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We have just recently started a Savage Tide campaign, up here in Toronto, and I've posted the logs of our first few game sessions. I'll try to add to it on a regular basis for as long as it goes. I generally write a recount for each game session, and I also get my players to do a journal entry from the perspective of their character. If they write a journal for a game session I award 50xp per level.
Savage Tide Campaign Log
Current PC’s
Gresh: Human, male, Druid 2/ Faylor: Elfhound animal companion
Kratos: Goliath, male, Barbarian 1
Breca: Sea Cliff Dwarf, male, Cleric 2
Deek the virtuous: Human, male, Fighter 1/Paladin 1
Czar: Human, male, Monk1, Barbarian1 (expert grappler)
Former PC’s
Reshk: Hadrozee, male, rogue 2 (died beneath parrot island)
Sade: Human, female, rogue 1 (left the party)
Game Session #1: The heroes congregate at Vanderboren manor at the request of Lady Lavinia Vanderboren. Lavinia introduces the characters to one another, as she has met all of them, except for Kratos, in person at one time or another. After the introductions are made she explains her situation, letting the PCs know that she has recently inherited the family estate after the mysterious deaths of her parents. With the estate came a number of debts and backed taxes. She is searching for a signet ring that will help her access her family vault. Each of her parents had such a ring, her mother lost hers some time ago, and she thinks that her father’s ring is currently hidden somewhere on the family’s ship, the Blue Nixie. Unfortunately, the Blue Nixie has been confiscated by the Harbormaster because the family hadn’t paid the mooring fees for several months. The Harbormaster assigned an unsavoury fellow named Sollar Vrak to watch over the ship. Lavinia delivered money to Vrak to pay the harbormaster. This was a big mistake because Vrak took the money and denied that Lavinia had ever given it to him, and she had no witnesses to prove otherwise. She went to the harbormaster, but he took Vrak’s word over hers. She wants her money back; she wants her ship, and she wants the ring. Lavinia hopes that the characters can get them back. After some discussion they settle on a fee of 200gp each and they accept the job.
That evening Breca and Gresh do some investigation in an attempt to confirm Lavinia’s story. Lord Islaran the harbormaster confirms that she does owe money and that the Blue Nixie is moored in the harbor and belongs to the Vanderboren family. They then go to the docks and see the ship moored off a large pier. Breca pays off a ferryman to borrow his boat and he rows out to the ship, singing loudly posing as a drunk. He rows right up to the ship until his rowboat thumps into the hull. There are few thugs guarding the ship, and they start shouting back at the Breca. Breca decides he’s seen enough, and starts to row back to shore, but not before the thugs toss bottles down at him and fire one warning shot with a crossbow.
The next day the party gathers together and they make plans about how to proceed. Sade decides to hire a couple of whores to bring with her to occupy Vrak, and pose a representative of a buyer looking to put a bid on the ship when it goes up for auction in a few months after it is seized by the dawn council to pay for Lavinia’s debts. Gresh and his hound Faylor, along with Kratos, Sade, and two fat bottomed whores named Ursula and Claudia row to the ship. Sade convinces the guards to let her and the whores aboard to speak with Vrak. She suggests that she hopes he can help ensure that her client will win the auction of the ship, but he makes it clear that he can’t do much to help her. He does insist that the ship is in good shape and will fetch a decent price, and he is happy to take her offering of prostitutes. Sade leaves Ursula and Claudia for Vrak and then the rest of the characters row back to shore. They decide to get some booze and whores for the rest of the crew in an attempt to get them sauced and let their guard down, so that the party can more easily raid the ship. This plan succeeds, and several hours later, after the whores are gone and the crew has had some drink, Breca again assumes the guise of a drunken dwarf in a rowboat and tries to distract the guards. Meanwhile, Kratos takes the lead climbing the anchor chain. The guards actually get annoyed enough to take a couple of shots at the dwarf, but are shocked when he returns fire. By this time Kratos is on board and leaps into battle with his Kusari Gama (chain blade). Sade and Gresh start trying to make their way onto the ship. Kratos slays a number of the thugs, but a receives couple of bad wounds from rapiers. Vrak joins the battle, as he emerges from his cabin and fights well, but he eventually falls to a savage attack from Faylor (Gresh’s elven hound). Before he dies he starts shouting “Burn them all, Burn them all”. The characters have heard strange animal noises coming from the hold of the ship, and suspect that their maybe exotic animals stored down below. Sade is the first to open the trap door, and she climbs down to investigate, while Kratos and Breca fire arrows at a thug who dove overboard and is now trying to take their rowboat.
Down in the hold Sade finds that it is filled with cages of varying sizes containing exotic animals, mostly tropical birds and simians. A final thug is stationed down here. He has started a fire by shattering an oil lamp on the ground. He has also readied a crossbow, which he fires at Sade, but misses. Suddenly a large crashing sound toward the back of the hull startles both of them. A creature breaks free of its cage. It is the most dangerous critter on the ship, and is a strange looking insect type of thing. It is the size of a pony and is sort of a cross between a giant spider and beetle with a massive primitive looking manible occupying the majority of its head. The thug is the closest target and it leaps through the fire devouring him. By this point Gresh is also in the hold, he has started freeing a couple of the animals, including a baboon. Sade retreats back away from the monster after hurling a dagger at it, and Gresh hustles back up the ladder to the deck. The monster surges forward towards Sade, but first attacks the Baboon, buying her some time. She flee through a door at the back of the hold, finding a small room with a trap door leading to the bilge. She leaps down. The beast comes after her, but is held up by the door. Kratos leaps down to help. He attacks the critter, and the two face off. It grapples him with its one of its barbed tentacle like arms and sinks a big bite into the barbarian, nearly killing him. Fortunately, he is fighting below the open trap door, and Gresh is able to reach down and give him some healing. Gresh and Breca then cast summoning spells to aid the fight. Gresh brings in an owl and Breca a giant beetle. Between Greca’s owl and Kratos the beatie is killed, but not without nearly killing Kratos.
With the ship secured the heroes spend time freeing the animals and searching the for the ring and the money. They find these things in the captain’s quarters, and after resting the night they return to report to Lavinia. Lavinia is pleased with their success and she recruits them to escort her to pay off the Harbourmaster and venture to her family’s vault.
The vault proves to be quite secure, and as the party ventures into the first chamber the party is assaulted from the shadows by a hidden construct, an iron cobra. The construct sinks its fangs into Sade, and drops the poor girl unconscious. Fortunately, thanks to the advice of wise Breca, Lavinia commands the creature to cease its attack, boldly presenting her signet ring. This seems to work, and the cobra returns to its waiting position behind one of the chamber’s columns. Next the party finds a secret door leading into the final chamber of the vault. There they have to solve a rather complex combination lock puzzle to open several secret alcoves that contain the family treasure. Unfortunately, much of the treasure has been cleaned out of the vault. However she does recover some valuables, and is able to pay off the characters. They seem to have made a decent impression on the characters and she suggests that there may be more work to come in the future.
From the Journal of Gresh:
~The training of Felar is complete. He is such a fine engine of the woods. Brought to me and provided by the spirits of the earth. He has seen his first and not the last bout of combat. I do not like to fight but Felar on the other-hand is instinctual. I cannot deny him what he desires, so long as he does not get killed. His time is to be spent well and learn of the world beyond the wood. The other animals with the Knowlearns are doing well. Just the other day I delivered a fresh pack to a new client. I am pleased that they are happy with the elven hounds. The mastiffs we brought them were easier to train but not near as rewarding as the elven hounds.
I have started communing with the earth spirits more as of recent. In my communing with the spirits and nature I have been thinking of studying some of the arcane arts at some point. I would like to start working to marry the two. I think I will ask the Knowlearns for an arcane tutor, someone that can teach me the basics of the magic.
I took my first job outside of the Knowlearns employment. It has paid well and been rewarding yet scary at the same time. This ship we where hired to assist in its return to our employer was holding a large number of exotic species of animals. Seems like they were smuggled in or on their way to be smuggled out. Luckily I managed to save them, I have taken the majority back to the Knowlearns for care. Amongst them was a panther cub. I am not sure what to name him. hmmm I wonder what?
From the journal of Breca:
Father,
I have strange news to report. As I promised, I stayed behind here is Sasserine to keep an eye open for opportunities. I have been staying at the Bloody Pelican and watching ships come and go. Every day I go to the Azure cathedral and pray for your safe passage.
Two days ago, Lady Vanderboren requested my presence at dinner, claiming it would be in my interest to do so. You remember her parents, who died just before you sailed. I attended the dinner to find out that inheriting her estate, she has also inherited debt, and a tenuous position at best. Her ship, the Blue Nixie, was mortgaged and held by the Harbourmaster, old Lord Islaran. More to the point, the key to the family vault was hidden away aboard the ship, and a thug by the name of Brack was preventing her from searching the hold. Other unpleasant business has occurred, but most came by sheer inexperience on the part of her Ladyship.
As such, myself and three other adventurers (two humans and a goliath!) were contracted to recover the key and other sundries belonging to her family. I agreed out of respect for her parents, and the others required different inducements. And they say dwarves are greedy!
I confirmed the situation with Islaran (who was nearly in his cups and i suggest you pay him a visit on your return), and then made certain that the Nixie was still moored. I imitated Egil at his wedding and assessed that the ship had a skeleton crew, all human. The other members of our little band helped in other ways, and the next night, we prepared to take the ship by force.
I took a loaded launch and rowed from towards the starboard side of the Nixie, once again imitating Egil, though I think with more taste and a better singing voice and attracted the crew's attentions, even to the point of attracting a broadside of crossbow bolts into a water butt. The rest of the party went up the anchor chain and gained the advantage of surprise. I traded fire with one human, but eventually dropped him. It took a few moments to reach the ship, and i had trouble going up the side. By the time I reached the main deck most of the fighting was over, though we had to dispatch a thug who was trying to reach the other's rowboat.
I thought the ship was taken till the woman Shadeos went into the hold and appeared to release a crab-like insect, which took a lot out of the Goliath, whom I shall call Bruiser. I had to call upon the seas several times to keep him in shape, but it seemed the thing to do as the others either disappeared or refused to fight (though a bird came to our aid, so perhaps the sea was with us). Never trust humans to do a dwarf's job, eh?
But we defeated it eventually, and found the items the Lady was looking for. We helped her pay her debt, and unlock the family vault, so i think it's safe to say the family has another contact in the Vanderborens. I would repeat that her position is tenuous, with a missing brother, and probably some succession issues. But should she survive, I have established goodwill and she may be open to trading with us.
I have to go to pray now, and give thanks to the seas for granting me their favour, and i will tithe to the three gods for your safe passage, and good winds.
Peace of the depths upon you,
Breca.
From the Diary of Sade: I've little enjoyed these last two days, what with flirting with sailors, running from insect creatures, swimming in bilge waste and worst of all...being knocked out by a metallic snake. No, strike that, far worse is the debt I owe 'nature boy' for the magics he used to revive me.
...I must tell you diary of these new acquaintances of mine. I've written to you before about the goliath from the gladiator ring, Kratos is his name...he still doesn't capture my interest. Add to that one 'Nature Boy', a man who favors animals over..survival maybe. In the face of fire and physical threat this man frees tropical birds. Next is the dwarven 'priest', the smoothest talking, most even-tempered of his kind I've ever met. I guess he took up the priesthood after the bardic college rejected him...he does seem to enjoy the 'stage' though.
...the money has been good though; Lavinia's mother was never so...generous. I may well accept the retainership...it will be as good a front as any I suppose and won't impinge much on my other 'responsibilities'. I don't fancy having to find the 'brother', he makes my skin crawl. I met him once and he's better off left alone. Nonetheless I'll tag along should the others decide to seek him out, I need to cover my debt to 'nature boy'.
...well, I'm off to the Bloody Pelican to find the dwarf. He's so calm and cool...I wonder what it would take to break him? I think I'll let a room there myself; its as good a home as any.
From the journal of Kratos: Why could this woman have possibly asked me here? I am a gladiator, and after a long speech in which the important part was “I have no money” her expectations of me is my diplomatic side. She is as foolish with her money as she is with her choices, and as such I definitely asked for money up front; normally I wouldn’t do such a job, but the money was good. All we seem to have to do is break into a ship and take back a small trinket, and since fighting is not expected I should have to do nothing.
Watching these people at work, they fight more with their mouths then they do with their weapons, and I am as of yet unimpressed with their prowess in battle. Eventually, we decided to take the ship. The dwarf is the loudest of my group, Brecca. He put me into the front of this assault naturally, and I am a bit annoyed that he isn’t even bothering to remember my name. He spent most of the battle as a distraction. A much needed distraction however as I tripped in my assault on these men, strangely enough my companions were hesitant to enter into melee, no matter, I took down three of them before the battle was joined.
The Beast Keeper Gresh, surprised me by being a capable warrior, he brought to the battle a tiny creature, which managed to defeat my opponent, which I seemed frustratingly incapable of striking. He has earned much respect in my eyes but his animals seem to be better warriors than he is.
Sede seems a frail creature, as most humans are, more prone to running in battle then facing down her foe. I have seen her at the arena; perhaps she was studying ways of becoming a better warrior. Perhaps I can oblige.
After we were able to retrieve the item for our employer we returned with her to her vault. She seemed to know nothing of her family’s security system. I would suspect her of being from another family and using us to rob this one’s vault if I didn’t know it to be false. It does not matter to me however as long as the money keeps coming in.
Although she is foolish, these ventures are lucrative. Perhaps I will stay with her for a bit as a retainer. There are many specialty weapons I wish to buy, and she could be the means.
E-mail interlude #1: Lavinia, seems pleased with the work you've done for her so far, although she does have some concerns about what to do with the bodies on the ship. She asks if you have any suggestions.
She also mentions that she has some other tasks she would like the characters to do for her, but she first needs a couple of weeks to get some of her financial affairs in order, now that she has access to the vault and the various accounting documents of the family. She inquires if you would be willing to do some more work in a couple of weeks, and she is asks that if in two weeks you would be interested in becoming permanent retainers. She offers 100gp per month as a salary. If not, she is okay with negotiating fees for jobs on a case by case basis. The first thing she wants you to do is try to locate her missing brother Vanthus.
She says that her and her brother were quite close when they were younger especially given that their parents were rarely around (due to their extensive travels), and that they used to get into a lot of mischief. After one particularly serious prank that involved pouring elixers of love into one of the city wells, the two had to pay some consequences. Lavinia spent the next five years at the Thelenar Academy, learning proper manners, etiquette and social skils. Vanthus was sent to work on a plantation outside the city. About 1 year ago they returned to the family estate. Lavinia likes to think that she benefitted from her years at the Academy, but she says that Vanthus came back a bitter and angry man. He no longer had time for his sister, and he would be out all night with various dubious associates, and then sleep all day. About six months ago he left the house entirely, and she heard that he took up residence with a lover in the Azure district.
Three months ago, just after her parents died, Vanthus returned home for a week, but the pair argued the whole time, and he once even struck her with his fist. After that he left the house again and she has not seen him since. She claims that her brother has a good heart, but has just fallen in with a bad crowd, and is probably having trouble dealing with the deaths of her parents. She wants him located so that he can be brought back to her side, and she can help him, and hopefully talk some sense into him. She isn't ready to lose another member of her family. The problem is she doesn't know where he's gone. She would like the characters to do some investigating and try to locate him. She shows you a portrait on the wall of the dining hall that depicts her older brother Vanthus. He is a handsome enough man, well dressed, with long brown hair that is parted down the middle and a well trimmed beard and mustache.
Game Session #2: Father Breca is called away with some urgent business at the Azure Cathedral, and cannot assist the party. Sade decides to take the money she earned and move on to less dangerous pursuits than adventuring. The rest of the party gathers at the six swords tavern in the Champion’s district and plots their next moves. Here they are introduced to a holy warrior who calls himself Deek the Virtuous. Deek is devouted to Heironeouss and was a childhood friend of Lavinia, and former Vanderboren retainer. He has been away from Sasserine for several years, but has recently returned having heard word of the family’s misfortune. Lavinia has asked that Deek assist her agents in finding her brother Vanthus. While they converse another character enters the bar. He is a male Hadrozee and a friend of Breca’s named Reshk. He bears a letter of reference from the priest and is eager to earn money to support his family, who dwell in Ape house- Sasserine’s Hadrozee ghetto. The heroes decide that his help might come in handy, and he shares the little information he has gathered about Vanthus (as a service to Breca). In addition, a letter from Breca explains that he has learned from Lavinia that Vanthus entered the family vault and plundered much of its treasure, which is why several of the chests were empty.
The party decides to go speak with Lavinia, and make it clear to her that they will continue to help her by seeking out Vanthus. After doing this they head for the Bloodthirsty Pelican, where they know Vanthus and his supposed girl friend Brissa have been seen. Deek questions some of the old sailors that seem to live there, and this attracts the attention of swarthy half elf who names himself Shefton. In exchange for 5gp Shefton offers to take the characters to Vanthus. He claims he helped Vanthus start to set up a base of operations in some old smugglers tunnels hidden beneath Parrot Island, but Vanthus hasn’t paid him, and he wants to get back at his boss- this seems like a good way of exacting said revenge.
The party agrees to Shefton’s terms and they hire a water taxi to row them through Sasserine’s harbour to parrot island. The small island is in the bay just east of Shadowshore. Although, small it retains its jungle canopy and is home to numerous parrots and tropical birds. In the centre of the island they find a clearing and Shefton digs out a hidden iron trap door that he says leads into the tunnels. He suspects they will find Vanthus down below, probably with some of his goons. Reshk glides down the shaft with a torch, and shouts up that there seems to be a winding tunnel leading out of a small room that the shaft drops into. The rest of the heroes clamber down. Soon Gresh and his elfhound, Deek, Kratos, and Reshk are all in the chamber. Shefton stays up above, but suddenly the party hears him scream and his body comes plummeting down the shaft with a knife in his back. They hear a voice shout back at them “Say hi to Penkus for me, and stay away from my sister you bastards!” At this point Kratos grabs the rope leading up the shaft and tries to go up as fast as he can. Unfortunately the rope tumbles down the shaft as he pulls on it (its seems that Vanthus was busy slicing through it while talking). The trap door slams shut and sounds can be heard something heavy is moved over the door. Kratos manages to climb up the shaft to try to break open the trap door, but while he does so, a bone chilling moaning sound starts closing in on the party. Suddenly, a ravenous zombie like undead rounds the corner of the narrow tunnel, attacking Deek who is standing guard. Deek engages the zombie trying to smite it, but missing. It manages to sink its teeth into the paladin wounding him. Kratos, hearing the battle hangs a new rope off the hook at the top of the shaft and climbs down as fast as he can. He joins the fight, standing behind Deek and using his chaos chain, against the zombie, while Gresh hangs back unable to join the fight due to the tight tunnel. Meanwhile Reshk climbs up the shaft and continues trying to open the trapdoor, but is unsuccessful. The enemy is deafeated, and they decide to press on and explore the tunnels in hopes of finding an alternate exit.
They follow the winding narrow for a short distance, until they come to a T intersection. Here they find another hall that is wider. It goes left and right, and at each end is a partially open set of wooden double doors. They start to head left, but hear more moaning sounds coming from both directions. Seconds later the doors to the left burst open and three more zombies stagger Kratos and Deek stand side by side holding the tunnel, while Reshk and Gesh guard their backs. An intense melee breaks out, Kratos fights well, and Gresh’s hound proves an able fighter. Deek fights bravely, but one of the zombies gets the better of him and repeatedly sinks his fangs into Deek, causing him to fall to the ground. The zombie continues to bit at him trying to kill him, while Gresh grabs his body and tries to drag him to relative safety. Although the fight is going poorly another zombie enters from the doors on the right and forces Reshk into the fight. Reshk attacks with his cutlass, but the zombie proves to be a tough foe, and tears out Reshk’s throat with his fanged mouth. The zombie stays to feast on Reshk’s corpse, but Kratos and the hound soon come finish off the zombie.
With Deek unconscious and clinging to life and Reshk dead Kratos and Gresh decide to retreat to the defensible entry chamber, carrying Deek with them. Gresh tends to his wounds, while Kratos makes his effort to open the trap door. He too fails. They are forced to rest the night, and the next day Gresh heals Deek and restores him to consciousness.
The exploration of the tunnels continues and while searching a tidal pool and one of the rooms Kratos attracts unwanted attention from a small pack of small sized giant crabs. The rest of the heroes hurry over and join the battle, but one of the crabs manages to take some good chunks out of the hound’s face nearly killing the elfhound. There are several doors leading out of this room in one they find a small store room with various mundane supplies including food, water and torches. Another door leads has a sloping sandy passage-way that leads down to a watery natural tunnel. They suspect they may find away out this way, but decide to check out some of the other areas first.
One door leads into another storeroom that harbors more undead zombies. The memory of their last fight with them is still fresh in their minds and they back out of a room down a short narrow hall, closing doors behind them. They move into position, surrounding the final door and decide to wait, hoping that they can cleave down the zombies one at a time as they come through the narrow doorway. The fight is intense and although their strategy is sound one of the zombies takes some good chunks out Kratos dropping the powerful Goliath. The heroes finish off the remaining zombies, but their last foe is a skeletal undead who seems to be able to use magic. Most of the heroes weapons prove ineffective against this foe, but Gresh hands Deek a club he claimed from Reshk’s corpse. The club seems to do the trick, and Deek manages to land several bone shattering blows that destroy the fiend. Unfortunately Deek takes at least one hit from the horror before the paladin manages to slay it.
The heroes make camp in the store room and spend two more days resting and healing, untroubled by anymore undead. They manage to revive Kratos, and together the party explores the remainder of the complex. They wade through the sea tunnels and soon find a small room at the end that has a corpse in it. The corpse has a note in its hand, and the heroes learn from the note that the dead man’s name is Penkus. Based on the note, Penkus was a ally of Vanthus, but Vanthus betrayed him and left him for dead in the tunnels, while he went to claim Penkus’s spot in a gang called the Lotus Dragons. The note begs that should anyone find the note they take revenge against Vanthus, and that they may be able to find him beneath the Taxidermist guildhall. In addition they find a secret door in the room that leads to a hidden treasure vault. Here they uncover copper, silver, gold, gems, a wand and a magical gemstone that is said to be an earth elemental gem.
Kratos does some more exploring in the sea water logged tunnels and finds a deeper pool of water that has an underwater exit. Kratos takes a deep breath and swims through the tunnel finding his way out into the harbor. He swims to shore and removes the rocks covering the trapdoor, free the rest of the trapped heroes. Kratos then swims to Shadowshore and finds his way to a shop called “It still floats”, where he is able to purchase a cheap rowboat. With their boat they load up the bodies of Reshk and Shefton and their newfound wealth. They then row for shore, as this happening Deek shows signs of illness, breaking into chills and fever.
From the journal of Gresh: Much has happened in the past week. Sade the one of questionable skills has left the group. I am guessing the path ahead was far too much for her to bear. Pity, she was a decent gal. We have met this knight that goes by Deek. He seems to have a history with Lasy Vanderboren. I must say, I was taken aback by him. He was rude, brash and insulting. But regardless I cannot let first impressions guide my soul. I am to do the bidding of nature and bridge a gap done by so few. Those that come along to aide me in my journey deserve a fair chance.
We have taken the job from Lady Vanderboren. Off we went to look for her Brother and his whereabouts. This strange gorilla bat thing (a Hadrozee) joined us on our adventure only to perish at the hands of infernal undead. If not for him though I am not so sure we would have been left alive. That club of his saved our life. Then there was the matter of Deek the weak. My, that man could use a lesson or two from a highly skilled warrior. Take Kratos for instance, that man can hit and hit with a vengeance! Watching him in action is fun at times, I must admit. My enemies are his enemies and he cuts them down with just cause.
I must say I am surprised at how things turned out. I nursed both of these brutes back to health, a roll I am not normally accustomed to, but none-the-less I have come to terms with. I am worried about Deek though, he seems to have come ill. I think it may be due to the undead we faced on the island. We will have to consult with Breca and see if he knows anything and can be of any help.
I am growing very concerned about this port town. There appears to be some vile evil brewing that is turning much upside down. I hope we can help Lady Vanderboren before we perish in the process.
From the Journal of Kratos: The days have been busy. First Sade has left, finding our life too dangerous for her. I guess she was weak. She has sent a replacement though, a paladin named Deek. Gresch had the strangest reaction to him; questioning his faith within seconds of meeting him then goading him into a discussion of morals. I do not know where he was headed with this pointless discourse nor did I care. When I questioned whether his odd behavior might be explained by excessive drink I found out to my surprise he does not drink. Perhaps being a druid he partakes in what I have heard to be nature’s bounty. It doesn’t matter though, as long as he continues to call his formidable beasts into battle and makes himself useful through healing we will have no problems with each other. Another companion was a flying monkey, which I was initially unimpressed with but we will have to see how the two fair in battle before we judge them.
It seems our next mission involves our patron’s brother, who seems to have stolen money out of the vault that we opened for her. The woman does not seem to have much sense with her wealth and always seems to be falling into misfortune. As long as she continues to pay well it is no problem of mine.
This was a glorious mission for me. Eventually leading to an underground lair, which we were trapped in by our patron’s brother. Soon after that we were set upon by undead. The monkey ran…pathetic. The paladin, although brave, seems to be unable to strike anything. He is trying to lead, although at his current fighting ability I do not know how much longer I can stomach his orders. I defeated the first wave of monsters unscathed, my final two kills stolen from me by the dog, a formidable warrior; I shall have to remember to buy it a steak when we get back. We had to rest afterwards, the paladin having fallen in battle.
On our second day, after a short exploration we found a nest of crabs then another nest of undead. The paladin made the excellent suggestion of surrounding the door and forcing our enemy to face us one at a time. Not willing to show myself as weak in front of these lesser warriors I refused to move from my place at the door, after reducing the enemies number by half; I succumbed to their assaults leaving my life in the hands of my companions. I thought that I would surely die.
Imagine my surprise when I awoke the next day, apparently my companions were victorious. We explored the rest of the cave and found a way out through an underwater passage. I was the one who swam out and opened the door, freeing everyone. Then swimming back to shore and getting a boat to bring everyone back. As I said, a glorious day. The paladin appears to have gotten sick. If he survives, it will only make him stronger; from what I’ve seen, he needs it.
Breca’s Thoughts and Advice: "Your news weighs heavily upon me, Gresh. I knew Reshk, and employed him as another set of ears, but I would have strongly objected to his joining of the group, and indeed the need for coin must have driven him to this terrible measure. If only he had told me - though perhaps he did not because he knew I would counsel him against such a course of action. Adventuring is for the young, not for those with a wife and children to take care of. I will see his body returned to his family, and pray his share of the wealth his death bought will be some small comfort to his family."
"It is most surprising that a trap was laid for you by Vanthus. I suspected that her Ladyship was being watched, and us in turn, but I would not have thought action to have come so swiftly and in such a deadly manner. I am disturbed that the undead would lurk within the walls of this town. If it possible we should speak with the High Priest of the Azure Cathedral, and see that such a site is cleansed of such a foul taint. As to the illness of Siddiqi, there is little I can do. Such knowledge is beyond my grasp, though perhaps one of the senior priests can aide him, an apothecary or a herbalist. If all else fails, there is always prayer."
"Once this business is done, we should look to the clues left to us, from Penkus and Shefton's roles, to that of the Lotus Dragons, though I fear we are out of our depth in confronting a gang such as they. It will need careful planning and forethought. Her Ladyship will not like the news you bear of her brother, though small pieces begin to fall into place."
"And though it is not in your nature, nor mine to play the healer, I must compliment you on saving the lives of Siddiqi and Kratos. The seas take and the seas give in equal measure, and a being must look to himself first and foremost to keep the balance between life and death. But you gave of your power in a manner unaccustomed, and to those who do not share your beliefs. Not all would have done so, and thus we are indebted to you."
"So let us go now to Siddiqi, and see what may be done for him. If he lives, I wager he will not be the only one looking for revenge."
Game Session #3: Deek is cured of his disease by the Clerist Gareth Hillcrest and he rejoins the party to carry on the search for Vanthus. Next the heroes return to Lavinia and report in regarding what happened with Vanthus. She again implores them to do their best to bring him in alive despite the harm he inflicted upon the party. Knowing that their next step will be battle against the Lotus Dragons the heroes head to the Champions’s district, where Kratos recruits a fellow member of Zelkarune’s Horns to help in the upcoming fight against the Lotus Dragon. He goes by the name of Czar and is a exceedingly tall man who wears a bearskin mask/cloak. Gresh has a few words for him about respect for animals, but Czar shrugs them off with little regard. The heroes decide to investigate the Taxidermists guild hall, as they have learned from a note found in hands of one of Vanthus former victims (a man named Penkus that he betrayed) in the smuggler tunnels, that the beneath the hall is said to be the lair of the Lotus Dragons.
Father Breca leads the way, bringing in a dead piglet that he decides he wants stuffed. He has a brief conversation with the taxidermist Roblach, but gets little insight regarding his affiliation with the guild. Breca does decide that security is pretty minimal. There is only one guard and the Taxidermist. Thus, it is decided that Gresh, Czar, and Kratos will check things out in greater detail. The diplomacy fails soon enough and a fight ensues. Czar manages to knock the guard unconscious, but it turns out that Roblach is a mage and he gets off a colour spray spell that knocks Kratos on unconscious. Despite this the party manages to catch Roblach as he tries to flee. They bind him and the guard who Czar, an expert grappler manages to take down without killing. They learn from the pair that there is a trap door hidden in the shop that leads to the Lotus Dragon guildhall.
Deciding there is no time like the present, the heroes venture down the trap door. Below they find a tunnel in one direction is damp salty darkness. In the other direction is a door. The party goes for the door forcing their way through and entering the guildhall. The hallway they enter leads towards large a room that appears to be a dining area. Czar and Kratos spot a few roguish types, and the rogues in turn notice a light approaching. Seeing that what little stealth they had is now gone Czar charges into battle. Unfortunately he poisoned by a hand crossbow bolt and breaks into violent vomiting. Kratos is forced to move into help, but ends up between two of the thieves and they use their sneak attacks to inflict significant damage on him. The rest of the party tries to make their way down the hall to join the fight. Unfortunately both Kratos and Czar are dropped unconscious and nearly killed. Deek manages to get in to defend them before the thieves finish them, and Breca is able to heal Kratos and then Czar, while Gresh summons an celestial owl to aid in the fight and uses his elfhound to fend off attacks as more Lotus Dragon thugs come from the rear. As more reinforcements arrive from several directions the fighting intensifies, but all the heroes fight well and in the end they prevail, maiming or slaying nearly a dozen thieves.
