DM's page

Can you guys let me know which of these motivations fits your character best? It will help detemine how the adventure starts off.

Hero You adventure to do good deeds, protect people, etc.

Mercenary Adventuring is all about the reward.

I'm guessing that Ruano & Shariv the Skewer fall into under Mercenary, while Melani Starsmite falls into the Hero category.

OK, cool. Thanks.

I was primarily thinking about a Belt of Healing (or 2, or 3), and Weapon and / or Armor Augment Crystals.

Yep, any of those should be fine.

You'll just need to let me know which Augment Crystals you have active (if any), and when you switch them, etc.

DM, are traits okay for use? If so, Aggressive and Quick suit Rauno pretty well...

Well, I wasn't going to bring up Traits from Unearthed Arcana, but since they are basically just balanced Roleplaying characteristics... sure, you guys can use them if you want.

They can be found here if anyone wants to use them and doesn't have access to Unearthed Arcana.

Just starting the stat up my character now.

Is there any chance of using the Magic Item Compendium for magic gear?

Also, I get the increase in costs for consumable magic item, but can we at least get a full wand of CLW for the normal price (750gp)? Whenever i play, we burn through these things pretty quickly anyway, so i don't think it would be any different just cause we are playing a one off.

About the Magic Item Compendium, just let me know the items, and I'll let you know on a case by case basis. (Just the title is fine, I have the book myself to look it up)

For the expendable magic items, I think we'll still stick with the 5x (or proportionally less charges for wands) rule from the DMG.

While you guys might burn through them quickly, there are plenty of spots in the adventure were you can pick up cure potions and wands.

1 early encounter as written gives you the option of picking up a pair of Cure Moderate Wands with 20 charges each, minus whatever charges are used by the baddies in the fight itself. So as long as you have some healing ability off the start, you should be able to restock as the adventure progresses

Ranged, 1d6, crit x3, range 20 feet, martial. I also have given up the search for the stats. I believe it was originally from one of the Dark Sun books, and I converted it on my own.

EDIT:

Found stats about 5 minutes after last post. Spikes can also be used as melee weapons that do 1d6 damage at crit x2.

Cool. The one thing that neither of us mentioned is the damage type, but I think its fairly obvious that they are piercing.

Rauno grew up among the Sczarni, his parents both working various schemes to part foreigners from their money. Rauno found that simple con jobs and such held little interest for him--they were both underwhelming in reward and lacking in risk. In truth, he also hated the interaction with strangers due to a natural shyness. In his travels, however, he found one thing that could provide both the thrill of danger he sought and the considerable wealth due one willing to take such risks, with no need for much talk at all. The ruins that dot Varisia are renowned among his people as places of bad luck, evil, and haunted by demons of the past. Rauno cares nothing for such taboos; so long as someone is willing to pay him the money he'll go anywhere, recover anything, and return it with no questions asked.

As he grew in his career as an explorer for hire, Rauno found that the bow was a much more favorable weapon than blade or spear, for the distance between himself and his prey was greatly increased. Rauno thrills in battle as much as in delving the ancient dungeons of his land, but he also knows standing too close to a giant is just plain stupid, and a horde of goblins can take down the hardiest of Shoanti barbarians. As such, he has refined his skill with the bow to the point where he can kill many opponents before they even have time to raise a shield in defense. And that, of course, leaves him more time to crawl about the hidden lairs of long-forgotten peoples, rooting out their devious traps and thwarting them to get at riches thought lost to time.

Nice background.

To recap, so far we have:

Rauno played by erian_7. A Human (Varisian) Rogue3/Fighter4. Neutral. Occupation: Mercenary

Shariv The Skewer played by The Eldritch Mr. Shiny. A Human (Varisian) Human Paragon3/Fighter3/Master Thrower 1. Neutral. Occupation: Hit man, relic hunter, mercenery

Melani Starsmite played by French Wolf. A Dwarven Necromancer 7. Lawful Neutral. Occupation: Grave robber/experimenter in anatomy

Arctaris mentioned a Human Ranger 2/Rogue/Fighter 2/Order of the Bow Initiate 2.

Mevers & Eadaro were both waiting to see what the rest of the party composition was before deciding.

