Male Goblin Archivist (Bard)/4 AC 18, T 16, FF 13, | HP 28/28 | F +2, R +8, W +5| CMD 17| P 8 | Int +6 | Perform 12/12
Tabaaac whoops and does a final spin on his skates in celebration that ends with him stumbling and falling flat on his back, laughing. He gets up still grinning and joins the line to thank the other team for a fun game.
Male Goblin Witch 4 | AC 18 T 14 FF 14 | HP 30/30 | F +4 R +4 W +6 | CMD 15 | Init +10 | Perc +14, I +2
Gemdar pulls up to the rear of the line and slaps hands with the Blizzard Patrol. When they are all done he says, "That was sooooo cool! We should get ice cream now. That's what winning teams do, right?"
Where in the world did ice cream come from? This place is strange.
Day 5, Friday (turn 109) approximate time of day, 6:00 pm The Party of Heroes has travelled, though some unexplainable means, to a different universe, the Here. It is night time in the strange city, the SkazerTag Challenge has ended!
Pig Squeak looks menacingly at Tabaac, then slowly a grin begins to grow. It starts at the corner of his mouth, and then it begins to affect his nose, until gradually, it occupies the whole of his face.
I say Cold Stone! But if you prefer frozen yogurt, we could do Orange Leaf. It will be our treat.
The Goblin heroes visit the office of the Arena, and collect a prize. It is a gold colored cup, much to light to be actually made of gold, and it is filled with small chocolate candies that are chewy, and rolled like small logs.
Also, each member of the team receives a commemorative shirt. The shirt is green, and has a lazer gun printed on the back. Finally, the team receives 200 dollars in paper money.
The Blizzard Patrol leads the heroes to a strip mall where the choice of Ice Cream treats are numerous. Songs are sung, epitaphs are recorded for posterity, and a good time is had by all.
When the night finally comes to an end, Ivvinne seems to be in a foul mood. She is quiet, and keeps to herself, as she takes everyone back to her rented hotel room.
In the morning, Ivvinne says with a sigh, we all must present ourselves to the keepers of the secret to the door to the After. I have the key, as you all have guessed, but it looks like I never would have been able to get through the door unless you helped. You’re better heroes than me. So I want you to have the key, go and find the pool of all the right words, but promise me that when you are done you’ll find me, back home, and tell me the tale. Good luck heroes.
As she settles down for a night’s sleep, she seems relieved that she has made the choice she has made, when suddenly she sits bolt upright and asks, to no one in particular, Say, does anybody know how we get home?
Day 6, Saturday (turn ) approximate time of day, 9:30 am The Party of Heroes has travelled, though some unexplainable means, to a different universe, the Here. It is morning on the sixth day of the adventure and the party makes ready to start the next chapter.
After a night of pleasant celebrations, the Blizzard patrol says farewell to the heroes.
The group of strangely human teenage looking goblins settles down in Ivvinne’s rented room for a night of well earned sleep.
In the morning, Ivvinne leads the group back to the Arena, and to the office, where they meet a married human couple of advanced years. The man, looks an awful lot like the old man in the coveralls who was cleaning up at the “mall,” while the woman, although appearing to be old, looks remarkably elegant, and graceful, if also somewhat familiar.
After paying you your victory prize, the couple tell you that they also own the little shop called “Aftewords.” When the prize money is counted, Ivvinne presents the key to the door to the After, and both of the elders smile knowingly.
Standing shoulder to shoulder the couple lower the heads in respect to your group’s success this far, and then with solemn voices they tell you what lies ahead.
NPC: F Goblin/Ghost Gaurdian of the Mysterious Dungeon
We will take you to the door to the after. It is hidden here in the arena. The door will take you to a place that is more dangerous than anything you’ve encounter so far.
NPC: F Goblin/Ghost Gaurdian of the Mysterious Dungeon
No, no fun, no games. It is a dark, bleak place outside of time and space. You might have been given some conflicting information, when you began. But know that you were given the key to the Here, Ivvinne has the Key to the Tomb, and you earned the key to the After. Your quest is nearly complete. The After will challenge you with monsters and traps that are more genuine than what you have encountered so far.
