Dungeon of Dread (Inactive)

Game Master Grimmy

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I'm here.

Talric treks over the grassy hill, the sky above him overcast with the promise of rain. Looking around him, Talric sees that there aren't any good campsites. Dark was falling, and this was as good as a place to make camp as any other.

Setting up didn't take any real work. Before he went to bed, Talric ran through a few combat exercises. Looking at the sky, Talric sighs. My Journey continues, he thinks, and settles down for the night.

From the journals of Erich Kaine:

"Saecaroth! At the time, all I knew about it were rumors and tall tales, and none of them were good. It was a dark, damned, dangerous place, but I was young and stupid and mostly in desperate need of some money.

And not all of us would make it out alive..."

Checking in! Excited to get started.

Talric didn't walk into the tavern unnoticed. After all, a Northlander was an uncommon sight in the small hamlet he had decided to bed down in.
Ordering strong mead, Talric sits at the bar. All of the locals had backed away from him, except one. A man of (almost) equal stature as Talric, he snarls. "That. Is. My. Seat."

Talric simply replies "Was. You mean was."

The other man gives him a glare for about five seconds, and then lets out a big, booming laugh. "Ha! Anybody else would've scampered away like a rat! You have courage, my friend. Tell me, what is a Northlander doing here?"

Looking at the man, Talric judges that if anybody knows of any suitable challenges, he would. "I am on my Journey to prove myself worthy. If you know of any challenging foes, then please inform me of them."

The man's face darkens. "Well, there 'ave been whispers going around in fighter's guilds and such of great treasures in a nearby dungeon. Dun't know where it is, exactly, but if anybody does, it is Xaecaroth, the local mage. And if he doesn't, he can probably direct you to someone who does. He lives in an imposing tower just north of town."

Talric thanks him, telling him that he can have his drink. Heading out of the bar, he thinks Ah. A suitable challenge. Hopefully this "Xaecaroth" can speed me upon my journey. It sounds like that this dungeon may be hard to find without help.

Talric strides toward the tower, hoping that the sage can give him advice.

Reporting in.

I'm here.

Pharnox reporting for assassinations. Who do you want me to kill?

As Talric approached the tower, he hears a faint chuckling from behind him. Whirling around, he sees an old, grey man, calmly puffing upon a pipe. "You aren't ready for Rappan Athuk," he says simply. "If you're looking for fame and great challenge, however, I believe I can point you in the right direction. Animals have been stricken with a supernatural disease, and I am certain that somebody is orchestrating it. Even if they aren't that impressive, they certainly have some imposing minions." Fumbling around in his bag, the old man pulls out a map with varying shades of red on it. "The darker the red, the more the disease is apparent. I would investigate those places first. Some friends of mine have already put forth their champions. I'm afraid if you aren't partial to half-breeds and elves, you aren't going to have a very good time." Chuckling, the old man disappears.

Bewildered, Talric takes a look at the map. The closest red region was only a few miles away. Shrugging, the Northlander starts trekking towards it.

Rocks fall, Talric dies!

Wow. A Character is dead and we're not even halfway through the first page. This campaign really is lethal.

What did I do wrong?

Wow! Just like AD&D! Good thing Talric was a DM strawman and not a PC. Wait, what? He wasn't? *Gulp*

Just kidding Tal!

You can cut loose with those descriptive narrative posts all you want in this thread, and I love your writing style. When we get to actual gameplay obviously you will have to be sure not to make any posts that dictate how the NPC's, PC's, and environment respond.

I'm excited that you have a strong vision of your character and the world though, it will serve this campaign well!

Yeah, I've played enough oldskool AD&D and video games that have strong Role-Play elements to know not to god-mod. And, thanks. As I have said numerous times before, writing's a hobby of mine.

Ah ok, you know the deal. Forgive me, I literally just learned that phrase god-mod today.

Christoff stares at map in the middle of an empty clearing as the sun begins to set. He looks up from the map at the setting sun, then around at the clearing.

It would seem that this map is utter sh$#. He sighs. This is why I plan my own field research. I am surprised they suggested it at all though. Those old, stuffy, ba$#%rds love just studying their books, rather than do anything pratical.

"HELLO! I'M SUPPOSED TO BE MEETING A CONTACT ABOUT SOME MAGICAL ANOMALIES!"

Christoff continues on in a random direction as twilight begins to settle around him.

If it isn't obvious, this would be a nice time for a ninja to come take out his target.

As Christoff walks a darkness seems to roll in out of nowhere engulfing him in a blinding night to which he can see no way out. Suddenly he feels a hard bang on the back of his and he falls to the ground. The darkness clears and where there once was one man now there are two. The body of Christoff lay unconscious on the ground as a man dressed in black with dark purple skin stands over him.
Pharnox looks down at his latest victim and says to himself in his native elven language That's the problem with these no kill jobs, now I have to figure out how I'm going to remove the body. Kills are easy arrow to the throat or rapier through the heart and then you just retrieve your weapon and go home leaving the body where it lays. Pharnox leans over and grabs Christoff by his armpits and hoists him up and struggles to drag him away. "But no... oof... those stupid wizards... ruff... want him gone not dead. He then drops the body "God this guy is heavy. I really should have thought this through better before I started, but who would have thought he would be so damb heavy."
Enter Grimmy with plot getting both of us stuck in a dungeon fighting for our lives.

