This campaign just recently got under way and thanks to one of my player's weekly recounting of events as seen through his character's eyes, I'll post it here for your entertainment.
Our story begins in the town of Bastro in the frozen northern reaches of the Flanaess within the lands of Stonehold. It is the dead of winter and while those to the south celebrate the week long festival called Needfest this week in warmer climes, the folk of Bastro simply thank the gods for a warm fire to thaw out in front of. While the common folk of Bastro enjoy their fires, a group of strangers make their individual ways through the snow to the cottage of an ancient Sueloise man known only as The Seer, who has summoned them there. The strangers consist of a human sorceress named Mira Luna, a human monk named Brandon who follows the teachings of Rao, a dwarven samurai who goes by Thane (which is also his discipline), a halfling warmage named Tim, a human favored soul of Kord named Solum Cantor, and our narrator Maccabbe the human paladin of Heironeous...
Through The Eyes of a Paladin: 1
It was a cold and snowy day in the northern reaches of the Oerth. Stonehold has a chill that bites into a man’s very bones and soul. Maccabee has been led up to these northern regions like a salmon is to spawning. What draws him to this region? Truly there are greater adventures in store fighting against the army’s of Iuz. Yet this compulsion draws Maccabee ever closer to something of great importance. Inside the local inn in Stonehold enjoying the warmth of its fire, Maccabee sits calmly in a oaken chair sipping herbal tea. The door to the inn would open from time to time allowing its patrons quick visits to this oasis in this frozen land.
A young child encroaches upon Maccabee. The face of the child was wintry white with blushing cheeks, he was covered in the normal fur garb that helps protect from the elements. Mysteriously the child calls him by name bearing a message, although cryptic of sorts rather intriguing for the young Paladin. Maccabee continues to drink his tea even more slowly and yet ponderously as the child dismisses himself from the presence of the Paladin. The door swings open and then closes as the freezing air enters briefly and the child disappears into the elements. A calming silence flows over Maccabee filling his heart with the gifts of his deity. With short prayer and moments of silence which seemed to take for hours. The Paladin slowly rises getting his gear and then returning to the harshness of Stonehold.
Maccabee continues up a snow packed trail guided by the directions the young boy had given. Crouching down to hide his face from the elements, briefly the Paladin can see the signs of a well constructed cottage with lights from within burning dimly. As he approaches, his natural instincts break in and immediately he concentrates to detect any evil in his path.
No evil here so he continues on his way. Solemnly he knocks upon the hard wooden door, only to be swiftly led in by a young girl who was no more than waist high. The room was filled with many ornate objects as well as several individuals who he had never met before. The young girl offers the Paladin a warm drink with bread and specially made butter.
Maccabee makes his way to a nearby chair, taking stock of these strangers around him. A fair woman who he suspected to be a sorceress, introduced herself as Mira Luna. At her side is what he suspects to be her companion as well as confidante. He is known as Brandon, who turns out to be some kind of priest of Rao. A man of peace perhaps in many aspects would be great for the idealistic, eccentric to say the least, but more for the foolish for this world where war and evil spawn throughout the land. Brandon seemed in spite of himself to be a person professing peace yet lacking it within himself, constantly filling the air with the chaos of his own chatter as well as the chaos of his own apparel, everything put together piece mail. “One who seems to lack always appears to project on to others“, Maccabee thinks to himself.
Mira Luna… Maccabee’s ideals do not prohibit sorcery. Like anything that serves for good, it can be both acceptable as well as tolerated, but always under suspicion. Yet sorcery can be like a temptress not unlike the appearance of Mira Luna. There is no doubt the gifts of the arcane can seduce the most pious or naive, not unlike the evil ways of a succubus.
A knock comes from the front door as Maccabbee completes introducing himself. With similar introductions a rather large burly character makes his way through the sturdy wooden door. With a great sword and long spear as a walking stick he makes his way across from where Maccabee sits. Solum Cantor, a barbarian of sorts bearing the holy symbol of Kord upon the hilt of his sword.
As far as barbarians go this one appeared to be more civilized compared to other known barbarians. His demeanor was steady, not chaotic as seen of other barbarians. He appeared more at peace with himself than the common savagery of barbarians. It was apparent to Maccabee that this was a party gathered together for adventuring but to what ends? Introductions aside, another knock comes from the door. This time it was a dwarf, darkened in color as well as face with long black beard his heavy-footed march was over compensated with his short stature as most dwarves do, yet with all the prowess of some kind of fighter. His name is Thane. With great seriousness, he made his rounds subtly and yet cautiously amidst all these new acquaintances.
It didn’t take too much time after Thane’s entrance that another person entered into the door. Followed by the same pomp and circumstance. This time it was a very small halfling. With redness of hair and determination in eye although not like most of his kin his skills were not apparent as most of them practice in the areas of rogue. This one who claimed the name Tim was angered by the sheer suggestion that he was a common thief. Although a rogue is not always made out to be a common thief. Yet something about this rogue Maccabee took a natural liking to. Little to Maccabee’s realization that this halfling was not a rogue but a War Mage.
With much anticipation and questions flying for the reason of the adventurers’ purpose there, finally a old grayish man still well in stature began to descend the wooden staircase. The young child helping to guide his way, showing signs of the man’s frailty as well as lack of sight. The old man calmly sits down amongst the adventurers introducing himself as Kal Krotura-Volan also known in these parts as “The Seer.” He explained his visions of us as a group of adventurers tied by means of fate and destiny. It reminded Maccabee of his prior years in the Abbey. Where both monks and priests would teach philosophy and religion. Many of who were also gray with age and tender in body, yet most he held in great admiration.
