning to his friends, he found them packing up their belongings in their new cart and Ander informed them of his situation. They decided to leave that night under cover of dark knowing that the gates would only be lightly guarded—but more suspicious of travelers.<br />
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Both Ander and Boots covered themselves in gear in the cart (Boots didn't want to be mistaken for Ander) and they headed out the town's west gate. They managed to roll through without incidnet, and Audrey and Grabby enjoyed the cask of ale as they traveled down the road.<br />
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After a few hours of travel they past through the village of Elmshire and onto West Leedshire. After traveling for about an hour to the outskirts of West Leedshire they found their small manor near midnight where they rested for the night.<br />
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They woke early in the morning (Grabby and Audrey a little later due to their road ales) and were greeted by Petterlen at their door, the former custodian who lived in nearby West Leedshire. The old man took the papers from them and looked them over. Satisfied, he showed them around manor and the small plot of land and offered his assistance with any matters that might come up. With that he wished them well and headed back to his village.<br />
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Needing to replenish their gear, as well as make some repairs, the party left for West Leedshire to trade and purchase goods. Once there they split up and went about their business of purchasing gear, repairing armour (from Broak's run-in with some grey ooze), cashing in on some art items, and food for their larder. Boots found the supplies he needed to cast his <i>find familiar</i> ritual and quickly rushed back home before the rest of the party.<br />
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Back at the manor Boots descended into the cellar and locked himself in the second room. There, he he added the components he needed into a brazz brazier, lit some candles and cast the ritual. Soon the contents of the brazier becan to smoke and burn. They began to coalesce into a black mass of tissue and bone and smelled of burnt flesh and sulfur. It bubbled and smoked and suddenly two leathery bat-like wings snapped out from the mass, and the small creature stood to its feet, ready to serve its master.<br />
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Calling itself Yattering, the demonic imp showed its willingness (if somewhat reluctantly) to serve its new master. Upstairs Boots heard his allies coming home, and he immediately dismissed the imp... for now.<br />
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Dirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10485617570272641386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-495319730846790091.post-59510498497578658892015-06-10T00:06:00.002-07:002015-06-11T21:25:49.112-07:00A Narrow EscapeJune 16, 3430, Age of Kings<br />
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After narrowly escaping a horrendous encounter with an acid breathing dragon by winding their way through a narrow cave tunnel, the party returned to the kobolds' lair. Momentarily they could hear the enraged roars of the dragon behind them, but it was soon replaced by that barks and screeches of hoards of kobolds in pursuit.<br />
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They fled through the winding corridor back to the ruined smelting chamber and up the immense, winding stone staircase. Once at the top they were relieved to find their rope still in its place on the oil-slicked ramp, which they all hurried up as the sounds of kobolds echoed all around.<br />
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They quickly moved into the Great Forge Hall to make their way to the stairs up to the first level. Just as they ran past the Great Forge a set of doors ahead of them swung open and a small group of kobold warriors jumped out, accompanied by two sentries mounted on disease-ridden giant rats. Simultaneously another, larger group poured out of the doors to the south-west.<br />
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Concentrating on the kobolds blocking their path, the party managed to fight their way through, pressing on towards the stairs. Broak slowly fell behind as he tried to beat back the oncoming wave of kobolds to give his allies more time to escape. Audrey, still severely wounded from her encounter with the dragon downed a healing potion—most of which she wound up spilling on herself. <br />
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After felling several kobolds, reinforcements continued to stream from the south-west corridor
and as Ander and Audrey made their way up the stairs. Seeing Broak greatly
outnumbered, Grabby stood by the dwarf's side to help him fall back. Broak then decided he needed to bolster his efforts.