NPC: F Goblin/Ghost Gaurdian of the Mysterious Dungeon
Good luck, heroes
The old woman takes the old man’s hand and they turn away from you. They lead you through hallways and storage rooms in the Area to a back room. The door to the back room opens with a low moan, and then you see , against the far wall of the back room, a pair of tall iron doors with no handles and a single key hole
When you are ready, you must announce you are putting the key to the After in the key hole
But.....but...I was beginning to like it here..." Fluuk looks around a bit frantically. "I guess I will be happy to see Klobber again, I am sad he is stuck as a pair of wheeled shoes. How much money did we get? Say, at the Mall they had these illusion boxes that showed magical stories in the form of pictures and sounds. One of them showed some warriors wielding guns like what we have only better. They were shooting really fast without really much effort. I was wondering if we could afford a gun like that. I don't even know where to get one, but it seemed so cool."
"I also took a picture of myself in a place called a FotoBooth. You stare at a circle there is a flash and then a small picture of you comes out this slot. Look..."
Fluuk shows the gang the picture. "Maybe we should get one of all of us, to show the gang back home, if we ever get back."
Male Goblin Druid (Saurian Shaman) 3 | AC 19 T 14 FF 16 | HP 33/33 | F +6 R +4 W +6 | CMD 20 | Init +9 | Perc +9
Seems we're all ready, so...
Being the undisputed, extremely handsome and awesome leader of the group (according to himself anyway), Gobzilla takes the After Key and places it in the keyhole.
Day 6, Saturday (turn 58) approximate time of day, 9:30 am Location…The After
When Gobzilla inserts the key into the lock on the door a wave of silver light sweeps through the small room and in a flash the heroes are returned to their normal appearance.
Fluuk looks over Tabaac’s shoulder, at the picture the intrepid bard holds in his hands, and to his relief, the image has not changed, and shows the group, piled on top of one another in the “foto booth” smiling and holding their hands above each others heads in mock signs of victory.
The door in front of Gobzilla swings away from him, leaving the key in his hand.
Gemdar looks back behind him at the doors that closed behind them when they entered this small room, but all he sees is an unending expanse of silver spreading toward the horizon, his head swims in the enormity of the view, and he spins around facing the front, trying to forget what he saw.
Through the doors lies a blackened stair made of huge fitted stones.
The black marks appear to be scorch marks. The stair appears to go upward, out of the building they are standing in, and high above, at the top of the stairs, the heroes can see a dark sky, filled with grey and black clouds. Lightning flashes in the clouds but there are no signs of lightning bolts, nor is there any sound of thunder.
One by one the heroes begin ascending to the top of the stairs
Gobzilla finds he is holding the reigns of his trusted companion, Gaia, while Fluuk once again feels the close massive body of Klobber.
Ehsmaralduh puts an arm around Mergatroid, and swallows hard, as she follows the others. Ivvinne, looks at Tabaac and Gemdar, and takes each of them by the hand as the three of them start up the stairs together. Finally, Penny, who has been quiet most of the time, says
NPC: F Goblin/Ghost Gaurdian of the Mysterious Dungeon
For the first time, Queen Axellexa the Excellent manifests her ghostly form. The old woman, from the arena appears behind Penny, and slowly transforms into the queen. She is a beautiful Goblin woman, with bluish-green skin and hair the color of snow.
She raises her arms and speaks softly
The After is a place of pain and misery. It is our world, but it is our world gone horribly wrong. Something happens in our future, on our world that no one who has the ability to see such things truly understands. It is said that it began when the city of Du’Orbna fell in the shroud of perpetual shadows, and an army of Goblins of a different kind from those in our time along with an army of Necromechadons fell upon the city intending to destroy it forever. The city had a protector, her name was It’Dupree, and she desperately sought for a means to vanquish the armies, but in her haste, she set lose a terrible weapon, a weapon not of this world at all, and when the weapon got out of control, it obliterated most of the world as we know it, leaving a scared landscape plagued with mutations and monstrosities pulled into our world from the planes of death and shadows.