Maccabee listened intently. The Seer’s words struck a painful chord with Maccabee. The old man spoke of a quest to find something called the Destiny Stone - imbued with great power and strength where only the good in heart can possess it. Memory of a difficult journey from the south and now to return to the south again in a place known as the Abbor-Alz. Thinking that the gods were laughing at him reminded him that his overseer had taught Maccabee lessons in humility. An area of his character he was always lacking. This seemed to be another one of those lessons. The task at hand seemed pretty basic, to travel to the southwest region of the Flanaess first by barge on the Frozen River and then overland via caravan and then south through the Griffs through the pass to avoid the warzone that Tenh had become. From there, down through Ratik and carefully skirting Bone March until reaching the more friendly lands of Nyrond, and due west. It all seemed a bit simple but adventures are never simple especially among new comrades. The group as a whole appeared confident and anxious to pursue this quest, but as taught at the academy a general always takes time to size up his compatriots prior to committing fully to the challenge at hand. The barge ride simply took a day underneath the murmuring of the weighty dwarf. From there we assisted in guarding a caravan to the town of Kelten. Expecting the usual attempts at brigandry the caravan saw none of it. After departing Kelten and 3 days into the pass Maccabee would have been more than happy to have taken on a few bandits. What came instead was a huge Red Dragon. Perhaps the joking at the last tavern about a Red Dragon was not so much a joke after all. For a moment the caravan stood in shock silently watching death on wings descend. Maccabee was unsure of what to do at first with the voice of the dwarf telling him it had to be an illusion. Maccabee’s first instinct was to run like all the others, but he hesitated ensuring that those who weren’t running do so in haste. The teamsters, many of them were turned to stone. As for their horses, they were ready for a quick trot. It would have been better for all if that were what they did. To the tree line Maccabee went right along with his comrades and many of the commoners traveling with the caravan. Moments had seemed to take for hours as Maccabee took in tow two peasants to follow him into hiding. The carnage was great with the first pass of the dragon as it incinerated a wagon and its teamsters with a belch of its fiery breath. Screams and death had filled the air accompanied by the smell of burning flesh and ash. Fortunately many were beginning to scatter, giving a chance for a few to get away. Mira Luna noticed a small cave opening nearby, then Maccabee took strides to get his two charges to safety, watching intently the activities and location of the dragon. Maccabee was one of the last to enter in, he feared all who were left behind will forever be so. Immediately putting one of the commoners in charge of lighting the cave entrance, Maccabee moved deeper into the cave to discern its security. As moments passed, Maccabee began to concentrate on the presence of evil in the cave.
Fortunately for all, there was none. Grumbling at the front of the cave was the sounds of the dwarf and halfling, safely in the cave with a handful of caravan folk, the Paladin prompting them to move further into the cave for safety. His words fell on deaf ears. Instinctively knowing that the cave mouth was growing unsafe, further in Maccabee went repeating his warning, and still again they remained rooted in place. This last time moving deeper into the cave, and not looking back at the pending carnage. “Sometimes in order for people to learn a lesson, they need to die”, Maccabee thinks to himself.
It was but moments as the sounds of breath and fire filled the front of the cave along with the screams of the dead. Then rumblings of stone and earth as the front of the cave collapsed partially covering the dwarf and sealing the fate of the remaining civilians. There were two surviving commoners who’s only abilities were thatching peoples homes. It was apparent that these two were going to be a hindrance and once discovering that there were hardly any rations amongst the group, the deepened sense of hopelessness filled the air. Wasting no time, the search for another way out began. Fortunately with Thane’s affinity with stone, a secret door was found and an attempt to force it open was for naught. Brandon had by another act of fate found a key lying in a nearby pool of water as he was filling his waterskin.
The stone door scraped open into a well designed hallway, followed by voices of death, agony, and pain. The Paladin wasted no time and began to concentrate for evil. Although its presence was not great, its taint was still there after who knows who long. Walking though the hallway the sight of an everburning torch was a welcome sight, although its glow was red like those found in a bordello. The thought seemed to plague his mind. Maccabee thinks to himself, “a walking bordello“. Between a minor skirmish with three skeletons and a handful of traps, three days had passed with many wounds inflicted upon the party. If the traps don’t kill us, starvation will…
I'm trying to get current with the campaign and need to post about 3 more sessions before it is. Wow! These are really lengthy. Our next session took up where we left off in a room within a longforgotten temple of Nerull. The characters had just destroyed 3 skeletons that had popped out of 3 of four wooden coffins there and were about to search a large wired together skeleton draped in ochre robes and held up by a metal post when they heard a curious scratching sound coming from the fourth coffin. It seems another skeleton was feebly trying to escape the coffin to attack the characters, but the lid was on too tight for it to get out. They aided the pitiful creature and destroyed it, but not after it inflicted deep wounds on the monk and the "barbarian" priest.
In this session we were joined by 3 new players - Athena the human rogue, Jacob the scout and companion of Athena, and Orin the rogue masquerading as a simple thatcher - and lost one of our previous ones. It seems that Thane the dwarf decided to try digging through the collapsed cave mouth outside of the temple entrance and was buried in the rubble for his efforts. May he rest in peace. However, his efforts were not without merit. A pair of the caravan folk who were previously thought dead managed after 3 days to dig their way out of the rubble thanks to Thane causing the rocks to shift just enough for them to escape. And one of the thatchers proved to have more skills than he had first let on.
Anyway, here is our good paladin's take on our next session...
Through the Eyes of a Paladin: 2
Maccabee internalizes his dilemma; if at you first don’t succeed, die again. Some of the greatest laid out plans can easily be compromised by some of the most proudest, or dumbest of barbarians. It was apparent that this party was going to step over deaths door many times before it learned its lesson. A single battle no matter how small the opponents appear can become the most deadly. Even a single skeleton can bring compromise to a simple battle. In the case of the priestly barbarian, it did. Maccabee fighting side by side with his comrades, repeated the question over and over again, “What about the plan”, while the barbarian takes several major hits upon his life, till finally he hit the ground like a freshly dropped cow pie from a relieving bull. Brandon the not so peaceful Monk of Rao, continued to fight off this small nemesis with several punches and kicks. It would have been better if they simply left the undead stuck in his tomb. Then again, there was the plan to draw the local enemies to a convenient pit trap. Was the plan too simple for these wayward adventurers? Apparently so!