EDIT: ""But no... oof... that stupid old man... ruff... want him gone not dead... RAAA!

Talric looks over the valley, then looks at his map. He had been hiking for three days toward the red area, and now he could see what the old man meant. Diseased and malformed animals were everywhere, and this valley was one of the focal points. Suddenly, he sees a slight humanoid, clad in black, carrying a human across his back.

Some friends of mine have already put forth their champions. Perhaps... Talric clambers down from the hill and strides toward the humanoid. "Hail! I am Talric Dtunson. What may you be doing here?"

Shocked at hearing Talric's hail this far from any town Pharnox quickly summons another large cloud of darkness around the newcomer. Pharnox then continues to pull his unconscious victim away, but the mental strain of keeping the spell up and the physical strain of dragging Christoff is just to much for his body to take and Pharnox falls unconscious on the ground as his darkness fades away.

Talric coughs for a moment, and then as the cloud dissipates, he sees that now both men are unconscious. Sighing, Talric started setting up camp for three. It was only right, after all.

Dot-dash-dot

Cairenn didn't know that nature would be so.... naturey. This path, for instance: it would be so much easier to walk on it if it were, say, a road. A paved road. A nice boulevard.

Why had he let his supposed half-sister drag him out here, again? Sigh.

Ah well, he can use this as Inspiration. Yes. A story of how, seeking his father, the young hero suffered mile after mile of brutal, terrible terrain, and all manner of agony, such as that which comes from sleeping on something other than a bed...

My apologies for the lateness! Uni was really blegh this week.

There it was again. Those slightly narrowed eyes, the crooked frown, the hint of a sigh from lips that seemed weirdly familiar despite how short a time she had known their owner. Lyrasael holds back her immediate urge to latch onto Cairenn's ear and pull him along; maybe yanking on it would force it to stretch out to the proper length...

"What is it this time?" the red-haired elf demands of her poor half-human brother with a roll of her eyes. Lyr had, of course, been taking him along a rather placid route, past young-growth trees without too many snaking roots and down through gentle valleys filled with wildflowers. It was quite a roundabout path--cutting right through these woods would've been the quicker option to reach their destination, but she had suspected Cairenn would not appreciate having to cut through brambles and undergrowth followed by a day of wading through marshy terrain.

"I swear to Darach-Albith, if you're going to wax on about how hard this is again..." Lyr lets the idle threat hang suspended in the air, words that have been no doubt said numerous times on their journey thus far to very little effect. Not even Ruan's piercing stare from the comfort of his mistress' leather-armoured shoulder assists in this regard.

In the end, the hawk-druid heaves a resigned sigh. There was not much point trying to motivate the city-raised boy. He was almost too ignorant to be saved. "We're nearly there. Stick it out for a while longer, yeah?"

Watery-blue eyes drift on over to Cairenn's ears once more. Maybe if I pulled at just the right angle... maybe then he'd learn how to be a real elf...

dotting

Welcome all, on vacation, will get up to speed early next week.

Hello Ghaelja,
I'll give you the short version of our group coming together as we have it so far:
Christoff: Sent into the wilderness by the wizards at his academy on their instructions from his father.
Pharnox: Hired by a man, Christoff's father but we really don't know this right now, to remove a man, Christoff, without killing him.
Talric: On a personal quest to prove himself, finds a man in black, Pharnox, dragging an unconscious man, Christoff, through the plains. Hails the man in black only to be engulfed in darkness which quickly dissipates and he now finds both men are knocked out so he builds a fire and settles in with them for the night.
Grokar: Has not yet connected with the group.
Some how Killian captures us all and puts us in the dungeon.

Where does the name Pharnox come from? You're the second drow I've seen use that name, can't be a coincidence.

I'm sure it's not. It's one of the common drow names from the Advanced Race Guide. If you look up Drow stats for Pathfinder under Male Names you'll find it. I've always been horrible at naming so I usually start there.

Thanks for the update. I am hanging out with Killian at present. He just absconded with my animal (plant) companion, although I will probably have a new one before we get together. I left the other party, MoD, because my understanding is that DoD is causing some type of a blight upon the local forest.

I am out of town this weekend, so light posting at best. Will get caught up again tomorrow night or Tuesday.

Dien is at a Con too. I'll make two threads tomorow, now that we have the teams sorted, and render this one inactive, and we'll start when she gets back.

We can do a sort of soft start in the new gameplay threads if you guys want to RP with each other a little before the dungeon bashing fires up.

Thanks for doing that summary Pharnox, I'm glad you persisted and we made a spot for you.

If you want, put that summary up on the Obsidian Portal as a first entry in an OOC journal, or as a wiki page.

May not matter much for a short dungeon crawl, but in the sandbox part of the campaign these little notes can majorly help parties set goals, figure out clues, and not be led on wild-goose chases.