The finally the assault abates and it seems that the guildhall has grown quiet. Thanks to the wand of cure light wounds that Breca purchased the heroes are able to heal and press on. Had it not been for this item there surely would have been at least two deaths. In the dining room they find a large cage full of tropical birds that Gresh insists on freeing. Also, near the dining hall they find a kitchen and pantry area, as well as the living quarters of the guild’s chef- a kobold named Churtle. Churtle is able to help them find the way to the chambers of Lady Lotus the guild’s mistress and hopefully Vanthus. To get to her they find they need to fight their way through several more rooms, including one that contains another one of the spider/beetle creatures they encountered in the hold of the Blue Nixie. They also find a meeting room with a map of Sasserine with different coloured flags pinned on different buildings, as well as a slate chalkboard that has a note with the PCs names on it, requesting that Vanthus deal with the situation.
Beyond the meeting room they encounter another guardroom, and it is defended by a bugbear zombie. Kratos, Deek and Czar move in on the beast and Czar gets into a grapple with it and manages to pin it, while Kratos and Deek attack it with their weapons, and Breca hits it with spells. Unfortunately while this is going on some more rogues and their pet worg attack the back ranks of the party- Gresh and the elfhound. Gesh and Faylor end up fighting against three rogues and a worg while the rest of the groups battles the zombie. Faylor fights bravely, but ends up being killed by the worg. Gresh also nearly dies, and the rest of the party just barely makes it over to him to fight off the thieves and the worg and stabilize him before he dies. When Gresh regains consciousness he insists on hunting down the escaped worg, who killed his animal companion. They quickly locate the beast and Kratos and Czar hang back while Gresh tries to take on the injured beast. Unfortunately luck is not on Gresh’s side and the worg leaps forward with a terrible bite that nearly rips Gresh’s throat out. He drops to the ground again, nearly dead. Kratos and Czar are forced to step in to kill the vile wolf.
The game session end with heroes determined to press on so that they can locate Vanthus and Lady Lotus and bring them to justice.
A letter from Breca
Father,
I am currently writing this while sitting on the floor of an underground chamber, which oddly enough is the den of a local gang of thieves. This might seem like a bad thing, but for the exception that there aren't that many of the thieves left and so I am able to write this in relative safety. Currently I am awaiting the return of our druid, whose dog (some sort of 'elf' hound) was torn to shreds by a worg (of all things you expect to find in an underground sea cavern/ thieves' den, a worg is not one of them) and has gone all frothy and homicidal, followed by running after the retreating creature. You could say I'm having a very exciting day. I can hear the distant sounds of combat and screaming, so I suspect I've got a few minutes before anyone will need my help.
If my previous letter has caught up with you, then you know I am in the occasional employ of Lady Vanderboren. I missed out on the last job due to temple business, but my companions came back after being ambushed and trapped in more tunnels with zombies. I can't say I was sad to miss that.
New information led us to the Lotus Dragons, which is the largest and most successful criminal gang in Sasserine. We are still looking for Lady Vanderboren's brother Vantus, who is turning out to be a right little bastard (think of Uncle Haelgar's second son and you'll have a better idea), who has fallen in with this lot. It's also probable that they are the group behind the recent murder of old Lord Islaran, and such a move also means they have the backing of at least one noble house.
So we decide to investigate the Taxidermists guild hall, as it is said to be the lair of the Lotus Dragons (one presumes beneath). Having all the subtlety of Egil, we don't have any quiet means of investigating the activities of the Dragons, so something straightforward seemed the best way. I had a quick chat in the shop-side of the business (getting a piglet stuffed for Hlaf) and determined that there was little protection. Understandable because no one assaults a gang through their front door, and during daylight to boot. But we're not exactly working with full rigging, so we at least had the advantage of surprise if not intelligence.
Our party has changed somewhat, with the loss of the woman Sade and the addition of two new humans Czar (some sort of wrestler) and Siddiqi Manorath, a paladin of Heironeous. Well, I couldn't let the paladin know what the other's intended, so he and I held an impromptu discussion about street-preaching outside the back door, while the others tried forthright diplomacy. We gained entrance to the building, and then to the tunnels beneath (which if they turn out to be much larger I'll have to look into buying the building).
After that we quickly found ourselves in narrow halls and fights broke out on many fronts. I'm afraid my job has been reduced to waving a wand of healing, though I did get a couple of blows in for good measure against an unusual zombie. I have stood by Siddiqi as he seems level-headed and not prone wildly charging in, which is healthy. At this rate we may surivive just by the weight of the other's corpses plugging the tunnels.
We're not stopping for looting as the best thing seems to be to maintain the momentum and the advantage of surprise and simply clear this place room by room. You may tell Egil I have learned from him in this matter.
Oh, the screaming has stopped. Someone will want this wand waved again no doubt. I'll finish up later, and if not, I'm sure one of the others will append this to my body. If I do die, please lie to Egil regarding the circumstances of my death so he does not come looking for revenge. I would not like to face his wife in the afterlife if he does.
In good cheer,
your son,
Breca.
From the journal of Kratos- Journal Entry #3
I brought the group to the arena to meet someone I feel would make a good addition to the group. A human wrestler and capable warrior named Czar. The Beast Master Greshk is the only one who seemed to have a problem him due to his headdress. He wears the skin of a bear, an animal that he defeated in hand to hand combat in an epic battle. Greshk felt that doing this dishonors the bear, he does not understand. Czar wears the skin to honor the bear. I always felt that he wore it in the hope that the bear’s spirit would help him in battles, that the two of them would join. I am beginning to think it is a concept that is beyond him. The insult it does my friend angers me though, even though it appears his honor was not offended.
In search for answers in our current mission we go to a taxidermist where I am recognized. We go to great care to no injure the proprietor. He incapacitates me with a single spell; I hate magic users. After I have recovered from my weakness we venture below the establishment, it is not long before we find trouble and I am brought down again in as many minutes, broken and bleeding by two tiny scoundrels. It is an insult. I must remember that I can run through two attackers and force them to come to me. If I keep falling like this the others will think me weak; and that is something I cannot allow.
Once we reached a moment to look around, the Beastmaster found a cage of birds which he insisted on opening. The more I am with him, the more foolish I find his actions, I respect his dog more then I respect him. We continue exploring the rooms, the birds not helping any attempts at stealth. We find and force a kobold slave into showing us the way to the Lady’s room.
More guards block our way, but we deal with them easily, the Paladin, showing his worth. As we face the enemy before us however, more come from behind and engage our weaker party members. In the ensuing battle, a noble warrior, the beast master’s charge is slain by a worg, and his master also falls in the battle and is brought near death.
Upon being healed the druid was filled with vengeance and was pressed to find the slayer of his companion, who had escaped. I insisted that Czar and me joined him to hunt the beast. We found him not far, and allowed the druid to engage in combat. Unfortunately his opponent proved too much for him, even wounded, and I was forced to land the killing blow. It was the only strike I was proud of this entire mission, but this was spoiled by the death of a worthy warrior.
I will discreetly asked Greshk if it would be acceptable for me to use the blood of his animal companion within a tribal tattoo I plan to get when we return to town. It is to honor a warrior that I respected in battle; one I am certain saved my life; and I was the one that landed the killing blow against the enemy that slain him. Hopefully his warrior spirit will aid me in coming battles. Given his reaction to Czar tattoo however I am uncertain of his reaction to this, but I am surprised to find that he approves; perhaps he is not so bad.
It appears that the paladin will be leaving us, as he was just proving to be a worthy warrior it seems a waste. May his god find favour with him and guide his sword in many battles to come.
Current PC’s
Gresh: Human, male, Druid 2/
Kratos: Goliath, male, Barbarian 1
Breca: Sea Cliff Dwarf, male, Cleric 2
Deek the virtuous: Human, male, Fighter 1/Paladin 1
Jedick: Human, male ranger 3.
Former PC’s
Reshk: Hadrozee, male, rogue 2 (died beneath parrot island)
Sade: Human, female, rogue 1 (left the party)
Faylor: Elfhound animal companion (dead at the hands of Cruncher the worg)
Game Session #4: The heroes press on into the lair of the Lotus Dragons. They find one more cursed narrow tunnel way, and it leads to an opulent sitting room, where they find attractive Lady Lotus and her pet Gut Tugger waiting for them. Gut tugger is a small sized, green draconic lizard creature that they later learn is a crested Felldrake. She is sitting casually and has her hand crossbow at the ready. She invites the heroes in to parlay, and awkward and tense discussion takes place regarding them joining her to help rebuild the Lotus Dragons. However, it soon becomes apparent that the conversation is going nowhere, so Lady Lotus lets her bolt fly at Czar, and it’s poison nearly causes him to start vomiting again. Guttugger lunges into battle, and Lady Lotus prepares to engage with her rapier, she also summons some backup, and from a nearby room emerges a pale, muscular dwarven woman, with a shaved head and erotic looking studded leather armour. She wields a scourge and flays Gresh’s back (who is unfortunate enough to be standing in the back row of the group.
Meanwhile the heroes join the fight with Deek and Kratos attacking Guttugger, while Czar lunges across the room and grapples with Lady Lotus, applying his signature bearhug attack. She isn’t quick enough to escape the big man’s grip, and she eventually fall’s unconscious as he continues to apply his hold. At the same time Guttugger is fighting hard and both Deek and Kratos are having trouble hitting the nasty critter. Guttugger snaps at both of them for significant damage. Out in the hall Breca drive the dominatrix dwarf into the lounge with his crossbow, and she begins attacking Deek who she flanks with Guttugger. Deek falls, but is later healed an able to rejoin the fight.
As the battle continues, Czar tosses down the unconscious body of Lady Lotus and moves on to battle Guttugger, he tries a couple of kicks and strikes against the thing, but they aren’t effective against the speedy bastard. The raging Czar finally picks up the squirming Felldrake and puts it in a headlock, and chokes it into unconsciousness, while Kratos finishes off the Dwarf. Guttuger and Lady Lotus are well secured, while the heroes search the rooms.
The heroes do an extensive search of the downed villains and the nearby rooms. They discover an garish bath chamber and a extravagant bedroom, as well as valuable jewelry and minor art objects. In the bedroom the find perfumes that they later decide to give to Lavinia, and a series of letters written mostly by Vanthus to Lady Lotus. From the letters they learn that Vanthus killed his parents in the ship fire (hoping he would inherit at least a chunk of the family’s wealth). They also discover that he and his other woman Brissa have gone to a place called Kraken’s Cove where they hope to join up with a band of pirates and steel a valuable Cargo they have coming in.
Finally, a secret door in the bedroom leads to a treasury, which they have the key to open (thanks to Lady Lotus). Inside they find recover the stolen coin from Lady Vanderboren, and other treasure that the Lotus Dragons has pilfered and extorted.
With much of their mission accomplished they decide to leave the Guildhall, and return to see Lady Vanderboren. She is very happy to see her treasure returned, but upset to learn that Vanthus killed her parents.
Guttuger is sold to Zelkarune’s Horns (the mercenary/gladiator band Kratos and Czar are members of), where he will fight in the arena. Lavinia recognizes Lady Lotus as Rowyn Kellani a daughter of the Kellani noble family. Roywn is turned over to the city watch, along with the evidence they accumulated regarding the threat the Lotus Dragon’s posed to the city.
A burial is held for Faylor, and as Lavinia feels bad about the dog’s fate she offers Gresh one of her own two Elfhounds to serve as the Druid’s new animal companion (Gresh already knows the hound as he helped train him).
A few days pass, and a new hero joins the group- a man named Jedick who is a huntsman and archer (more details about this character will likely follow). The party decides to venture back down into the Guildhall and finish exploring. They find a number of other rooms, but no loot or danger of note. Finally they discover a natural cavern tunnel exit that leads to a salty sea cave. There is a pier extending out in the salty water that fills most of the cave, and on the other side of the water is large double door about 10’ across constructed of wooden planks. The doors look big enough to move a small boat through. As they approach the water a strange creature’s head emerges. The creature looks like a manta ray with a shark’s head, and it looks at the heroes with cold dead eyes before disappearing below the waves.
They decide to push the boat out into the water with a rope attached to see what will happen. They notice something bumping at the hull of the boat from underneath, but no real damage is done. Czar decides he doesn’t trust the boat or the water, so he leaps across a narrow a narrow section of the pool to the cave wall on the other side and then begins trying to climb his way along the wall to get to the doors. He climbs well and makes it to the doors he then uses his foot to try to loose the bar that holds the doors shut. As he does this, the manta ray creature lunges out of the water and tries to take his leg off with its deadly teeth. The rest of party is over on the far shore and begins firing with bows- a couple arrows nearly tag Czar. Deek wades into the water to grab the boat and pull it back into shore, and as he does this more of the ray creatures swim in and attack Deek. A battle ensues with Graylor (Gresh’s new hound) entering the water to fight, and Gresh summoning a squid. Breca, Kratos, and Jedick all contribute with arrow fire, and Czar gets annoyed and bravely leaps into the water to combat the manta ray with his grappling skills. In the end the heroes again prove victorious. They manage to open the door on the far side of the cave, and discover it opens out into the harbor and is hidden beneath a peer- granting the rogues a secret water based entrance to their lair.
The party continues with their exploration, wading through the last section of caverns, until they stumble across a final cavern that houses more of the dreaded spider beetle vermin. Kratos is the first to enter this chamber, while the rest of the party remains trapped in a narrow passage behind him. Three of the nasties rush Kratos snapping at him with their massive manibles. He gets in a couple of attacks with his chaos chain but they overwhelm him and he falls. Deek bravely pushes past the other heroes to take up the front ranks and defend Kratos. Czar also pushes in standing over the Goliath’s body and fighting them off with his bare hands. Jedick contributes with arrow fire, while Gresh summons a hippogriff behind the vermin, and Breca uses his Bless magic, heal spells and cross bow. It is a grueling fight, but in the end all the characters survive and the vermin are destroyed.
The exploration comes to an end when a tunnel they are following takes them back to the place where they entered the stronghold. They are satisfied that the guild has been destroyed and that it has been sufficiently looted.
From the journal of Gresh.
By the nine hells! Faylor shall be remembered. I have buried him in the knowlerns pet cemetary along with their blessings. Praise to the gods that the Knowlerns have been so good to me. The ceremony was quiet and quaint. No one attended though I did not want to announce it. The goliath wanted blood of Faylor for a tattoo. Only the heavens know why one would want to do such a thing but it is of little matter to me. What I have learnt from our previous encounter is that things have become far to linear for this swaray! I shall fall further back if these brutes continue on this pace and think they will survive with their current level of tact. Poor Breca, a dwarf of such stature brought to the point of having to carry the stick of healing and firing a crossbow. I have seen clerics of gods doing far more, such engines of destruction they can be. It is far to clear, this party needs a bit of direction and I intend to pull a meeting to discuss this with them.
Now on to the finer points of the last week. Lady Vanderboren has been so kind to allow me to companionship of another of those find Elven Hounds. Graylor will make a fine addition. I remember him and Faylor as pups, not as hearty though but always had a bit more intellect. He shall do his brother justice at my side. I have begun training the panther cub as well have choosen a name. Jynx shall be it. I have also added a couople new pets, a fine Tropical Tucan that I have named Gar and a fine feathered Parrot, which I have named Felt. I shall train these both as messengers. Felt so far is doing the best though Gar flies at a much more steady pace and can handle the longer flights better. The will be fine for the work indeed.
I shall make a note to speak with Aniphastus Knowlern the patriarch of the Knowlern family. He can make heads and tails of my dream vision. This vision was unlike any others. There I was standing over bodies of orcs all dead for attempting to test my patience. Then in my hands was this book. ONe I have never seen before. I was reading from the book and walls of ice were forming around thy enemies. Entombing them where they stand. I was wearing these robes as well that I had never seen. I feel such an urge to learn so much more of the arcane. It is becoming part of me- nature along with divine being married with the knowledge and destruction of arcane. But no, I will not be one to destroy- only those that oppose me and the order shall bear my wrath. I shall commune with the wilderness tonight to ask for guidance on the best way to this path. It is time my true power begin to grow and be realized. It is apparent the power I hold with my minions of nature. Calling those to my side that know where they stand in the evolution of the realms!
From the journal of Kratos: Journal Entry 4
I must admit, Czar is turning out to be a better warrior then me and putting my pride to shame. Many times today have I watched him finish off opponents whom proved too quick for me to strike. Or perform an act I found foolish and yet prevail in an epic fight. I find these cramped quarters frustrating and look forward to open areas, but it is a poor warrior who blames the environment for his performance. I must train harder- perhaps Czar will be willing to train with me. I suspect that it is my frail constitution that causes me to fall so easily; I will start working on that.
The Beastmaster Gresh can truly call impressive beasts to his aid. Although frail and cowardly on his own these animals follow him with unquestionable loyalty. Although he does not seem to possess any warriors spirit of his own and seems to care more for animals rather than his comrades and or his own well-being, he seems able to mold these animals into formidable warriors. Even though I find spending time with him like a jagged knife against my nerves and he has given reason for me to not trust him in any matters regarding wealth; he has proven a capable ally.
We explored the remainder of the Lotus Dragons compound and after a short exploration met the Lady of the Lotus Dragons. After exchanging useless words, although her offer of employment was intriguing and perhaps may have offered more opportunities then Lady Lavinia; betraying an employer would damage my reputation; we entered into the inevitable combat. Czar easily took care of the Lady while the Paladin and I engaged her pet. He proved to be a slippery opponent and it eventually also felt defeat at the hands of Czar. Unsurprisingly our remaining party members failed to watch our backs and a dwarf came upon us from behind, no matter as I was able to finish her off. We searched the compound and found the treasure stolen from the Lady and returned successful from our mission.
Gresh took the lady’s pet with him and decided that he wanted to sell it. I took him to the arena and am surprised that once the beast was sold that he expected to keep all the money for himself. His argument was that he wanted extra money to do what is expected of him. We will have to spend time in discussion of division of treasure; as this matter is far from settled.
We returned to the complex and after a short exploration came to a sea cavern. Czar foolishly climbed out along the wall to reach a door on the far side of the cave. As he opened, it he was attacked by a creature from the water. An epic battle ensued in which I was able to do little but fire my bow. Even though I have little skill in archery Kavaki smiled upon me this day and I was able to wound several targets. Still I admired Czar, watching him fling himself into the water at the beast attacking him, I can learn much from him. He would have died however if it weren’t for Gresh, calling upon a mighty squid to do battle with the creature. I am falling behind in kills this day, and it shames me.
Finally in the last cavern I had a chance to prove my worth, we found three large vermin. Unfortunately I made the mistake of standing my ground in a place where I thought only one of them could attack me at the time, but I had little choice as the corridor behind me had few places for me to move. Infuriatingly all three attacked me and I fell, only to awaken several moments later to find the druid, the paladin and Czar fending off the creatures. Angered at my impotence, I jumped to my feet and dealt the final blow to the remaining creature currently engaged with the paladin. I shall carry out one of these creatures. Perhaps it could be used with the tattoo for the witch woman. I plan to seek her out.
Hopefully my new armor and weapon will be ready before our next mission, I grow tired of falling in battle. Also, my lessons in reading have fallen behind; Czar is the only one that knows of my lessons. It is the druid that inadvertently pushed me to taking these lessons- he poorly disguised his contempt in my inability
Letter from Breca
Father,
Well, the screaming stopping, the wand was waved, and overall the day was quite exciting. It seems that the long running battle wiped most of the gang out, or severely demoralized enough of them to turn tail and run.
We moved forward into the nest and eventually came face to face with the gang leader (well, not I, being rearguard), who was some noble-born woman (proving my theory!). The others attempted diplomacy and I must say did a very bad job of convincing her to turn herself in, or for that matter remembering why we were down there in the first place. Still, when the bilge hit the pump, most everyone got involved and we managed to take the woman and her odd lizard pet prisoner, though her handmaiden (some hideous dwarven woman) was killed in the melee. She has been handed over to the authorities, and they in turn alerted to the extent of the Lotus Dragon's secret guildhall.
Thus we recovered the lost Vanderboren loot, and a tidy portion of wealth besides, and chose not to push our luck by exploring the rest of the complex till the next day. Lady Vanderboren was gracious in rewarding us, though it turns out Siddiqi (the paladin) sadly must leave our company. He has been replaced by some sort of wilderness guide who is handy with a bow, by the name of Jeddick.
The next day we returned to guildhall and finished clearing the place of both monsters and loot. I should like to have a week to think about our actions and rest, but evidence gained in the form of latter will put Vanthus at a place called Karken's Cove within five days, and if we are ever to catch him, I suspect we must set off immediately. However, it has been too long since I was at sea, and it shall feel good to have the rolling deck beneath my feet again, even if it means leaving the nice chain shirt I bought in the sea locker.
I have had my doubts about this group of adventurers, and have considered withdrawing from her Ladyship's employ, but I will stick it out for a while longer and see if our rag-tag band can sort itself out. The goliath is too bloodthirsty and ignores all forms of tactics, rushing into fights with little regard and then reaping the consequences. Czar, the brawler has the same problem, and I think it best if some discussion on the pair of them working together arises. I have little skill in close combat and so have made the heavy crossbow (I bought a new Burly & Stronginthearm model after tithing yesterday - Hlaf would be quite envious!) my weapon of choice, having become quite proficient in quickly reloading it. I think it best if Jeddick and I provide missile support and guard the rear while letting Kratos, Czar and Gresh (with his menagerie) take front-line duty.
I have also gained tremendous inspiration from study at the Cathedral, and a deepening understanding of the seas, all of which have granted me the strength of divine magic. I am determined to use these blessings wisely.
So I will be sending money home shortly, having tithed and bought myself a few necessities (and the crossbow). I should think you must be within a week to home if the weather has been fair, and will look forward to a return letter when you have the chance. I will be moving my lodgings from the Blood Thirsty Pelican since it turns out that the manor across the street is that of the female Lotus Dragon's family, and I suspect I will not be safe so close. If you must send anything to me, send it to the Azure Cathedral. I am on good terms with the priests, and will seek a simple novice's cell as suitable accommodation.
May the peace of the depths be upon you,
Breca.
This is the detailed recount of our most recent game session. The expedition to Kraken's Cove, which although it went well did deviate somewhat from the intended adventure outline.
PC's
Kratos: Goliath, male, Barbarian 3
Breca: Sea Cliff Dwarf, male, Cleric 3
Czar: Human, male, Monk 1/Barbarian 2
Randal: Human, male, Ranger 3
Meena Vanderboren: Human, female, Fighter 1/Favoured Soul 2.
Game Session #5 (Kraken’s Cove): Having spent a couple of days recovering from their last expedition into the guildhall of the Jade Ravens, the heroes realize that if they are going to catch Vanthus they need to be heading to Kraken’s cove with due haste. However, before setting off Lavinia wants to meet one more time with them to wish them well and offer her thanks.
Breca, Kratos, and the ranger now revealing his true name to be Randal arrive together. Gresh has moved on to study the arcane arts, and Czar is feeling ill from a night of hard drinking and celebration with his companions from Zelkarune’s Horns, and thus has decided to stay home. As they enter the grounds they see Kaskus the dwarf playing with Lavinia’s one remaining elfhound, Skylor. Kaskus greets them and reveals that the Jade Ravens have indeed returned from their journey to the city of Cauldron.
Kora Whistlegap leads them inside the manor and on the second floor in the training room they find Lavinia practicing her fencing skills under the tutelage of Tolin (the leader of the Jade Ravens) and Deek. Tolin seems quite taken with Lavinia and Deek watches with a jealous eye. Also in the room is another woman, who introduces herself as Meena Vanderboren, Lavinia’s cousin. Meena is a tall woman with attractive features and a strong athletic build. She seems quite amused watching her cousin try to master sword play. As introductions are made Lavinia invites everyone down to the dining hall for dinner. There she gives her thanks for what they have done to help her family, and she also makes another proposition to all present. She explains that one of the documents recovered from the Vanderboren vault was a journal belonging to her parents. It contained details describing a colony her parents had attempted to establish on a mysterious island far to the south- a legendary island known by sailors and adventurers as the Isle of dread. They named the colony Farshore, and had returned to Sasserine with plans to return to the colony with more supplies and colonists. Unfortunately Vanthus struck before these plans could be fulfilled. Lavinia would like to help fulfill her parents’ legacy by finishing what they began. She says that she has begun making plans for a return trip to Farshore, and would like skilled and adventurous folk to accompany her. She suggests that the isle offers a great deal of untapped wealth and she thinks that although the expedition will be dangerous the rewards should make it worthwhile. Lavinia does not demand an answer right away, but asks that they think it over.
Early the next morning the heroes gather at the docks where they meet the crew of Breca’s new ship. It seems that “Captain” Breca has been busy and has bought himself a serviceable Pinnace (a small two masted sailing vessel). The crew consists of 10 sailors including a talented (but not overly sober) first mate named Amella along with her friend Lurch, a peg legged man named Welan and a Hadrozee, as well as 6 other scallywags. Supplies are loaded and the ship sets sail. The weather proves favorable and by dusk the ship has sailed along the marshy coast to Blood Bay. Having crossed the large bay they discover rocky cliffs and the entrance to Kraken’s Cove. The cove looks to be quite difficult to navigate and it winds away out of view, preventing them from seeing directly into it. They make anchor out in the Bay. Breca and Kratos row to a small beach (the only one they see) located a little north of the entrance to the Cove. There, Kratos climbs a vine-chocked cliff to the jungle above, and scales a large tree, granting him a view of the area. From his vantage point he can see a fire has broken out in the Cove. Several ships seem to be aflame, but it is growing dark, and the distance is too far to make out much else. Kratos reports back to Breca and they return to their ship.
Although, everyone is weary from a long day at sea, they decide that things are happening and some exploration of the cove should be made. Breca, Randal, Kratos, and Meena load into the rowboat and with Breca’s darkvision enhanced guidance they navigate their way through the hazardous cove. Up ahead they see that there are a few ships in the cove. One is moored a little further out than the other two, and it seems to have escaped the fire. The other two are fully ablaze and there seems to be a fire on the water itself. The smoke is thick and oily- it appears as though several barrels of oil were dumped into the waters and set alight.
As they watch a squacking is heard from above. A large pelican suddenly swoops down, attacking Breca. The pelican is bloodthirsty, and seems to have undergone a horrific mutation. It is missing patches of feathers, its feet are gnarled and its eyes blaze with savage fury. A fight breaks out in the rowboat, as the party tries to fend it off. It seems to be unable to inflict much damage, but takes a few nips out of Breca. They find it difficult to harm, and when they finally destroy the thing its body explodes into a pile of acidic goo. Unnerved by the strange experience they decide to press on.
Breca summons a fog cloud to cloak their approach and they row up to the side of the surviving ship. Kratos climbs the anchor chain and is soon on the deck. The ship seems deserted but there are some mangled corpses strewn about the deck. He helps the remaining party members on board and they begin a search. A grated trap door leads down into the hold below and from down there they can hear the sounds of something inhuman. Kratos and Meena take up positions near the door that accesses the stairs to the hold, and suddenly a savage creature bursts out. The thing looks as though it may have once been a man, but it has become horribly twisted and deformed. Its mouth is lined with fangs and froths with fury. It charges towards Meena who swings at it with her greatsword while Kratos attacks with his chaos chain. The thing isn’t alone and a second one of the nasties comes out right afterwards. A battle breaks out on the deck, with Kratos managing to disarm one the horrors, while Meena fights valiantly with her sword. Beca and Randal contribute with arrow fire, but no one’s weapons seem to be overly effective against the things. It takes a long time to wear them down and both Meena and Kratos suffer wounds. When the savage pirates finally die they melt into puddles of acid burning all nearby who are unable to leap out of the way. None of the heroes are killed, but Kratos and Meena are both burned by acid and in need of healing when the battle ends.
The rest of the ship proves to be empty of life, with only more corpses to be found. The cabins and hold are all searched, and in the cabin a chest where some silver, gold, pearls and ivory horns are found, as well as some charts and a captain’s log. At Meena’s suggestion they decide to steal the sails from the ship, and load them on a second row boat, which they tow behind their own row boat back to their ship. That evening they browse the charts and the log, making plans for the next day.
From the log they learn that the ships in the cove are associated with a dreaded consortium of pirates known as the Crimson Fleet. On shore there are series of caves they use to store supplies and treasure, and it looks as though the pirates had offloaded some cargo, and were awaiting some new arrivals. A woman by the name of Harliss Javell, seems to be the leader of this group, and according to the log she encountered Vanthus and his band a few days early and have allowed them to stay on for a couple of days to await some more incoming vessels. From this information characters decide that a journey to shore is the best option, but they decide to wait until the next day to set out.
After a nights rest Breca, Meena, Kratos, Czar and Ranal set out in a row boat to the beach north of the cove. The group scales up the cliff and hikes overland through the thick jungle. Again they encounter signs that something terrible has happened. Dead birds and small animals are everywhere, and in the trees the horrible aberrations savagely tear at and attack one another. Fortunately they are too busy killing each other to bother the characters, and they eventually make it to the edge of a cliff that over looks the cove. Looking down in the daylight they see that the two burning ships have now sunk. On the beach below them are several mutilated/melted bodies along with weapons, tattered armor and the remains of casks and crates of supplies. A rickety wooden walk way leads down from the cliff to the beach. It doesn’t look overly safe, so they opt to climb down with ropes.
From the beach two entrances lead into the pirate caves. One is larger and appears to be the main access. The second one is at the far side of the beach and requires a walk across a very slippery pair of planks that bridge a tidal pool. This entrance is much narrower.
They opt for the road less traveled and after crossing the pool (with some difficulty) they enter a narrow tunnel. Kratos takes the lead with Meena behind him followed by Breca and Ranal. Czar having been sick for the whole journey still doesn’t feel that well and decides to guard the beach. At the end of the dark tunnel the heroes find a large cave. Ropes have been strung across the cavern and hanging from the ropes are sheets of silk that are drying. It is quite dark and Randal decides to light up a torch. Kratos suddenly sees movement among the sheets and a horrible creature charges forward to attack. It looks like a raptor dinosaur, but also seems to have been mutated, and is completely feral. It pounces on Kratos tearing him apart. The big Goliath drops to the ground, barely clinging to life. Meena moves in bravely standing over him. She attacks it with her sword, while Breca tries to heal Kratos. Randal fires his bow, but his arrows seem to have little affect on the monster. Meena manages to stand against it briefly before she too falls to its claws. In order to save his companions Breca summons a pair of fire beetles, which appear behind the beast and attack the horror. They don’t seem to be a match for it, but serve to distract it enough that Breca uses his wand a couple of more times, and revive Meena and Kratos. While the raptor chases the beetles the heroes retreat, and exit the cave. They fall back across the plank bridge and prepare for the nasty critter to come for them. Unfortunately the planks are very slick and all who try to cross it end up in the deep tidal pool. They manage to pull themselves ashore just as the raptor tears out of the tunnel ready to finish them off. It too slips crossing the planks and ends up in the water. Fortunately for the heroes it isn’t a strong swimmer and thrashes around in the water for some time, as Randal, Meena and Breca blast it with arrows, while Kratos launches his chain into the water. By the time it comes out it has taken enough damage that they manage to finish it off without taking any casualties. Like the other nasties this one too melts into acidic goo as it is destroyed.