A tear falls from Axellexa’s eye
You will find yourselves back in the gorge, or somewhere close by it, I cannot know for certain. My tomb is hidden behind the Tumble of the White. You have the Rod that controls the water, and he knows the way. It is only in the After that you will find the Pool with all the Right Words, which was placed in my tomb by It’Dupree herself, in the hopes that it would someday unravel the mystery of her failure, and in some way undo the destruction wrought by the terrible weapon.
You will find our world overrun with monsters from the place where the planes of shadow and death touch, and also many Necromechadons roam the wastes lands unable to find their way back from where they came. They are murderous, and beyond reason, all of these things, so do not waste your time trying to save them. Find the pool, and when you have learned the right words, the guardian of the pool will send you home.
NPC: F Goblin/Ghost Gaurdian of the Mysterious Dungeon
It wasn't fired...it was set lose. And the when is difficult to determine, but it seems that it happened within a few days after the invasion of Du'Orbna, which is not going to happen on our world for at least a few more centuries. I know, it's complicated. Maybe your adventures in the After will have some way of changing the past, future of all of us. Now, hurry, Penny needs our help
Day 6? (turn 1) , impossible to tell what time of day it might be…The After, a windswept wasteland of low growing black vegetation , gnarled and twisted forms that might be trees and the incessant buzz of a billion insects in the distance
When the last of the heroes has stepped through the portal, it closes in a soundless swirl of muted grey color.
The stone steps lead up, and up, until at last you all find yourselves standing on a nearly featureless plain. At first it seems too alien to comprehend, but slowly, eventually, it dawns on all of you that in a way, you are home.
You stand on a level patch of dusty ground near the edge of a great gorge. A warm and hostile wind blows out of the south. The wind whips up to powerful gusts, and swirls one way and then another buffeting you from side to side. Sand, dust, bits of rock, wood, and the dead husks of tiny insects sting at your exposed flesh as the wind pummels you relentlessly.
The sky is void of clouds, and yet it is impossible to tell if it is day or night. High in the sky to the southeast, a pale whit orb hangs in the sky like a small pin hole where beyond maybe a lamp shines, but the light is swallowed, consumed by a shadowy darkness that hangs all around you like a fog or a mist made out of nothing but the black shadows of night.
And then there is the droning sound of a billion insects. For what else could make such a sound? It is a hiss, a murmur, a crackle, and a sizzle, all rolled into one continuous, but faint and far away sound. At first it seems as if it will be easy to grow accustomed to the faint sound, but as each moment passes, you grow more and more uncomfortable, as you realize the sound is eating away at you, eating away at your very sense of well being and security of even knowing who you are and where you’ve been. The sound assaults you, pitifully, weakly, passively, but with malice and a harmful intent that gnaws at your insides. The sound, the harsh wind, the shadowy darkness, it is all as if all of these things exist only to remind you that where you are is a place where nothing happy can survive, and the ultimate sadness of the isolation and solitude of a coward’s death seem almost like a reward.
To your left the plain stretches out, and imperceptible rises, and you suspect that in that direction lies the remains, if there are any, of Penny’s little village, while to your right you see a trail, cut into the grey and dull brown dirt, through twisted little pathetic plants clinging to life, that leads over the edge of the gorge and down the side at a steep angle, down, down, down.
You know that down that way will lie whatever is left of the once great goblin realm, and as you gird your confidence and prepare yourselves to begin the descent toward the floor of the gorge, in hopes of finding the way to the river that lies at the bottom of the gorge, if it is still there at all, and eventually to the lake where the Tumble of the White will reveal the cave to Axellexa’s tomb, the constant malicious droning is drowned out by a new sound.
Behind you, you hear a strange sound
*CLICK, Whirl Whirl, CLICK*
*CLICK, Whirl Whirl, CLICK*
*CLICK, Whirl Whirl, CLICK*
*CLICK, Whirl Whirl, CLICK*
As a lump grows in your chest, each of you turns to see a sight more hideous than anything you have ever seen before.