Finally after dispatching the skeleton the room began to be filled with all kinds of chatter. Maccabee scratches his head, thinking out loud, “Who are all these people?” He asks. It was like he opened a dike that would not shut. Everyone began talking at once, there seemed no end to the chatter, a man was down and now stabilized and Maccabee was looking for a simple answer to a following question, “Does anyone here have any kind of healing?” Moments seemed to pass as the entire reargaurd of the party was looking around as if some part of their brains were missing and they couldn’t seem to find where they may have left it.
Maccabee after stabilizing his wayward companion lifted him up over his shoulders and brought him back to a safer location. It appeared those would be civilians that were over come from the cave-in survived. Finding out about the Thatcher’s weren’t both necessarily Thatcher’s, twisted at Maccabees guts, like a knife cut in deep and turned ever so slowly. Orin, the not so Thatcher made his nervous and ambiguous introduction, this person seemed to get smaller and smaller at every word he spoke, even the Halfling seemed taller than he. Yet in the days to come his smallness in person had shown some light of bravery although teetering more on stupidity. Then there was Jacob, Maccabee thinks again to himself, “Then there was Jacob”, the words kept on repeating itself over and over in his head, “And then there was Jacob”. The thought appeared to play out like some skit from some local bards. It was fortunate for Maccabee that the child like voice of Athena distracted his attentions on his thoughts.
Appearances may be misleading, she seemed far surer of herself in the midst of all this chaos. Even a bit mismatched considering the fellows she was allied with. Perhaps it was this woman’s spirit that Maccabee took a liking to. All acquaintances aside were the challenge at hand.
Fortunately for all, rations were not as scarce. Some of our new friends were willing to assist in this area and began to give Maccabee a feeling of hope against incredible odds. It took some time to put ceremony aside to get down to actually putting the plan to work. The barbarian down from his injuries and yet stable perhaps gave the adventurers a chance to making the strategy work. The idea did work. Like clock work. Everyone was put into positions and the first yet unsuspecting monster to give chase was an animated bathtub of vile evilness. It took to the bait like bees were to honey. Down it went crashing to the bottom of the pit trap. Had Maccabee known better this tub seemed a bit angry of its predicament. Rather than pelting this fiend with stones, it was decided to let it remain to lure any other creatures to this point, and then the tub could tend to them accordingly with destruction.
It was about midway through the dungeon that Maccabee began thinking he needed to invest into getting a war hammer. The undead here seemed to be impervious to his use of the sword. While Maccabee was tending to the barbarian’s wounds, party members were fighting a ghoul of some kind in an underground river. The numbers of the fallen had increased. After many tending hours of the sick, especially those who suffered a form of ghoul’s disease, everyone was restored back to health. Maccabee began thinking to himself, “With as much healing that he does, perhaps he should devote in becoming a Hospitaler.”
It became quickly apparent that Orin was a rogue, and a not very good one at that. After
spending sometime covering his back Orin faithfully sprung a problematical trap. Skeletal skulls dropped down from above and began bighting at both adventurers. The situation began to appear dire, until Orin tossed a jug of acid upon this skeletal swarm followed by several successful attacks by the barbarian's morningstar and some evocations from the halfling War Mage finally neutralized the foe. The taint of evil spewing from every orifice of this dungeon began filling Maccabee’s nostrils with putricity. The determination to neutralize this dungeon's taint began to drive Maccabee towards his resolution: no matter how dire the situation may become, nobody leaves until this taint is gone.
Standing there looking over the abominations of books and journals, Maccabee had placed them into an open coffin with the intent to burn every lasting evil that was there. Noise broke out from an adjoining room. Quickly Maccabee went to spy out what was going on. It was like a replay of a bad story; there he was again the barbarian, trying to survive another attack against an undead. There goes the plan once again, Maccabee rolling his eyes to the back of his mind. He returns back to the place of the hallway for solace. Maybe it was simple boredom that these adventurers had to go to such extremes to satisfy their thirst for blood. More like sheer stupidity. It seems the entire party was hell bent to destroy a single undead with all assets at there disposal, without thinking to preserve what they had for the next encounter, including magic. The pit trap was set. The bathtub from hell was sure dieing to kill some unsuspecting creature. So Maccabee stood there praying for peace in a world filled with chaos. Destroying evil is a very serious thing to a Paladin, in most cases the greatest evil, is right there, looking at you, inside a mirror.
The adventure continues...
One more post after this and these will be current. In last week's game, the characters had to make some difficult moral decisions. Peacefully dealing with kobolds? Helping them slay another evil creature? And wost of all, agreeing to meet with a priest from the Underdark that regularly bought slaves from this kobold tribe in order to see if he could raise one of their fallen companions from the dead. Blasphemy! Yet this is what things came down to. Desperation can change the attitude of even the most pious of men.
Here's what Maccabbee, the paladin had to say on the matter...
Through the Eyes of a Paladin: 3
“O, the Indignity”, Maccabbee grumbles to himself. It wasn’t bad enough to have to leave the temple due to lack of food. But to have to deal with these yapping lizards commonly referred to as Kobolds, grated on Maccabbees nerves. Depending on the others to diplomatically get through the barricades of these evil cockroaches didn’t sit well with the Paladin. The evil of these creatures began to make the Paladin break out in hives. After some time the group was able to go through the five foot earthen ground barricade that the kobold’s had built. The winding underground passage led to a narrow plank bridge. The obstacle seemed to appear easy to traverse but became one indignity followed by another.
Orin the rogue helped Maccabee tie the rope around him; from there the Paladin began a running start over the narrow bridge in hopes to get to the other side. It was a great leap and just as confidence filled the paladin, down, down, down he went, followed by a sudden tug of the rope. Dangling like a pet’s chew toy, the Paladin hung there frustrated by the failed attempt, yet grateful for the party’s ability to hold him from a more perilous fall. The paladin is pulled up and tries once again, but this time with a little more grace, balancing himself across this narrow bridge. Once again gravity prevailed. Down the paladin went, plummeting towards the frigid underground river. The paladin sighed. Once again this simple chore became an overwhelming obstacle. His fellow adventurers saving him from the cold depths, pulled up again, the paladin began to pray quietly seeking some direction.