IMHO, it looks like you guys could use a melee character and/or a divine caster.

Once everyone has decided their characters (at least in concept) I'll start giving out some background info and we can kick off the adventure.

Well, I can't f@~%ing find the splatbook in which I found the spikes, but they do exist in the real world, and look like this.

Thanks for the link. I was pretty sure that was what you were going for, but I can't recall seeing DnD stats for them.

Looking at your character write-up, I'm guessing ranged weapon, 1d6, crits on a 20 for a x3 critical modifier?

What is the range increment?

Is it a martial or exotic weapon?

DM wrote:

Good point. I believe the DMG had some guidelines for disposable magic items in a one-shot adventure like this. I think it to multiply the cost of disposable items because their utility was out of proportion to their standard cost in a single adventure like this.

Will this cover PHB items as well, or just magic items? Rauno has some alchemical stuff that I'd need to adjust if necessary.

I'd just say magic item/

Perhaps Talion09, you should think about how much money we can spend on disposable magic items, i.e. potions, scrolls and wands.

...
Cheers

Good point. I believe the DMG had some guidelines for disposable magic items in a one-shot adventure like this. I think it to multiply the cost of disposable items because their utility was out of proportion to their standard cost in a single adventure like this.

EDIT:

If you're playing in a one-shot random dungeon, one-use items cost 5 times their normal price and charged items have 1/5 as many charges. In a one-shot adventure, in which it doesn't matter if you use up your items, one-use and charged items area lot better than they are in a regular campaign.

In a one-shot dungeon, a one-use item is as good as a 1/day item, because you'll only be able to use each item once. This "5 times" rule balances the one-use and charged items so they don't dominate the random dungeon.

We will use this rule for equipping our characters, since this is a single adventure, and not an adventure path or full campaign

Character:

Shariv the Skewer
N male human (Varisian) paragon 3 / fighter 3 / master thrower 1

Where are throwing spikes and straight razor from? Arms and Equipment Guide?

*Looking at your combat stats, do you have two +1 Keen Throwing Spikes & a single +1 Straight Razor? At a quick glance, wouldn't those be ~8300 GP each?

Arctaris wrote:

...I took Greater Manyshot from the SRD, but got to thinking that's technically from the Expanded Psionics Handbook. Is that one okay as it's SRD? Everything else is pretty much from the Core books and the Varisia PG.

I'll take a look at Greater Manyshot when I get home, but I'm fairly sure it was reprinted in another book as well... but wouldn't it have fairly high pre-reqs, since you can't get Manyshot until 5th or 6th?

Oh, okay. I'll play a Human Ranger 2/Rogue/Fighter 2/Order of the Bow Initiate 2.

Are the flaws from UA allowed?
I had a problem with the guide to Varisia. There ere a bunch of pictures that seemed to be overlayed on some of the text, making it very hard to read. Are there any nations who retain a large army? My basic idea is for my character to be an ex-military scout kind of person.

I'm fairly sure the Korvosa and Magnimar maintain standing armies. Well actually I'm sure Korvosa does, since they provide the military in W1.

In regards to Flaws from UA, I'd say no. They can work sometimes, but most of the time I find they end up being cheesy.

The Eldritch Mr. Shiny wrote:

Are Paragons (Unearthed Arcana) allowed?

Screw it, I'm going for it...

Sorry for the delay. I'm actually working today (not on D&D, "real" work, lol)

Yeah, Racial Paragon classes from Unearthed Arcana are allowed. I'm assuming that is what you meant, as I don't have the UA here with me... and they are essentially just a racial PRC anyways.

I don't really mind what I play, although it is looking like we could use some melee firepower, so I am leaning towards making a standard half Orc Barbarian / Fighter. Although i wouldn't mind playing a Kobold Sorcerer we will be in Kaer Maga afterall), or a (probabaly gnome) Bard.

Ahh... so many choices.

I'll just let the rest of the party decide what they are playing, and then pick something that fits well.

Gnome Bard wouldn't be bad in a 6 man party. Kobold Sorcerer is out though because we are sticking to the PHB races/classes. And if you want to play the half-orc, we definitely could use some melee types, as so far it looks like a cleric, Order of the Bow Initiate, and a fighter/rogue who focuses on ranged combat.