A quiet tense moment passes, as strange small creatures appear coming over the rim of the gorge behind you and to your right. What you see resembles something like a small six-legged metal-bodied creature. One appears, and then another, and then another. They are no bigger than small dogs, and they march in a straight line from the gorge. Each of these mechanical “insects” is equally spaced from the one ahead of it and the one behind it by a distance of about fifteen feet. They move slowly. Their legs end in post that are lifted and pushed down by a contraption of springs and pistons that rise up over the top of the bodies of the creatures. At first they appear to have no heads, but only a single, claw like appendage that is mounted forward on the top of the body. This appendage is folded, but looks as though if extended it is easily twice the length of the body. And then to your horror you realize that each of these small machines has a decaying goblin head riveted to the top of the body. The heads bobble and flop side to side as each machine takes a step with one of its articulated legs. The jaws of the heads hang slack, and open, but no moisture drools from them in proper goblin fashion. The eyes of each goblin head glow with a dull red color. They have no pupils and in fact the eyes look almost like there is something unnatural about them.
When you first see these abominations, the lead machine is forty five feet away from you, and they are spaced fifteen feet apart. You do not know how many of them there are. They are coming toward you
DM Notes:
Necromechadon Scavengers, are AC 15, t 13, ff 13 (+2 N, +1 size, +2 Dex) | HD d6+3, HP 6 each | Melee +3, damage d4+1, DR 3 -, Vulnerable to Electrical Attacks: Head can cast Flare, once per round, instead of a Melee Attack, Fortitude save negates, DC 10 | CMB +1, CMD 13 (+8 versus Trip) | Reach 10' | Initiative +2
Male Goblin Archivist (Bard)/4 AC 18, T 16, FF 13, | HP 28/28 | F +2, R +8, W +5| CMD 17| P 8 | Int +6 | Perform 12/12
Tabaaac feels the insectile clicking sound gnawing at the morale of the little group and it starts to make him angry... Sounds should make goblins happy. Not kill goblin hope! he says his voice going from soft to loud. Screwing his face up he tries to turn the sound of their trudging footsteps into a defiantly joyful marching tune.
For too long land has not heard
Goblin Voices. Goblin Words.
From the Past, through Here, now After
Turn gloom back with Goblin Laughter!
Turning back towards the monstrosities behind them Tabaaac hefts his musket. Ugly. Horrible. Goblin heads should get proper rest
The line of small mechanical monsters will continue coming toward you. Will you run away? The path down into the gorge is to the northeast of your current position, I'll put up a map if you think you need one, but it seems like, even though they are not fast, they will probably follow you if you flee
Male Goblin Witch 4 | AC 18 T 14 FF 14 | HP 30/30 | F +4 R +4 W +6 | CMD 15 | Init +10 | Perc +14, I +2
"Looks like we're staying and fighting. In that case I had better protect myself more." Gmedar then says some arcane words and makes some gestures and is surrounded by a field of force.
Day 6? (turn 1) , impossible to tell what time of day it might be…The After, a windswept wasteland of low growing black vegetation , gnarled and twisted forms that might be trees and the incessant buzz of a billion insects in the distance
Standing some sixty feet from the edge of the gorge, the goblin heroes watch nervously as the approaching monstrosities come ever and ever closer. For a brief moment there is talk of running away, but something tells the heroes that these things have picked up on the heroes presence in this world and nothing will stop them from pursuing the heroes no matter where they run.
Gobzilla lets out a low rumbling roar, and his claws grow large, hard, and sharp, and then Tabaaac steps forward, raises his rifle and fires a shot at the lead, thing.
The musket’s retort echoes over the incessant buzz of this place, and the bullet strikes the lead creature with enough force to shatter the shell and after staggering to the side for another three steps the strange mechanical creature pitches to the side and comes to a complete stop
Scavenger Initiative:1d20 + 2 ⇒ (19) + 2 = 21
Everyone should roll initiative, the monsters are in a line separated by about ten to fifteen feet each, the new closest monster is 30 feet away when round 1 begins. I’ll make a map
Ehsmaralduh’s Initiative:1d20 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 3
Damage Tracker:
One Machine Killed – 14 are left
DM Notes:
Necromechadon Scavengers, are AC 15, t 13, ff 13 (+2 N, +1 size, +2 Dex) | HD d6+3, HP 6 each | Melee +3, damage d4+1, DR 3 -, Vulnerable to Electrical Attacks: Head can cast Flare 15’ range, once per round, instead of a Melee Attack, Fortitude save negates, DC 10 | CMB +1, CMD 13 (+8 versus Trip) | Initiative +2