The paladin recovering from the fall, Orin decides to make the attempt over the narrow bridge. Down he went followed by a sudden jerk on the rope to hold his weight. Suddenly the weight of Orin was gone. A splash followed and peering down, the others could see Orin bobbing in the water below trying to climb his way up from the cold underground river. Offering Orin some extra rope Maccabee as the anchorman on the rope draws closer to the edge of the chasm. Orin, cold and shivering, slowly made his way up with the rest of the party pulling on the rope. Quickly the Paladin made his way to the other side of the bridge after his third attempt. The thought of needing to get the party past this obstacle took higher precedence since Orin was beginning to suffer from hypothermia. The paladin set himself as the anchor on the far side of the chasm with the great barbarian securing the other end from the opposite side. The party was able to shimmy across with less difficulty by using the rope for balance. Solum, the barbarian was the last to cross and suffered no ill in doing so. Moving into an open area the party was able to bundle up Orin. We got him out of his wet clothes and in to a winter blanket and used our bodies to warm him. By doing so Orin was saved from additional harm.
Once the danger of Orin’s hypothermia passed, the adventurers began to move on. Following after the kobold’s directions, the adventurers traveled deeper into the earth. The party noticed they were not only going further into the darkness but also going down. Slowed by caltrops through a long narrow tunnel, they entered a cavern filled with giant mushrooms. Carefully exploring the cavern, Maccabbee detected no presence evil. The Paladin and the barbarian moved steadily forward, followed close behind by the Monk of Rao. Brandon the monk, continues forward taking a large hunk of mushroom for himself. After bighting into this fungus Brandon smiled with pleasure to have found sustenance. Brandon moves further into the mushroom forest only to find himself attacked by an unseen assailant. Bleeding profusely from one of his legs, Brandon retreated back behind the Barbarian and Paladin, where the barbarian priest immediately used healing magic on him. Something then tried to attack the barbarian. The barbarian attacked his invisible nemesis to no avail. Followed by the Paladin’s attempt that makes a striking blow leaving green ooze upon the Paladin’s sword and at his feet. Brandon, after being healed assists in the combat. The Paladin finally makes a killing blow only to slowly watch the invisible creature turn into some ungodly fungus monster.
Maccabee takes account of the events that have passed and was beginning to see the party a little bit differently. Reflecting on his new insight, the paladin moves carefully through the mushroom forest in hopes of finding somehing of value that may help the adventurers through the Underdark. Fortune was in their favor, as Maccabee had found some armor and treasure from a victim of the fungus monster. The day passed uneventfully. During the night watches the party encountered two giant spiders. Both of which were dispatched by the assistance of all party members.
After a long period of rest the adventurers returned back to the cavern where it split off into 3 divergent directions. Feeling angry at the kobold’s misdirection the adventurer’s began to slowly ascend until approaching a kobold checkpoint. Not enjoying this strained alliance with these naturally evil creatures left a bitter taste in the paladin’s mouth. Able to pass the checkpoint with some care the party continued on until they finally came to another check point. Here, they were again challenged. At this point Maccabee was taking stock of the areas he was traveling through, to perhaps one day return to this unsightly place and rid it of its evil taint. Something about some evil creature that the kobolds had to deal with was brought up in conversation with Orin as our interpreter. Not trusting Orin’s translation, Maccabee cringed, enduring the events going on around him with waning tolerance.
Somehow they all found themselves before the chieftain of these kobolds. Battle is discussed, striking a chord with the Paladin’s need to fight something, finally motivating him to fulfill some deep goal. The kobolds were afraid of a powerful evil that had already caused much harm to the kobold community. In the midst of all of this, Maccabee was beginning to take note of the personalities of the party members. Brandon’s musings thus far has assisted in paving the way for the betterment of the party. His ability to peacefully converse with even the most bloodthirsty creatures were far greater than his martial abilities, Maccabee pondered. Orin, although strained in his attempts, was sacrificing much for the safety of the party, though deep inside this small man was the need for self confidence. It was time for Maccabee to make an attitude check.
The plan was easy: draw out the monster and strike it from all sides. It was a classic maneuver, but once the Paladin made his first blow upon the creature, the tide of battle began to favor the bloodthirsty, little redcapped creature. A blow from the paladin’s sword caused no harm on the monster. The barbarian was quickly incapacitated by this frenzied creature. Just as this occurred Maccabee’s perspective of the party dynamics had changed, the barbarian priest should never be up front. Brandon then went over and administered a potion to Solum that the kobold Chieftain had offered. After several moments of trying to engage the red-capped creature, Brandon was cut nearly in two by Solum’s two-handed sword, which the thieving little monster had acquired and handled with surprising skill considering his small size. The magic of Mira Luna whistled through the air with the encouraging growls and yapping of the kobold warriors that had come to help – not surprising, there were only a small handful out of the entire clan. Maccabee prayed to his god for strength. After several powerful blows by Maccabee and the assorted combatants the red-capped creature finally fell. With both frustration and anger Maccabee makes the killing blow. It was a solemn victory, Brandon was dead, and not one kobold suffered injury. Now the thought of waiting in this dark place with a potential evil cleric to raise our comrade up turned Maccabee’s stomach.
“The ends justify the means,” echoed in the Paladin’s mind...
At the beginning of this session, we quickly dealt with levelling up and immersed ourselves in the adventures for the night.
In three days, a strange, otherworldy priest arrived. It never spoke, instead using a duergar slave as proxy. The priest seemed composed of immaterial substance under its tight, black robes. It wore a porcelain mask covering a sphere of light that served as its head... an invisilight (Monster Manual III). Its only weapon, a stout mace.
The cleric's sole concern was the construction of something called the Shrine of Perfection. So long as the adventurers agreed to labor alongside its other slaves to this end, it agreed to bring Brandon the monk back from the afterlife.
The party agreed and traveled deeper into the Underdark to the site of this shrine. But, shame one me! Let the Paladin tell it...