The Pathfinder Player's Guide is a free download for anyone that hasn't downloaded it yet.

The adventure takes place primarily in Kaer Maga, right where the Yondabakari River meets the edge of the plateau below the map label for the Cinderlands

Also the Player's Guide include those bonus feats I mentioned in Character Creation.

Character Background
I'd like a brief write-up of your character's background, personality, history, how he got his hands on the 19000 GP worth of gear, etc

I'm not expecting a story or anything, but a paragraph or two to go with the collection of stats would be nice ;-)

I'll leave it up to you guys if you want your characters to have known each other beforehand.

*Just make sure you don't make your character as being from Kaer Maga.

Clarification for Character Creation

For simplicity, I'm restricting it to Classes found in the PHB only. (Barbarian, Bard, Fighter, Rogue, etc) Likewise for Races.

I did include a list of allowed books only, but I meant to note that they were allowed for Feats & Alternate Class Features only. (ie. You could take a Feat or Alternate Class Feature from PHB II, but you couldn't be a Duskblade) *Sorry if this wasn't clear in the original post.

erian_7, I've decided that I'm going to stick with my original plan, and go with only core classes. So swordsage is out. But a ranged/skill Fighter/Rogue build you mentioned sounds good.

* When I click on the link for Ruano you provided, I get an error message saying "Sorry, the requested character can not be shown. Either you don't have permission to edit it, the sheet isn't publicly viewable, or the character does not exist." I'm guessing the sheet isn't publicly viewable on the site?

ArctarisOrder of the Bow Initiate sounds good, but like the swordsage, scout is out because I'm restricting it to the core classes only. (Sorry if the confusion arose from my earlier character creation post, I'll edit it to be more clear)

In regards to Unearthed Arcana , what kind of ideas were you looking for? I didn't really include it in the Character Creation list, because it would be such a case by case basis with all the optional rules. But I'm open to ideas if there was a particular variant you wanted to use.

Forty-odd new avatars added. These are mostly from Pathfinder #1 and D2-Seven Swords of Sin. Plus Downer.

Gary, thanks for adding new Avatars. Some of this art is just awesome!

Talion09 wrote:

hmm... I was intending to stick to core races/classes (albeit with alternative class features), but I do like the ToB.

Let me think about it, and I'll let you know later on tonight.

Thanks for the consideration, and like I said it's no problem either way! I've got the Rogue/Fighter mechanics mostly done, still thinking on backstory. I've got a Swordsage 5 mechanically done that could be be upgraded readily.

Give me an hour or two to ponder... I'm inclined to say no, because I was trying to keep the game relatively simple.

But on the other hand, swordsages are pretty damm cool. (We played with ToB characters for ~6 months in a previous campaign, and while I did find them upping the power curve for 3.5, they weren't broken when compared to a Frenzied Berserker or a Human Fighter tweaked with feats from PHB 2 and the Complete Series. And they were fun to play.)

Anyone else have a preference one way or another for Tome of Battle characters? If someone is vehemently opposed, or even wants to play one themselves, that would affect my decision.

Sweet. I can't believe with all the other PbP games on the boards that no one has taken "DM" as an alias.

Plus the new avatar pics rock!

Character Creation

- 7th level characters
- 19 000 gold, only 50% max can be spent on a single item
- 32 point buy
- Dieties from the Pathfinder Player's Guide only
- Every character gets a bonus background feat. This has to be either from the list in the Pathfinder Player's Guide, or from the +2/+2 skill feats in the PHB (ie. Stealthy, Alertness, etc)
- Only Classes & Races from the PHB
- Alternate Class features are allowed from the list of Allowed Books*
- Any feats from the list of Allowed Books is ok.
- Skill Tricks from Complete Scoundrel are in.
- Spells from the Spell Compendium are generally ok, but run them by me first.

*List of Allowed Books:
PHB + DMG + MM (or just use the SRD)
PHB II
Dungeonscape (because its cool and I haven't really gotten to use it)
Complete Series (Warrior, Adventurer, Arcane, Divine, Scoundrel, Champion and Mage)
Spell Compendium

Fourth Session -Mainly written in the aftermath of the bar brawl, while awaiting my turn to be “interviewed” by the Watch

Talith and I headed back to town with our trophies. We ended up hiking through the wilderness in order to avoid the path from the mines, and almost missed the last ferry for the day.