With this deadly foe defeated the heroes heal (with the help of Breca’s wand) and gather the courage to make another foray into the caves. Again they enter the cave with the silk sheets, and decide to take them down, so that they won’t be ambushed. Several tunnels branch off of this large cave. One is quite long and even Breca can’t see to its end, but sounds of screeching and yelling drift down it from the darkness beyond. Another tunnel is much shorter and leads into another smaller cave. This cave is home to two heyna like creatures that have been mutated like so many other creatures they’ve encountered. Fortunately they are chained to the wall of the cave and can’t leave it to attack them. Three similar looking critters are torn apart on the bloodied sand floor of this cave.
Kratos, having developed an exceptional dislike of all these aberrations moves up to attack them with his chain, staying beyond their reach. They rush forward, and as they do the skin on the face peels back to reveal fleshy skulls. Magical fear washes over Kratos, Czar and Breca who all stand near the end of the tunnel. Breca has the will to overcome the fear, but Czar and Kratos scream like children and flee. After recovering their wits they find the courage to approach the things again and Kratos begins hacking them apart. All the ruckus seems has drawn attention from elsewhere, and emerging from another of the tunnels come three more of the savage pirates. With scimitars raised and bloodlust in their eyes they surge into the room looking to cut down everyone they see.
A terrible melee breaks out. Kratos ends up facing off against one, Meena another and Czar the third. Breca and Randal again hang back and fire their bows. Kratos disarms his early in the fight, but it continues to press forward trying to bite him. It lands a couple of hits, but not enough to drop the big Goliath. Meena fights well with her great sword, but her foe lands some blows with its scimitar taking a toll on her health. Czar has difficulty with his foe, as he is unable to land a solid blow or get the thing in a hold. It lands some terrible slashes against him and he’s forced to enter a rage. Meena ends up being the first to dispatch her enemy, and as he does so she sees that Czar is in bad shape. She foregoes taking the time to heal herself and charges to help Czar. This proves to be a mistake and the thing spins around, a lucky slash catches her across her throat- killing her instantly.
The mutant pirate then lands another hit on Czar that nearly drops him unconscious and Breca runs to his aid putting himself in the way of one of its swings. He uses his wand to heal Czar, and by this time Kratos has finished off his foe and is moving to join the fight. However, despite Breca’s efforts the savage pirate resumes its attacks on Czar (having killed Meena) and drops the big man. Czar comes out of his rage and dies. While Kratos and Randal finish the horror off.
The survivors gather up the dead, and move them off to the side cave. They contemplate leaving, but decide to press on despite their losses. In another cave they discover a mutated woman hunched over a small pool of water. She seems to be devouring a fish. With her back to them they haven’t been noticed and have the chance to leave, but Kratos decides to attack, and he charges in. She leaps to her feet with a rapier in hand, but Kratos disarms her, and she continues to press the attack with her fanged mouth. Randal and Breca again contribute with arrow fire. She falls with relative ease, unable to land any solid blows (Kratos in now wearing the enchanted chain shirt Meena had been boasting about on the journey to the cove). On her body they discover a silver locket with a small portrait of Vanthus in it.
The next area they come across seems to be some sort of trophy room. A skull the size of man that once belonged to some reptilian beast dominates the cave, but other trophies including skulls of sea creatures, prows and nameplates from ships also line the walls of the cave. As they search this room, a voice calls out to them. They turn to see a woman step out from a side passage. She shows no sign of mutation and is an attractive woman with raven black hair and the dress of a swashbuckling sea captain. She holds a fine rapier in one hand and a dagger in the other. She immediately demands to know who they are and what their business is. Kratos seems to be feeling especially aggressive and he launches his chain at her to try to disarm the woman. She manages to retain her weapon, and angered by his insolence lunges in with her rapier. She makes a good feint and sticks him in the chest and then puts another thrust into his throat. He hits the ground on the verge of death (again). Randal lowers his bow and tries to negotiate, as does Breca. Captain Breca introduces himself politely and explains that they are searching for Vanthus and mean to bring him to justice. She seems to hate Vanthus and has blames him for the horrors they’ve encountered. She introduces herself as Captain Harliss Javelll. She is also slightly injured, claiming to have single handedly slain over a dozen of her mutated crewmen.
As a gesture of good faith Breca offers to heal Harliss, but he also wants to help Kratos before he dies and he asks that she allow him to heal the Goliath, which she agrees to. Kratos is saved but Harliss keeps her blade at his throat and lets him know that if he moves she’ll run him through. She then continues her conversation with Breca and Randal. From talking with Harliss they learn that Vanthus and his band approached her and her crew, posing as smugglers looking to purchase contraband. She explained that there were more ships due to arrive and that he could stay with their camp until the ships arrived. However the previous night he and his band tried to take one of her ships and they dumped several casks of whale oil into the cove and lit up her boats. A battle ensued and in the chaos Vanthus managed to get a hold of a large black pearl (the size of a fist) that Harliss had been transporting. Harliss caught him before he could get away and she stuck him with her blade. This caused Vanthus to drop the pearl, and when it hit the deck of her burning ship it split open. Some blood from her blade dripped on the pearl and a strange yellowy green gas started spewing out of the pearl. She picked the thing up and threw it overboard where it detonated and some sort of horrid magical energy washed over her and everyone in the area. Her mind went hazy at this point and she has difficulty recalling the further events, but she knows that afterwards many of crew had undergone a horrible transformation into the savage mutations the heroes fought. Vanthus seemed have resisted the change, as had she and some other members of the crew. Most threw themselves overboard at this point. She lost track of Vanthus and she swam for the beach. On the beach she and her surviving crew gathered. They retreated back into the caves, but where overwhelmed by the horrors. She was the only survivor.
She does mention that before the final stand in the caves she sent her first mate and few of the other survivors up the cliffs to head for Sasserine. She had heard of the Vanderboren name, and knew them to be a noble family from that city. Harliss suspected that Vanthus would return to his family’s manor, and she ordered her crew members to kill Vanthus and his entire family. She hadn’t realized that Vanthus was estranged from the family and that his sister was trying to hunt him down. She suggests that the heroes make haste back to Sasserine, and leave the caves before more Crimson Fleet ships arrive. Fearing the deadly pirate captain they agree, and depart. As they are leaving it seems that some of the bad weather Randal had foreseen has arrived.
The journey back to Sasserine is unpleasant. Their ship is pelted with rain, and they nearly run aground on a marshy reef, only Breca’s skillful seafaring abilities save them. None-the-less it is afternoon on the 3rd day of their expedition when they get back to Sasserine.
From Randal’s journal:
Often times I wonder what draws me to adventuring, Me ol' mum and dear sisters could use me around Sasserine more often then not. Every-time I leave for a trek through the Amedio Jungle there is always a profound sense of purpose peppered in with the guilt. There is no doubt in my mind I'd still be mucking out tunnels if I hadn't met Grandpa Jed, that makes the guilt easy to bare. Grandpa Jed has been more a father to me then the one I don't know...one day I hope to make him proud.
Perhaps one day I will also find a more peaceful life, perhaps I will even propose to Ms.Greta if she hasn't found a lad or perhaps I will just continue my day-dreaming. It will be hard finding peace while my bow is strong and my mind sharp.
(Letter to Mother)
Dear Mum,
It's your boy Randal writing as promised. I know you're none to happy about me leaving Sasserine after so short a visit but a good opportunity presented itself. Don't go and get yourself all excited, but I found out about the shops problem with the tax collectors. It seems the Zelkarune’s Horns have need of an experienced hunter; Two days ago I went to search a complex owned by some thieves guild known as the Lotus Dragon. I know you have no great love for the _horns_ and even less love for adventuring but this job will give us enough gold to keep the store running for a while.
I find myself in an odd group of adventurers. Two of them are acquaintances from the Horns and all of them seem capable folk. One is Czar, He's so burly I somehow doubt he's a human and Kratos, I think he's a giant of some sort, but I heard him say Goliath. There is also a cleric by the name of Breca, he's the captain of the ship we're on. Mayhap if the chance should arise I will bring Capt'n Breca by the shop, I know how you love exchanging philosophies with holy men.
You won't believe me Mum, but I was invited to a Lady's manor for dinner before I left Sasserine. She's one of the Vanderboren’s named Lavinia. I tried to keep my manners up and act a gentleman as would make you proud. It seems she's in a tight spot and more then willing to pay for our service, she wants us to track her brother Vanthus. Lady Lavinia's comely cousin Meena also joined our group, don't worry Mum, I will keep my manners about me.
The Voyage for the most part has been uneventful, remember Bosco from Gaff Street? He's a sailor on-board Breca's ship. While Kratos and Capt'n Breca went to search upriver me and Bosco played at throwing games like we used to.
Well Mum, they're calling me down to scout inland. I had a tickling sensation of dread when I looked up at the clear sky today. Don't fret, I'm sure it's my imagination playing games. I hope this letter finds you well, give lots of love to my dear sisters and keep yourself healthy.
Randal.
Another letter from Breca (Cliffdwarf cleric of Procan)
Father,
At this rate of letters, I shall be forced to give up the life of adventuring and become a scribe. Yet more twists and turns to the growing story. I wonder if leaving me here was the best thing after all? I'm certainly developing a number of skills, but this place is turning out to be much more dangerous than first imagined.
The brief version of events is thus: I bought a boat, sailed to Kraken's Cove, found ships burning, nicked sails off of a pirate ship, ran away from a dinosaur, fought mutants, parlayed with a captain of the Crimson Fleet, and am sailing back to Sasserine to save Lady Vanderboren from vengeful (but misguided pirates).
Two members of our party died fighting the mutants, and Kratos, the goliath was badly outmatched by the pirate. All in all, I look forward to a letter calling me home, and perhaps some pleasantly tempestuos seas on the return voyage. Also, if anyone offers you a black pearl the size of a fist, don't take it (and pass this advice along to anyone we know). It's not worth the trouble - believe me.
I am writing another letter with more details to Hlaf. I just wanted to assure you I am still alive and well, even if I am currently thinking of a nice life in a cottage on the plains.
Breca
From the journal of Kratos (Goliath, Barbarian), (journal entry #5):
We joined the lady for dinner, an annoyance rather than a reward. The only bright spot was a competent warrior named Meena how unfortunate she’s human. After much diplomacy and traveling I was able to put my new combat skills to work.
Our first encounter was in a small rowboat with some kind of Zombie Pelican. I was slow to react and only thought of grappling too late to help Brecca, but we all came out alright in the end. It is something that I will have to remember. I did most of the exploring as the rest are not as athletic. We found some burning ships in a bay.
All of us decide to explore the ships. Upon the ship that was untouched we battled some undead pirate creatures. My ability to disarm came in handy as I took away his sword and left them with only one manner of attack. We dealt with them swiftly. Upon clearing the ship of monstrosities my suggestion to burn it was turned down. We continued to the shore to explore caves there.
During our explorations, while I was in the lead, a rampaging terror attacked us and I was brought near death in a single attack. Awakening soon after, I was told to run against my better judgment. I watched as every single one of my party members fell from a slippery log in our escape and chose to dive into the water to drag the healer out instead. The horror that had gotten the better of me had proven no more fortunate and fell into the water where his poor swimming ability got the better of him and with the help of Czar who finally got over his sickness we were able to deal with it quickly.
Continuing to explore I am shamed to admit that my fear got the better of me upon hearing the horrible howl of some chained up aberrations. I had no choice but reduce them to bloody piles of meat after I was able to martial my courage.
During my labours we were attacked by more of the savage/zombie pirates and although the ensuing melee went well for me, I was saddened to see the death of a friend and the death of a companion. Czar fought bravely but unfortunately it was able to get the better of him. I was able to give him vengeance however and was sure to see his foe fall to my blade. I scavenged the body of Meena, who also fell in battle and I was able to get a chain shirt and her great sword. Feeling the heft of these weapons in my hand and seeing the effectiveness of her armor I look forward to when I have my axe and breastplate ready.
We continued to explore and experienced little difficulty. I am finding that although disarming opponents is useful, it is not damaging and I must chose when to use it as it is with my rage. Our next opponent of consequence is a woman who disables me easily. I drop into unconsciousness for the second time in the day. After I am allowed to stand again, I ask that when we meet again , so that I am given the honour of a rematch.
Using the information that we were given by the woman, we head to Sasserine. Giving up this sword and armor will be difficult. I look forward to my own weapons being ready
PCs
Randal (4th level human ranger)
Breca (4th level dwarf cleric of Procan)
Kratos (3rd level Goliath Barbarian)
Theo (3rd level Human Swashbuckler)
NPCs
Koth (Goatfolk)
Nain (Dwarf warrior)
Azaz (human warrior)
Merrick (human warrior)
Deek (human, male, fighter 1/Paladin 2)
Game Session #6 (Assault on Vanderboren Manor): It is still raining when the heroes arrive back in Sasserine. They quickly make their way to the Hall of Zelarune’s horns where they seek to hire some mercenaries to help defend Lavinia from attack by Crimson Fleet pirates that Harliss has sent to kill the Vanderboren family.
In the Hall they find several men who would be worthy hirelings. Some are working on repairing weapons and armour, while another group is engaged in a game of dice. Breca offers 500sp to be split among whichever men are willing to join him in defending Lady Vanderboren. Suddenly everyone in the Hall seems to be interested in what he has to say, but some are skeptical asking what sort of suicide mission he is getting them into.
At this point Zasker Grantos, the leader of the Horns steps out of the kitchen. He greets Kratos and Randal, asking how they’ve been. He states that he needs men for an important contract, but can spare 5 veteran warriors to accompany the heroes. He gives Koth (a goat folk warrior), Azaz (a human), Merrick (a human) and Nain (a dwarf), and Theo (another human) the option of joining the group. They all agree and set out right away.
When they arrive at the manor they find that it is quiet. The grounds are empty, so Theo and Merrick sneak around back to go up onto the balcony and in, while the rest of the party enters through the front door. The front doors are unlocked, and as the heroes ease them open they see water, mud and blood forming a trail along the marble tiled floor. The trail comes from the back section of the house and heads up one of the central sets of stairs in the foyer to the balcony above.
Suddenly a voice hails them from the first floor balcony and the heroes look up to see a human corsair with a crossbow move up to the edge of the balcony. He notes that none of them are Vanthus and that they have no business here. Kratos bursts into action and starts to break for the stairs. Randal fires his bow up at the pirate hitting despite his cover from the railing. The corsiar fires back tagging Kratos. Koth is quick to move too and eager to prove himself a superior warrior to Kratos. He rushes up the stairs to attack. When the heroes reach the balcony they realize that there are two more pirates up there as well and a battle ensues. Nain, Randal and Breca hold back on the lower level, while the rest of the heroes rush up the stairs to fight the pirates. Suddenly down below two creatures leap out from behind the stairs. They are humanoid frogmen and they hurl spears at the Randal. Breca, Randal and Nain turn their attention on these foes, while above the pirates call out that they are under attack and flee up a set of stairs to the top floor. One is left behind and that poor pirate falls to the blades of the party. Thanks to well placed arrows and Nain’s waraxe the frogmen are also slain. The first phase of the battle goes to the heroes, but they have taken some wounds. Soon Theo and Merrick have made their way through the first floor and have joined up with the party, and Breca, Nain and Randal have moved up the stairs to gather with them as well.
Koth is eager to pursue the fleeing pirates and races up the stairs with Azaz and Kratos and Theo close behind them. At the top of the stairway is a hall with several sets of doors off it. Guarding a fine set of double doors at the far end of the hall are two pirates- the one with the crossbow and another with a shortbow. They both open fire as the mercenaries come up and then retreat through the doors into the master bedroom beyond. Inside the bedroom are several prisoners. Lavinia and Deek are each in chairs that have been pushed back to back and the two have been bound together with rope. Tolin of the Jade Ravens and Kora the Halfling housekeeper are similarly bound in another pair of chairs. Out of the group only Lavinia seems conscious. Koth, Theo and Azaz rush forward to help, while Kratos, Randal, Merrick, Breca, and Nain move up the stairs to join the others.
In the spacious bedroom a large halforc pirate with a giant scimitar awaits, along with a couple more Bullywugs, including one who has wrapped himself in damp bedsheets and seems to be a spellcaster of some sort. The ensuing battle is chaotic and furious, as combat should be, and some of the details are tough to recall. However, Koth is one of the first into the room and begins hacking away with his great axe. Theo joins Koth but fights with flare and style using a scimitar. Together they face off against the half orc and the other foes. Azaz, Kratos, and Merrick soon join them, while Breca and Randal fire with their bows from the safety of the hallway. The half orc is a nasty warrior and he cuts Koth down, killing the Goat man with a couple of terrible swings from his deadly weapon. Breca buys some time for the rest of the heroes to gather their wits and advance by summoning a giant centipede and then a dire rat into the fray. They only keep the half orc busy for a few seconds before he makes short work of them, and then turns his attention towards Kratos and Theo, while Merrick and Azaz engage the bullywugs and pirates. The spellcasting Bullywug summons a crocodile behind Kratos, and Theo, but Breca and Randal’s arrows make short work of it. The master bedroom is spacious, but even so it has now become a cramped battlefield as the melee is in full swing.
The fight with the half orc is tough, Theo is dropped unconscious and Kratos goes into rage, but is forced to abandon it early and fall back after the half orc nearly kills him. Furthermore, the Bullywug spellcaster summons a cloud of fog in the doorway that keeps the archers from being able to see any more targets to hit. They change strategies and force their way into the crowded bedchamber. Breca’s healing wand starts to come in handy as battle is taking a harsh toll on the heroes. He is able to heal Kratos well enough to rejoin the fight against the half orc and Kratos manages to use his chain to pull the pirate’s great scimitar from his hand before he can slay anyone else. This proves to be the pirate’s undoing, as he opts to go for the weapon, and when he does the characters surrounding him pounce on him. Nain has joined the fight by this time and lands a brutal hit with his war axe that finishes the half orc off. It starts to look as though the heroes might win the fight.
With the death of the halforc pirate leader (presumably Harliss’ first mate) the tide of battle has turned towards the heroes, and the Bullywug spellcaster attempts to fight his way out of the room, but proves unable to get through the warriors blocking door. He fights hard with his spear and suffers numerous wounds before finally dropping to the ground. By this time the rest of the fight has pretty much wrapped up and the characters set about healing and freeing Lavinia and the others. Unfortunately respite from battle only lasts a few seconds, as more Bullwugs arrive from the floors below. They can’t be seen through the fog cloud that still blocks the door to the bedroom, but the characters can hear them coming. Theo makes an effort to shut one of the double doors, which narrows the entrance. He manages to hold it closed and get in the odd swing as Bullywugs start fighting their way into the room. Kratos, Azaz and Merrick all take up spots in front of the doorway, while Breca uses his wand to heal Lavinia and Randal sets about cutting Deek free. The first wave of Bullywugs soon falls, making the entrance area tricky to move through as the corpses continue pile up. However a new danger emerges from the mist, as a large female Bullywug wielding a pair of hand axes and frothing with fury lunges into the room. She starts slicing away with savage abandon wounding all those near her. Breca’s wand continues to serve be useful, as healing is required by many of the warriors. The Bullywug barbarian is out numbered though and after suffering extensive damage she finally drops to the ground. Everyone has survived except for Koth, but nearly all bear wounds and need healing.
The hostages are freed, and Deek and Lavinia are both healed. Lavinia informs the heroes that the Bullywug king probably is still lurking somewhere in the manor, and once the basic healing has been done Breca is especially eager to hunt him down. Deek suites up in Tolin’s chain shirt and grabs a sword, while Randal opts to stay with Lavinia and guard her. The rest of the band moves out and begins as systematic sweep of the manor. The trail soon leads them to the stairs that access the basement, and drifting up from down below they can hear the screams of a woman and a strange chittering noise, along with odd chortle of a bullywug. It’s time to move.
The dwarves and the Goliath move in first taking advantage of their darkvision. They try to go quietly so as not alert their opponents. Down below they find that the earthen floor of the basement has been soaked with water and made very muddy. It is hard to move, through the expansive room, and it appears that the action is happening toward the far side. The basement is essentially split into two large rooms. The action is obviously happening in the far chamber, but it is impossible to get a good view inside. Light spills out and two bullywugs can be seen standing near the entrance. Their attention seems to be focused on what is going on in the room. Their backs are turned and they appear to be quite amused. Unfortunately the dwarves sloshing around in the mud draws their attention. Breca and Nain opt to hang back, while Kratos and Theo rush forward followed by Azaz, Merrik and Deek.
A short ten foot wide hall divides the basement’s two rooms and here the battle begins. Soon four bullywugs block the characters’ path. Two engage in melee while the other two hurl their spears. One of which connects with Kratos for significant damage. Breca contributes to fight by summoning another creature. This time it is Dretch from the nine hells. The foul thing gets itself between Deek and bullywugs. Deek the paladin is put in a tough spot, as his goodly nature wants nothing more to smite the thing back to where it came from. He manages to hold his sword and get in position to fight the bullywugs, but has some stern words with father Breca later on.
After a several mucky moments of battle the heroes manage to push through into the room beyond. There their eyes are witness to a strange site. At the back of the room and obese, hulking bullywug wearing a wooden crown set with moonstones sits on a plush chair that could only have been moved from upstairs. He has a massive great club in hand and two more guards at his side. In the middle of the room a strange creature that looks vaguely like and oversized armadillo with long hairy antenna sticking out of its insectlike head is nipping at a young woman dressed in nothing more than bedsheets. The woman is Liamae of the Jade Ravens and the bedsheets have pieces silverware threaded into them. Theo is the first into the room and charges the monster with Azaz close behind him. His attack misses and the beast turns its attention to him. It reaches out with one of its antenna, and it brushes against his enchanted scimitar. To his horror the magical blade instantly rusts to nothing. Azaz too shouts a battle cry and strikes a solid blow on the beast, but the second he lands a hit his blade too rusts to nothing. Both men draw daggers, and the monster turns it’s attention towards Azaz, for he has a chain shirt and a steel shield. Meanwhile Deek and Merrick move in each one engaging the bullywug guards. Kratos also pushes forward, but focuses on the rust monster. However, seeing what has happened to his allies weapons he opts to fight the Bullywugs instead. Nain hangs back near Breca who effectively begins pumping heavy crossbow bolts into the beast.
Liamae takes advantage of the distraction caused by the heroes and rushes towards Breca. By this time the chief has hefted his mighty club and starts moving into battle. He cuts around the rust monster and approaches Theo, who has now drawn a dagger. The beastly chief takes a mighty swing with his club, but misses, and Kratos turns his attention towards the hulking new foe.
Breca continues to fire solid shots into the rust monster and it soon drops to the ground. At the same time Kratos tries to use his chain to disarm the chief, while it continues to swing wildly at Theo the swashbuckler. It lands one blow and turns on Kratos, but Kratos finally manages to disarm him. He goes for his club, as one of his guards drops Merrick and tries to come to the king’s rescue. The battle continues with the chief seeming unable to land a solid blow, and he and his guards finally fall to the attacks of the heroes.
With the death of the chief the manor is secured, and although several of the warriors came close to death, Koth proves to be the only casualty on the side of party. In the aftermath the bodies are collected and looted. Characters are healed, and Deek takes an opportunity to give father Breca some advice regarding summoning creatures of the lower planes in his presence. Lavinia is grateful to the heroes, but saddened by the deaths of Kora and her cousin Meena. Yet the day proves to be one of glorious battle and victory- one where Kratos was finally NOT dropped unconscious and on the verge of death.
Father,
I'd take a month on the oars rather than the bewildering events that have ensued this night. Crazed half-orc pirates, bullywugs, some sort of rust-inducing monster and my own bad judgement added a devil for a short time into the mix.
I'll attach the details in another letter to Hlaf, but suffice it to say, this place never stops trying to kill its inhabitants. You've sailed most of the world Father, is it always this mad everywhere, or can I hope for a small period of calm?
We rescued Lady Vanderboren from a vengeful pirate (send unwittingly by Captain Javell), who turns out to have been in league with a small band of ferocious bullywugs, including a crazed beserker, a shaman, and a mad chieftan with a very dangerous greatclub. The only reason I am not penning these thoughts from the grave was the additional assistance of five mercenaries hired specifically for the job. One, a rather brash dwarf by the name of Nain stood out by wielded one of the inlander axes for good effect. With so many fighters, I kept him from running headlong into the fray, as I needed someone to watch my back while I called upon the seas and healed the wounded as necessary. Still, the new crossbow has also served me well, and I managed to put down the rust-monster before it destroyed all of our weapons.
However, I have been a poor judge of my friend's skills, and so summoned a monster described to me by Brother Magnus from the Nine Hells, which did do battle with the bullywugs, but whether it helped turn the tide, I do not know. Siddiqui was disturbed and we have had words on the dangers of such creatures, which both surprised me (as Siddiqui is not exactly versed in religious knowledge), and confirmed my own sense of poor judgement, though I, in hasted defended my action. I will speak with the priests at the Cathedral about it, and pray that I shall not make the same choice twice.
Still, the group is beginning to take on some measure of cohesion, not like a week ago, where we were still floundering at the oars, unable to take a stroke together. Kratos is learning the value of not rushing into every fight, and Randall has provided excellent ranged fire. Alas, Czar died at Kraken's Cove, and while the mercenaries were effective, we have yet to replace Czar or indeed find someone who can who in tandem with Kratos. However, a young human woman by the unlikely name of Yvy Sparks has joined us, and appears to be a wizard. Some arcane ability is most welcome.
The pinnace I bought, now named the 'Wallowing Albatross' is sailing quite well, though I must invest some money into an overhall and the addition of missing equipment. I suspect that she will make a good mail runner between here and home, and if I accept the offer of Lady Vanderboren to travel to her parent's lost colony on the Isle of Dread (one wonders if the captain that named it intended such constant foreshadowing), I shall see about sending her home with a small cargo while we are away on the Blue Nixie. I would sail in it on this next voyage, but something tells me that my skills will be required on the larger vessel, and I will have to remain a ship's chaplain once more.
In the meantime, I will return Meena's body to her parents, along with her sword and armour. The only question remains is how to do it. I should like to sail to Cauldron, but it appears that Randall is leaving overland in the morning to the same destination, on business of his own. I should like to have a quiet journey along to coast, but it may be more advantageous to accompany Randall and hire a cart for Meena's remains. Perhaps even Kratos can be tempted by the idea of wandering the wilderness, and I'm sure young Yvy would like the opportunity to get to know us.
On a humourous note, it turns out that the strangled cry of rage Kratos lets loose every time he enters the beserker rage is not just the Goliath's signal of the red rage, but also means "Snuggles!"in the local dialect. Not the sort of thing you expect to hear on a battlefield, but then it takes all sorts. I have also gained some gruding respect from Kratos over the last week, though I am beginning to suspect he is really just a big porpoise under the gruff mercenary exterior. A blood-thirsty, chain-axe wielding, barely-contained porpoise, but a porpoise nonetheless. I find his intimidation of smaller humans quite amusing, and have a hard time not smirking when he glowers at me. Intimidating me? A goliath? Ha! He's got a long way to go before he even starts to scare me like Grandmother did. She'd have him in tears by the end of an hour (or have gummed his arm off and beaten him to death with it - same difference really).
Anyway, I must be off to pay my crew, sort out the loot, and find out whether tomorrow holds a sea voyage or a trip through the jungle.
I hope this finds you well and safe at home.
Peace of the depths upon you,
Breca
One of our players recently converted Liamae from the Jade Ravens into a replacement PC. He has decided her real name is actually Yvy, and this is his first journal from her perspective.
Words unto paper:
I have a new entry on my "species to avoid" list. Were I to meet such
base, savage and crude creature as the toadlike "Bullywug" again, it
would be a hundred years too soon. They attacked the manor, and try as
I did to fend them away, my powers are but limited against such a mob.
However, as luck would have it the savages' descision to spare me a
while for sport proved fatal to them. A troupe of warriors arrived and
swiftly crushed my ersewhile captors in a furious melee.
This group has neatly captured my interest, and I hope they might
prove the kind of company that could expedite my progress. Kratos,
the goliath is powerful, but transparently hotheaded - though I
suppose it comes with the build. I've already seen what a whirlwind he
is in combat, but I expect he might be an anchor to any diplomatic
progress. Randal seems a straightforward but honest man, and I respect
that. Breca, the Dwarf is an interesting case. He too, is a
spellcaster, and went so far as to summon a familiar (though wretched)
face to help in battle However, I am unsure of his true feelings on
the act after absorbing a religious lecture from the Paladin, Sadiqui.
I will make a point of staying clear of the holy-minded knight as he
has made absolutely plain his stance on beings from profane places. I
wonder if he might think differently if he could see how unbalanced
the scales of good and evil truly are... Probably a waste of breath
though. Still, with some careful discussion Breca might share my view
of the larger picture. We shall see.
My progress in learning the celestial alphabet is coming along well,
and I expect to be passably fluent before another month has passed.
How my pronounciation sounds is another matter, as I have only my book
to guide me. Speakers of the angelic tongue are unheard of in these
parts, and I have learned to stop asking if only for the awkward
questions it arises. Still, my knowledge of the language has brought
me deeper into the engrossing pages of The Vital Pact. Each paragraph
that I translate reveals a stark new truth about the world, both
terrifying and exciting at once. I have never felt so frightened and
yet exhilirated to be alive and aware as when I read this tiny
booklet. I feel so close to some great epiphany that I am terrified to
read again, but starving for knowledge.
PC's
Kratos (Goliath, Barbarian 3/Fighter 1)
Breca (Dwarf, Cleric 4)
Yvy (Human, Sorcerer 4)
Randal (Human, Ranger 4)
Game Session #7 (Journey to Cauldron): A ceremony is held in the Champions District for Czar. His body is taken from the Hall of the Horns through the streets by pall bearers (including Kratos, Randal, and Deek). Many citizens of the district have gathered along the street to watch and members of the Horns parade behind them, following the procession. The body is taken into the Cathedral of Kord, where more faithful have come to watch the ritual and pray for its success. Of note attending the ceremony is Lord Neldrak Lorchester, the district’s representative to the Dawn Council. Presiding over the ceremony is Elder Brother Tormogal Gred, the high priest of Kord in Sasserine. Kord’s Cathedral is one the largest in Sasserine, and is well attended. It is full to capacity, with pews at the front reserved for friends, family and companions in arms. On a dais in the Narthex is a large bronze statue of Kord and an altar. Czar is placed on the altar. Tormogal emerges dressed in his more ceremonial garb, which includes a finely burnished chain shirt. He begins his sermon, and quickly reads off a list of deeds accomplished by Czar and a tale explaining the glories of death in battle. He mentions that the raising of the dead is not to be taken lightly, and death in battle is a glorious death. He also explains that despite these things, he has spent the last night in prayer communing with Kord, and he has learned that Kord believes that Czar may still have a glorious destiny to fulfill before his spirit joins the mighty god in his great hall. Thus, the ritual shall be performed. At this point the ritual diamonds are brought forward and various chants begin. The spell is cast and the diamonds crumble to dust in Tormagal’s hand. The dust then is released over Czar’s corpse. It floats down. A few tense moments pass. The corpse twitches, a gasp rises up from the crowd. Next Tormogal lays his hands on Czar, casts a heal spell and Czar rises to his feet. The crowd cheers.