Through the Eyes of a Paladin: 4
Maccabee stood guard over Brandon’s body, contemplating the logic for the party staying amidst the kobold’s underground lair. The Paladin suspected that, if Brandon’s body was not guarded, chances were that the kobolds would probably carry it away and make it into a stew. Seeing to the body was a matter of keeping it packed with ice and snow, reducing the chances for its quick decay. In the midst of this, Orin took a special delight in bragging how his swift sneak attack upon the red-capped monster downed the creature as if single-handedly slaying it. The Paladin sarcastically smiled as if to agree with him. Maccabee suspected Orin was loosing his grip on reality. The Paladin wasn’t certain he was thinking right either, observing the kobold’s wondering if they would make an amusing pet or a trophy on the wall. Either way, the fact that the party was awaiting the arrival of a cleric from the Underdark, in order to raise Brandon from the dead added to the Paladin’s apprehension. Maccabee sensed that resurrecting the wayward Monk of Rao would carry a steep price.
During his spare time, Maccabee tried to understand kobold language. The language was no different than trying to understand the barking of a dog or a lizard’s hisses. On occasion, the Paladin was able to see daylight to acquire snow and ice for Brandon’s body. The fresh chilling air of the great outdoors helped bring Maccabee to his senses. Although the chilling air of the Underdark was plenty cool to preserve the corpse of the wayward adventurer, the short travel to the outside was simply an excuse to help keep the Paladins sanity.
Three days later the Cleric arrived from deep inside the Underdark. This Cleric was unlike any creature Maccabee had ever seen. His face was phantom-like; his body fully robed hovering above ground with a natural ease; by his side a chained, pale-skinned dwarf. The Paladin carefully detected for evil and much to his surprise it was the dwarf that was emanating evil not the hovering specter of a man.
Anxious to get Brandon raised the party desperately bargained with the floating creature. It turned out that in order to have Brandon raised it would take three more months in the Underdark to work off the debt. The deal was done and they were off to a deep cavern where a Shrine of Perfection was being made. After two days travel the party found itself in a huge cavern where an elaborate, hexagonal building was being constructed out of solid stone. The outer areas of this huge cavern had tunnels where mining was going on. At the cave’s entrance stood a deep troll giving passage to those who entered. If its looks didn’t kill you, its stench would. Turned out it wasn’t the stench of the troll that was turning their stomachs, but toxic fumes drifting in from the top of the cavern. It was the same opening at the top of the cave where the phantom creature went back and forth getting a crystal-like item that slowly brought Brandon back to life. Brandon was told of the situation and with much reverence and gratitude for the party’s sacrifice, he, too, became one of the many called to the task at the mines. The chained dwarf began barking orders; the work at hand was obvious. A long day, short breaks with gruel for food was the daily routine. Orin, of course, made his feelings well known: to depart quickly from this place as soon as Brandon was raised. Maccabee scowled at the idea, although tempting, they had to honor the terms of the agreement. Having to stay in this wretched place didn’t help Maccabee’s growing anger so; he took his anger out on the rocks.
With each vigorous blow to the ore, as he listened to the rhythmic sound of the picks, Maccabee began singing: going to the chapel and I’m going to get married...It was the one song that stuck in his mind while dealing with this dismal place. No one seemed to notice, but as the days wore on the adventurers were getting ill from the toxic fumes entering the cavern.
Several day’s passed Maccabee went before the dueargar requesting for a days rest for all miners especially for Solum. He saw the floating apparition draw closer from the fissure from the top of the cavern. Maccabee was beginning to believe that that fissure which was leaking in toxic fumes was actually a porthole to another plane. The creature agreed to the request for Solum to get a day’s rest, but work on the mines had to continue. Solum rested, but by the next day his state was stable, although not getting any better.
After several days having to work on the Shrine of Perfection, Maccabee began noticing something rather irritating filling the air. It wasn’t the toxic fumes or the rhythmic sound of pick axes on stone. It was Tim; his constant musing and bantering was overtaking the sounds of the caves. For weeks he was silent amongst the adventurers but now his mouth would run like a cat with its tail on fire. Either he had become chemically challenged or the toxins in the caves were having an affect on his thought patterns. Either way the sound of his voice began to annoy the Paladin’s senses where Maccabee sent out a shrilling whistle that pierced the furthest miner. For a brief moment the entire cavern was silent. Maccabee took total joy in this and continued in his work. Happily singing to himself, “Going to the chapel and we’re going to get married...”
It was but 10 days working in the caves when Orin stumbled upon something. It was a deposit of crystal of some kind and of obvious value. Regrettably his voice carried while trying to get Brandon’s attention. The other nearby miners overheard causing a riot in the cave. It was apparent that the nature of sin took over. Greed filled the hearts of the miners, dwarves, drow and gnome alike. Fighting to get to Orin’s discovery. The Paladin immediately began to bottleneck the entryway to the sight. No one could enter and no one could leave. Maccabee stood there in a defensive posture, drow and dwarf fought amongst themselves as wheeling death blows with pickaxes eventually led them towards the Paladin. Maccabee looking briefly behind him, encouraging the rogue to continue on with his digs. Orin happily obliged, picking a huge chunk out of the stone. From the corner of his eye he can see the thatcher taking the gems and putting it into the folds of his clothing. Fighting continued. It was to Maccabee’s pleasure that he saw magic shooting forth from the adjacent cavern, there was no doubt it was his fellow adventurers. Calling the remaining dwarf and gnome to cease and desist; they still fought blindly against the party of adventurers. Finally someone had called out that the Troll was returning. Quickly all party members and the one remaining dwarf returned to their pick axes. Immediately Solum and Maccabee healed themselves giving them no sign of participation of the passing calamity. While as for Orin, he had picked away the entire deposit and no one but the adventurers were aware of his fortune. Eventually the Troll appeared in his anger seeing all the dead bodies laying about. Following him was the pale-skinned dwarf, demanding the reason for the dead. All Maccabee could say was that the dwarves and drow fought amongst themselves. Satisfied by his answer the dwarf commanded the deep troll to take the bodies away. After doing so all signs of the dead were nowhere to be seen - obviously made into the Troll’s next meal.