Because it seemed like a good idea at the time, we boasted about our hunting expedition to the guards at the ferry, to give us some more credibility for our alibi once the dead Achaen soldiers were found. We figured if a 700 pound wild boar was impressive to us, it would be even more impressive to a bunch of guards who were 3 feet tall.

That got a little out of hand, and we ended up back at the tavern, buying rounds for the house, a crowd that included Achaen guards and Acadian townsfolk. After some more drinks, we figured it would be a good idea to keep on buying rounds, since the Achaen guards would be even less likely to suspect us if we were their drinking buddies the night before, especially if we bought more than our share of drinks.

Also, the others of the party were at the inn, but they weren’t in the tavern portion, apparently they had already retired for the night.

As Talith went to settle our tab, it was getting quite apparent that;
A) These little folk can’t handle their watered wine
B) There is quite a bit of class tension between the Acadians and their Achaen overlords. Nothing like alcohol and a hot night to bring out people’s true feelings.
C) Talith should have worked more on his close combat techniques when we were trained together by the Val’Etheren, since he went down like a sad little kobold when that Achaen guard tackled him.

Later on I heard that Talith had apparently said something about the guard’s family, or knocked his drink over… but seeing as how they were trying to point all the blame on the outsiders after the fact, I’m not sure what exactly started the brawl.

Once Talith started stumbling into tables while grappling with that guard, everything happened kinda fast. Several Acadians saw the brawl as a chance to get some revenge on their conquerors, and the Achaens just wanted to bust some heads after singing (badly) war songs all night.

The Achaens were strong little guys, but they were just Halflings in the end. I dropped three of them with broken bones [lethal damage with Improved Unarmed Strike] while trying to free Talith from the scrum, but apparently the guard he had insulted had a lot of friends.

And things soon turned ugly, as punches escalated to broken bottles and chairs and then escalated further as weapons were pulled.

I had one drunk Achaen jump off the bar and stab me in the shoulder with a dagger. I threw him off, and then broke his jaw with a heavy punch as he came at me again. [Thank you Critical Hit Deck ;-)] [Cool Quote of the Night: “Don’t bring a knife to a Kung-Fu fight little man!]

At that point I figure we should leave, as Talith and I had put around a half dozen of the Achaen guards out of commission, some with serious injuries. But the next thing I know, I’m seeing stars and then I passed out.

I woke up to Talith slapping me. We were in the kitchen of the bar, where he had dragged me after I passed out. Apparently a local cleric had tried to calm down the out of control bar, and I had succumbed to a spell. The cleric hadn’t been all that effective, but the sober squad of Achaen guards on patrol were roughly establishing order with clubs out front.

Talith said that the guards had seized one of our friends, and were dragging them away to the jail. Still woozy, I followed Talith as we ran out the back door of the kitchen and circled the block, to see a pair of guards dragging a limp body that looked a bit like Valerie in the moonlight.

I threw a pair of my boomerangs and took down the one guard, while Talith shot at and missed the other guard. That guard took off running down the street, while Talith.

At this point, I left Talith with the unconscious body of our friend, while I tried to sneak back into the inn to gather our other allies and gear.

That didn’t work so well.

I ended up getting spotted by the watch, and so I decided to brazen it out and try to talk my way past the guards. It wasn’t a big stretch of the truth to say that I didn’t start the brawl. (By my count, I was the third or fourth person to throw a punch, and I never drew a weapon) And I am pretty persuasive.

I wasn’t counting on the “blame the outsiders” factor. Or the fact that the squad leader that was handling the investigations had some family members and friends involved in the brawl, including the knife-wielder whose jaw I broke. (Apparently, he could still grunt and point at me)

At this point, I’m thinking that trying to talk me way out of this wasn’t the best option, as I’ve been informed that I’m looking at slavery in the mines or possibly losing a hand once the Governor passes judgment. With the way my luck has turned, I’ll have injured some of his relatives too in the brawl.

I ended up being marched by a four guards and the squad leader away from the inn and towards the jail/barracks at the other end of town. I’m not bound, but I have an Achaen guard on either side of me holding my arms, and another pair walking behind me with javelins ready.