Following the ceremony a traditional night of drinking, wenching and general celebration ensues at the Hall of the Horns. The feast is attended mainly by members of Zelarune’s Horns, but Deek and Father Breca join as well. Everyone is eager to hear of Czar’s tales of the afterlife. Toasts are made to Koth and stories are shared. The next day preparations are made to journey to Cauldron. Lavinia procures a wagon, horses and supplies. Kratos is able to purchase his completed large sized Great Axe, and mithril armour. Randal hires an old veteran member of Horns named Luther Fletcher to accompany the group and help drive the wagon.
Early the following morning the heroes set out towards Cauldron. Czar, although he may be partially responsible for Meena’s death, decides that he is not yet feeling back to his old self, having been dead for several days. He decides he needs some time to rest before doing anymore adventuring, so he stays behind. However, in his place the sorceress from the Jade Ravens- Yvy Sparks (sometimes known as Liamae) joins the band.
Luther drives the wagon with Meena’s body secured in a coffin in the back along with various provisions. Breca and Yyv also ride in the wagon, while Kratos and Randal ride ahead on horseback. The morning goes well with the heroes passing various plantations and small hamlets that surround Sasserine. Early in the afternoon the heat begins to take its toll, and as the sun beats down on the party. Yvy notices a group of mounted riders galloping toward them from behind. As they get closer it becomes clear that they are mounted warriors. As a precaution the heroes pull off to the side of the road. Breca readies his crossbow, and Kratos dismounts his horse and draws his chain blade. Luther places his bow on his lap, strung and ready for action, while Randal readies his own bow.
One of the riders dismounts a ways back from the heroes and the others approach, slowing their horses as they get near. It is clear that the men are warriors, large men that look like Northerners, with round shields and deadly axes. The leader introduces himself as Borstagg, and makes it clear that he is in the employ of Lady Lotus and that they are here to kill the characters. With their intentions made clear, Breca launches as crossbow bolt that tags the Borstagg. He howls with rage, and an arrow flies from somewhere behind him, thumping into the wagon near Breca. It seems that the man they left back on the trail has dismounted and is also an archer.
Battle begins. The mercenaries charge forward on their horses, on attacking Yvy and two others moving in at Kratos who is now standing on the ground in front of the back of the wagon beside Yvy. Yvy is wounded, but Kratos manages to disarm one of the attackers with his chain. Yvy successfully casts a grease spell that appears under the two attackers and her foe’s horse falls with him becoming trapped underneath. Breca continues to fire, along with Luther. Randal dismounts his horse and readies his own bow. Kratos and Yvy continue to defend themselves. Kratos fights well with his chain and Yvy manages to use another grease spell on the hands of another warrior that moves in to slay her. He fumbles his weapon. Borstagg, by this time, wants to slay Breca, who has plugged him with a couple of bolts, so he rides his horse up alongside the wagon and jumps into it. He raises his axe which suddenly exudes an aura of frost, and takes a massive swing at Breca’s crossbow, a swing that would have likely sundered the weapon, had Breca not managed to avoid it. Breca is not eager to be in battle with this monster of a man, so he leaps off the wagon, but doesn’t land well and ends up sprawled out on his back. Meanwhile old Luther is busy being assaulted by another warrior who has also ridden up beside the wagon, but has decided to stay mounted and swing at Luther with his axe. Luther is badly wounded, drops his bow, draws a shortsword and stabs his foe in the side. In hopes of protecting the old ranger, Randal begins firing on Luther’s attacker with his bow, but his aim is off.
Kratos and Yvy are faring well against the three that they are facing. Yvy takes cover under the wagon and begins using her wand of magic missiles, while Kratos continues to battle away with his chain. Borstagg, leaps off the wagon to attack Breca, but he too lands badly in the ditch by the side of the trail on his back. Unfortunately for him he is not far from Kratos, and when he tries to get up Kratos spins around and lashes out with his chain. It wraps around his axe and rips it out of his hand. Breca uses the distraction to get up and move back. Kratos has finished off two of the other opponents and the third has retreated back to the archer, so he and Borstagg now face off. The enemy archer has turned his attention to Kratos and tags him with an arrow, but Yvy blasts the bastard. with a magic missile and Randal pegs him with an arrow (having successfully dropped the one that was attacking Luther). Borstagg takes a hit from Kratos and steps back, drawing his shortsword. Unfortunately Borstagg’s back is now turned to Breca and the dwarf launches a heavy crossbow bolt into his spine, felling the big man. The remaining two mercenaries are some way off, but it is evident to them that battle is lost, so they turn their horses and gallop off. Randal and Yvy are content to let them flee.
After a little bit of looting, healing and gathering the enemy horses, the party continues on their journey.
The next few days pass uneventfully, despite having to travel through the Amedio jungle, and finally on the evening of the third day they arrive at the inn of the Laughing Monkey. It is raining as they arrive, and out in the courtyard they see a man in the stocks, rain soaking him. The man recognizes Randal and calls him over, and it turns out that the man is none other than Grandpa Jed- Randal’s former mentor. It seems that Jed has gotten himself in some trouble. He’s a recent arrival to the Laughing Monkey and he was contracted to hunt down a terrible baboon creature that attacked the Inn and kidknapped the Innkeeper’s daughter Sierra.
Jed successfully tracked the monster to its lair, but in the ensuing battle his animal companion (a mastiff named Scar) was killed and Jed was forced to flee and dropped his enchanted bow. He returned to the Inn angry and discouraged and began a binge of heavy drinking. Keira the Innkeepers other daughter was angry that he wasn’t able to bring back her sister and that night she lost her temper with him and yelled at him, which in turn made him angry with her. In his drunken rage, he lashed out at her and punched her in the face. A small a patrol from Cauldron led by a cleric of St. Cuthbert named Captain Uthas was in the common room at the time and they arrested Jed, who they already knew of and didn’t particularly like. Jed was put in the stocks.
Jed explains his situation, but seems willing enough to serve out the couple of days he’s been sentenced to by Captain Uthas. He does request that Randal track down the monster and try to save the girl and recover his magical bow. The rest of the party agrees to help, except for Luther, who decides to stay and guard Meena’s corpse.
After a good night’s rest the heroes set out into the jungle. Randal uses his tracking skills and easily picks up the trail. For several hours they hack their way through the jungle, until they come across a small game trail. Suddenly, up ahead on the trail a shaggy maned wolf emerges from the trees. The wolf appears to be injured, and is hobbling. It stops and begins snarling at the party. Randal approaches carefully and is able to settle it down, which allows Breca to come in and heal it with the wand. After this the wolf’s mood seems much improved. However, there is little time to ponder the creature’s behaviour as noise from ahead on the path gets everyone’s attention. Two men come running towards the heroes. They wear studded leather armour an d have tabards indicating that they serve the city of Cauldron. The leader has a shield with the symbol of St. Cuthbert displayed on it. Behind them the shrieks and wails of Savage Baboons surge after them. The foul baboons begin emerging from the jungle, and battle ensues. The captain makes it to the party and turns to fight, but his poor companion is overwhelmed and taken down. The details of the fight are chaotic and hazy, but Kratos again fights well, this time using his mighty great axe. Uthas holds off opponents with his mace, while Breca and Randal continue to fire away with their bows. Yvy proves her worth by summoning a giant centipede into the fight, which helps to finish off the last of the fleeing baboons.
After the fight, Breca kindly dolls out healing to the captain. He introduces himself as Captain Uthas of the Cauldron Guard and cleric of St. Cuthbert. Uthas explains that they tracked the foul creature down, and found its lair up ahead, which is a cave on the other side of small river. A big old log spans the river to allow crossing, but the cave is half way up a cliff on the far bank, bank and can only be reached by scaling up the vines that hang down the face of it (unless you have magic to help). This makes the lair highly defensible, and before the patrol could even attempt an assault, they were beset on by baboons that jumped out of the surrounding trees. The rest of the patrol was killed, but the captain and a couple of his men were able to flee. Unfortunately several of the baboons gave chase. After hearing his tale, the heroes suggest that Captain Uthas return to the Inn, but he seeks retribution in the name of his god, and insists on accompanying them to the lair.
Not too long afterward the party approaches the lair. Yvy and Breca move off into the nearby trees to look for cover and a place to hunker down and cast spells and fire crossbow bolts up at the cave when the fight begins. Unfortunately as they do this Baboons begin leaping out of the trees and the fight begins. Breca is alone against one of the creatures and forced to drop his crossbow and draw his mace. Yvy is also alone against another one, but Captain Uthas charges through the undergrowth to aid the “fair maiden”. She takes advantage of his help and uses as scroll to turn herself invisible. Randal starts to fire his bow, trying to aid Breca, while Kratos fights off a couple of nasty baboons that are lunging towards him. Shortly after the fight begins figures emerge at the mouth of the cave, which is located about 20’ up a sheer cliff on the far side of a small river from the party. Three more baboons stand in the mouth of the cave, but the middle baboon is different. He has a more humanoid look about him, and is wearing studded leather armour and has a fine composite longbow. He opens fire with the weapon, launching arrows at Randal, who is standing on the game path and has no cover or concealment from his shots. He tags Randal with one arrow, but misses with another. The fiend doesn’t get much of chance to practice archery because Yvy again readies a scroll, and summons forth a giant ape, which appears on the face of the cliff and climbs up to start swiping at the monster. Randal has turned his attention on him by this time and fires his bow up at it. Kratos meanwhile has finished off a couple of the baboons near him and rushes to aid Uthas, while Breca thumps his ape with a couple of solid blows from his mace and drops the beast. Breca then take up position with his crossbow and starts firing on the leader at the mouth of the cave. His shots are accurate, as are some of Randal’s, but they don’t seem to be able to damage the fiend. Granpa Jed had mentioned something to Randal about thinking that the creature may have been a strange type of lycanthrope.
By now this “werebaboon” has drawn a great scimitar is brutally hacking away at the Yvy’s summoned ape, which is clinging to vines of the cliff face and swiping at him with one of its big arms. Yvy isn’t content with just having the ape to aid in the fight, so she summons a giant centipede, which is also a skilled climber. It scuttles up the cliff to fight alongside her ape. Unfortunately neither are very effective foes against the werebaboon, but they are managing to keep it busy. Breca, casts a magic weapon spell on his bow and attempts to use his now enchanted crossbow on the leader, but it is still ineffective, so he changes tactics and starts firing on the other two baboons that are helping to fight the summoned monsters.
By now Kratos and Uthas have finished off the last of the baboons on the ground and they turn their attention to the enemy above. Yvy calls him over and casts a levitate spell on the Goliath. He then bounds across the log bridge in a seething rage and levitates up the cliff to join the fight, but before he can do so one of the baboons drops a large rock down on him, enraging him further. Kratos arrives in time to see the werebaboon finish off the ape, but Kratos proves to be a much more dangerous foe, and with his large sized great axe he is able to land terrible blows on the beast. It returns the favour, and hits Kratos with several good swings, bringing the raging Goliath close to death. He is forced to levitate down to the log, where Breca has moved. Breca then uses his most potent healing spell on Kratos. Uthas at this point is also on the log, ready to begin trying to climb the cliff to join the fight. Randal continues to fire his bow, focusing on the other two baboons and Yvy summons a dire bat to join the battle. Having recovered from his damage Kratos levitates back up into battle. The apes back away from the entrance, making Breca and Randal’s archery abilities useless, as they no longer have a line of sight.
The battle seems to now be in the hands of Yvy’s summoned monsters, Kratos and Captain Uthas, who has scaled the cliff to join the battle (having been waiting for the giant centipede to be destroyed before climbing up). Yvy brings one more summoned monster into the fight- this time a monstrous spider. The remainder of the battle goes well for the party, with Kratos levitating back into battle, and landing more devastating blows against his enemies. The dire bat lands the killing blow on the werebaboon, and there are no deaths to report on the side of the heroes.
After the fight they all clamber up into the cave, but find only remains of victims, including evidence ( a locket) that the Inn keeper daughter, Sierra, was devoured by the baboons. Randal recovers Jed’s magical bow, and Breca finds an enchanted crossbow, among the bones and refuse. A satchel is also recovered, and it contains a badly damaged spellbook, along with a few pearls and diamonds.
Having looted the lair the party makes their way back to the Inn to share the tragic news with the Innkeeper.
I have been granted both a boon and a bane these last days. I am
fortunate in having the opportunity to travel with adventurers more
seasoned than myself, thereby granting me a chance to further test my
own limits. However, in doing so I have more fully realized the sway I
have over creatures both fell and foul. The others' quest for
retribution became my fiendish playground where I was free to unleash
such terrors as I did not know myself capable of. My mind was swept
away in the violence of battle, and I found myself calling forth
twisted vermin after profane beast in a bewildering variety of horror.
I was only too grateful to have spent most of battle transparent,
where none could see my trembling in awe and fear, for I was afraid.
So very afraid.
I believe I want to fight for just cause, but with hell-bourne
heredity like this... What can prevent me from backsliding into my
Father's ways? Is there strength of will enough in me to carry on a
good fight under the banner of evil?
I have little more to write this evening. My plan for now is to bury
myself in study - either to forget these unanswered questions or find
their solutions I am not yet sure.
I sometimes wish I could just stop and forget. But I fear I am bound
to walk to whatever end this gray path leads. I doubt I will ever
sleep soundly again.
You return to the Laughing Monkey and set about the unpleasant business of breaking the news about the death of Sierra to Vezdan the Innkeeper and his daughter Keira. Needless to say, both are greatly distraught by the sad news, but they take some solace knowing that the beast was killed.
The following morning Grandpa Jed is released from the stocks, and Captain Uthas turns his gear over to him. Jed is pleased to see that Randal has returned in one piece and has brought back his bow. He says his farewells and mentions that he is on his way back to Sasserine and expects to be there for a few weeks, should Randal wish to see him when he gets back.
Meena is loaded back into the wagon, and Captain Uthas decides to ride to Cauldron with the party, so that he can report the incident to his superiors. The last leg of the journey consists of winding climb up the dead volcano. At the top, built into the caldera of the volcano is the town of Cauldron. A stonewall surrounds the circular town, which descends down into the basin. In the centre is lake and the city surrounds the lake. With the rain at this time of year the water of lake is quite high some of the shanty structures near the lake are partially submerged. Captain Uthas, says its flood season, and he explains that the priests will soon come forth with their magic and lower the water before it gets higher.
The guards at the gate collect the entry tax, and Uthas leads them inside. He happily leads the party to the Vanderboren manor, which isn’t too far from the city wall. Uthas, thanks the heroes for their help and promises that he will give them the credit they deserve in his report to his commanders. He even suggests that the city will likely wish to acknowledge them for their bravery, and infers that he may come by the manor to fetch them over the next couple of days.
Vanderboren manor turns out to be a lavish stone compound, not unlike the family’s home in Sasserine. Substantially more servants are on retainer here, and once the companions enter the grounds grooms take their horses and a well dressed butler named Jarvis, leads them inside. In the foyer, they are greeted by Lord Sevrick Vanderboren- the younger brother of the late Verrick Vanderboren, and the current family patriarch. Beside him is his wife Leesa. They are surprised to see Yvy back again so soon, as she was recently in Cauldron with the Jade Ravens trying gain aid for Lavinia, and it was this on this trip the Yvy met Meena, and that Meena decided to accompany the Jade Ravens back to Cauldron. It falls upon the heroes to break the news of Meena’s death. Both Sevrick and Leesa are obviously quite upset, although Leesa is more distraught than Sevrick, who doesn’t seem surprised by the news.
Lord Vanderboren takes his wife upstairs to compose herself, but asks Jarvis to have chambers and food prepared for the companions. They soon taken to their chambers, and given fresh clothes, at least the humans are. In the meantime Meena’s coffin is brought into the family chapel to rest for the time being.
Later the heroes are escorted down to the dining room, where a meal has been readied. Lord Vanderboren joins them at the table with his two sons- Verrick and Imeran. Lady Vanderboren is too upset and remains in her chambers. Verrick is polite enough, and asks them to share their stories, so that he might know how Meena lost her life. The family listens intently, horrified by the terrors the party encountered at Kraken’s cove. Lord Verrick thanks them for taking the time to escort Meena’s body home, and invites them to stay for a few days to rest and attend the funeral that will be held for her.
During their stay Captain Uthas returns to the manor and invites them to attend an audience with the Lord Mayor. Here they are able to relate the story of their fight against the beasts that attacked the Inn and explain how they saved Captain Uthas. The Lord Mayor is impressed with their bravery and heroism. He gives his sincere thanks on behalf of the city, and awards each member of the party with a silver cloak pin that recognizes their contribution to the safety of the town.
The funeral is an affair of mixed emotions. There is obvious grief for Meena’s death, but all agree that she died bravely and in a manor she would wish to die in. Stories are shared of her deeds and toasts are made in her name. The local cleric of Kord presides over the ceremony, and is quite drunk when he makes his slurred eulogy, which Lady Vanderboren finds quite offensive. In fact she finds the whole affair offensive, as she learns many stories about her daughter that portray her in a very unlady like way-stories of daring, battle and general crassness.
Lord Vanderboren insists on hiring a local bard by the name of Waylan to write a ballad about Meena and her final battle, and he requests that the characters stay an extra day to give Waylan the details he will need to write the song. Waylan is quite fascinated by their own tales and eagerly takes many notes about their adventures. He promises to work on some more ballads that will tell of their battles against the bullywugs, werebaboon, and other foes.
Finally, Lord Vanderboren contracts a local wizard to identify the magic items that they recovered on their journey. The party puts in the three pearls from the werebaboon’s lair, but Lord Vanderboren takes care of everything else. It turns out that the axe is a +1 battle axe, but it has a frost augment crystal set in the base that gives it the frost property. This crystal can be removed and transferred to another weapon, so long as that weapon is also magical. The crossbow is finely crafted +1 weapon of dwarven make. As an added bonus 3 times per day the user can fire a bolt, as if he had the precise shot feat.
Eventually, it is time to return to Sasserine, a journey that is now much safer with the defeat of the werebaboon and his minions. Four wet, steamy days later the companions find themselves venturing back into Sasserine.
The adventure continues to deviate from the path slightly as the characters try to track down Rowyn and kill her.
Party: Czar: Human, Mnk 1/Bar 2
Kratos: Goliath, Bar 4
Theo: Human, Swashbuckler 3 (NPC)
Deek: Human, Fighter 1/Pal 2 (NPC)
Game Session #8a (Revenge against Lady Lotus)
Back in Sasserine Randal departs with Grandpa Jed to do some training in the jungle, and Breca sets sail for Fort Blackwell to meet up with his father, so that he can trade ships. During this time Kratos hires a rogue by the name of Rasp to track down Lady Lotus. The thief does this successfully and after a few days informs Kratos that she is hiding out in the Shadowshore district in an old warhouse building that has become a “museum” of sorts showcasing strange curiosities and sideshow freaks.
Kratos recruits Czar, and the mercenary Theo Zimmer to accompany him in a quest for vengeance against Lady Lotus. Deek also offers his assistance, as he wishes to see Lady Lotus brought to justice. Under the cover of darkness the band of heroes rows across the harbor to Shadowshore. The district is lively at night with drunken sailors and prostitutes. Theo (being the least conspicuous) member of the party goes ashore and walks along Harbor Way while the rest of the party rows along beside him in the boat. He soon locates the building and does a quick scout around it. He spots a single door entering from the harbor side and set of double doors along the length of the building, but no sign of any windows or people about.
After a brief but hospitable encounter with a small patrol of district guards passing by, the party decides to go ashore. Kratos and Czar use their rope and grappling hook to scale up onto the roof of the building, while Deek and Theo take up position on the main double doors. The roof is made of thick mud and thatch, but after some scouting Kratos spots a weak patch on the far side of warehouse. He starts bashing away with his axe in an attempt to cut through the thatch so that he and Czar can drop down from above. Meanwhile, Deek announces himself by shouting out to anyone that can hear him inside. He states that he is looking for Lady Lotus he starts bashing down the door with the help of Theo. At about the same time Czar jumps down through the hole in the roof and lands on a catwalk ten feet below. However on the catwalk are a few waiting Lotus Dragons and they open fire on him with bows. Fortunately he had consumed a potion of protection from arrows and is unharmed. He then leaps down from the catwalk to the floor of the main room- the same room that on the opposite side Deek has burst in through the doors. In the center of this spacious room is a large, low, squares shaped wooden platform with a big copper bathtub on top of it. In the center of the tub is a mermaid with a deformed tail. Also in the room is a man with snake like patches of scales covering much of his body and another man with a fifteen foot long tentacle grafted onto his shoulder in place of his right arm. He uses his tentacle to wield a scimitar.
The snake man rushes towards Deek and Theo demanding that they leave before he slices them open with his sword. Squidarm slashes Czar with his scimitar, while Kratos jumps down and lands flat on his butt on the catwalk with a painful thud. The lotus dragons on the catwalk attack Kratos and retreat out a door at the end of the catwalk, fleeing the main room (although one gets left behind and Kratos quickly dispatches him). Czar charges Squid arm and tries to put him in his famous bearhug, but the carnie turns out to be secreting some sort of strange slime and the stuff paralyzes Czar causing him to fall to the ground unable to move.
Deek begins fighting the snake man, but another foe rushes in from a nearby room. She is a huge, bearded halforc woman, whose loose frock barely contains her jiggling breasts. She takes a big swing with a greatclub and hits Deek with a solid blow, forcing him to step back to heal while Theo holds off both her and the snakeman. Kratos busies himself with pursuing the retreating Lotus Dragons and he follows them out of the main chamber and down a short flight of stairs to ground level where he steps out into a wide but short hall. At the far end of the hall a set of double doors is partly open, suggesting that the thieves fled through it. Beside him is a barred set of doors that opens back into the room his friends are fighting in. Lining the length of the hall are four more doors- two on each side. One of the doors is of note because it has a doggy style door built into the bottom of it. A latch was keeping it sealed, but has been pulled out. Kratos decides to go in that direction and he puts the latch back in the doggy door (concerned that something nasty might be about to come out) just as the doors at the end of the hall (which are now just ahead of him) are slammed shut. He can hear the sound of a bar being set in place behind them.
No longer worried that more thieves might come from that direction right away, Kratos rushes back into the main room to see how his friends are faring. Things haven’t been going very well. It turns out the mermaid has some magical abilities and she has put Deek to sleep, leaving Theo to deal with Snakeman, Squid arm and Fat Betty. When Kratos enters Snakeman has just been killed and Theo is desperately trying to fend off squid arm and the fat lady. Kratos rushes to their aid, but the mermaid catches him with a sleep spell, and he too decides to take a nap. Only Theo is standing, but he has manages to finish off the fat lady, although by this time he has taken some nasty blows from her club and is not doing so well. He continues his fight with Squidarm and is on the verge of dropping unconscious, which would put the entire party out of commission and at the mercy of their enemies. With his last bit of strength he manages to quaff a healing potion, and then only barely defeats Squidarm. The mermaid surrenders and troubles the heroes no further with her spells (she was basically out of them anyhow). Theo manages to wake up Deek and Kratos and the injured party members drink potions of healing. Czar recovers from his paralysis and they are soon ready to press on and try to find Lady Lotus.
Into the hallway they go with Czar and Kratos leading the attack. The pair break down the double doors at the end of the hall and step out into the room beyond. Before they can take in their surroundings a large net drops on top of them from overhead. Czar manages to roll out of the way, but Kratos is entangled by it. Czar sees that this spacious room is dominated by pool of dark water that runs across the chamber and is close to twentyfive feet wide. A bridge made of planks runs from the muddy bank the characters stand on to the opposite side of the room. On the far side is another muddy “beach” that is about fifteen feet wide. Several crates are piled here and taking cover behind them are Lady Lotus the escaped Lotus Dragons that Kratos had been chasing and Rasp- the man Kratos had hired to find Lady Lotus in the first place. All of these foes are ready with bows and they unleash a barrage of arrows on Czar. Fortunately they cause only grazing wounds.
Czar charges across the planks successfully and moves to bearhug Lady Lotus. Kratos tears himself free of the net, while Deek readies his bow and Theo readies himself to move in. Suddnenly, Lady Lotus casts a spell that opens a large glass jar sitting on the ground near Kratos. Out of the jar emerges an angry water Mephit. The little creature blasts Kratos with a gout of corrosive water, which does little more than anger the Goliath. He goes into rage and begins hacking at the creature with his Great axe. Czar meanwhile finds himself in a tough spot. He gets Lady Lotus in a pin, but ends up flanked by Rasp and another Lotus Dragon. The pair begin sneak attacking his sides inflicting grievous wounds on the raging hulk of man. Theo springs across the planks to help, but can’t get to Czar in time to save him and Czar falls. This ends his rage and brings him to the brink of death.
After finishing the mephit, Kratos also tries to run across and help, but he slips on the planks and falls into the water, which is filled with sharp spikes and blades. One of them harms Kratos, but he is able to drag himself out of the water and press on.
Deek’s role in this fight has been hanging back with his bow, firing at his enemies and guarding the hall. He continues this duty as he sees Lady Lotus, Rasp and one of her minions retreat into another room off to the side. Kratos follows after her and finds that she has entered her bedchambers. However, the room has another small catwalk at the back of it and there is a hidden door in the sidewall off the catwalk that leads outside. As Kratos comes in he sees that she has already gone through and that Rasp is about to climb out. Kratos takes the fastest route outside as possible, which entails using his massive axe to cut through the flimsy wooden wall.
While all this is going on, Theo feeds Czar a potion, saving him. Deek hears Kratos shouting something about Lady Lotus escaping outside, so he runs for the door to the warehouse and heads outside. Poor Lady Lotus makes the mistake of wasting time taking a shot at Kratos with her hand crossbow as he comes out through the wall. This wastes enough time that Kratos catches her trying to flee and cuts her down with a big swing from his axe. Rasp manages to get away but encounters Deek as he tries to come around the other side of the warehouse. Deek and Rasp face off, but Deek emerges the winner, slashing away at him as he tries to escape in the heroes’ own rowboat, and eventually killing him with a thrown dagger when Rasp dives into the harbor to swim for it.
Thus ends the final battle against Lady Lotus. Fortunately, the district is lawless enough that the attack is basically ignored by the watch, and Kratos is lucky to not have the city guard show up at the arena looking to arrest him on charges of murder. Had he tried to pull such a tactic in another part of the city he certainly wouldn’t have been off the hook so easy.
PCs
Breca: Cliff Dwarf Cleric 5
Kratos: Goliath Barbarian 5
Czar: Human Mnk1/Bar 3
Randal: Human Ranger 5
NPCs
Urol
Nain: Dwarf, Warrior 3
Game Session #8b: About two months have passed since the heroes returned to Sasserine from Cauldron. The rainy season is waning and Lavinia is eager to set sail for Farshore. Breca has since returned from his voyage to Fort Blackwell with a new ship. He has purchased caravel from his father and it is called the Bearded Maiden. He has been busy and prepared the ship for a voyage to Farshore. Randal has also returned from his escapades in the jungle with Grandpa Jed. He to is eager to see new horizons and has recruited his mother and three sisters to join him on the trip. Eleanor, his mother is planning to build a new life for herself in Farshore by a establishing a bakery there with her daughters.
After much preparation the day of departure arrives. Provisions are loaded on the ships and Breca’s crew is eager to cast off. Unfortunately, one passenger is late, a nobleman by the name of Avner Meravanchi. His family has helped finance the expedition and he has been sent to represent his family’s interests. However, when he finally arrives he has brought along his stallion, which he insists on taking aboard the ship. Breca refuses him, but does offer him his own cabin, which helps appease the disgruntled man.
At last the voyage sets out slightly behind schedule, but they soon catch up with Lavinia and the Blue Nixie. The first night on the water heroes are invited to join Lavinia on the Blue Nixie for a feast. Breca decides to stay behind, but Kratos, Randal and Czar all attend. They dine with Lavinia, Avner, Deek, the Jade Ravens, as well as a gnome named Urol Forbol who has come along as a naturalist. He has with him a map that he explains he purchased from a sailor in Sasserine. The sailor in turn acquired the map from a dying elf he fished out of the sea. The elf’s adventuring company had apparently been exploring the ruined Olman city of Tamoachan and discovered an unplundered step pyramid. Unfortunately, the pyramid was guarded by a beast that could turn a man to stone with its gaze. Several of the elf’s fellow adventurers were turned to stone and he was forced to abandon the expedition. He had been on his way back to Sasserine when his ship sunk in a storm. The map shows the location of the pyramid and Urol has convinced Lavinia to give him a day to explore the ruins, as they are on the way to the Isle of Dread. Urol asks if any of the party members will join him. Kratos, Czar, and Randal are keen to explore the ruins and potentially find valuable treasure, so they offer their services.
The journey continues, after thirteen days there is a brief stop over at Fort Blackwell, Then the expedition exits Jeklea bay into the Azure Sea and starts heading south along the east coast of the savage Amedio jungle. Many days later they reach the mouth of a large river that empties out of the jungle into the ocean. Here the Blue Nixie stops to refill her water supplies, but Captain Breca has been using his divine magic to keep the freshwater on the Bearded Maiden well supplied. That night a dense fog rolls in and it is decided that the ships should make anchor and wait out the fog. During the night when Kratos and a sailor named Lirith are on watch the sound of something climbing onto the deck is heard. Suddenly, a massive, water troll leaps out of the fog onto the main deck. Kratos sounds the alarm bell, while Lirith draws her falchion. The pair rush in at the troll, just as Czar and Breca emerge from their cabin. Czar attempts to grapple the monster as it slashes at Lirith and Kratos. Breca fires with his crossbow, but finds that he is a little close to the creature’s gangly arms and receives a vicious wound from a claw. Kratos makes himself busy by attempting to trip the scrag, but finds it difficult. Finally, Czar manages to get the creature in hold and Kratos and Breca proceed to attack it with all their strength while Czar keeps it locked in a grapple. The heroes bring the beast down, and they slice off its head and burn the stump of the neck. The monster is then hurled overboard. The rest of night passes with out incident, and by the next day the fog has dispersed and the journey continues.
Unfortunately, this fight with the scrag doesn’t end the bad turn of the luck the expedition has taken. It seems that one of the passengers- Father Feres, has fallen ill. Breca goes to attend the man and notes that he is highly feverish. He doesn’t have any pox or sores, but there is a strange pulsating beneath the skin near his lower stomach. This is of great concern to the dwarf, and he decides to put the priest in a rowboat and tow him behind the ship, just in case. The next day Breca prays for a cure disease spell and manages to bring the priest back to health. Later that day Father Feres has Breca examine his stool pot, for in it is a strange spiny blue egg about the size of a fist (which needless to say emerged rather painfully). Breca isn’t sure what it is or what it portends, but he quickly hurls the alien egg overboard.
Luckily the fickle gods again start smiling on the heroes and the by the 36th day of the voyage they arrive at the site of ruined Tamoachan without further difficulty.