Only a few days past when the adventurers decided to give their find to the Cleric as a payment for their release. In doing so, they were pleasantly surprised to learn that the gems were far more valuable that at first suspected and the Cleric dealt honestly with them, giving extra credit back since the gems more than paid their debt. As an act of kindness, the party agreed to give the remains to the dwarf whose allies met an untimely end in their greed. It was a noble act as Maccabee looked on. Seeing that there was little remorse from the dwarf gave little comfort and the adventurers had little to show for their efforts.
Leaving the cavern of the toxic fumes was a great relief to the party and they slowly began the process for all to mend from its poisonous fumes. A few days into their journey from the Shrine of Perfection the party ran into a small ambush of orcs. It was fortunate that some of the party members saw the orcs hidden behind some rocks. After a brief gathering of their defenses the mages were able to dispatch the orcs swiftly. The party continued on until they got to a familiar sight which was the mushroom forest. Due to the loudness of the party, especially the noise from the war mage it was a small miracle that they could sneak up on anyone.
The party spent a few weeks here resting and honing their developing skills, knowing they would be needed in the weeks and months to come. Without proper instruction from more experienced minds, it took a few weeks. After, the final goal ahead was to neutralize the threat in the temple of Nerull. But worse for the Paladin was to slink across that narrow plank bridge once again. Maccabee gathered up all his strength and by a fleeting act of fate the obstacle was overcome.
Once crossing the bridge they crossed the under ground river moving to the double doors of the temple proper.
The battle plans against the skeletal warriors within the temple proper called for the combined strength of Solum, Brandon, and Maccabee to place a heavy armoire from a nearby room against one of the temple doors. This would create a tactically advantageous bottleneck, allowing only one skeleton through at a time. Once the plan unfolded Brandon rolled through the entryway of the temple proper after Maccabee opened the door. Standing there ready to fight were the two skeletal warriors. Immediately Brandon withdrew returning back into the 10-foot wide hallway, but received a painful blow in his efforts. Holding his ground, the Paladin stood there in full defense as Solum began praying for divine protection from evil be granted to Maccabee. The plan was in full swing. Brandon was the patsy to lure the monsters forward as the arcane casters used their spells upon them. The skeletons could only exit one at a time, making their attacks upon Maccabee with his increased defense extremely difficult. Solum quickly healed Brandon from his initial wounds from the skeletal warriors. One right after the other the two Skeletal warriors were defeated.
The adventurers carefully entered the temple. Solum and Maccabee went to check the alcoves where the skeletal warriors came from. Orin, Brandon, and Tim went up to the altar in hopes to destroy it and also find any secret passages or traps. The thatcher and Athena watched from the hallway as the remaining adventurers investigated the evil shrine. Looking on, Orin, while carefully searching the back wall behind the altar, stumbled upon a mechanical device. A section of the wall and floor began to rotate with Orin with it. Orin disappeared behind the wall and in his place stood a giant skeletal bugbear that immediately took a tremendous swing at Tim. The Paladin bellowed for all to retreat to the pit trap. Cautiously people began filing out of the temple area. The giant bugbear skeleton was close behind. Tim was within the grasp of the monster. Incantations buzzed through the air from the two wizardly types. Little by little the party moved into position, trying to lure the skeleton into the trap. The pit slowed the quick moving skeleton. It gave Maccabee the time to deal the final blow, the creature crumbling into a heap of splintered bones.
Returning back to retrieve their friend, Orin eventually emerged from behind the secret hiding place completely ignorant of what had transpired while he searched the hidden recess behind the wall. After triggering the device again a small chest was found where the bugbear skeleton had once stood. Perhaps it was little compensation with all that had already transpired, but the party claimed its contents. A masterwork sword with the name Reaver carved into it was part of the newly claimed treasure, which the Paladin strapped to his hip replacing his own nicked and much used of late sword. Joyously the party left the dungeon with the kobolds happy to see them go. The feeling of the bright sun caressing their skins brought solace to the adventurers. They soon found a small speck of civilization further south in the mountain pass. Once there Maccabee was soothed by the comfort of clean dry clothes after a hot, steamy bath. The Paladin closed his eyes, thinking only of the now and drifting off to a peaceful night’s sleep.
The adventure continues...
These are horribly long, I know! But what can you do when you game for 6 hours on average each session? Lots of stuff happens.
So here's a short post, just because.
OK. In our session for this past Friday 4/9, I started "The Devil Box" by Richard Pett from Dungeon 109. One of my all time favorites. Our paladin has taken the night off in recounting events for this week, so I've stepped in and written my own little (yeah, right!) blurb.
Through the Eyes of a Dungeon Master
April 9. It was a cool, windy evening as the players arrived at the home of Master Stephen. First, Sir Stanley the Never-Serious, then Dayton the Sardonic, followed by Good Brother Paul the Holy. Lady April the Wife was already in attendance and had just finished putting all in readiness in the lair of the Master.
The group bore their usual equipment (books, dice, sundry papers and notes) and adventuring rations (soda, chips, and even a fat tin full of homemade lasagna complimented by a bottle of fruity wine). However two of their number were not in attendance when the Master announced that the game would begin: Sir Todd the Ever Late, and Goodman Ben the Couchsitter, the latter having chosen another couch tonight.
The Master listened to the numerous queries posed such as "While we're here, can I purchase...?" And "I would like to advise the local clergy of..." He patiently endured the poor jokes and restless comments by the group. Once they were feeling more settled the Master unveiled the night's adventure, musing to himself over the dilemmas that they would find themselves in and wondering how each player would handle it.
It started with an overdue wagon bearing wine from Murgen's Honor. The characters had been waiting for a caravan or merchant wagon to accompany to the next town. The innkeeper of "The Tower" was increasingly distressed over the uncharacteristic lateness of Erasmus the merchant. The adventurers decided to set out on the slushy road to see what trouble was afoot. Late in the day they found the remains of the merchant, his horse Emily, his damaged and partially looted wagon, and a pair of small creatures disguised as halflings gleefully stuffing their pockets with silver.