After a quick discussion about player knowledge, Broak quaffed his
potion labeled "Dragon's Breath." He stood blocking the entrance to the stairs and mercilessly crushed kobolds with his hammer, Dwarven Despair, and spewed fire from his mouth (singeing his beard hair a bit) causing sever kobolds to fall to the ground engulfed in flames.<br />
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As Grabby and Broak ran to join their allies, Ander tossed caltrops on the stairs to impede the kobolds' progress. Between the caltrops and a fire-breathing, enraged dwarf, the kobolds backed off, knowing they had another force already waiting for them in the next chamber—led by their chief.<br />
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The party quickly moved through the chambers with the statues of Moradin and other dwarves then through the corridor that opened to the Great Hall. They burst through the doors to find the kobold chief and his elite guards (all mounted on giant rates) and a retinue of warriors, as well as a robed kobold who stood close to the chief.<br />
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Knowing the only way out was through the group of kobolds, the party charged forward, using the pillars and well for cover as they moved up. Audrey and Broak off to the right while Ander and Grabby moved up the left flank, meeting the kobold force in the middle. A fierce melee ensued, with Ander trying to make his way toward the chief and Grabby finding himself in sufficient cover to deliver a killing blow from the shadows on an unsuspecting kobold going after Ander.<br />
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Ander managed to weave his way past the pillars, stowing his bow and drawing his gleaming, razor-sharp dual scimitars, he dove into the fray with a searing ferocity... and missed, and missed, and missed again, turn after turn he was an elvish whirling dervish of failure. Seeing his elvish friend not faring well, Grabby moved into flank the chief and his guards, eventually the two of them managed to bring them down. With the kobold chief lying in a heap on the floor, Grabby decided to throw caution to the wind and leap on the back of the chief's rat-mount.<br />
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Amidst the din of battle, a great crashing of stone and wood could be heard from beyond the doors to the west, and the bellowing of the enraged dragon followed—he had come down the lift room (from where the party was attacked by the bats). <br />
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Meanwhile, Broak and Audrey stood side-by-side defending their position from the onslaught, but while Ander was rolling miss after miss, I was rolling critical hit after critical hit. First Broak fell from a well-placed spear thrust from one of the warriors, and despite drinking another healing potion given to her by Broak just moments earlier (most of which she also seemed to spill on herself) she was also cut down by a kobold's spear. <br />
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After seeing their chief brought down, many of the remaining kobolds darted back into their tunnels to escape, while a couple remained fighting, but were quickly dispatched by Grabby and Ander after Grabby realized he couldn't control the rat he decided it was best to drive a dagger into the beast's brain.<br />
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The kobolds slain or retreated, Ander and Grabby rushed in to help rouse their unconscious allies, with the sound of the dragon drawing ever closer down the corridor. Once everyone was on their feet, Ander ran to the doors to set his warhammer through the door handles in attempt to slow down the beast.<br />
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Just as the party was leaving the Great Hall, the group looked over their shoulders to see the doors from the west corridor explode into a shower of splinters and buckled iron as the dragon smashed its way through, stick it head through and roar in fury.<br />
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The group rushed up the long staircase with Ander falling back slightly to unleash arrows should the dragon make its way to the stairs before they could reach the safety of the surface. Once at the top of the stairs they found the trap door to the surface held fast (if you recall, the entry only appeard in moonlight, it happened to be about 8:30 in the morning now). Broak put his weight into it, and while it was heavy, he felt the door had some give to it. With Audrey helping (and Grabby standing nearby unable to help), Broak put his back into the door and it began to move, spilling earth and stone on them as they pushed with all their might.<br />
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Soon the dragon stuck its head into the stairway, roared, and began charging up towards the party with Ander firing off arrows as he moved up the stairs.<br />
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All eyes were fixed on the charging dragon that filled up the stairway as Audrey and Broak continued to force the door open, until at last a stream of morning light started to break through and they could smell the fresh air. With one final heave, they pushed the door opened and leapt out, quickly followed by Ander and Grabby with the dragon close behind them. Although the opening would be too small for the dragon to fit through, they didn't take any chances and pushed the pile of earth and stone into the opening to seal it off.<br />
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After taking a moment to catch their breath they found a smoldering camp fire, and a cart laden with gear, tipped over, still roped to a horse who lay dying on its side, ripped open by a pair of immense claws. They also found the remains of the other guard that Boots had come with: reduced to a pile of melted organs and exposed bone, only his forearms, lower legs and the top of his head were recognizable, an obvious victim of the dragon. Seeing nothing of value that could help them in the cart, they quickly moved on knowing the dragon would most likely be coming to the surface exact his revenge.<br />
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The party moved on quickly but cautiously, staying in cover until night fall. Occasionally they stopped and hid when they heard the ominous roar of the dragon echoing of the mountains, and on a few occasions saw it soaring overhead, searching.<br />
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With night upon them they set about making camp (with no fire, of course).<br />
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All of the characters will be at level three where they get to select their class' path, and Boots should be back in the mix.</div>
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<br />Dirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10485617570272641386noreply@blogger.com0