Breca, Randal, Kratos, Czar, Urol and the dwarven mercenary Nain all decide to go ashore. Once ashore they follow an ancient canal into the centre of the ruined old city. Here are many crumbling ancient buildings, and several canals converge in a large pool. A man made island is in the middle of the pool, and on it sits a massive stepped pyramid- the biggest building in the city. This structure is the frequent destination of adventuring parties, so is believed to have been well plundered, but the party decides to climb the stairs to its top, so that they can get a better view of the surrounding area. By this time, they are already feeling somewhat concerned, as they earlier spotted a couple of lizard folk wandering the ruins and want to know how many of them may be skulking about. The lizardfolk saw them as well and disappeared into the foliage, which means they know there are visitors about.
Bridges span the weed, choked canal to access the pyramid. Only one bridge is still in tact, so that is the one they cross. Czar and Kratos lead the way, but just as the pair are crossing the bridge a huge tentacle made of plant matter surges up from the canal and wraps around Czar, lifting him off the bridge and into the air. Down below Czar can see a massive plant creature with an enormous, juicy toothed maw emerges out of the weeds and algae. Kratos draws his chain and uses its reach to lash at the thing, while Randal fires his bow down at it and Breca begins summoning oversized vermin to aid Czar.
Czar is pulled to towards the thing’s mouth, but he’s a stubborn man and refuses to allow himself to be swallowed. Instead he takes advantage of his expert grappling skills and great jotunbred size and strength to twist the creature’s tentacles into a knot so that it becomes pinned, and thus another creature becomes locked in a grapple with Czar while the remainder of the party attack it with their spells and weapons. Breca’s summoned centipedes prove effective and Kratos and Randal continue to have great success with their weapons. Finally the horrible plant sinks back down into the canal, leaving Czar in the water. Kratos quickly hauls him out with his chain and they hurry across the bridge to climb the pyramid and get away from the water.
At the top they can see that the ships are still well out in the bay, but it is difficult to make out much down below in the ruins due to all the foliage and undergrowth. However, they can see inland, and on the outskirts of the city there is a large clearing that houses the slightly smaller pyramid marked on Urol’s map. They also note that an open trap door descends down into the great pyramid. A rusted grappling hook and rope dangle down inviting the heroes to brave the mysteries of this ancient structure. For now they decide against it, and they make their way towards their original destination.
As they exit the main section of the ruins they are again attacked- this time by a massive, four armed, white apelike creature that leaps down behind the party from the top of a crumbling, overgrown section of the old city wall. The beast lands behind the heroes attacking Breca and Randal. With its huge, clawed four arms it proves capable of dealing horrific amounts of damage. It nearly kills Breca, and seconds later manages to tear Nain to shreds- killing the dwarf. Kratos gets in at it and lays some solid blows, while Czar attempts to grapple it while Randal plugs the thing with arrows. Finally, due to solid teamwork, the heroes bring the beast down, although Kratos is injured, Breca nearly dies and Nain is no more.
By this point the heroes are low on healing magic and Breca’s spells have been mostly depleted. The expedition has taken a dark turn with Nain’s death, so the party must now decide whether to press on or return to the ships.
Another letter from Breca....
Father,
I was glad to see you on your way north, even if meeting was not under the best of circumstances.
We have now set forth from Sasserine on this ill-omen'd voyage of Lady Vanderboren, and I am already doubting the wisdom of such a voyage. We stopped again in Fort Blackwell with little trouble, and rounded the narrows without trouble from pirates.
We had the misfortune to encounter an aquatic troll while at anchor one night due to fog, but it was quickly dispatched by Czar and Kratos.
The crew is coming along well, after nearly a month at sea. I must have words with them on duties during combat, as one hand almost died fighting the troll, a monster which is better left to likes of our few heros, not ordinary sailors. I think with the exception of the marines and the gunner, an understanding to go aloft is probably the better part of valour for the crew. I will not spend their precious lives wantonly when we still have months of ocean to cross, and many unknown dangers to face.
Even Kratos is helping out here and there, as long as it involves heavy labour and a chance to growl at the crew, an act for which I have refrained from writing 'Snuggles' on his armour. Czar has been training with the marines, and is on hand when there is heavy lifting. Randall has been aloft most of the time, using his keen eyes to search the horizon.
One passenger took ill, and I had to call on Procan to remove some foul parasite from his body. But it seemed that things progressed smoothly despite my concerns.
We have anchored at an abandoned city, Tamoachan, to search the ruins at the request of Urol, a gnome navigator. So far, the process has cost the life of Nain, who was torn apart by a four-armed ape, and nearly myself in the same encounter. Czar was beset by a huge plant and almost swallowed, though I summoned monstrous animals to distract the creature, and it slunk away without killing anyone. We have also sighted lizardmen, so if the locals are anything to go by, this city is not for the faint of heart, nor weak of limb. I think we will retreat to the boats overnight before trying again in the morning.
I pray to Procan nightly, but still ill feeling grips me. I will write as often as I can, Father, but do not be surprised if one day the letters cease. I shall remain, always, your son.
Current PCs
Kratos: Goliath, male, Barbarian 5
Breca: Sea Cliff Dwarf, male, Cleric 6
Randal: Human, male ranger 5
Czar: Human, male, Monk 1/Barbarian 4 (died at the hands of savage mutant pirates, raised from the dead)
Game Session #9a (Lost city of Tomoachan): With Nain dead and Breca low on healing magic the heroes decide to return to the Bearded Maiden. They find the crew and passengers waiting anxiously. Avner Merivanchi (the nobleman) is particularly annoyed, especially with Breca for leaving his ship. He begins to try to reprimand the dwarf, but Breca informs him that if he says another word, he will have Kratos throw him in his quarters and he won’t be allowed to leave for a day. As the angry noble storms off he mentions something about lizardfolk being seen near the edge of the jungle. This is enough for Breca, and Kratos happily tosses the nobleman in his quarters with orders not to leave or be tossed in the bilge.
The next day the ship is awoken by the sound of horns and primitive drums. Outside they see an entire tribe of lizardfolk has gathered on the shore. They are armed and ready for war, but instead of attacking some are laying out goods on the ground, as if making a display of wares. Goods consist of animal pelts (leapoards, snakes, crocodiles etc…), as well as jewelry and other items. The party decides that they are looking to trade. Breca shouts across to Lavinia on the Blue Nixie and suggests that her ship head out to sea where it will be safer and that they will meet up with her later that day.
The heroes load a rowboat with trade goods from the hold and go ashore. Unfortunately, the trading is somewhat difficult because no one speaks their language. Breca has a comprehend language spell memorized and casts it, enabling him to understand the shaman, who he manages to touch and activate the spell on. Negotiations proceed, but the heroes find it difficult to get the best deal they can, as the lizardmen are shrewd and somewhat greedy. However, among the trade items is a big chunk of unrefined “star metal” (adamantine). This becomes the focus of the negotiations and the heroes manage to cut a deal for it.
After the trading is done they return to the ship and wait for the lizardfolk to move back into the jungles. The party then goes back ashore with Urol the gnome to search out the ruined temple on Urol’s map. This time they make it safely to a large clearing that was formerly a plaza. In the center of the clearing is an ancient stepped pyramid. It is similar to the one in the middle of the city that they had climbed the day before, except smaller with no stairs leading up to its top. A gaping tunnel at ground level leads into the pyramid. Cautiously, the heroes move up to investigate. Just outside the tunnel are statues of a pair of petrified lizardfolk warriors, lending some truth to the rumours of a basalisk lairing nearby. No one is eager to enter, so Randal sends in his wolf. The wolf scouts down the tunnel, but quickly returns, yelping and growling. Thinking, that they may have roused the basalisk, the characters take up position to ambush the beast. Kratos and Czar climb up the vine-chocked walls onto the first step of the pyramid, while Randal and Breca move off to the sides ready with bows. Urol hides in some bushes. After several tense moments nothing emerges. Thus, Czar decides to climb higher up the ziggaurat and reaches the top. On the top level he finds that there is a very wide shaft that descends all the way down the bottom of the pyramid, ending in a small plaza/atrium that is open to the sky, but likely below the ground level. Vines grow up the sides of the shaft, and bushes have grown on the plaza floor far below among bones and stone rubble.
As Czar watches a large, eight legged lizard plods out into the open area at the bottom of the shaft from some kind of tunnel. It wanders around on the ground far below for sometime, sniffing about. Finally, Czar looks back to the party to try to signal what’s going on, but when he looks down again the creature is gone.
The entire group, except for Urol then scales the temple and soon they are all gathered on the top. Kratos and Czar decide to lower a rope, while Breca and Randal cover them from above with their bows. The two scale down without any real trouble and soon they are on the ground. On the opposite side of the shaft they can see a rubble filled tunnel that leads into darkness. A pair of glowing yellow eyes stare out from the darkness, and suddenly the basalisk comes barreling out. Randal and Breca unleash arrows, scoring solid hits that cause the beast to bellow in pain. Czar and Kratos move forward. Czar tries to pin the beast, and as he does so he feels the creatures gaze wash over him. His limbs stiffen, but he is able to resist the effects of its gaze. He is unable to get a good grip on it, and it savagely bites him with its great jaws. Kratos is also able to withstand the power of its gaze, and he cleaves it in the side with his massive axe as Breca and Randal fire more arrows into the beast. Finally, Czar gets a hold of the thing and is able to cover its eyes with his arm- disabling its gaze attack. The archers continue with their arrow barrage and Kratos hacks the thing down with a terrible blow from his axe.
With the basalisk slain, Breca and Randal clamber down the wall to join the party in the great atrium. Several tunnels branch off of this area, but most of them have been collapsed. There are three of note- a large one that slopes upward and should lead outside, a second large tunnel that leads into halls beyond, and a third smaller tunnel that winds into darkness. After quickly fetching Urol and thereby confirming that the exit tunnel does in fact lead out to the entrance of the pyramid, they decide to first investigate the narrow tunnel. Kratos and Czar discover that it opens into a vast chamber with a high ceiling. The floor of the room is dominated by a miniature, scale version of an ancient city (similar to, if not Tomachoan) that is carved in stone. Like Tomachoan the miniature city is also in ruin. Wisps of smoke flirt about the room, but the source of the smoke cannot be discerned.
Breca joins Czar and Kratos in the great room, while Randal stands guard outside. As Kratos and Czar and Urol move towards the centre to examine the miniature city more closely a wall of fire suddenly erupts at the far end of the room where Breca is standing. The wall of fire crosses the entire chamber, and Breca is unable to avoid it and suffers terrible burns. Heat wafts from the wall towards Kratos and Czar, scalding Kratos who is closest to wall of fire. Worse still is the fact that wall is not stationary. It starts to move towards them. Fortunately, there is another narrow tunnel leading off the great room and the heroes run for, reaching the safety of the tunnel before the advancing wall of fire can get to them. Randal having heard the screaming runs into the room to see wall of fire. He shouts to his friends and learns they are okay and then he waits for the creeping wall to move away, past the passage where his friends are sheltered, and he rushes to join them.
After the incident, Breca conjures the magic of Procan to heal himself, and the party makes their way through the tunnel. They soon discover it opens into another smaller room. The room has little in the way of features other than some decaying frescoes depicting bats battling men. It seems that the room once extended further, but all access beyond has been blocked off by a conjured wall of iron. Urol is very excited by this point and Breca uses a clairvoyance spell to see that there is another vast chamber on the other side that contains another miniature city. At least one more room or hall braches off of the room beyond, and all this is enough to convince the heroes it would be worth investigating. Kratos decides to try to hack through the wall of iron with his great axe, and eventually there is gap big enough for him to squeeze through. In addition, Breca happens to notice that there is some kind of mobile magical presence in the room with the party, but he can’t garner much information beyond this.
Czar and Kratos bravely squeeze through the gap in the wall of iron and enter the huge room. Towards the center they can see a miniature ziggarat that looks very much like the one they climbed the previous day. Before they can examine anything a screeching sound catches their attention and a large, flying, demonic creature that is part bat and part man comes swooping into the room from a large hallway built into one of the sidewalls. The bat thing unleashes gouts of fire on the pair, while circling up near the high, vaulted ceiling- staying well away from Kratos’ fearsome looking axe. Breca and Randal stay in the smaller room, behind the wall of iron, but take a couple of shots with arrows causing little harm to the monster. Kratos and Czar retreat through the gap in the iron wall to join their friends having been badly scalded by the critter’s breath weapon. The fiend follows them and swoops down biting at Kratos who defends the gap. Kratos swings back with his axe and catches it with a nasty blow. Again it unleashes a cone of fire this time right through the gap injuring Czar, Randal and Kratos, but it then flies back into the air. Having a moment respite the some healing potions are quaffed and a few protective spells are cast.
Just as the heroes are deciding how best to deal with the menace something strange happens. A glowing ball of light appears near the beast and collides with it. When this happens the ball of light cackles with electrical energy that shocks the terror causing it to howl with pain. The characters watch for a moment as the glowing globe and the bat creature face off in battle. But then for unknown reasons Breca suddenly decides to go into the room and heads for the miniature ziggarat in the centre. Kratos and Czar chase after the dwarf. The ball of light seems to sense their presence and it swoops down at Breca shocking him. Next the bat creature blasts them all with a globe of fire. Randal takes a couple of more shots with his bow, before he too enters the big chamber. The flames send the heroes running for cover once again. This time they make for the hall that the fiend emerged from, and here they find another room. The room is smaller than the great chambers; perhaps only 25’ by 25’. In the centre of it is a huge round Olman calendar stone etched with glyphs and Olman pictograms. The stone sits flat on the floor and on top of it is a ragged nest of bones and rubble- possibly belonging to the bat creature.
The glowing white globe and the bat creature have resumed their battle, but Breca decides to try to put an end to it by unleashing a searing light spell. It hits the bat creature, and the burning light is enough to finish the fiend. Its body explodes in a blast of fire, but luckily no one is near enough to be effected, other than perhaps the glowing globe, which disappears from sight right after the explosion.
With no enemies left the heroes spend some time searching the surrounding rooms. Beyond the chamber with the calendar stone they find a large, deep well filled with hundreds of burial alcoves. Each alcove is filled with a corpse. Kratos and Czar search the well thoroughly, but the only treasure to be found is strange golden idol/statuette of bat that has rubies set in the eyes and pearls for fangs and claws. However the statuette is certainly valuable, so they take it. Later they are searching the chamber with the miniature city and they discover that the pyramid in the middle is actually a sarcophagus and together Czar and Kratos push off the lid. This unfortunately, unleashes a horrible cloud of chocking dust that infects Czar with the dread mummy rot disease. Almost instantly his skin begins to decay and rot and his body starts emitting a terrible stench. Inside the tomb is another decaying corpse. The body has a necklace around its neck. The piece is entirely made of gold and has bangles hanging off of it that are cast in the form of lizard and bat heads. The party takes this as well, but with Czar suffering terribly they hurry back to the ship. He is on the verge of death when Breca is able to remove the curse and cure his unnatural disease.
The decision is made to leave Tomachoan and rendezvous with Lavinia. Once this has been done the expedition continues on towards their true destination- The Isle of Dread.
After the trek into Tomoachan Kratos and Randal advanced to 6th level, Czar moved up to 5th and Breca remained at 6th.
Game Session #9b (the voyage continues): A few days of peaceful sailing pass during which Czar recovers from his terrible affliction. Finally, the day arrives when the Bearded Maiden and the Blue Nixie must sail through narrow straights that separate South Olman Island from the main land. This territory is known to be held and patrolled by much and feared and loathed Scarlet Brotherhood- a powerful nation located to the North East. The ships go through one at a time with the Blue Nixie taking the lead. The Nixie seems to make it through without being spotted, but the same luck doesn’t hold for the Bearded Maiden. A ship bearing the flag and colours of the brotherhood appears from behind a small island and moves in to intercept. Breca begins shouting orders and the passengers go below deck, while the mercenaries and party members stay on deck to prepare for battle. The ballista is loaded and Kratos and Czar take cover behind one of the rowboats.
The brotherhood ship closes in and the intentions of ragged crew of cutthroats on board are clear on their weathered faces. Their captain shouts across claiming to represent the Brotherhood and demanding that his men be aloud to come aboard, so that they may inspect for contraband. Breca allows their ship to close in, and as soon as it is within 10’ feet and the cutthroats are making preparations to board, Czar and Kratos leap out from behind the row boat, jumping the gap and landing on the deck of the enemy ship. Battle ensues with Randal up in the crow’s nest blasting arrows into their ranks, while Breca busies himself by conjuring hulking apes from the lower planes onto their ship. The savage apes tear into the pirates, but not as savagely as do Kratos and Czar. The party’s two warriors do sustain their share of wounds, but it doesn’t take long for the heroes to cut down their attackers. Before they even have a chance to surrender only one lives, and he is taken prisoner, interrogated and then allowed to join the crew of the maiden.
After this little challenge it is again smooth sailing for several days. During this time Randal’s mother approaches him and informs him that she is concerned that Valera (her daughter) has gotten involved with Avner. She despises Avner, having spent nearly two months with him and his pompous personality. She has also heard rumours of his reputation in Sasserine- a womanizer, who has left ladies standing at the altar. This has led her to the conclusion that he should be no where near her daughter, and she asks that Randal have a word with him, and tell him to stay away from his sister.
Heeding his mother’s words Randal approaches Avner in his cabin. Avner is not in hurry to open the door and speak with Randal, so Randal forces his way in and discovers that Valera is in cabin with Avner, and it is apparent that the two have just had sex. Randal seethes with rage and punches Avner in the face nearly knocking him out. He then yells at Valera to leave and stay away from Avner, and threatens more harm towards Avner if he tries to have further relations with his sister.
Several days later the Bearded Maiden arrives in the small island community of Renkrue. Renkrue is a village of friendly Olman natives, and the last stop before they venture away from the coast and out into the open ocean for the final stretch of the journey to the Isle of Dread. The natives are simple folk with little to offer beyond basic supplies, but the heroes are able to procure a few potions to supplement what they used in Tomoachan. Unfortunately, trade is disrupted when Avner offends the villagers by attempting to buy one of their daughters. Because of Avner their witch doctor won’t sell the party any more potions. Randal does his best to smooth things over, but only offends them more and they decide to set sail before an angry mob of locals tries to do them in. Kratos is furious with Avner and takes his turn at punching the noble in the face. His blow is more solid than Randal’s and knocks the man out. Avner shuts himself in his cabin for a few days to nurse his broken nose terrified of the unruly Goliath.
Around the 74th day of the expedition the first real bad weather emerges and the ship is caught in a storm. Breca demonstrates his skill as sailor and captain by keeping the ship on course and avoiding the washing and rolling on the big ocean swells, all the while madly shouting out to his god in elation. However the next morning after the storm has subsided there is no sign of the Blue Nixie. The fate of Lavinia’s ship is uncertain, but prayers are made for her and her crew, and thanks is made to Procan for sparing the Bearded Maiden.
PC's
Breca- cliff dwarf, cleric (Procan) 6
Kratos- Goliath Barbarian 6
Czar- human, Mnk 1/fighter 4
Randal- human Ranger 5/horizon walker 1
Game Session #9c (The Sargasso): One morning, a couple of days after the storm the heroes awake to a dreadful surprise. The sea is quiet and the sails hang limp. The stench of rotten seaweed wafts across the deck. Looking around, it becomes apparent that sometime during the night the ship became entangled in an enormous floating field of sea weed- a great Sargasso that stretches for miles. At the stern end of the ship the Sargasso extends about half a mile before it hits the sea, on all other sides it stretches out to the horizon. The Bearded Maiden has become thoroughly entrenched in the morass. Breca has heard tales of this horror. Old sailors speak of it late at night in the taverns after many drinks. It is known as Journey’s End, and it is said to that there is some sort of sentient force at its center that gives it strength and life. This force is the Mother of All and her shambling minions of living weed come for those whose ships are trapped in the Sargasso.
Looking out into the endless field of seaweed the heroes can see the wrecks of dozens of other ships that have also been caught in the Sargasso’s grasp, Many of them have become completely devoured by the foul weed, and other than perhaps a protruding mast, look like little more than hills of fetid green. The nearest wreck is only a few hundred yards away, and judging by its condition, it is a fairly recent acquisition. Realizing the dire nature of their predicament Captain Breca has the crew do what they can to ready themselves for an attack. He also gathers his companions and they set out to explore investigate the nearest ship. When they touch down on the bed of weed, Kratos jams Randal’s long spear into the ground to see how deep the seaweed goes. He plunges the lengthy spear all the way to its end with great difficulty, suggesting that it is at the very least eight feet deep.
Upon exploring the ship it becomes evident that the crew have vanished and the Saragossa has claimed it well. The hold of the ship has become completely filled with weed and no valuables or supplies can easily be found. In the remains of the captain’s quarters on the edge of a table that sits near a gaping hole in the cabin’s floor, there is a log and some charts. Czar creeps forward to try to snag them, but his movement causes the rotting floor to creak and the documents tumble down into the hole. It is decided that the documents could be important, so Randal, Czar and Breca hold one end of a rope that is tied to Kratos and they lower the Goliath down into the hole. The pit is filled with Saragossa weed and seeks to overwhelm Kratos with its stench, but he manages to snag the journal and sticks it in his sachel. Just as he’s about to be pulled up a tendril of weed lashes out from the morass, striking him with the force of a giant’s fist. More weeds emerge to attack and Kratos soon feels them wrapping around his throat, trying to choke the life out of him. They are nearly successful, but his companions are able to pull him up out of the pit. He great body slumps to the floor of the cabin, on the verge of death, whereupon Breca uses his most potent healing magic to restore the Goliath’s health.
They take the journal up to the deck and in it they find more clues to suggest that there is some sort of intelligence lairing in the centre of the Saragossa, and that it has a near endless supply of plant minions to slay all those who it captures. The party agrees that if they and the crew are to survive they must make all haste in locating and destroying the Mother of All.
After a long day’s hike across the great Saragossa in the heat of the blazing sun, the terrain begins to change, and they find themselves in a section that seems to be made more of great kelp fronds than the sickly green seaweed they had been walking across earlier. All about are scattered the remains of ships that were long ago claimed by the Sargasso. Most of these can barely be recognized a ships anymore because the weeds have completely overtaken them. In the centre is one large ship called the Thunderer, and the heroes suspect that this may be the lair of the mother.
They have soon scaled their way up onto the deck where Breca casts spells to protect them and increase their strength and endurance. Soon they clamber down some narrow stairs into the lower levels. As they begin to explore, they are assaulted by the children of the mother. The creatures are large shambling mounds of weed, capable of squeezing through the cracks in the walls and reforming themselves. Three of them come in at the heroes in what was once the captain’s spacious quarters. The things attack with flailing tentacles of seaweed that dish out punishing blows, but they also seem to have the power to animate the plants around them, and so the kelp tendrils are reach out from the walls, lashing and grabbing at the party. Knowing that these aren’t their true prey, the heroes do their best to conserve their resources for the battle ahead. Non the less they fight hard and after a few moments of tense combat the plant monsters have collapsed in piles of stinking weed. With the durations of their spells wearing down fast they decide to move on quickly instead of investigating three old sea chests they locate in the captain’s cabin.
Down below in the hold, their search ends, for in the far end is a massive hole in the bottom of the ship that opens into a wreaking pit, which delves deep down into the bowels of the Sargasso. This is the lair of the Mother of All. The heroes prepare for the final conflict. Kratos begins by drinking a potion of enlarge person that pushes his already massive form up to the top of the large size category. He then begins hurling alchemists fire into the pit to draw out the Mother. She emerges seconds later- a huge size writhing mass of plant matter with teeth and claws like enormous thorns. Inside her body she carries a horde of immature young who wail in a deafening cacophony. As she reveals herself, Kratos rages, which pushes him to huge size, and he strides forward with his giant great axe, Breca begins summoning one of his great apes into the battle, while Randal initiates his arrow barrage, and Czar takes note as he realizes more of her minions are coming to her aid.
Kratos and the Mother of All face off with Breca’s ape joining the fight and Randal doing his best to fill the thing with arrows. However, soon another shambler enters the room, which draws Czar’s attention as he tries to hold if off so the others can focus on the Mother. For several tense seconds Kratos and the Mother trade vicious blows, with Kratos standing on one side of the pit and the mother on the other. Fortunately, Kratos has the reach needed hit her. Breca’s ape also tears at her and she lashes back at it. Randal tries to fill her with arrows, but becomes distracted as animated vines begin lashing at him and Czar. Breca, whose spells are nearly expended tries to aid Czar, who finds himself in battle with a shambler while being chocked by the animated vines. Soon, it is only Kratos and the ape facing the mother, as the rest of the party is too busy battling her minions. Fortunately, Kratos is doing the best fighting of his life, and he is finally able to chop her down, sending her screeching corpse collapsing into the pit.
With the death of the mother her minions also collapse, and the great pit quickly starts to fill with sea water, as the entire Sargasso slowly begins to unravel. The party hastily loots the sea chests, uncovering, coins, gems and jewels, along with a large barnacle encrusted steel shield etched with images showing men being devoured by sharks. As soon as the loot has been stowed, they hustle back to the Bearded Maiden, while all around them the Sargasso field continues to collapse. Procan seems to be with them now and they finally reach their ship. By nightfall the Bearded Maiden is free of the great field of weed and able to resume its journey.
Here's Kratos' take on the last part of our last game session (the battle vrs the mother of all).
Journal Entry 9: Filled with Awesome
With Czar recovered I finally find a great way to break the monotony. Captain Brecca approved…after I had already started drawing it….a wrestling ring on the deck where Czar and I can spar. I surprised myself by being able to win a few rounds against him, perhaps death or his recent bout with this disease is holding him back.
The days are long and even with sparing they do not pass quickly. I had found a name for my new chainblade, it shall be called Shadow Cat and look forward to having it crafted once we finally reach the aptly named Far Shore. With little else to do I find that my armor and weapons are well maintained; Brecca has put a stop to me dicing up the main mast with my chain blade during watch and I suppose it’s for the best.
On one of the days (they all bleed together for me) we were met by a band of cutthroats. Brecca wasted no time and gave no quarter. I remember little of the short battle but I remember the end, surrounded by a sea of bodies, my axe and armor covered in blood and little of it my own. It was a glorious day; but over too quickly. I still have not fallen in battle as I have so many times in the past. Brecca has told me that he will soon have the magic that will be able to transport us back to the city. I must remember to look into that witch I heard of that could give me a magical tattoo. I look forward to the mysterious challenge that the gladiator who told me hinted at.
Several days later we reached a small settlement and we’re able to trade goods. Once again I was fortunate to be traveling with Brecca whose savvy trading skills had netted us many potions including one to increase my size. I had been saving my existing one for when we needed it but have been looking forward to trying it out ever since I bought it. Then, disaster struck. Avner, in an attempt to buy a young maiden from one of the local villagers seriously offended the shaman we were trading with. Randal tried to smooth things over but he only made it worse. I had to watch as my precious potions were taken away all due to that pompous greshkna. I must confess at this moment things went red and the next thing I knew Avner was satisfyingly sprawled in front of me with a broken nose. He is lucky I was able to restrain myself enough to not have done anything with one of my weapons. Hopefully this will teach him to keep out of my way.
After several months of calm weather I have experienced my first storm at sea and its power was a terrible thing to behold. The boat was tossed about the waves like a small child’s toy and the winds and thunder roared in my ears. Even more disconcerting still is the madness that seemed to take the Kathunae in the storm; laughing in its very face. He is a braver dwarf than I have given him credit for. Thankfully after a hellish night and due to the skill of our captain we found ourselves on calm seas and still on course in the morning. Or sister ship was not so lucky however and seems to have disappeared. Hopefully we will see them again in Farshore, but for now we must sail on.
One morning the now familiar feel of the rocking boat beneath my feet had stopped and going above deck the cooling wind had stopped blowing. Looking across the horizon I could see nothing but rotting seaweed in which the ship had mired itself into. Several other ships dotted the landscape, most looking very old. I could see Brecca looking upon this thing with dread, but he quickly steeled himself and we mounted an expedition to one of the nearby and more recent looking wrecks. The seaweed is thick enough to walk on and we travel the few hundred yards on foot.
A quick search revealed nothing of value. In one room we find a journal and some maps but our exploration causes a collapse and it fell into a deep pit in the floor. The Kathunae tells us that these pieces of parchment could contain something important and I being the best climber decide to go down. No sooner had I been lowered into the pit and retrieved the wayward papers when the wall came alive and attacked me viciously, surrounding me in tendrils and crushing the very life from my body. No bit of seaweed can do this to the mighty Kratos, I entered my rage and tore away from the plants, but being horribly wounded I decide to escape rather then stay. The vines get their parting blows and I feel the veil descend upon me, darkness closing in as I pull myself out of the hole. Thankfully the Kathunae was there to heal me or I surely would have died.
After taking the journal back to the ship and studying it we are given a direction and a purpose. I wasn’t listening too closely, but it would seem there is something in the middle of this area that if we kill it will release the ship; and its east. All I need to know really.
The dwarf is slow and I am strong, I pick up our miniature captain and carry him in the blazing sun. Apparently these harsh conditions across this barren landscape proved to be too much for him; I may never get the stink of dwarf sweat off my head and back and I do not take kindly to anyone playing my head like a drum; but I supposed I can let this go, the cleric did save my life earlier this morning. After a long day and a new hate of Dwarven Sea Shanties we find the ship that looked to be the lair of our prey. Soon after we begin our search we find three sea chests in the captain’s quarters but are given no time to investigate for shambling mounds of vegetation then attacked us.
It is a fast but brutal battle and no sooner had the last of them fell then we heard more coming. Knowing that these were not our true enemy and that our resources are short we made our way to the hold of the ship when we found a gaping pit. Someone handed us alchemist fire and Brecca summoned an ape to tear at the weeds around the pit. Not wanting to go the direct route and seeing that the walls on either side of the entrance to the room with the pit were rotted I created an opening with my axe and wasted no time in throwing my bottle into the deep abyss.
Doing so caused an instant reaction, a grotesque and huge creature rising from the depths of the darkness. I could hear my companions fighting shambling mounds behind me and knew what I must do; they would have to deal with the threat from behind while Kratos took down the threat before them. Stepping back to provide cover I drank my Enlarge Potion knowing that this was the moment I had been waiting for. Thinking of those vines from the pit, of how a mere stepped up potted plant had dared to threaten me. I will teach this mutant daisy what it means to cross my path and make it rue the day it brought me to the brink of death. Pain is my friend, it’s time I introduced this thing to him. I let the rage consume my being and I could feel myself grow to huge size.
The wall now barely an impediment I stepped forward to square off against the Mother of All. The monkey Brecca had brought to battle helped by distracting my enemy, for the foolish creature attacked it instead of me, as I bit into it with vicious blows from my axe. I imagined I could hear her children, who hung upon her body in pods, scream as each blow dug into their flesh. With each swing bits of her that flew off and I was filled with elation. My joy, however, is over too quickly and she slumps down dead. I turn quickly, still filled with anger and scanned the room for more enemies to fight but only see my companions staring at me in awe. Apparently they had dealt with their foes and only watched as I faced off against the Mother of All. That is good, I loathe to think what would have happened if one of them had stolen this kill.