The assembled players quizzed the Master about the creatures, items left on the wagon, and the general lay of the land at this scene of slaughter. Dice were rolled, thoughts shared, and the result was this: the halflings were actually a pair of comical kobolds in disguise who happened upon the wagon, a half-dead dwarf named Stonty was found in the nearby bushes, and it was learned that the massacre was dealt by a trio of imps and a tiny talking doll wrapped in dozens of silver chains.
The kobolds were heading to Murgen's Honor to get the help of a freakshow creature named Lumbie in order to trap the fiends in a magical coffin-shaped box they have been carrying. Only Lumbie can activate it to trap the fiends inside the box from whence they sprang to begin with. A poorly written letter, yet very cool-looking game prop, from the Chief of their clan requested help from the "honorably pale smooth ones," to accomplish this difficult task. The players decided that this wouldn't compromise their characters' morals too much and seemed to be the direction the evening was heading.
It was decided unanimously, that Stonty the dwarf would be escorted back to the safety of "The Tower" by Ben the Couch Sitter's absent character Brandon while the players present continued their characters' travels toward Murgen's Honor.
In company with the kobolds Raspit, the Son of the Clan Chief, and His Terribleness Duke Chupo, Slayer of Rosie the Seamstress, the characters entered the town a day later. Murgen's Honor was presently celebrating a festival called Shackling in which single marriageable adults wore masks and courted each other in the hopes of marriage. The players became very cagey at the prospect of their characters getting married, but had their characters don masks and somewhat play along.
The kobolds, meanwhile, were becoming a nuisance and required constant supervision to the mounting frustration of the players. More dice were rolled and information provided to the players by the Master regarding a new addition to Horatio Quigley's Festal Freakshow and a rash of burglaries down by the riverfront.
The Master rolled a pyramid-shaped die and determined that the characters had spent the majority of the day talking to the locals. Despite the late hour, the players decided to send their characters over the river ford to investigate the freakshow and here is where Master Stephen mentally smiled. For this was to be a difficult and morally problematic encounter. Ha! Let us see how the players respond!
About that time, Todd the Ever Late made his tardy appearance accompanied by the grinding halt of the game that normally accompanies such an event. He was caught up on the events of the night, his figurine placed on the game table, and the story resumed.
Almost immediately, Todd the Ever Late got his character into a fight with the disguised kobolds and Master Stephen, taking a look at his notes on these 2 NPCs, could see that Tim the halfling warmage would most assuredly make their s**t list after destroying Raspit's 60 gp outfit. Ye book of Dungeon adventures clearly described his personality in this way: "Dirt and filth are his greatest enemies, and despite the fact that he lives in a cave he always seems clean." This had gone far beyond dirt and filth, the Master counseled himself.
Many dice were rolled, the players bandied words, and the kobolds were chastened (for the moment) and given nominal healing by Solum Cantor, Dayton the Sardonic's character. However, tension crackled in the air both in the story and around the game table. "Hmmmm... Let's see where this goes," the Master thought.
The characters found that the freakshow was closed for the night. The hours posted were sunup to dusk and it was now well after dark. However, this didn't stop the characters from rousing Horatio Quigley from his bed after a single guard with a club pointed them to his colorful wagon. Things did not go well with him. The players paid him 250 sp to let them enter the freakshow tent and see Lumbie "The Horrible Reptile Boy." It turns out Lumbie the kobold was somewhat of a Baby Huey, i.e. grossly oversized and wearing a big, dumb-looking diaper. Lumbie himself seemed possessed of little more than animal intelligence, only gurgling and whimpering. When Brother Paul the Holy decided to have Maccabee the paladin throw caution to the wind and bear down on Horatio threateningly, it provoked the fateful pronouncement, "Roll initiative."
Despite the look of this combat at the start, little if any blood was shed and the group decided to leave Horatio in one piece and return to town. However, while this took place, Orin Dale, the character of Sir Stanley the Never-Serious, had snuck back to Mr. Quigley's wagon and broke in after repeated failures at picking the lock. Inside, it was more buffoonery as Orin failed again and again to pop open the lock of a large chest. So, improvising, he dragged the unconscious body of the guard that had caught him breaking in, but would now suffer an enormous lump on his head for his troubles, into the wagon and hoped to successfully frame the guard for his botched attempt at larceny. Master Stephen chuckled and mentally credited Sir Stanley the Never-Serious for his efforts.
In town, the paladin made the whole series of events from the beginning of the session to the unsuccessful meeting with Horatio Quigley known to the city watch; only leaving out how delicious Sir Stanley the Never-Serious's lasagna had been:).
Master Stephen could see that the moral dilemmas of the evening were now taking their toll. It was almost more than Brother Paul the Holy could handle and now would be a good time to bring things back down to a simmer. The Acting Captain of the Watch, Surl, declared that the wicked little kobolds, whom are never to be trusted, and their strange box would be detained at the watch station and the adventurers would have 24 hours to provide proof that the tale spun by the kobolds that the adventurers had foolishly bought into was real. (The pot is very close to coming to a boil again. Master Stephen will need to be careful with this!) With his pronouncement, the Master advised the group that Surl seems favorably inclined toward them, but is just doing his job. Surl tells the adventurers that they look tired and should go to the Grumpy Hogfish and get a good night's rest so they can get started on their task bright and early.
The players all agree on this and make their way over to the inn where they have already procured a room. Master Stephen sees something in his notes and rolls some dice. It turns out the fiends have become aware of the adventurers and the fact that one carries the hated Devil Box (the kobold, actually). Hmmmm... On with the EL 5 "Ambush at the Grumpy Hogfish." (The Master draws a large elaborate set up of an inn, bridge, stream and footpaths on the game table to the growing curiosity of the assembled players.)
The Master announces that the group crosses a footbridge over a stream just outside of the inn and calls for dice to be rolled. None of them come up with the right number and out from under the bridge pops a wererat with a crossbow and 6 snarling dire rats.