I’m pretty sure I can break their grips and run, but I’m going to wait until we are a little farther away from the tavern and any potential reinforcements or witnesses. Plus, it looks like we are going to pass where Talith was hiding with Valerie, so they hopefully will be able to give me a bit of a diversion or backup.

Third session -Written around a campfire after boar-hunting

After waking up at Arthos’s Inn the next morning, I go downstairs to the common room to find that I can’t order pork anymore. Apparently Pamorin and the other aasimar bribed the staff not to serve it to me anymore, with some sort of tale of explosive flatulence. I’m going to have to have a discussion with him, especially in light of all his talk about our party needing more rules and regulations.

Maybe I’d put more stock in his opinion if it wasn’t for the small fact that the very actions (mainly by Talith, Ahmero and myself) that he is ranting about are the most productive things we have done as a party. But I’ll give him a little more benefit of the doubt, as Nix must have chosen him for a reason. Perhaps his water magic will come in handy soon.

I head over the general store and ask if they have any maps I can pay to study for a few minutes. It turns out the basic physical geography is roughly the same as I would expect, although some mountain ranges have gotten higher and some rivers have changed course slightly. But none of the cities are familiar to me, and I can’t find a trace of anything linked to the Val’Etheren or Greyhawk.

I also discover that minotaurs are a slave race to these Achaens. If I wasn’t sold on the Achaens as the bad guys after Arthos’ propaganda yesterday, I am now.

Returning to the Inn for lunch, I talk with Talith about where or when we might be, and if the Val’Etheren will find us, or if we are truly on our own. Arthos approaches us and asks us for some help. He has been informed that the Achaen guard have captured some of the resistance, and they are bringing them into town from the north. Once they are in town, they will be executed or shipped downriver to another city of interrogation.

Talith and I agree to help, and gather the three Aasimar as they walk in the door. Do they always travel together?

We cross the ferry to the north of the river, and travel along the dirt road to the mines. I wonder if they use slaves in the mines? Is that why I haven’t seen any dwarves or gnomes? I’ll have to ask around when I get back to town.

As we approach a guardhouse on the road, Pamorin and Rodyn bicker with Talith and myself about tactics. They want to use magic and not cause any permanent harm. Where as Talith and I are perfectly fine with slaying our enemies. Anyone who keeps slaves, invades and conquers other cultures, and hunts down fey isn’t going to fall into the good side of St Cuthbert’s scales.

As we approach the guardhouse, a pair of Achaen guards step out and tell us to halt. I spin a tale of boar hunting and ask if they have seen a boar nearby, as I shot it and it bolted. Pamorin tries to hypnotize the guards with his magic, but one shrugs off his influence and sounds the alarm. I put a pair of arrows into that one’s head as Talith races to the door and slays the other, dazed, guard.

I try to break the door down, but its barred from the inside. I continue to try and break the door down, while Talith and Pamorin go around the side of the building looking for another entrance.

Turns out there was a ladder inside the building up to the observation post on the roof, because Rodyn got a javelin in the shoulder and I look up to see 3 Achaens up there.

A brief sniping contest between my longbow and the Achaen’s javelins gets ended when Talith climbs the ladder and surprises them. All in all, we easily defeated the five Achaen soldiers and freed the two prisoners, a pair of Satyrs.

The Satyrs escape back into the woods, which left us with having to get back into town while maintaining our alibis. The three Aasimar head back for the ferry, while Talith and I decided to spend a few hours hunting, in order to back up our boar hunting expedition alibi.

Despite being nearly gored a few times, we put enough arrows and bolts into a wild boar to kill it. And then we figure that we can’t actually carry this 700 pound behemoth back to town by ourselves. So we settle for taking the foot long tusks and some choice cuts of meet, and leave the rest for the wolf pack that was sniffing around.

First Session & Second Session (written at the inn)

Nix dispatched Talith and myself, as well as the other adventurers he had gathered, several days to the south of Greyhawk with a spell and a warning. The artifact in the caverns must be secured quickly, otherwise great harm could occur.