We could feel the seaweed around us begin to collapse and knowing that time was of the essence I punched through the ceiling and retrieved the chests in the captain’s quarters. We hastily made our way back to the ship and by nightfall we had set sail again.
Over the next few days there are few who will be able to escape the tale of our battle against the Mother of All. I believe it is a feat worthy to stand among Czar grappling that creature at the pyramid ruins or Brecca killing the fire bat. Brecca has given me a bone necklace from the loot, I will take one of the pieces added to my collection as a souvenir.
Now with our journey resumed and much time to reflect I can see how magic could enhance my abilities. Battle comes to me as naturally as breathing; though I lack Brecca’s wisdom and Yvy’s force of personality perhaps there is a way that I could add magic to my skills. Wizardry seems to be the only path open to me though and few would see me as a scholar. All my life they have only seen a dumb barbarian, perhaps this would be a chance to prove them wrong. Brecca has helped more then he knows in tempering my impatience. His recent actions in battle concern me however, I will have to have a talk to him about it.
Great Journal. Keep it up. :)
Here's the details from last Sunday's game session. It was a long one again, so this is a long journal. The characters are now mostly sitting at level 7. Czar is still at 6 and with the death of Kratos this session, the new character that Jeff brought in (Savanah) is also 6th level. I fear for there survival the final portion of this adventure gets nasty. As of this game session we have finished the first 3 adventures in the 12 adventure series and are onto the 4th.
PCs
Breca (dwarf, male, cleric of Procan)
Kratos (Goliath, male, fighter/barbarian)
Czar (Human, male, monk/barbarian)
Randal (Human, male, ranger/horizon walker)
Savanah (catfolk, female, ranger/barbarian/scout/dervish)
Game Session #10 (The isle of Dread): A few days after their nightmare encounter with the Sargasso the party awakens to a red morning sky. Breca can feel that Procan is angry, but at the same time the Hadozee in the crow's nest is shouting out that land is in site. Looking out over the rail of the ship, can be seen a distant shoreline. Soon everyone is on deck and Urol is busy checking the charts. It looks like it is in fact the Isle of Dread. Unfortunately, in his excitement Urol drops the chart and it floats down towards the water. With little regard for personal safety, Breca throws himself overboard and starts sputtering about in the water trying to recover his precious map. Czar and Kratos leap in after him, and Czar manages to grab the map. Breca meanwhile shouts orders to Amella to toss the gnome over the side. Amella gladly agrees and soon Urol is sputtering in the water with rest of them. He doesn’t seem to swim as well as the others and quickly goes under. Breca is kind enough to order Kratos to swim over and fetch the gnome. Soon the wet heroes are standing on the deck doing their best to salvage the soaked chart. It looks as though the only portion that remains in the journey is to sail along the coast of the Isle to the southern side where Far shore is located.
By afternoon the weather has changed for the worse. A terrible storm blows in, and this one looks as though it will be worse than the first storm. Breca takes position at the helm with his crew on deck helping out, while the passengers hide down below. While spouting curses and prayers to Procan he does some amazing sailing and manages to avoid the worst of swells. Non-the-less the ship is tossed around on the waves as if it were but a tiny raft. Breca does what he can to steer the ship towards land, but finds the task terribly tricky, yet he is slowly making progress. The storm continues on into the evening when suddenly the ship comes to a lurching halt on a reef. The hull has been breached and water begins to fill the bilge. Breca summons Amella and his carpenter to have a look over the side and examine the damage. As they do so, a huge eel like creature with spines protruding from its backs surges out of the water and snaps up the carpenter in its maw. Amella races back towards the other side of the ship and Czar and Kratos hurry in to deal with the beast.
It tries to devour Kratos after he slashes it with his chainblade, but Kratos is raging and has assumed large size and the thing can’t managed to haul the angry Goliath off the deck. Czar attempts to grapple the eel, but can’t get a grip on its slippery body, and Breca begins plugging it with his crossbow bolts. The eel takes some good bites out of Kratos leaving the Goliath badly wounded, but soon the heroes have put the beast down and it slumps back into the water.
With the carpenter devoured, all chance of repairing the ship has been lost for the moment. Breca does however manage to use a control water spell to raise the ship up off the reef and launch her back into the water. The storm continues, but has abated somewhat and the ship limps towards the Isle of Dread as darkness descends. About three hundred yards from shore, she catches up on some rocks, and there she comes to rest. At this point the rowboats are loaded with supplies and passengers. Breca casts water walk on the party and they stride across the waves to shore, keeping an eye on the boats to ensure they make the trip safely.
The refugees find themselves on a small beach with the dark jungle creeping out to greet them. The boats are turned over and Breca sets about using his canvas to make a tent. Czar and Kratos are charged with venturing into the jungle to gather firewood. They do some scrounging, but have trouble finding much that isn’t wet. They do recover some tinder that they think may burn, and as they are carrying it back they hear something large crashing through the darkness towards them. They both take cover behind nearby trees and seconds later, walking right in between them, comes a massive dinosaur; a T-rex, heading for the beach. Kratos, not wanting to see the colonists gobbled up launches out from hiding and bursts into rage. He slashes the beast with his great axe, nearly taking its leg off. Czar bravely attempts to grapple the massive creature, but with no success. Burning with pain-induced rage, it turns towards Kratos and bites into the Goliath. It then scoops him up in its deadly jaws.
By this time Randal and Breca can discern that there is a fight taking place in the jungle, just at the edge of the beach. Both of them open fire on the dinosaur with their bows. Czar continues to try to grapple, while the beast keeps biting Kratos, and at the same time tries to swallow down the Goliath, who is just a little too big to go. Arrows blast into the terrible lizard, and it finally tries to bolt away, dropping Kratos to the ground. But by this time it’s too late for the Goliath, and his body returns to its regular size just as his lifeless carcass hits the jungle floor. Seething with anger Czar finally lays into it with a couple giant like strikes, as the rest of the group continues to pelt it with arrows from a safe distance, and the great lizard finally falls to ground.
Kratos’ body is carted out of the jungle and buried in a shallow grave on the shores of the Isle of Dread. His weapons are laid to rest with him, and Breca conducts a short service in his honour. As per Kratos’ Will, Czar inherits his gauntlets of ogre power and mithril breastplate, while Breca garners his mundane treasure, and Randal his remaining potions and possibly his rock of adamantite. The rain continues and the survivors take shelter for the night on the beach. Watches are set, and late in the night Czar makes out the sound of squacking in the jungle as some very loud birds are seemingly tearing away at the corpse of the dead T-Rex. Czar wakes up Randal and Breca, just as a massive bird emerges from the jungle. The creature is obviously a flightless bird and larger than an emu or ostrich. It has a huge beak that is looks well designed for tearing meat. Randal readies an arrow, but holds his shot. Czar tries to scare the thing off, but instead it comes charging at him. It tries to tear the big man apart with its huge jaws, but he gets the oversized chicken in his bearlike grip and starts choking the thing. Breca wakes up at this point and contributes a couple of crossbow bolts to the birds flank. It desperately struggles to escape Czar, but he breaks its neck and it falls lifeless to the ground. A couple more of the nasty birds poke their heads out of the jungle, but they seem to be full from their dinosaur dinner and disappear back into the foliage.
The next day is a day of big decisions. The ship is obviously beyond repair without carpenters and supplies. Thus, Breca decides that the best option is to send a land party overland and a sea party with rowboats along the coast. Breca selects Amella to lead the sea party and sends most of crew on the boats. For the land party he selects Randal, and Czar along with Theo, Tawengi (an Olman mercenary), Urol, Avner, Banaby and Quenge (Avner’s servants), Azeem (a Hadozee). The rest of the survivors are ordered to go on the boats, although Randal’s mother and sisters aren’t too happy about this predicament and would prefer to stay near Randal. However, he explains that they will probably be safer in the boats than trying to cross dinosaur-infested jungles. Supplies are gathered, and by mid morning the boats set out by water while the heroes lead their band into the steaming jungles.
As they trek south through the jungle Randal notices much evidence of the “terror birds” that seem to haunt this section of the jungle. Fortunately, Randal’s skills at surviving in the jungle are very good and he is able to keep the party on course and help them avoid any encounters with the vicious birds. While trekking through the jungle they notice they are being followed. Randal halts the party, and soon a feral looking woman emerges from the undergrowth. She looks like a cross between a woman and a great cat. Yet, despite her savage appearance she has obviously had some exposure to civilization, as she bears metal weapons and armour. The catwoman speaks the tongue of the Olman people and introduces herself as Savannah. She seems more curious about the party than threatening, and after hearing their story she offers to guide them through the jungle.
Soon the group comes to a huge valley with steep canyon walls descending down into it. It is a few miles across and several miles from side to side. A breath-taking vista allows them a view of a large, marshy lake in the middle of the valley with low, but craggy mountains off in the background. In the distance the tiny forms of what must be colossal long necked dinosaurs can be seen grazing on the plants in the marsh. To detour around the valley would take many extra hours of hiking through steamy, terror bird infested jungle. Savannah suggests that it will be much faster and easier to cross the valley than to bypass it, and that the big dinosaurs in the distance tend to stay in the marsh, and eat only plants, so are not dangerous unless you get to close to them or their young.
The party decides to climb down the treacherous slope into the valley, and soon they are starting to make their way across. Suddenly, bursting out of a copse of ferns and trees emerges one of the long necked thunder lizards. It is significantly smaller than the ones out in the marsh, so obviously this creature is not full-grown. The dinosaur is being chased by a pack of terror birds, and as it runs the birds lunge at its flanks trying to take chunks off the beast. Urol urges the party to help the poor creature, but Randal tries to explain that such is the natural way of things, and that they are better off not drawing attention to themselves. Yet, Breca has been acting a little strange of late, and he suddenly raises his crossbow and fires a shot at the last of the birds. The thing tries to run off, squacking in pain, but Breca keeps shooting at it and Randal fires some arrows just to try to finish the poor bird off. The rest of the birds ignore the party and busy themselves with finishing off the dinosaur. After having watched Isle of Dread’s food chain in action for a few moments the bedraggled group presses on through the hot, cloying afternoon.
Eventually they’ve crossed the plains of the valley and continued back into the jungle. Towards the end of their first day of marching they approach a range of mountains that bisects the island from east to west. To get to their destination on the south shore of the isle they will need to cross these small but jagged peaks. Savannah explains that she knows of a tunnel way carved through the mountains by the ancient Olmans. She hasn’t fully explored it, but is aware that it is the easiest means of crossing the mountains in the area. The disadvantage of this route is that the entrance to the dark mountain pass is near the nesting grounds of the terror birds that hunt the jungle.
The heroes ask the civilians to stay back and they slowly approach the nests. Breca casts a couple of spells on Czar to give him some extra toughness and then hauls himself up a tree where he can start firing with his crossbow. At about the same time a group of terror birds charge out from their nests and charge towards the party. Savannah moves up ahead of the group and engages the birds. The nest mother reaches Savannah first and makes a brutal attack with her beak, forcing the catwoman to retreat or be torn apart. Luckily for her the terror bird moves towards the tree where the rest of the party is clustered instead of trying to chase after her. There it attacks Czar, while Randal and Breca fire their arrows. Two more stride in to attack the group as well, and the battle rages for several minutes before the birds are finally felled. Savannah, Czar and Randal all sustain injuries, and Randal’s maned wolf companion- Kovu, is killed by the nest mother. Alas Kovu we hardly knew you.
With the axe beaks taken care of the path is clear, but it has been a long day so the group makes camp a short ways into the great tunnel through the mountains. The night passes uneventfully, and the next morning they set out into the darkness, using many torches to light the way through the heart of the mountains. The journey is many miles, and as they go from time to time they hear noises behind them. A rock falling, the odd feral yowl, but each time they stop to investigate nothing can be seen or heard. Finally, a piercing scream catches everyone’s attention. It is the voice of the Hadozee, who happened to be at the back of the group. Looking back those in front catch a glimpse of a large ape like creature (possibly another Hadozee?) grabbing the poor Hadozee, and the simians both instantly vanish, leaving no trace. The group is paranoid after this and tightens their ranks, pressing forward with caution. Randal can be seen cursing Savannah under his breath, wondering what kind of aweful sight seeing tour he’s being led on.
Another half mile or so down the tunnel they come across Azeem’s body. His throat has been torn out and there is blood all around him, but no evidence to show how he managed to get way up ahead of the group. Most suspect that some sort of fell magic is at play, and the civilians are obviously terrified.
Finally the subterranean Olman road opens into an ancient chamber featuring a fountain and raised dais with a throne on top of it. Pinned against the back wall of the throne is the upper torso of a long dead human skeleton. A finely wrought spear of Olman craftsmanship holds the bones against the chair, and Breca uses his magic to discern that the spear is magical. Furthermore, a search of the fountain is conducted and at the bottom a red stone rod is found that also radiates magic. This is added to Breca’s bursting Haversack, while Czar decides to hang onto the enchanted spear.
A set of big double doors exit the throne room and lead into another large cavernous chamber. This one features a huge, deep chasm that must be crossed. Two sets of doors stand on the far side of the gorge, and two twenty-foot wide bridges span the gap. Each one extends out to one of the sets of doors.
Savannah quickly scouts up ahead across one of the bridges, but as she does so she hears movement on the ceiling. She looks up in time to see the torchlight reflecting off of two gargantuan centipedes that are scuttling along the ceiling and beginning to descend down the walls to devour the travelers. She races away towards the other bridge, as one starts to come across the bridge she was on. Another one comes down the wall and bites at Randal taking a big chunk out of him and infecting him with its venom. These horrid vermin are possibly the largest critters that any of the party has seen up close, and their sheer size alone fills the group with fear.
The group flees as fast as they can for the second door. Savannah being as quick as a cheetah is the first one there and tries to smash it down, but is unsuccessful, Czar hurries over to add his aid while Randal and Breca desperately try to hold off the centipedes. The rest of the group uses their cowering skill to its utmost by waiting near the doors while Czar and Savannah attempt to force them open. In the mean time Breca manages to summon a lantern archon from the higher planes. The flying ball of light materializes out in the chasm and begins blasting the creatures with rays of holy energy. But the great centipedes press forward and both Breca and Randal sustain serious injuries. Finally, just as the situation is starting to look particularly dire Czar forces the door. The refugees flee into the room beyond, while the brave swashbuckling mercenary steps in to hold off the two centipedes with his rapier. They take him up on his offer and tear him to shreds, but his heroism buys the group the time needed to flee into the chamber beyond and shut the doors behind them. Luckily, the doors are too small for the great creatures to enter, but they do push at them for a couple of seconds, but finally give up. In the mean time Breca’s lantern archon continues to blast its target with eye rays, and despite their best efforts the centipedes aren’t able to reach out and attack the flying celestial. Breca is wild with madness and decides to open the doors a crack. One of the critters has been killed, and the other is now trying to escape the celestial. Breca in his great wisdom decides to open up with his crossbow, and drives the terror under the bridge out of his line of site. By this time his summoned ally has returned to its home plane, and the ordeal is over.
In the large, but now empty room they have escaped into, the group mourns the loss of brave Theo- the third member of the Zelkarune’s Horns mercenary company to die on the expedition, and spend time healing their wounded. The party realizes they are now down to their last healing wand, so rationing will be required. Another set of double doors lead out of this chamber, and again they force their way through. Beyond they find yet another spacious room, this room has still another set of doors on the opposite wall, and on the wall to their right is a huge set of iron doors inlaid with copper designs featuring the ocean and its bounty. To their left are a pair of elaborate stone columns, one red and one blue. Each of the columns features a strange looking hole. Breca quickly deduces that the red stone rod fits the hole of the red pillar and there is likely a blue one around somewhere, and if they can find it they should be able to open the iron doors.
They do some more exploring, and through the doors on the far wall they find a maze of catacombs that house the ancient dead, possibly the workers who built this vast tunnel complex. Not wanting to disturb the dead they do their best to search out the catacombs without touching any of the corpses. It takes them a long time, but by the end of their searching they’ve found no sign of a blue rod. However, they do manage to locate a secret door that leads into a spacious crypt with a lone sarcophagus on a raised dais. The sarcophagus has an image of man in ceremonial Olman garb holding a silver dagger in one hand and a blue rod in another. This not so subtle clue is enough to convince the heroes to open the coffin. Czar does the honours well everyone else stands far back. His memories of mummy dust are still fresh in his mind. Nothing happens, as he opens it, nothing other than a spear trap set in the floor, which attempts to activate, but fails- perhaps due to extreme age and disuse. Inside is a corpse with a blue rod and silver dagger, along with a beautiful gold amulet with a large pink pearl set in its centre. After casting a detect magic spell, Breca discovers both objects to be magical, and he puts on the amulet, though no immediate effect can be discerned.
At about the same time Breca is putting on his amulet, Randal and Savanah, who are standing guard near the entrance to the crypt hear shambling and groaning noises coming from the halls. They ready themselves for battle, as three mummified corpses amble from around the corners and move in to attack. Savanah leaps into action, slashing with her scimitars and then tumbling out of the way. Randal gets one look at the horrors and is overcome with despair. He finds himself unable to move, and soon they have closed in on him and start hammering with their mighty fists. Breca starts unleashing searing light spells, and inflicts significant damage on one of the vile undead. He is even able to recover one of the spells to use again, suggesting that the pearl set in his amulet is in fact a magical pearl of power. Czar picks up a coffin lid and charges forward, bullrushing one the mummies back away from Randal, who drops to the ground. Randal is barely alive, yet Czar manages to haul him out of harms way, while taking a couple of heavy blows in his stead. Savanah continues to slash with her scimitars, and Czar lays blows with his fists. Breca starts trying to turn the creatures and sends one fleeing from the battle. He soon sends a second one fleeing, just as the first one is dropped. He takes the time to heal Randal, while Savanah and Czar pursue the fleeing undead. They catch up with one and soon two of the mummies have been destroyed, while the third has disappeared into the maze of catacombs. Their injuries are too significant to pursue it, so they return to the chamber with the great doors and seal themselves in.
Using both of the stone keys they are able to open the great iron doors, an d sunlight comes cascading in from the surface world beyond. However, the heroes are in no shape to press, so they make camp for the night.
After Jeff losing Kratos (our toughest tank) to the T-Rex he brought in Savanah the Rakasta. This is his first journal entry from her perspective...
After a few days of traveling with these strangers I have only to conclude that they are madmen, especially the stout one. Although they’re translator assures me that this is a recent affliction. He is a danger to us all, namely me. Perhaps it was not a good idea to volunteer to take them to the nearest human settlement, they are so slow and plodding and danger gathers around them. I have been out in this jungle for months however and they are the first people I have seen. The company might be worth the risks, though I doubt this more with each passing day. Another reason is that running away from fights hasn’t been earning me much in the way of coin and valuable trinkets seem to fall into these people’s laps. I have had my eye on a lovely piece of armor back in the settlement, maybe traveling with them will help me get it.
It seems that they were ship wrecked and that is why they are so deep in the jungle and they don’t speak common. The squat man does not take kindly to me, he seems to think that I am as dim witted as he is. It is my first time meeting a “Darf” but if he is a typical example of his people, I do not wish to meet another one. His personality grates on me, but what’s worse is his speed, he just plods along at a crawl. Apparently none of these people had ever seen a catfolk before, which I am already accustomed to as my people are rare and not even I have seen another of my kind for years.
These peoples first encounter with the indigenous life did not go well. We came across a heard of Axebeaks taking down a thunderwalker. The sensible thing would have been to let them pass, but the Mad Midget started shooting at the herd and his friends were very, very slow to stop him. We survived, but it would have been better not to provoke the Axebeaks. Apparently, this man does not value his life; thank-fully if he ever brings his death wish down on me I am fast enough to outrun whatever kills him.
Our next encounter was unavoidable, a nest of axe beaks that blocked our path. It was a long battle and I heard these people muttering something about “Keetoss” as they fought. We were victorious, but not without suffering many wounds. I was surprised to find out that the insane one, Brecca, was their cleric. This is probably the reason he is tolerated so much. The others fought well, the large man, Czar, seems slow to attack; he keeps trying to grab things rather than hit them but he has a powerful uppercut that is impressive to see. The other, Randal, is an archer, but he does not seem to be as capable or perhaps as lucky a warrior as his companions. With a man like Brecca traveling with us, perhaps he is in good company.
After a short rest we moved through the caverns in the mountains. I must confess that usually I would run above ground through the Sharptoothed Thunderlizards nesting grounds, but these people are too loud and slow for such a trip, better to take this way through these caves where there will hopefully be fewer casualties.
We hadn’t gotten very far when we were attacked by two gargantuan insects. Most of us did the sensible thing and ran. There was a set of doors we could escape through and I made my way to the one without the bugs. Setting my shoulder to the door I tried to force it open, but it wouldn’t budge. It took both me and the one called Czar to finally force it open and we burst through. Surprisingly, during this flight, some of us managed to kill one of the creatures.
Unfortunately Randal had received a dose of the centipede’s poison and was not reacting as fast as he once was. Randal keeps looking over at me and glaring, their translator tells me he does not believe I am leading them the safest way. I admit this is bad, but that is only because he has not experienced traveling above ground. He seems to think that the Isle of Dread got its name from being a haven to cute, fluffy bunnies. It would seem not a single one of these people is very bright.
Inside the new room we found a locked door, in our previous explorations we had found one of the keys to this door but we needed two. Searching the area, we discovered what we were looking for in a series of crypts. Disturbing the crypt however brought the wrath of the undead upon us. As soon as I saw danger I pulled back, leaving Randall at the mercy of three mummies. The luckless adventurer was paralyzed and the mighty Czar used the coffin lid to charge them and save his friend. Very impressive but I was not to be outdone. Leaping through friend and foe alike I bounded over the coffin lid, off the wall, twisted and then over-estimated my footing and fell cursing to the dusty stone floor. All right, maybe I will be outdone.
We fought the mummies valiantly, defeating them in a quick melee. Taking the key, and not wishing any more trouble to fall on us we make haste to the exit and leave this crypt of death.
Czar is still at 6 and with the death of Kratos this session, the new character that Jeff brought in (Savanah) is also 6th level.
Poor Kratos. That goliath was really growing on me.
This is a great journal; please keep it up!
::living vicariously in the Ozarks::
Okay let me start by saying that Here there be monsters is a nasty adventure. They have all been nasty, but this one is really nasty. I had another death today, and had a few more close calls. I anticipate a TPK next game session. Good thing my players have some back up characters they are excited about. We'll see how it pans out.
The current roster is
Captain Breca (sea cliff dwarf, Cleric 7)
Randal (Human, Ranger/Horizon walker 7)
Savanah (Rakasta, Ranger/Barbarian/Scout/Derivsh, level 7 altogether)
Czar (Human, male, Monk 1/Barbarian 5)
Game Session #11a (The gargoyle cliffs): The heroes spend a couple of days resting and recovering in the Dark Mountain pass. Breca casts a restoration spell to help Randal recover from the centipede’s poison. During the day of rest Avner decides to open the water doors to let in a little fresh air and sunlight. On the steps outside he is horrified to discover the decapitated bodies of several monkeys along with piles of purplish coloured, worm ridden vomit. This puts Avner over the edge and he begins screaming and carrying on about what he has done to offend the gods and why they are punishing them. He promises to swear off women for the next month in exchange for being able to get off the cursed island in one piece. This is not to be.
Eventually, the heroes are ready to press on. The party is currently at ten; consisting of Captain Breca, Randal, Czar, Savanah, Avner, Urol, Banaby (Anver’s servant), Queng (Avner’s other servant), Filrick (a reformed pirate), and Tewangi (an Olman mercenary). The nervous group sets off south along the Olman road that follows the coastline. Mountains pen them in on the west and the water is on the east. At first the road runs low along the shore and the party sees signs of attempts at settling the area, including the ruins of small village huts. However, they give the huts a wide berth and by late afternoon the trail starts to climb. Soon they are walking along a ledge with cliffs plummeting down to the water far below, while sea birds screech and swarm up above.
After another hour or so, Savanah spots a figure standing on the road up ahead. He is an Olman tribesman from the looks of things, and she notices him staring at her with wild eyes. He suddenly screams out “All hope is lost”, and raises and obsidian dagger to his chest. He plunges the dagger in, spraying blood, and his body sways and tumbles off the cliff. She hurries to investigate, but sees no sign of the corpse in the waters below. At that moment a screeching sound erupts from above, and the shocked characters look up just in time to see a trio of feral looking gargoyles swooping down to attack. One lands near the front of the band slashing at Randal, wounding the ranger. The other two land at the back and tear into Banaby and Quenge, slaughtering the two servants.
The heroes burst into action. Randal takes a step back and tries to fire with his bow, while Breca begins casting a monster summoning spell. Savanah who is up ahead on the path, turns and sees the group being savaged, so she draws her scimitars and races to their aid, slashing at the gargoyle who is attacking Randal.
The two gargoyles at the back press the attack- one tears apart Avner, while the next pounces on Tawengi ripping him to shreds. Felrick and Urol fall back to cower near Breca, but by this time Breca has finished his summoning and two hulking, fiendish apes appear behind the two gargoyles and start slashing with their big clawed hands. The gargoyle attacking Randal turns his attention towards Savanah, but finds the cat girl much more difficult to hit. Breca meanwhile fires a crossbow bolt, but notices the mundane weapon is relatively ineffective. Fortunately the claws of his fiendish apes aren’t having difficulty injuring the gargoyles and they do a great job of distracting the back pair, while inflicting terrible wounds on them.
The battle continues for a few more moments, with Czar rather ineffectively trying to grapple the front gargoyle, Randal driving lethal arrows into the fiends with his enchanted bow, Savanah slashing away with her scimitars, and Breca using searing light spells and his apes to help win the battle. In the end Avner, Quenge, Banaby, and Tawengi are dead, and Randal and Savanah are wounded, but the gargoyles have been defeated. Thus, the party spends some time healing with their rapidly depleting wands, and continues to move along the path towards Farshore.
No one seems especially happy with Savanah, as they feel she is leading them into one dangerous situation after another, but like she has said this is the Isle of Dread, not the Isle of Cute Furry Kittens.
That night they camp on the Olman road with the sound of water crashing in on the rocks far below. They find their sleep haunted with the sounds of howling baboons in the distance. And at one point, while Breca is on watch, a cloud of inky darkness descends over the camp, blotting out his dwarven darkvision. The howls suddenly sound much closer, and a frightened Breca casts a light spell to try to reduce the darkness. He then spots an ugly ape like creature behind a nearby rock, but it vanishes an instant later. The rest of the night passes without incident, but leaves the party feeling as worried as ever.
The following day consists of more hard marching through the mountains and finally the trail comes to halt at a large chasm. The chasm is spanned by an old wood and rope bridge- presumably constructed by the Olmans. Savanah investigates and decides that the bridge, though old is in good shape. Breca is more cautious. He casts airwalk on himself and then ties a long length of rope to a nearby tree. He then starts walking across the chasm as though it were solid ground, trailing the rope behind him.
Randal and Czar take up guard positions, waiting to see how Savanah fairs before crossing the bridge. As the Rakasta woman gets part way across, the ropes securing the bridge to the far side of the chasm suddenly snap. She barely manages to hold on as the bridge goes swinging down into the chasm. It crashes against the wall of the gorge with Savanah hanging on. She again manages to hold on despite the painful and jarring impact. At this second another band of gargoyles choose to attack. Two swoop down from above- one going for Randal, and another going for Breca. Randal is badly injured, as the feral gargoyle pounces on him. Breca has a little more luck, taking only a minor wound. A third gargoyles attacks from behind, slashing at Fenrik who is standing right beside Urol. Urol screams and runs towards Czar and Randal, as Fenrik is torn apart. Savanah is quick and a skilled climber, so she starts racing up the dangling bridge as fast as she can to aid her comrades.
Breca finds himself in a dangerous position, as he faces a feral gargoyle one on one. In a desperate attempt to save himself he first casts shield of faith, which helps to deflect a couple of the beasts blows. Next he calls upon Procan to create a cloud of fog that he tries to retreat back into. Meanwhile, Randal is not faring so well against the gargoyle he is battling, but keeps stepping back and tries to fill it with arrows, while it keeps lunging forward and slashes, bites, and gores him with claws, teeth and horns. Randal quickly finds himself bleeding from many wounds. Czar is in no position to help because the third gargoyle has charged up to the bear masked man, and given Czar the chance to practice his wrestling moves. He gets the beast in a hold and starts to try to choke the life out of the gargoyle- too bad for Czar it doesn’t need to breath. However he is managing to keep it from being able to attack even if his pin isn’t inflicting huge amounts of damage to the magical creature. As, Savanah comes up over the edge of the cliff, she sees Czar has it pinned so she takes the opportunity to start trying to slash its stomach open with her enchanted scimitar, while off to her side Ranal looks like he has taken some nasty claw slashes. Luckily Randal manages to kill the gargoyle he is facing- not so luckily the other one gets tired of trying to hunt down Breca in the descending fog cloud, so it flies out and goes after the wounded Randal, tearing him apart. Randal collapses into unconsciousness.
Breca then dispels his fog cloud and casts a magic weapon spell on his crossbow. He then starts firing at the gargoyle. It turns its attention back towards the dwarf, leaving Randal to bleed to death. Savanah, seeing that Randal is in big trouble, and seeing that Czar isn’t having difficulty holding the thrashing gargoyle she had been slashing at, rushes to Randal’s aid and uses a wand to help heal the young man. Breca has some luck with his now magical crossbow and fires shot after shot into the gargoyle, as it continues to tear at the dwarf. Fortunately, Breca is wearing amour, has an animated shield, and is protected by shield of faith, making him a tough target for the gargoyle to get at.
In the end Randal is stabilized, Savanah and Czar finish off the gargoyle Czar has pinned so well, and Breca is able to kill the one attacking him. Now the party has only 5 member left, as Fenrick is dead. Luckily after repairing the bridge (which as it turns out the ropes were cut on), the party doesn’t have to travel too much further before they reach a pass that takes them west, out of the mountains and back down into the jungle interior of the island.
Interestingly enough just before that game session I completed a character portrait of the Goliath, and had been stabbing it with pins before the players showed up. I have also done a portrait of Breca, but haven't yet finished one hand. Edward does not want to me to finish the picture. Go figure...
Czar is still at 6 and with the death of Kratos this session, the new character that Jeff brought in (Savanah) is also 6th level.Poor Kratos. That goliath was really growing on me.
This is a great journal; please keep it up!
::living vicariously in the Ozarks::
Czar is still at 6 and with the death of Kratos this session, the new character that Jeff brought in (Savanah) is also 6th level.Poor Kratos. That goliath was really growing on me.
This is a great journal; please keep it up!
::living vicariously in the Ozarks::
Me too. He was starting to remind me of Vyth, you know, charging in where saner PcCs fear to tread, getting knocked down only to pick himself up and repeat the whole process again.
Still, no character lives forever (specially not the reckless ones). farewell Kratos. Bring on the next PC.
Interestingly enough just before that game session I completed a character portrait of the Goliath, and had been stabbing it with pins before the players showed up. I have also done a portrait of Breca, but haven't yet finished one hand. Edward does not want to me to finish the picture. Go figure...
Hmmm, I wonder why :D. I`d love to see that picture if you get a chance to put it up.
I'll put it online in the near future. I still have to scan it, but I have a scanner, so that's no problem.
Hmmm, I wonder why :D. I`d love to see that picture if you get a chance to put it up.Interestingly enough just before that game
session I completed a character portrait of the Goliath, and had been stabbing it with pins before the players showed up. I have also done a portrait of Breca, but haven't yet finished one hand. Edward does not want to me to finish the picture. Go figure...
PC's
Randal (Human, male, Ranger/Horizon Walker, 8)
Breca (Dwarf, male, cleric of Procan, 8)
Savanah (Catfolk, female, Ranger/Scout/Barbarian/Dervish, 7)
Czar (Human, male, Mnk 1/Barbarian 5)- Czar's player was away for this game session, so I've been trying to keep him out of combat as much as possible.
Kasta (Lizardfolk, female, Barbarian 5)- I brought her in to try to give the party a little extra muscle since Czar is semi out of comission. The next phase of the adventure is going to be nasty.
Game Session 11b (The Fogmire): The journey through the interior goes well for the first portion of the day, but towards late afternoon a thick strange fog starts to fill in around the jungle floor. It isn’t long before the characters start to notice strange things about the surrounding environment. The trees sometimes have weird postules in their trunks, with a foul smelling green sap oozing out of them. The snakes, frogs, birds and monkeys they see all have an unnatural look about them. They are often off in colour or have diseased like growths. Eventually the fog opens up and they see a clearing ahead of them. In the middle of the clearing is a small set of ruins, which are little more than a few crumbling stone walls of what may have once been some sort of building. In the centre of the ruin is a wooden frame/scaffold that looks like has been constructed with the intention of holding a prisoner strapped to it, for there is in fact the rotting corpse of an Olman warrior securely lashed to the frame, its decaying head facing towards the ground. Examing the frame and the corpse is a lone lizardfolk warrior.
Savanah hails the lizardfolk, and introduces herself and the party. After a lengthy conversation, much is learned from the warrior. Her name is Kasta, and she was charged with leading a band of warriors south from the swamps into the jungle. Their goal was to hunt down a group of demonic apes that had been terrorizing their village and had destroyed their eggs. They eventually, came to this cursed section of jungle and found themselves lost in the fog, always finding their way back to these ruins, but never being able to escape. Over the past few days her warriors had been picked off one by one by the demon apes. She is the last of the warband. Kasta is distrustful of the party, but they offer her food and water, which helps her mood.
Meanwhile Breca decides to investigate the dead body, and gives it a little poke. This causes it to animate and the zombie corpse start coughing out some phrases in Olman about there being no hope. Tawengi the translator is dead, but Breca had been studying the language under the man’s tutelage for the past couple of months and has finally mastered it well enough to know the basics. The corpse seems to be repeating: “There is no hope. There is no hope.” Breca quickly tires of this and obliterates the thing with his turning powers. Seeing the dwarf’s divine powers at work, gives Kasta some comfort.
The group spends the next several hours searching the ruins, but without uncovering anymore clues about this wretched land. Finally, Breca sits down and casts a divination spell, so that he can commune with his god. He asks if making camp in the ruin is wise course of action. In return he gets- “Such action will bring torment and death, follow the rivers of chaos to their source if you wish to survive.”
Breca then asks Kasta if there are any rivers nearby, but the lizardfolk has not seen any. This inspires Breca to cast a detect magic spell. With the help of the spell the captain begins examining the land around him and quickly notices the strange magical ley lines flow throughout the entire area. They seem to be slowly flowing from the south. The party sets out right away tracking the magical lines to their source. Soon the come to a craggy hill that is cloaked in fog, and there they find a narrow path that leads part way up the hill. At the top of the path they find two cave entrances side by side, carved into the hillside; each entrance is framed by a crude, howling baboon head carved from stone. The magical energy seems to be coming from these caves. It is decided that Czar and Urol shall wait outside, while Randal, Breca, Kasta, and Savanah will go in and investigate.
Game Session #11 (The fogmire continued)
Using Savanah’s ever burning torch to guide them, the intrepid heroes bravely venture into the shrine. They decide to take the passage on the right, and they keep sticking right as they start wandering the crude tunnels. As they go they find a dead end with skeleton manacled to the wall. Scrawled in the wall in Olman with a piece of charcoal is some ramblings about hoping I will die before being taking to the shrine of the two headed one… As unnerving as this vague prospect is, the heroes decide to continue. Soon, the tunnel they have followed comes to section that is straight, and carefully constructed. At the end of this passage is a set of large, heavy iron double doors. Bronze reliefs etched into the doors depict images of simian and reptilian demon like creatures tormenting humans. The round handles on the doors appear to made from the barbed, petrified tongues of fiends. Recessed in alcoves, on either side of the doors are two iron statues of demonic apes. A red liquid drips out of their mouths but evaporates before it hits the floor. Breca decides that too open the doors some kind of blood sacrifice may be necessary. Thus, he grabs the barbed handles in his bare hands, allowing the barbs to pierce his flesh and draw blood. At the same time he turns the handles; there is a grating sound as the doors slowly push open.
He quickly heals the wound, and then peers into the room beyond. This chamber features a table set against the wall on the far side of the room. On the table are two large black candles. They are unlit. Just in front of the table are two large upright mirrors with iron fames. One mirror is located near each end of the table, and they are set on an angle, so that they each face towards the middle of the room. Finally, located on each of the walls adjacent to the double doors is an alcove with a stone throne set in it.
Breca bravely enters the room, along with Savanah, while Kasta, and Randal remain in the hall. Not sure exactly what the purpose of the objects is, Breca decides to sit in one of the thrones. Nothing happens. Savanah strides forward and examines one of the mirrors. Its surface is murky and shadowy, making it hard to see any kind of reflection. Perhaps find this offensive, she slashes the mirror with her scimitar. Nothing happens; the mirror is seemingly unharmed. Next Breca stands up and suggests she light one of the candles. She then takes out her flint and steel, hammering until a spark lights the candle on the north side of the table. At that instant blood starts pooling the in the chair to the south. The ever-wise captain Breca bravely sits in the bloody throne. At first nothing seems to happen, but then he notices a flicker in the mirror across from him, and gets up to inspect the mirror. The haze that once cloaked the surface of the mirror has receded, and he can now see shimmering, but feral reflection of himself. He slowly extends his arm and touches the mirror. As his fingers make contact, the image vanishes and is replaced by a swirling portal of inky blackness. He feels rage burn through his mind, but fights it off. However, his body is suddenly pulled into the portal and he disappears. The heroes are shocked and concerned, and they spend the next couple of minutes attempting to reactivate the portal mirrors, so that they can follow Breca to whatever doom he has gone to.
As it turns out Breca finds himself in large cavernous chamber. The ceiling is some 40’ up, but a large natural rock bridge spans across the cave and dominates its upper recesses. This blocks his view, but from somewhere above a reddish light filters down and bathes the cave in a bloody glow. Vines grow up the walls, and in the centre of the room is large pool of crimson liquid. The cavern stinks of wet fur, and from up on the walkway above him, he can hear furtive shuffling sounds. Behind him is a replica of the mirror he traveled through.
Very much concerned for his life, Breca quietly casts a silence spell on himself. He then starts to explore the cave. Set in a wall under the rock bridge is a sturdy door with barred window in it. Looking through he sees a small cell like cave that appears to be empty. He next crosses to the far side of the cavern, and still he has seen no sign of his companions. On this far side he finds another sturdy door that is stuck or barred from behind. To resolve this problem he casts a meld into stone spell and merges with the stonewall of the cave. He pokes his head out and is able to see that there is staircase on the other side of the door that leads up. Not feeling quite brave enough to make the journey just yet, he retreats back into the cavern wall and starts casting spells on himself. By the time he pokes his head out again he sees that his companions have come through the portal.
Savanah is standing under the stone bridge and is trying to look into the window of the cell door. Seconds later Randal comes through the portal, but his appearance has changed he looks wild with rage and fires an arrow at Savanah, tagging her in the shoulder. Kasta suddenly appears beside him, but she seems to be in control of her anger. At the moment two demonic ape creatures leap down from above, pouncing on Kasta and Randal and tearing into them. A third one comes down on near Savanah, and rushes toward her. At this point Breca leaves the wall to aid his companions, but appears on the stair side of the door. He races up the stairs and finds himself on the stone bridge, with no sign of any enemies waiting for him. From his vantage point he can make out Randal and Kasta being savaged by the demons.
Thus, the battle begins. Breca starts by summoning two fiendish apes of his own to appear behind the demons attacking Breca and Kasta. Savanah meanwhile uses her cold iron scimitar to effectively slash at her own foe, and at the same time she goes into a dervish dance and starts taking advantage of her mobility to use hit and run tactics against the fiend. She also does her best to keep the pool of blood between it and her, so that it can’t charge and use its pounce tactic on her again. Her strategy works out well for her and she begins landing slashes.
Kasta and Randal don’t fair nearly as well. Their weapons seem to have little effect on the demons, and even the claws of Breca’s apes are unable to inflict significant damage. Randal quickly sustains damage from several claw and bite wounds and drops to the ground. He’s not unconscious, but he doesn’t have any fight left in him, and his burning rage has seemed to subside. His possum strategy works and the demons stay focused on attacking Kasta and the apes. Kasta enters a rage to try to give her an edge. Breca meanwhile continues to try to aid the pair, by enchanting his crossbow and plugging a demon with a bolt. This doesn’t seem to make it much more effective against the unholy simians, but after he casts align weapon he starts to land some hits that make the demons howl.
After finishing off Breca’s summoned apes, one of the demons teleports up to face Breca, and starts to tear away at him. It lands a few hits, but Breca is well toughened and protected with his magic. He keeps falling back five feet and firing with his crossbow. Procan is with him and shot after shot penetrates the demon’s thick hide. Kasta meanwhile is in dire straights. Her enemy has taken a horrible toll on her and she finally drops. This causes her to go out of rage and kills her instantly.
Savanah is able to do much better, and although she takes some nasty claw slashes, she does manage to slay her foe, causing its body to melt into a foul puddle of fur and bile. After her opponent is defeated she faces the demon that had just finished slaying Kasta. She manages to draw it away form Randal enabling him to down a healing potion, but he stays on the ground, knowing that there is little help he can lend to the fight.
Breca is lucky and although he takes his share of wounds he is able to slay his foe. He then helps Savanah finish off the last demon and the battle comes to a close. The characters are all badly wounded and Breca’s spells are low. The brave lizardfolk warrior, Kasta lies dead.
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Here's a the URL to photobucket where I posted my illustration of Kratos, along with one of Czar that Alex- Czar's player drew.
http://s211.photobucket.com/albums/bb101/drew_langston/
Hmmm, I wonder why :D. I`d love to see that picture if you get a chance to put it up.Interestingly enough just before that game session I completed a character portrait of the Goliath, and had been stabbing it with pins before the players showed up. I have also done a portrait of Breca, but haven't yet finished one hand. Edward does not want to me to finish the picture. Go figure...
Thanks for the art work link. It's nice to put some faces to names.
Game Session 12 (part 1): Here There be monsters, the Shrine.
PC's
Captain Breca (Sea cliff, dwarf, male, cleric of Procan 8)
Savannah (Rakasta, female, ranger 2/barbarian 1/fighter 2/dervish 2)
Randal (human, male, ranger 6/horizon walker 2)
Ah'hi- a new addition to the party (phanaton, male sorcerer 7)
Czar (Czar's player is in San Deigo, so Czar has taken ill and is waiting outside the Shrine with Urol the gnome).
After tangling with the ape demons the heroes take the time to heal themselves. They next start a thorough search of the cavernous lair. Randal and Savannah take to peering inside the small iron barred window built into the door that looks into a small cell like cave. There on the ground they can make out a small furry creature that is bound with rope. It takes a long time to open the door, and they finally end up prying the hinges loose. They do however manage to free the little creature from the cell, and heal the being of some injuries. They find out that its name is Ah’hi, and that he is a phanaton who became lost in the fogmire and was later abducted by the demon apes. A phanaton is apparently a race of small humanoids native to the isle of dread that vaguely resembles an anthropomorphic cross between a raccoon and a flying squirrel.
Fortunately, Ah’hi (although a little eccentric) is quite grateful to the party and wishes to work with them to escape. He is also a powerful sorcerer, and puts his magic to use by borrowing some rope from Breca and then casting rope trick to give the party a safe place to rest. Randal is the first to climb the rope, but poor Randal is wearing a quiver of Elhonna, and the two extra dimensional spaces don’t work well together. Randal is ejected from the rope trick space and the magic in his quiver is destroyed. This prompts Breca to leave his haversack hidden nearby and the group hides and rests.
About 10 hours later they emerge from hiding, rested and ready to press on. There are two more doors exiting the cave that they have yet to explore. Behind one door they can hear the howling of baboons. Behind the other door they hear nothing, but when Breca casts a clairvoyance spell they can clearly see the room beyond. In the room are several piles of bones, and curled up among the bones is a large snake. However instead of snake’s head there is a hideous woman’s head- a naga.
Neither the apes nor the naga seem to be aware that the heroes are in the next room, so some deliberation occurs about the best course of action. In the end Ah’hi comes up with a plan. He casts a fly spell on himself and swoops back down into the cell chamber. He then flies up a shaft built into the ceiling of the room. The shaft leads to circular trap door made of iron metal bars, and it leads into the room that is filled with the howling apes. He can hear and smell them quite clearly, so he knows they are near. However, they don’t yet seem to be aware of him. He then uses his mage hand spell to remove the latch keeping the trap door in place. Next he casts dancing lights up into the room above. This gets the attention of the monkeys and they begin screeching and howling. Some of them take up position on the grate, and Ah’hi takes advantage of this by fetching sharp bones from below and poking them in the bottoms. This gets the apes’ attention, and they urinate, vomit and s@@+ down at the phanaton. The phanaton retaliates by launching a fireball up the shaft. It explodes up above, burning apes to a crisp and sending them howling back into the darkness away from the shaft. Next Ah’hi flies further up and pushes open the grate slightly. At the far end of the room, yelping and snarling is the mob of baboons. Ah’hi launches another fireball, incinerating more of the apes, and causing the remainder of the mob to charge towards him. He floats back down the shaft, but not before a few manage to claw down at him inflicting a couple of nasty scratches. At about this time Savannah, who has grown impatient waiting, rushes into the room. The apes see her, and she shouts out at them trying to get their attention. They oblige her, and rush forward, at which point she withdraws out into the doorway that leads to the main cave where Breca and Randal wait. The demonic simians swarm over her, clawing and biting, as they flow past her like a great, stinking, furry wave of rage that gushes out into the cave beyond. As they come she holds her ground and slashes away, cutting them down with her scimitars. Yet there are too many for her to easily defend herself, and she takes several wounds from their claws and teeth.
Breca and Randal finally join the fight. Breca unleashes searing light spells and Randal launches arrows into the howling mob. Ah’hi, finding that the battle has left him, flies out of the shaft and back into the cavern room. There he begins bombarding the baboons with magic missile spells, as he does not want to injure Savannah by using a fireball. With the entire party now engaged in the fight it is not long before the mob of fiendish baboons is slaughtered, with only Savannah being injured in the fray. The heroes are about to start hunting down the few stragglers when suddenly the naga from the nearby chamber slithers into the cave- seemingly attracted by the sounds of battle.
Showing no interest in parlay the heroes unleash their fury on the naga. Ah’hi launches scorching rays of fire, Breca fires his crossbow, Randal his arrows, and Savannah charges in and slashes with her scimitars, as she does so she feels magic from its glowing yellow eyes wash over her, but she resists the magic and presses her charge. None of the attacks hit. The fiend seems to be protected by some form of magic that displaces the true location of her being. She fights back, launching a bolt of magical lightning at the phanaton that shocks and scalds Ah’hi. Breca then begins summoning his apes. Savannah continues to attack in melee, landing slashes here and there with her blades. Seeing his rays of fire fail, Ah’hi opens up with a magic missile bombardment, but it doesn’t seem to overcome her spell resistance. The naga, in turn tries to bite into Savannah and infect her with its poison, but the quick catfolk woman easily dodges the attack, and the naga slithers forward, putting it close enough to Breca and Randal that its charming gaze washes over them.
Breca manages to resist her charms (possibly being turned off by the fact that she doesn’t have a beard). Young Randal however feels completely enamored by the snake woman, and loses all interest in attacking her. He does however feel compelled to defend her, and a few seconds later she orders him to start blasting arrows into the fiendish ape that Breca summons.
Ah’hi is back far enough to avoid the effects of her gaze, and from his vantage point high in the air he launches another magic missile barrage. This one hits. Her attention is again drawn towards the sorcerer, as the little fur ball is doing the most damage to her. She strikes back with her own magic missile barrage, and it forces him to fly down beneath the great rock shelf the battle is raging on top of, so that he can cast a shield spell.
Randal proves to be an effective marksman against Breca’s ape and nearly slays the beast. However, since it is having little effect on the naga, she decides to order Randal to turn his bow on Savannah (a trend seems to be forming). He happily obliges, as he has no love of the cat woman, and begins to pepper her with arrows. By this time the naga’s wounds are wracking up. Breca unleashes his searing light spells; Ah’hi continues with his magic missiles, and Savannah keeps slashing with her scimitars. A couple of more volleys of spells are exchanged, but soon (despite Randal’s help) the naga falls to the magic missiles (good old magic missile).
With the naga down and no sign of further opponents to be had, the party presses on into her lair. In addition to the piles of bones Breca had viewed with his clairvoyance spell, the lair also holds a pair of large fountains facing one another that vaguely resemble large stone sinks set into the floor. Each has a single tap with water trickling out, and the taps resemble leering ape heads. The room also has a set of large iron double doors exiting it.
Using a detect magic spell, Breca scans the room for auras of magical energy. He manages to find several. Both the fountains have auras of magic about them, as does one of the bone piles. Ah’hi digs amongst the bones and finds a short sword that seems to be enchanted. Breca begins fooling with the fountains and accidentally triggers an ice storm trap that bombards himself, Ah’hi and Randal. They all survive, but need some healing afterwards. Yet, this does not dissuade the dwarf and once the magic subsides he continues his search. No more traps are activated, but he does uncover a couple of interesting items in the bottoms of the pools. One is a lump of iron cast into the shape of an ape’s paw and the other is a set of enchanted bracers. The ape’s paw is added to the nearly full haversack, while Savannah tries on the bracers- though she can’t notice any obvious effect when she puts them on; she decides to keep them on anyhow, as they look good.
Having scoured the Naga’s lair the heroes decide it is a good time to recover some spells. Ah’hi casts another rope trick and he and Breca clamber up the rope. Meanwhile, Savannah and Randal decide to go poke around in the lair of the demonic baboons since the party didn’t get a chance to search this area. This large chamber is roughly rectangular. It features two rows of three pillars running along the long walls of the room that lead to a stone throne that is set centered in front of one of the shorter walls. In front of the throne is the grate that opens into the shaft, that in turn leads to the cell/cave where Ah’hi was found. This big room stinks of burnt fur, and charred baboon corpses lay scattered about- all the results of Ah’hi’s fireball spells. Randal keeps his bow ready while Savannah cautiously starts to investigate. Though the two can’t speak any of the same languages, they seem to have arrived at some sort of truce, and make an effort to work as a team- or maybe it’s just that Randal doesn’t trust Savannah enough to let her wander about on her own.
As Savannah inspects the room she finds marks on the floor behind the throne that suggest it has been moved on semi regular basis out from the wall. This suggests to Savannah that there may be some kind of secret door in the wall so she begins a search. She soon finds just such a door. It rotates on a central pivot point and she is able to push it open without too much difficulty. On the other side is small chamber with two iron chests sitting in the room. She leaves the door open, and Randal watches from the throne room.
Savannah tries to move one of the iron chests, but as she does so, she activates a magical trap, which detonates a fireball in the room. She dives clear of the flames as best she can, but is still scalded. The flames burst out into the throne room, but Randal has some cover and is able to avoid the worst of the blast, though he too takes some damage. Fortunately, further inspection of the chests activates no further traps. However, Savannah is not able to open any of them. She decides to carry one back to Breca and Ah’hi in hopes that they may have some spell or genius idea that can help. The chests are bulky and heavy, so she only tries to take one. As she and Randal are leaving the throne room, Randal suddenly hears a noise from behind. Savannah has already exited the room, but Randal spins around and sees a hulking ape demon sitting in the throne. The ape demon wasn’t there as second ago. It is similar to the ones that they fought when they first arrived through the mirror portal. However, this one is a hulking male, whereas the previous demons were female.
Randal turns to run, but before he can get far the ape lunges into the air. It is damn fast and clears the room in an instant pouncing on Randal’s back. The ape demon tears into him with savage glee, clawing and biting. Randal’s blood sprays across the throne room, as the demon nearly pulls his head from his body. Savannah hears Randal’s gurgled scream, drops the chest and bursts back into the room. She sees Randal sprawled on the ground, his head only just barely attached to his body. It’s clear he no longer lives, so she spins around as quick as she came in and runs.
In a matter of a couple of seconds the quick cat woman is standing beneath the spot in space where Ah’hi and Breca climbed the rope. They see her looking distressed from their dimensional window and lower it down. She scampers up just as the ape appears and tries make her his next victim. Ah’hi is quick as well and he pulls the rope up. The three are safe, and the frustrated demon claws at thin air.
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Poor Jason the player who was running Randal, wasn't actually at this game session to see his character torn to pieces. He entrusted the character to me to run, and I in turn gave him over to another friend who was dropping in to play with us that day.
I emailed Jason to break the news. It went something like this:
Well Jason the bad news is that your quiver of Elhonna was destroyed when you tried to bring it up into a rope trick spell. The good news is your character was killed so you don't need to worry about it.
Fortunately, Jason is drafting an Olman zombie master that he looks forward to playing, so I think that this new character will add an interesting twist to the party dynamic. Though I am a little bit worried that the characters who have a connection with Lavinia are slowly being weeded out of the party, and that relationship is one of the main motivators of the campaign. I will have to try to rebuild when they get to Farshore.
Game Session 12 part 2. This is continued from the previous game session 12 part 1 entry.
Savannah describes Randal’s horrific death, and mentions the chests and secret room the pair located. After several hours of resting in the rope trick space the group descends back into the dungeon. They venture back to the site of Randal’s death, and they find that he has been stripped of his gear. His body has been torn to shreds and chunks of it are scattered across the room. Furthermore, the chest the Savannah dropped is nowhere to be seen, and the entrance to the secret chamber is once again closed.
They decide to inspect the room again. Breca and Ah’hi push open the secret door while Savannah stays back. The chests are back in their original locations, but sitting on top of them is the hulking ape demon- his fur still caked with Randal’s dried blood. It snarls and lunges at Ah’hi. Luckily Ah’hi is quick, small and well protected with magic. He survives the attack without terrible injury and retreats back into the throne room. Breca unleashes the fury of his god on the ape, blasting him with searing light. It yowls in agony and as Savannah rushes in at it, the beast disappears from sight.
A few tense seconds pass, during which Breca casts spells on himself. Then suddenly Savannah hears heavy footsteps dashing across the floor towards Breca. She is unable to see the assailant, until it turns visible when it pounces on Breca. It is the ape demon again, and it hits Breca hard with its claws and fangs. He stumbles back into the corner of the treasure chamber desperately trying to fend it off, blood gushing from his wounds. He blasts it again with searing light, as Ah’hi launches magic missiles and Savannah enters her dervish dance and tries to slash him down with her scimitars. Her moves are graceful and things of beauty, but alas the beast is fast, has a tough hide and seems to be warded with magic. Only the odd swing manages to penetrate its heavy defences. They do seem to distract it though, for it continues to press the attack on the dwarf, but none of its flurry of attacks get past Breca’s animated shield and magical wards. Breca does realize he’s in trouble, and casts his meld into stone spell, which allows him to merge with the dungeon wall. The demon is enraged by this act of cowardice/self preservation and helpless to do anything about it. He instead turns and charges back toward Ah’hi again clawing savagely at the phanaton, but unable to slay him.
Savannah continues pursuing him with her dervish dance, but the demon ignores her, as her attacks are relatively ineffective compared to the magic damage he has taken from the other two. Breca finally emerges from the wall and the demons turns his attention back to the dwarf, especially since Ah’hi is flying and proving hard to hit. He again charges and pounces, this time nearly killing Breca. But the barely alive dwarf gets off another searing light, while Ah’hi launches another magic missile barrage, and the demon is finally destroyed! All the party members are wounded, and Breca is only barely still on his feet. Much needed divine healing is thus performed.
The demon’s remains proves to hold some valuables. Ah’hi recovers a couple of items that belonged to him, and the party recovers another set of magical bracers that seem to be bracers of armour. They also find a ring with a ram shaped head on it that has ancient Olman script written across it. Breca is able to decipher the writing and uses the command word to produce a blast of force. He takes advantage of ring’s powers to bash in both the chests. However, the chests are quite strong and accomplishing the task expends all the ring’s magic. Inside the chests they find another iron ape paw, thousands of gold and silver coins from the time of the Olman empire, and a wooden wand.
Having looted the treasury it is decided once again to use Ah’hi’s rope trick to rest and recover after the grueling fight with the demon.
The next day they again continue to explore the complex. There explorations take them back to the naga’s lair and through the set of double doors- the only direction they have discovered that they haven’t yet explored. The doors open into a fairly spacious square shaped room with dark stonewalls and a smoothly polished black stone floor. The room features two more man-sized statues of demonic simians. The statures are cast iron and the heads of the apes are tilted back with their fanged mouths open in a silent roar. Each statue is missing a hand. This less than subtle detail does not escape the adventurers and they decide to hold the iron paws up against the statues. The paws magically bond to the statues, and this enables the heroes to open the next set of iron double doors that lead out of the room.
A lengthy hall way stretches beyond. It is lined with half a dozen alcoves- three on each side at regular intervals down the length of the hall. Each alcove holds another simian demonic statue. These ones are crafted of stone and are slightly more crude than the iron pair in the previous room. As the party makes their way down the hall the statues start to shout, howl and shriek. Fortunately they don’t move or take any other kind of action.
At the end of the hall is a pair of copper double doors, again carved with imagery of simian and reptilian demons tormenting humans. The heroes decide that this may lead into an especially nasty area, so they ready spells and burst in.
The room beyond is a large one. It has a high ceiling and again feature many statues. Only the walls are four alcoves- two on each of the adjacent walls set directly across from one another. Each alcove holds another demonic ape statue. At the far end of the room is a raised dais with a larger statue. This stone statue is of a massive simian/reptile hybrid type demon. It has two baboon like heads and tentacles for arms. A large rectangular fire pit dominates the centre of the room, and a winch like mechanism with a rope leads up to the ceiling. There the rope feeds through an iron rung set in the ceiling. The rope drops back down so that it hangs over the fire pit. Tied to the end of the rope is Urol the gnome. He looks barely conscious. The fire is burning high, but Urol is well out of reach of the flames (the seem to be cooking him slowly). Czar is also in the room. He too is on the ground unmoving and bound with rope. His body is set in a corner near the two-headed statue. He doesn’t move. The gear of Randal, Czar and Ah’hi lay scattered behind the big two-headed statue.
Since there seems to be nothing hostile in the room, Ahihi is convinced to fly up with a knife and cut down the gnome. Savannah moves over to investigate Czar. However as the group takes action, the two headed demon statue begins to move. In seconds it has fully animated and leaps off its dais to move forward and attack the intruders. The party breaks into action. It first moves towards Breca who is standing near the winch lashing him with a tentacle, but not managing to grapple the dwarf. The ape heads of the construct yowl, and magical fear washes over the group. Savannah is shaken, but not panicked, and the rest of group resists the enchantment. Everyone does their best to stay out of reach of the things tentacles. Savannah’s weapons seem nearly useless against it, but she does what she can to distract it. This gives Breca the chance to summon a lantern archon, which stays high in the air and pelts the demon construct with holy rays. The thing has no ranged attacks, but rips the winch mechanism out of the floor and hurls it through the air with its tentacles. The heavy winch smashes into the little celestial and nearly destroys it.
However, before the construct can do much more damage Ah’hi goes to work and hits it with an especially devastating ray of enfeeblement. With its strength sapped the demon statue’s tentacles seem suddenly much more heavy. They drag on the ground instead of writhe about, but it is still able to make use of them and it continues to hound Breca and Savannah, inflicting some measure of damage. Luckily they are able to resist the horrid skin rotting effects the tentacles are capable of inducing. A couple of more hits with Ah’hi’s rays and the statue finds itself able to take only the slightest of movements. By this point Breca has two Lantern archons blasting at the construct, and the heroes finish it off with a combination of spells and physical attacks.
Using a detect magic spell, Breca determines that construct was the source of the foul magic infecting the region. He sees the abyssal ley lines begin to dissipate and is confident that the destruction of this living statue was the key to freeing the region of its demonic curse.
Czar is freed and healed of his injuries. He is able to relate that he was ambushed outside the cave by a demon ape and suffered horrid wounds from the surprise attack. He found himself in a grapple with the thing only to suddenly teleport and appear in front of the two head statue. It seemed that the demon had the ability to teleport and bring someone along against their will- even while grappling (teleport has only a verbal component). At this point the statue animated and its tentacles ripped Czar off the ape demon. They also inflicted horrible damage on him and rotted his skin. He was then tossed aside, barely alive and bound by the ape demon with ropes. The ape demon spent several hours tormenting him and threatening to sacrifice him to his master just as soon as he finished killing the rest of Czar’s friends. Urol has little to say about his own experience (he seems to be in a state of shock), though he too was captured and teleported to the altar room by the demon ape.
The group is able to make their way out of the foul shrine, destroying blasphemous idols as they go. It turns out the red crystal like material in the ceiling of the demon apes’ lair is actually a skylight of sorts. It is shattered without terrible difficulty and using Ah’hi’s flying magic they can exit the complex. They find themselves on top of a hill with a clear view down the ruin where they met Kasta. The fog is gone and it looks as though they can continue to Farshore.
There is some debate regarding the final encounter with the Lemorian golem (documented in the entry above), which I wouldn't mind a little feed back on.
1. Can a ray of enfeeblement actually effect the thing since it is a construct?
2. Do the effects of multiple rays stack?
Anyhow I think in retrospect I did a poor job of running this final battle and didn't do it justice. However we did loose three PCs in Here there be monsters, so maybe they deserved a bit of break.
Yeah, they needed break and then some!
I'm at work right now, but first chance I get I will look over the rules on ray of enfeeblement vs constructs and pitch in my two cents.
Your most welcome, I figured that would make it easier for anyone bothering to take the time to read this stuff to follow. If I look at a journal I like to be able to know right away who all the different characters are and how they've been put togther.
P.H. Dungeon,
Just a word of thanks for putting the characters name/class/level in each post. It helps me keep track of them over the long haul.Tom
We have two new characters joing the game for this coming session as we begin Tide of Dread.