We took care of the goblin cult guarding the cave complex without much problem. Ahmero’s tactics are unusual, but they definitely get results. While the others were squabbling over Ahmero’s treatment of a goblin captive that was being interrogated, I headed into the caves. Nix did say that time was of the essence.

After several turns and rises, the narrow cave widened into a larger cavern, with a pool in the near corner and a door set into the far wall. There also were a pair of rust monsters, but I quickly rolled past them and tagged one with a boomerang. Ahmero and Bella followed me into the cavern, and the three of us quickly dispatched the pair of monsters.

The door had runes carved into it:

“I wasn’t at the Beginning,
And I won’t be at the End,
And though I am part of your Road twice,
I’m never in the way.
I am not in Light, but in Darkness.
What am I?”

Along with the cryptic riddle, there were small tiles, one for each letter of the alphabet. We guessed that we would need to spell out the answer to the riddle to progress. After an incorrect answer, I was jolted by a zap of electricity from the door. Bella tried, and she was hit with a dart from a concealed opening.

I then searched the door and its surroundings and disabled all the traps and dart openings I could find. Then I proceeded to systematically brute force my way through the puzzle, hitting every letter in sequence.

It opened on “R”. I guess I should have gone with my first instinct and tried spelling my own name.

While I was disabling the traps with Ahmero’s aid, the rest of the party wandered back outside and I later learned were busy eating figs in the ruins of the goblin enclave. Apparently a simple riddle trap was too much for them.

Ahmero and I then proceeded through the now opened door. It lead into a short hallway that ended abruptly in a pile of rubble. As I shifted the rubble in hopes of finding another clue or doorway, Ahmero found a secret door along the wall.

We then proceeded through the secret door, and found the temple of the Seasons, home of the artifact that Nix had sent us to acquire. As I picked up the artifact, a decanter, from the altar, two balls of lightning appeared. The room seemed to strobe in blinding flashes of red and white light, and I was frozen in place.

Then I could move again and my vision returned. Ahmero and I were in the same position as before, but the decanter was no longer in my hands. Also, the rest of the party were now in the temple as well. (Apparently they had gotten full of figs, and decided to follow us into the temple, only to fall prey to the same trap.)

The Temple of the Seasons was dusty and abandoned when I first entered, but now the level of decay was exponentially worse, as water damage had eroded the bas reliefs on the walls, and covered them in lichen. The secret door and altar were smashed, as if tomb raiders had been here.

As we exited the Temple and made our way through the caverns to the surface, it appeared that a substantially long period of time had passed. Long enough for the caverns to shift, and the small stream trickling through previously to cut a wide flood path in the rocks.

I lead the way outside, and the small stream that had run past the goblin enclave now is a river. And there isn’t any trace of the goblin enclave either. While the Temple of the Seasons and the goblin enclave were situated in rolling hills south of Greyhawk, we appear to be high up in jagged mountains now. And there is a grove of fig trees where the Aasimar had their little gathering while Ahmero and I were doing the real work. I’m not sure if we have traveled through time, or to another reality, but this is going to be a good story to tell the Justice Society when Talith and I get back.

Rodyn’s air elemental companion alerts us to the presence of someone approaching, and a Satyr comes into view.

The Satyr’s name is Diosdoras, and he says he was told to wait for us specifically by his boss. He refuses to name his boss, but lets slip that it is a “she”. He also doesn’t know the date or what year it is, at least not in any reckoning I am familiar with. When I ask about the City of Greyhawk and the Val’Etheren, he gives me a blank stare, and says he hasn’t heard of them.

Diosdoras asks us to accompany him to town as he needs to deliver a letter for his boss. We agree, as we need more information, and Ahmero is given the letter, as Diosdoras says his kind (fey?) aren’t welcome in the town.

As we walk along a game trail down the heavily forested mountainside, Rodyn questions why I have my bow out and strung, as its apparently offensive to his sense of decorum. I reply that this is an unknown place, and therefore its only common sense to be prepared for a fight. He doesn’t like this answer, but I’m proven correct as a winged figure, like a cloaked gargoyle or a man-bat, swoops out of the sky and attacks Diosdoras in the midst of our party.