I don't have all the details yet, but it looks like Jason will be replacing Randal with an Olman Zombie Master from Mora.
Michael a player who had to leave the game in There is No Honour due to work related crap is coming back. He was formerly running Deek the Paladin, but will now be running an Olman warrior woman named Jaheria. Jaheria will be a "deathtouched", which is a race I've created for the campaign. Deathtouched basically have the stats of half orcs, but are Olman warriors born from zombie masters who have been tainted by the necromantic energies that infuse the zombie masters' bodies. They have a necrotic look about them, and are known as powerful warriors. The deathtouched are feared, shunned and respected by the Olman people. They are raised in the seven villages as children, but when they enter adolesence they are sent to special commune inhabited only by death touched. Here they train as elite warriors that are called upon in emergencies to help protect the seven villages and defend the wall from attack.
Jeff the player who was running Kratos and then Savannah will be sending the catfolk dervish back into the jungle when the characters reach Farshore. He will then bring in a new character that he had created to be his true replacement for Kratos. This character is Argent an air gensai, swashbuckler/wizard/abjurant champion (essentially a gish). Argent will actually have been a former pirate and lover of Harliss Javell. Unfortunately he offended (cheated on) her and she marooned him on the isle of dread. He has since found his way to Farshore and joined the colony, claiming to be a sailor who survived a ship wreck.
Thus we will nearly have an entirely new party as of next game session, which should make for an interesting new dynamic in the campaign. Hopefully it will all work.
Okay this is sort of a new start to the campaign as we have three new PCs joining the party. A few details on this are mentioned above. In this session the party begins Tides of Dread.
The new party roster:
Captain Breca (Sea Cliff dwarf, male, Cleric 8/Demonwrecker 1)
Czar (Human (jotunbred), male, Monk 1/Barbarian 7)
New PCs:
Vel'drin (human (Olman), male, Cleric/Zombie master 9)
Jaheria (human (Olman death touched), Fighter 9)
Argent Kirkson (Air Gensai, Swashbuckler/Wizard/Abjurant Champion 9)
Game Session #13 part A. (Farshore- finally): The survivors (Czar, Breca, Urol, Savannah and Ahi) press on through the jungle towards Farshore. After a couple of more days of hard travel they finally find a trail that leads to the Great Wall. This large, dark stonewall of ancient construction spans a narrow isthmus that separates the interior of the Isle of Dread from the peninsula where several of the seven Olman villages are located (the rest being constructed on small nearby islands). The wall is crumbling and in disrepair, but it still provides an ample barrier to keep out dinosaurs and other dangerous beasts. It is patrolled by Olman warriors who greet the party, and after brief negotiation they allow the survivors to pass through the gates. The Olmans then escort them to the village of Tanora. Ahi and Savannah choose to return back into their jungle home, as it is where they are most comfortable, leaving only Breca, Czar and Urol to continue to Tanora and then Farshore.
Tanora is the first experience the characters have with any of the Olman villages on the Isle of Dread. As they enter the trail opens into a large outdoor common area with a tiny stone, stepped pyramid in the centre. Olman villagers sit on logs around the common area and seem to be hard at work carving out wooden tribal masks. The outlanders are led to the two most important elders of the village. One is an older woman well adorned in tribal jewelry who carries a oval shaped wooden shield and an obsidian tipped spear. The other is an incredibly weathered old woman- a true crone. What remains of her hair is white and limp. Strangely, she retains all her teeth, but they have been filed to sharp points. She wears no top (which is not uncommon among the Olman women), and her old flappy breasts have bone piercings running down them from collarbone to nipple. Even more horrifying the woman sits on an Olman zombie who is on his hands and knees to form a bench for her. Two other zombies stand behind her fanning her with palm leaves. Next to her is a younger man with a shaved head and eyebrows. He has a lean gaunt build and bears various tribal markings. He too is accompanied by and undead servant, but his servant is a bleached skeleton (human) that has been dressed in the finery of a wealthy tribal Olman female. Finally standing close to him is yet another woman. This woman is also fairly young; she is tall, lean and muscular- a warrior to be sure. She currently wears no armour, or covering on her chest, and it is clear that one of her breasts has been removed, leaving only a mass of scar tissue that she makes no effort to conceal. He forearms and lower legs are also scarred, but in this case the scaring is intentional and forms artistic designs. Unfortunately, the woman seems to be suffering from some sort of skin disease. Her flesh is quite pale and flaking in many spots on her body, giving an overall necrotic look about her.
Since Breca speaks Olman (though his dialect is quite different than the locals), he explains to the group briefly how his party arrived on the island and how they are trying to get to Farshore. The Olmans listen intently and sensing no dishonesty from Breca they decide to assist him. It seems that the younger man and woman among the Olman leaders were planning to go to Farshore to meet a woman who has recently arrived there and tried to take control of the colony. They wish to see if the political changes that seem to be taking place in Farshore will have any impact on the Olmans. Thus, the pair is happy to escort the group through Olman territory and make arrangements to get them to the small island that Farshore is built on. The man is named Vel’drin and woman is Jaheria. Breca, Czar and Urol, soon learn that the two are brother and sister and that Vel’drin is the zombie master of a nearby village called Mora.
The outlanders spend the night in a small guest hut, and the next morning they set out for Mora escorted by Vel’din, Jaheria and a small band of Olman warriors. Vel’drin continues to travel with his skeletal consort and over the course of the day Breca notices him conversing with her, despite the fact that the skeleton seems mindless and incapable of response. He refers to the creature as “mother”, and often asks her questions, and makes general comments to her like: “The weather looks like it will hold today mother,” or “You are looking lovely this morning mother.” Needless to say Breca finds it quite disturbing and Czar and Urol are probably fortunate not to speak Olman. Vel’drin’s strange behaviour seems to have little impact on his warrior sister, who must be quite used to his eccentricities.
It is another long day of trekking through the jungle to get to Mora, although at least there are well kept footpaths to follow. When the band arrives they find Mora to be much like Tanora, and they eat and sleep for the night. Mora is on the southern tip of the Isle, so the next morning when the group sets out for Farshore, they are loaded into massive canoes with wooden pontoons extending out on either side of the canoes to stabilize them for travel in the sometimes rough ocean waters. Jaheria, Vel’drin and “mother” set out in one canoe with a group of four beefy zombies acting as the paddlers. The other travelers are loaded into another canoe with a group of Olmans acting as the paddlers for the second vessel. It is long hot day on the warm tropical sea, but finally as dusk approaches the canoes close in on the island of Temute. Temute is a small (relative to the Isle of Dread) jungle covered island a little south of the Isle of Dread, and it is here that Farshore can finally be found.
As the canoes round a point and enter into Farhsore’s small harbour the travelers are startled to see that anchored in the habour is a run down looking caravel bearing the red and black flag of the dreaded Crimson Fleet. Several of the buildings in the village seem to be aflame and dense black smoke billows among its dirt streets. The clanging and shouting of tragedy and battle drift out into the bay, and the group paddles fast and hard to reach the docks. As they close Breca and Vel’drin cast divine blessings on themselves and Jaheria readies her weapons and armour.
As the canoes reach the docks Breca and Czar leap out of the canoes and race towards the action. Vel’drin takes his time, helping his “mother out of the canoe” and appraising the situation. Jaheria stays near her brother awaiting orders. Nearby on the ground is an older man who is obviously wounded and barely alive, and not far across the street from him is a burning building from which screams for help emerge. Breca rushes to the burning building and uses a create water spell to dump gallons of water down on the flames before striding in to rescue a woman trapped inside.
Vel’drin and Urol quickly attend to the wounded old man on the ground making sure he is stabilized. Vel’drin then orders his zombies and the Olman warriors to stay near the docks to guard the wounded man, Urol, mother, and the canoes while he and Jaheria head deeper into the village to deal with a band of pirates trying to break into the village’s chapel.
Czar has already rushed into the heart of the action where he has found a large Hadozee pirate chasing a woman. At the same time a man (though this is hard to tell because his body is radiating a bright light that makes him hard to look at) arrives to help the woman. Before he can take any action against the ape man, Czar races up and tackles the Hadozee from behind, quickly putting him in a choke hold and reprimanding him for his despicable actions while squeezing him into unconsciousness. The glowing fellow is not sure what to make of the hulking Czar with his bear mask, so he watches warily and sends the woman on her way with a slap on the ass.
Jaheria, Breca and Vel’drin also move up to the battle. Jaheria plunges into the group of pirates busy trying to batter down the sturdy chapel doors with a makeshift battering ram. They drop the ram and draw cutlasses as she lays into them with her own weapon, which looks like a club bristling with the sharp teeth of various deadly animals. The pirates begin slashing at Jaheria but she is a highly trained warrior and fends off the majority of their clumsy attacks with her shield, suffering only a few minor scratches. By this time Breca and Vel’drin are able to lend their support, both of them call on their gods and summon columns of searing flame down among the pirates. Vel’drin blasts the group in battle with his sister, being careful not to hit her, while Breca obliterates another group fighting around a well in a nearby. Breca’s group had just finished off a band of colonists and it appears to Breca that the pirate leader may be among these men. As it turns out Breca’s flamestrike burns most of the pirates he targets to death, but one man, a man wearing a hangman’s noose as a necklace deftly dodges the flames and rushes in to help his companions in their fight against Jaheria.
The figure with the glowing magical armour contributes with blasts of magic missiles that seem to emanate from one of two wands locked against the side of his crossbow. Breca and Vel’drin continue to target the pirate captain, using searing light spells to scald him with holy fire. In the mean time, Jaheria and Czar engage pirates in melee using their deadly fighting prowess to cut down the scallywags. It isn’t long before there are no more foes to fight, and as the pirate captain tries to surrender Jaheria cuts him down. Luckily, they have managed to keep one of the pirates alive who they can later use for interrogation, so the captain’s death is not a huge loss.
Breca and Czar next head back to the docks, leaving the prisoner under the guard of Vel’drin’s zombies. From the docks, Breca sees a rowboat filled with pirates trying to flee back to their ship, and he calls upon Procan to summon an Ice Storm that pummels the pirates, leaving only their smashed and beaten corpses slumped in a now sinking rowboat. He and Czar then paddle to the ship intent on boarding it and finishing off any remaining pirates.
Vel’drin and Jaheria take their time, as Jaheria wishes to consume a portion of the pirate captain’s brain, and Vel’drin seems interested in animating the captain as another zombie servant. The glowing wizard watches these events in horror, but does not interfer in the strange Olman rituals, knowing that it can be unwise to offend the Olmans, especially after they just helped defeat so many pirates.
On board the ship Czar and Breca find only a few pirates have been left behind to defend it, and the pair quickly dispatch them. They next proceed to search the ship, but find little in the way of valuables other than some rum and a poorly kept captain’s log.
As the smoke clears and the fires are brought under control, Lavinia and several militia arrive. They all show signs of having been in battle, and were obviously busy defending other parts of the village. Tolin of the Jade Ravens and Sir Deek the paladin are at her side, along with a man by the name of Manathlay Merivanchi the mayor of Farshore (well he was until Lavinia showed up and tried to take over), and Hadozee named Ulveen who is the miltia captain. Lavinia looks around at the carnage seeing the charred corpses, and she first addresses the glowing man, and asks what happened and who the Olmans are. He isn’t sure, but explains they were with a dwarf and a human who wore a bear mask. This of course clues Lavinia in on who they are, and she then learns that Breca and Czar left to attack the pirate ship. The Olmans make their introductions and Vel’drin explains that he is the zombie master of Mora and has come on mission of peace to meet the new leader of Farshore, as well as escort the outlanders to the colony.
Lavinia nods, but can’t conceal the disturbed look on her face as she notices that the top of the pirate captain’s skull has been removed and watches Jaheria wipe some blood and chunks of brain from the edge of her mouth. Deek clutches his holy symbol and begins to mutter prayers to Heironeous.
Over the course of the next few hours, efforts are made to deal with the aftermath of the battle. Breca and Czar finally return after celebrating their victory and arrival in Farshore with some rum, and a meeting is held in the Farshore chapel. Here the reports are delivered regarding numbers of dead and wounded. The visitors are greeted, and Breca and Czar are given a chance to share the tale of their adventures across the Isle of Dread. The man with the glowing armour has now reverted to his normal form and it can be seen that he is not entirely human. He is descended from the mysterious entities called genies and is an air gensai, with bluish hued skin and white hair that seem to be constantly blowing as if it were caught in a breeze. His name is Argent Kirckson, and he is a local resident and adventurer.
Lavinia is angry about the events of the day; she feels that Manathlay has not done a good job in upkeeping and strengthening the defences of the community. She also feels that Ulveen, the Hadozee militia captain, has done a poor job of training the locals. Furthermore, as Breca interrogates the prisoner (who goes by the name lefty, because his left hand is missing), even more concerns are brought to light. It seems that this ship was from a place called Rats End- a small pirate settlement on one of the nearby islands. The ship was recruited by the Crimson Fleet to scout out the defences of Farshore. This information would then have been passed back to the Crimson Fleet who were planning on being in the area to conduct other business in the next couple of months. The Crimson Fleet planned to use the intelligence to plot a raid. Lefty explains that when his captain saw that Farshore looked weak and ill prepared he decided to attack it himself. Lefty still believes that Farshore is going to be attacked, and estimates that they have about two months left before the Crimson Fleet wipes them out.
Ulveen tries to brush off the threat suggesting that Farshore is too small to be worth making a big raid on and that without the information coming back to them they won’t likely bother. This angers both Lavinia and Breca, and Breca storms over to the militia captain and explains that he’d best be taking the threat very seriously. When the Hadozee tells the dwarf that he should lighten up, relax and celebrate the victory they attained today, Breca loses his cool and punches Ulveen in the gut. Ulveen is shocked, and Argent who is a friend of the man decides to step in. He casts a spell that causes Argent and Ulveen to switch places, and Breca suddenly feels his fist deflecting off of Argent’s force armour. At this point the suddenly confused dwarf gathers his senses and composure. Ulveen is still upset and leaps to his feet and storms out of the chapel, calling Breca a maniac as he leaves.
The meeting comes to an end not long after, but first Lavinia informs Breca and Czar that some of the refugees on rowboats made it back safely, including Randal’s mother and one of his sisters. Amella didn’t make it. Afterwards Lavinia escorts the weary group to the village’s only Inn and tavern- The Last Coconut. Here they find Ulveen in his hammock on the porch, eating a bunch of bananas. He glares and snarls at Breca as they enter the bar, and Breca spits back at him. The group is given rooms on the building’s second floor (it is one of the only two story buildings in Farshore), and they settle in for a well deserved rest.
Here is the second part of game session 13 of Savage Tide. For brief description of PC class and levels see the post above. No deaths today, though I did take it a bit easy on them with Temuhti. I'm sure I could have had a kill with him if I wanted, but the players have seen quite a bit of death and near death in the past couple of game sessions, so I didn't want this game session to be too too taxing.
Here are the details:
The next day the heroes are given a tour of Farshore by Lavinia and Lord Manathlay. During the tour it becomes obvious that Lavinia is quite critical about how Manathlay has been running the show, and it is also clear that Manathlay is none too happy with her constant criticism towards him. There are several places that are pointed out as areas for improvement including the defence of the harbour, the palisade walls and watchtowers, as well as the training of the militia. Breca makes notes on several of these needs and starts making some plans for upgrades.
Over the next couple of days these plans are set in motion. Lavinia orders Deek to take up the training of the miltia. Breca casts a hallow spell on the cemetery to help improve moral among the colonists. During the night he and Czar row out into the harbour and Breca uses stoneshape spells to begin creating a secret bunker where the party can store their valuables until such a time that they can return to a larger settlement to sell off some of the loot they’ve acquired. Breca and Czar also commission professor Adlewattle (the resident wizard/alchemist) to identify some of the magical items they have found over the past months.
They discover that a golden necklace from Tomoachan is actually a strand of prayer beads, the wand they recovered in the demon shrine is a wand of aid, and the Olman spear is a +2 weapon. Adlewattle does say that the bat idol they found in Tomoachan is magical, but he can’t discern what it does. Other mundane goods are appraised as well.
While Breca and Czar keep busy, Jaheria, Vel’drin and Argent make plans with Lavinia regarding the role of the Olmans in the defence of the village. Lavinia suggests that the Crimson Fleet will be a danger to the seven villages as well and asks if Vel’drin has the sway to recruit any of the Olman warriors to the cause. He sees this as a possibility but makes no promises. However, it is decided that an envoy should be sent back to Tanora to speak with chief J’kal about allying with the Olmans. Lavinia and Breca are also interested in repairing their ships. However the people of Farshore have been having trouble getting much needed tar supplies that are crucial to the repairs. There are known to be several large tar pits northwest of the Great Olman wall. Previously, the Olmans would gather tar and trade it with the people of Farshore. However lately something has been barring access to the tar pits. Lavinia would like to find out what the problem is and get it solved so that they can set about repairing their ships.
Once the bunker is complete and the loot has been safely stored, the most pressing matters in Farshore are under control. The party decides to return to Tanora and speak with J’kal. Two days later they are trekking into the village just as the sun goes down. It has been a long hike and they are weary. An important religious ceremony seems to be going on when they arrive. A large fire has been lit around the small pyramid in the centre of the village common. Several dancers wearing tribal masks bearing bat like visages dance around the fire, while other tribes folk beat on primitive drums. They are all chanting one word over and over again. This word is “zotzilla”. As the party watches the fire suddenly surges high into the air and there is an explosion of sparks. Manifesting in the fire is a powerful bat like entity. It speaks in a deep, angry, booming voice: “Zotzilla hears your sniveling prayers. If you wish to appease my anger return what was taken from me.”
At this point Breca gets a strange feeling that the entity is talking about the golden bat idol in his possession. He also feels as though the creature is starring directly at him as it speaks. As it finishes bellowing these words, it explodes in a blast of sparks. Out of the explosion emerges a swarm of flaming bats the size of dogs. They fly among the crowd looking to latch onto anyone nearby. The Olmans scream and run for the safety of their huts, and Argent raises his enchanted crossbow and fires at the first bat he can target
His bolt flies true and seems to injure the fire bat. This quickly gets their attention and the flock turns their wrath on the heroes. A quick and vicious melee breaks out with the bats flying in and latching onto characters feeding on their blood and burning them at the same time. Jaheria and Breca seem to bear the brunt of these attacks, but Vel’drin casts a resist elements spell on his sister that protects her from the flames if not the feeding. It doesn’t take too long for the group to hack the fire bats off one another and destroy them with their enchanted weapons, and only Jaheria and Breca suffer any significant injury.
After the fire bats have been destroyed the fearful Olmans emerge from hiding. J’kel approaches the party and offers her thanks for their aid, though this thanks is obviously directed far more towards Jaheria and Vel’drin than the outsiders. The group is then escorted to J’kel’s residence, a wooden long house built on stilts. Here the party explains the situation in Farshore and the dangers posed by the Crimson Fleet. J’kel and Requota listen closely, but reply that there is little help they can offer at the moment. They have more pressing concerns.
Zotzilla is the name of a God that is believed to dwell in the volcanoes known as the fangs of Zotzilla, which are located on the Isle of Dread to the northwest. The volcanoes have been very actively of late and the Olmans have discerned that Zotzilla is angry. They believe an eruption will soon destroy them if they can’t appease the god. Now they have learned that something has been stolen from him, but they don’t know what it is. At this point Breca explains that he believes he knows what the god may be angry about. He removes the golden bat idol from his magical haversack, and tells the story of how he came to possess it. J’kel does not seem impressed. She explains that there is a shrine in one of the volcanoes dedicated to Zotzilla and the bat idol has been there since well before she came into being. She is very skeptical of Breca’s story, for how could this idol have ended up in a ruin so far from the Isle of Dread? However, if Breca were in fact a thief then why would he admit he had the idol and offer to see it returned. She decides to give him the benefit of the doubt for the time being, so long as the idol is safely returned and Zotzilla is pacified.
In regards to the tar pits, J’kel explains that the Olmans have no longer been able to safely gather tar because a terribly aggressive tyrannosaur has moved into the area. The Olmans call the beast Temuhti-Tecuani, and he is one of the seven legendary beasts of the island that the Olmans often speak of. He is believed to be the largest, oldest and most cantankerous member of his kind on the island. Thus, the Olmans no longer collect tar, for only death awaits them near the tar pits.
The party offers their aid. Breca is willing to return the idol, and Vel’drin and Jaheria are sent to show them the way to the shrine and to ensure the task is completed.
The next morning they set out into the jungle. The tar pits are more or less on the way to the fangs of Zotzilla, so the party decides to make them their first stop and see about dealing with the tyrannosaur. After a few longs days of relatively uneventful travel (quite a miracle on the Isle of Dread) through the steaming, insect infested jungles, they finally reach the vast, bubbling tar pits. It isn’t long before they see signs of the great dinosaur, and near the end of the day they come upon him. It seems he has found his next meal or at least snack. From the looks of things a band of brave phanatons were attempting to gather tar when Temuhti came upon them. Now he is in full fury chasing them along the edge of the tar pit, as they desperately throw tiny javelins at him and run for their lives.
With little time to plan if they wish to help the phanatons the party bursts into action. Breca and Vel’drin unleash their flame strikes, while Jaheria runs out from the cover towards a large tree on the edge of the tar pit. She hurls a javelin as he goes, but it seems to be nothing more than a sting to the massive lizard. Czar tries a similar tactic and Argent launches enchanted bolts from his crossbow. Jaheria finds herself closest to the beast and most exposed. It looks towards her with hunger and anger, and the ground trembles as it starts lumbering forward with its fanged jaws slathering.
Breca tries to draw its attention away by casting air walk and climbing high up in the sky above the jungle canopy and yelling insults at the beast. It gives him a glance, but chomps at Jaheria. She uses the tree for cover, but even it is not enough to protect her, and suddenly she finds herself yanked from the ground, as its fangs sink into her spraying her blood. Luck is with her this day, and as her companions pelt the beast with spells and missile weapons, she manages to escape its mouth and fall to the ground. The others continue to distract it enough that she can flee to the cover of the jungle, where she hides beneath a large log. The dinosaur is right behind her and tramples through the vegetation, lunging down to devour her. Again luck is on her side and it only comes away with a mouthful of wood. By this time Vel’drin and Czar have formed a plan. Vel’drin has cast an air walk spell on Czar, and he runs out over the tar pit, just a little above the tar shouting and hurling javelins at the beast. His ploy is successful, and the tyrannosaur turns and begins stomping towards Czar. Argent attempts to force the beast into the tar pit by casting a slide spell, but to his dismay the beast proves strong willed and the spell fails. Czar also finds that his judgement was not as good as he thought, for the tyrannosaur is fast and has ample reach. Czar isn’t quite as far out in the tar pit as he’d wanted to be when it reaches the edge. Instead of leading him into the pit as he had hoped the beast lunges forward and snaps Czar up. Though Czar’s skills at grappling are nearly unmatched he can’t free himself from the Temuhti’s jaws.
Seeing the dinosaur’s mouth full, Jaheria bursts forth from her hiding place and lays into the creature with powerful blows from her toothed club. She inflicts enough damage to its leg that it drops Czar and chomps her again. This second bite wound leaves her horribly wounded and once again caught in its terrible mouth. Yet, by this point the wounds Tehuti has suffered are taking their toll, and its leg starts to buckle. Argent sees that she is in dire trouble, and in an act of heroism he casts his swapping spell. Suddenly Jaheria is standing where he was, and Argent is now in the beast’s mouth. The wounded Czar struggles to his feet. He feels the fury of the bear rage through him and summons the strength to land a savage blow that shatters the dinosaur’s knee and sends it to the ground. The heroes seize the opportunity presented and finish the beast off.
As they tend to the wounded the surviving phanatons gradually emerge from the jungle and cautiously approach
Thanks for the input. By the way, I have enjoying reading the Lidu diaries - though I usually only have the time to skim them over.
There is some debate regarding the final encounter with the Lemorian golem (documented in the entry above), which I wouldn't mind a little feed back on.
1. Can a ray of enfeeblement actually effect the thing since it is a construct?
2. Do the effects of multiple rays stack?
Anyhow I think in retrospect I did a poor job of running this final battle and didn't do it justice. However we did loose three PCs in Here there be monsters, so maybe they deserved a bit of break.
1) I can't tell you for certain if constructs can be affected by ray of enfeeblement but I can tell you this: Constructs are not affected by ability damage, ability drain, or necromancy effects. The Ray is a necromancy spell that gives the target an ability penalty. If I was the DM I'd have to say that equates to a necromancy effect.
2)The ray gives an ability penalty. Penalties (like bonuses) of the same type normally don't stack unless it says somewhere in the spell descriptor. What does happen however is you get to apply the greatest penalty. Let's say on the first casting the player rolls a 2 but on the next casting the player rolls a 5. You don’t add the 2 and 5; instead apply the 5 (because it’s the highest penalty).
Well my players were doing their own journals and I was posting them, but they've kind of slacked off lately even though I offer an xp award for it. Our game sessions have been pretty productive, which means that it tends to be a lot of work to write a recap of one. However, I have some old players that have had to leave the game because they've moved away, and I know they enjoy reading the detailed recounts, plus I keep them all in a word document, so I will be able to look back on them later in life.
I live in Toronto by the way. There's plenty of players to be had here, which is nice for when you lose a player to the real world.
Thanks for the input. By the way, I have enjoying reading the Lidu diaries - though I usually only have the time to skim them over.Thanks! And I know the feeling, great work over here, but it's hard sometimes following through the really long posts. I like it when people post on my threat because it breaks things up somewhat. Have you thought about having your players post their own journals? It might make this a bit easer (for some of us) to read.
Also where abouts in the great white north are you at? I'm over on the east coast myself.
Finally another journal entry from a player- another letter from Captain Breca.
Father,
Despite many horrors and trials, I have survived the journey to Farshore more or less intact. I believe that my last message told of our meeting with the Mother of All, which was destroyed (thanks be to Procan) and shall trouble sailors no more.
From there we sailed south again, meeting increasingly inclement weather, which the Maiden weathered with the blessings of Procan and my skilled crew. Alas, the Father of Storms brought a mighty gale upon us just as we caught sight of the Isle of Dread, and only by lashing myself to the wheel and praying for his mercy did we survive at all. The Bearded Maiden was not so fortunate. We struck aground a few kilometers from the shore, and would have surely sunk then and there had I not employed a spell to raise the ship off the reef and with careful timing, drive her to the relative safety of a nearby beach. We were holed below the waterline, and so the only option was to sink in ferocious waters, or run her aground in the lagoon, where she would be less exposed to the fury of the storm. Procan saw us to the beach, despite an attack by some foul water beast, and most of the crew survived.
The Isle of Dread is well-named though, for we had not been on the beach, with crew and colonist alike shivering under wet canvas, for more than half and hour before a mighty dinosaur crashed through the trees and sought to eat us. Kratos, our most mighty warrior, fell in the battle, and I felt much grief in the loss of such a companion so soon. He is buried on that same beach, and only now I can raise a cup to his valour.
With the loss of Kratos, and the prospect of a dangerous overland journey ahead, I chose to split the survivors into 2 groups: one to sail using the launches to Farshore, with all the colonists and most of the experienced hands; the other to join our party and trek overland. Both were dangerous choices, but I could not stand to bring innocents into the dark jungles to fall to the nameless terrors that undoubtedly awaited us. Once the boats were lost from sight, we set out - Czar, Randall, and myself, along with a dozen of the braver crew and the marines.
I shall not speak of all that befell us. Of those 15 that set forth from that beach, only three have survived to gaze upon Farshore - myself, the gnome Urol, and Czar. Our journey was guided by the fortune of a cat-woman, Savannah, and at the last saved by the powerful magics of a strange creature known in the local tongue as a 'phanaton', by the name of A'hi. My crew fell victim to a tribe of gargoyles, may the gods curse them, and to giant vermin in tunnels beneath a mountain range we crossed. The feeling of doom that had settled upon me before I left Sasserine was by now a palatable thing, and for a time, in grief and torment, I was not myself. Madness overcame me many times, and it has only been in these last few days that I feel the shadow has lifted.
Our few survivors we left at the great wall that separates the Olman villages from the mianland by A'hi and Savannah, of whom I am certain we have not seen the last. I had by then learned much of the local tongue, for none speak the common of the northlands, and so requested safe passage through the Olman territory to Farshore. The natives are well-disposed to us for the most part, though they employ blasphemous practices in their burial rites, and entering a village is not for the faint of heart. I contained my revulsion as best I could, but a priest of Pelor would have burned away their unholy works with no compulsion.
Two of their tribe accompanied us to Farshore: the first is a scarred and mutilated Olman female, a warrior no doubt, but foul in visage, and ill-spoken. The other is her brother, a shaman and true necromancer, who tested my will with his entourage of zombies and a skeleton he treats with what can only be described as unnatural affection. There is much here that clerics of other faiths would not suffer to live, and I suspect that if the colony survives and trade becomes common, the Olman people will be subject to many a crusading preacher, to the bane of all.
I had hoped for a safe arrival at Farshore, but upon seeing it's harbour, found it under attack by cursed pirates flying the flag of the Crimson Fleet. Again I was filled with His mighty wrath, that this bastion of civilization in the wild should be tormented by such flith. We took many by surprise, as a furious dwarf and companions were unexpected. I called on Procan and burned many to a cinder with his divine flame, offering no quarter as these colonists had been offered none. Those that tried to flee were cut down by his Wrath, and with Czar at my side I took his Fury to those who cowered on their ragged vessel.
Once all were finished and the fighting ended, I felt much the shadow that has befallen us leave me, and aboard the ship, cleansed myself and felt anew.
Lady Lavinia survived the terrible storms and arrived, as did about half of those who set sail from the beach. No one who ventures here does so entirely unscathed, and I can only hope that there is yet peace to be found for those who lost nearly all they knew in the journey.
As for the pirates, it turns out that this attack was a precursor to another, which shall arrive in roughly two months, giving this colony little time to prepare, and less time to find the allies it so desperately needs from the local tribes. I lost my temper when the local militia leader, Ulveen Kabbanja, did not take the threat seriously, and may have damaged relations in the community for my anger.
Still, I shall not abandon these people to slavers and murderers, and will provide what assistance I can in the coming days. Already I have spent two days tunnelling into the surrounding cliffs with Procan's aid to create safe spaces for our belongings, and will expand others into temporary living quarters for the women and children, so that they will not be at risk in the wooden huts of the colony when the attack comes. I will use His divine magic to cunningly seal them away while we defend Farshore, and provide a secret exit should we fail.
I intend on consulting with Dranys Sellis, the dwarven master of the smith, on fortifications upon our return in three weeks from the mainland, where we are to go and seek aid from the Olmans and any other tribes who can be persuaded to our cause. I also intend to trek to the site of the Bearded Maiden to see if she can be recovered. If we should survive these two months and the coming battle, I swear to raise a temple to Procan here in Farshore, for without his aid and guidance, I would not have survived thus upon the Isle of Dread.
Peace of the depths be upon you,
Breca