I get off the first shots before anyone else can react, and put a pair of arrows into this creature as it looms over Diosdoras with its saw-toothed sword. It wasn’t a gargoyle, as it didn’t sound like my arrows hitting stone, but the creature had some kind of scales or armored plating, as my arrows definitely didn’t penetrate as far as they would into plain flesh.

Valerie charged the creature with her mace, and then Ahmero hit it with a thrown hand-axe to finish it off. Talith saw another of the creatures, or at least a cloaked figure, further away in the woods, but it disappeared as soon as he shot at it.

Diosdoras refers to the creatures as “Spawn of Tiamat”, and says that they hunt fey down, therefore it must have been tracking him. The creature certainly has scales to support the name, but it turned to stone when it died, and then crumbled to dust a few moments later. Is it a living creature, a construct, like a new form of gargoyle or golem?

After the battle, we continue on down the path, and after an hour, Rodyn again asks why I carry my bow strung and have an arrow in hand, albeit not nocked and drawn. After I remark that it certainly came in useful when we were attacked not long ago, Rodyn’s stupid air elemental lackey takes offense at my tone, and breaks my bowstring. I warn Rodyn to keep his pet away from me in the future, or I’ll kill it. What sort of “adventurers” was Nix recruiting?

After a few hours, we camp in the ruins of a stockade alongside the river. The town isn’t far away, but the gates are barred at night. During the night, wolves circle our camp a few times, but some torches and firing up the campfire scare them off. In the morning, I make bacon and eggs for breakfast, and get a sneer from Pamorin when I offer it to him some. Apparently our tastes in food are greatly different.

Diosdoras leaves us in the morning, and asks us to deliver the letter to Menthis in the town bar.

We enter the town, and discover that 70% of the population are Halflings. And militant, tough looking Halflings at that. Upon finding the bar, I ask for Menthis, and a slovenly looking Halfling approaches and says that his name is Menthis. He asks us to wait for a moment, then covertly join him in a backroom.

As we wait, I ask the server what type of food they have ready, and order some pork kabobs. When my platter arrives, I offer them to the rest of the party, and get drenched with a water spell from Pamorin for my trouble. That’s the last time I offer him food, or any aid. The pork kabobs were good though, and the others seem to like them.

Ahmero goes into the back room first, as we figured sending in the Halfling to talk to another Halfling was the best option. I go next, and we discuss some issues with “Menthis”.

First, it turns out that his name is actually Arthos, but Menthis is a codename of sorts for the local resistance around here. We get a little background and also find out that Arthos owns this tavern/inn.

Most of the Halflings in the region, including Arthos, are Akadians. They were conquered in recent memory by a more militant Halfling culture, the Achaens. It is the Achaens that hate Fey, as the fey tended to ally with the Akadians. There apparently is a resistance movement headed by someone that Diosdoras and Arthos both refer to as “the Boss.”

I ask Arthos to pass along my request for a meeting with this “Boss”. Since he sent Diosdoras to meet us when we emerged from the Temple of the Seasons, it appears that he was expecting us. I’m not sure what to expect, maybe the Boss is Nix in this far distant future. Unless this is actually an alternate reality, in which case I’m not sure. But either way, the Boss has some knowledge that I need top figure out where or when I am, and apparently has a purpose for us as well.

After the conversation with Arthos, I head upstairs to my room to rest and go over my arsenal of gear. The others go out to buy some supplies, but I’m fairly self-sufficient, considering the arsenal I usually carry.

Public Character Background:

Roy Harper is a follower. Or more specifically, he was a follower. Attracted by the fame and tales of heroism, as a child Roy sought out the fabled Val’Etheren, a league of heroes whose exploits include defeating Iuz, raiding the Demonweb of Lolth to free Sterich, defeating Kyuss to prevent the Age of Worms, and also thwarting Demogorgon in his attempt to unleash the Savage Tide.

Now, older and trained over the years by his heroic mentors, Roy is ready to step out into the world and prove himself as a hero in his own right. Unfortunately, Roy is usually relegated to stopping street-level crime while his mentors travel the planes thwarting demons and mad gods.

When Nix, a powerful mage and sometimes ally of the Val’Etheren, appeared looking for their help, Roy jumped at the change to prove himself. Along with Talith Du'Viercar, another “junior” Val’Etheren, Roy eagerly signed on to help find this mysterious and important artifact.