The capriciousness of the dice is evident tonight. Brother Paul the Holy can't seem to roll anything high enough to hit the side of a barn and disgustedly throws the offending d20 in the garbage. Elsewhere, Todd the Ever Late has his halfling warmage engulf Orin in flames with a burning hands spell as a "tactically advantageous" move, hoping the d20 roll for Sir Stanley the Never-Serious will be high. It is low and the damage is high. Down goes Orin the rogue and his clothes promptly catch fire. However, the quick-thinking-and-seldom-credited Lady April the Wife, has Mira Luna the sorcerer make use of a prestidigitation to douse the flames with a quick splash of water and peppers her enemies with spells from a safe distance.
An invisible tittering creature reveals itself as a tiny imp and whispers something in the ear of Solum Cantor. Dayton the Sardonic rolls a die and frowns at the result. Master Stephen and him leave the room and discuss the suggestion spell just cast on him and read the description so they both understand how it works. They return to the table and it turns out that Solum is under a compulsion to kill Tim the halfling warmage, which is accomplished very quickly. Todd the Ever Late handles the ordeal with aplomb and with lightning speed brandishes a new character sheet called "Back-Up Character."
The combat ends with 3 of the characters infected with filth fever, the wererat escaped by jumping into the stream and swimming away, the imp nowhere to be seen, and a small patrol of the city watch jogging up to see what the commotion is. Todd the Ever Late's "Back-Up Character" happens to be tagging along with his friends on the city watch tonight and thus experiences no loss of gaming time. Master Stephen mentally congratulates himself on this seamless character insertion.
The city watch can clearly see the evidence of the battle and find the crossbow dropped by the wererat. (They even recognize the craftsmanship of its creator, a local weaponsmith, and can find out who this one was sold to in the morning. Perhaps the players will have the intuitiveness at the next session to bring this up.)
The characters realize they have been bitten by diseased rats and seek a healer immediately. At the local church of Pelor, Maccabee the paladin receives a remove disease spell, but the others will need to return in the morning when the priest can pray for more. The session thus ends in one fatality, the players still somewhat rattled by the dilemmas of the night, Todd the Ever Late warming up to the thought of his new character, and the DM hoping that the group had a good time...
Quotes for the night:
Solum Cantor - "One loud mouth idiot, a town full of morons, and a whole lot of evil this way comes. (Shakes his head from side to side looking down) "Kord give me strength!"
Orin Dales - (Inner dialogue, looking around surveying the carnage on the bridge) Man, I don't know about this helping evil to stop greater evil, it seems like every time we decide that these "lesser evil" kobolds need help another one of my new friends dies. And this time there is no way to bring him back, well there is a way, but there is no way we can come up with the gold needed. Well, I might have been able to come up with the gold, but the lock on Horatio's chest was just a little too tough. The wagon lock was tough, too, but hey, sometimes a little force can go a long way. I still don't understand why Maccabee won't just let me sneak in and "liberate" Lumbie, and the others for that matter, but hey, I guess if you have a "higher purpose" then you can turn your attention from the cruelties that certain "law abiding" citizens impose on your fellow free thinkers. But hey for that matter I believe it was Maccabee's idea to help these little lizard bastards anyway... I wonder how the church would feel about one of its elites wandering around being an errand boy for kobolds. And what the hell is with every one being down on my dead friend Tim?! When I tried reining in one of the kobolds for misbehaving he was the only one backing me, with actions anyway, when the filthy little bugger threatened me. Now I will admit, the second time was unnecessary, but the kobold started it, I agree with him.
What now? If we can't come up with proof about this evil that is about to be unleashed then we get to spend some time in jail for bringing the filthy little kobolds into town, and I'm sure Maccabee would be opposed to me helping us outta jail, if I could even find a way to sneak in my tools.... So it looks as though I might be totally up the creek, but hey, at least I get one more night of a hot meal and a good place to sleep, unless of course something else comes after us tonight.
Shank Choirsong (Todd's new character) "Who are all these people? What the hell is going on? Why am I here?"
Blimmey!
Its so long since we ran the play test for this I’ve struggled to remember what happened – it looks like your group are enjoying it though Steve which is great.
I dropped them straight into the burning wagon section I think, but I liked your idea of the wagon being late – it gives the adventure a better hook – in fact I wish I’d thought of that! My group were immediately dubious of the kobolds, and went into throes of disbelieving them, trying to pull off their tails etc convinced that they were polymorphed somethings out to cause trouble until someone pointed out they were kobolds and were probably troublesome anyway and had already admitted that. Under duress Roost the Barbarian lead them into town with the phrase ‘speak and die – horribly’ ringing in their ears.
I remember having to keep repeating that the kobolds thought the players were worse than the imps and seriously considering going off with them! This made the players treat them worse as they were offended that anyone could think them worse than devils so they locked the pair in their rooms and posted a guard (sadly one fell asleep and the kobolds escaped) The players totally lost it when, having spent all day searching for the escapees they came back to the inn and found the wagons of shopping – I’ll not forget their faces for some time, Roost shook the kobolds and threatened that if they didn’t stop buying things he’d have them unmasked, at which point a town guard on hand to direct the traffic around the deliveries asked him what he was talking about and to put down the poor innocent halfling. This gave rise to an immediate attack upon the players by the imps, who I recall having loads of fun with.
It was really enjoyable when the penny dropped on the missing dogs thing, Geoff (who is by tradition always possessed by demons or accused of such regardless of the adventure (or system used) and as DM I feel it my duty to perpetuate this unfortunate situation to my advantage by having disembodied voices ALWAYS use him) the gnome bard suddenly resolved the situation and a general request was put about by the players that they were looking for cats – perhaps large or wicked looking cats and a reward was offered, said players retired to the grumpy hogfish to try some wheat beer (generally their tactic regardless of the do or die situation; whether the world is about to end, an aboleth is eating one of their commrades or if yeenoghu is waiting for them in a tainted cathedral). Forty two delivered cat corpses later, and considerably poorer, the players embarked on the chase themselves and finally, tracking the cats over rooftops cornered the devil in the cellar. I think at the end the barbarian gave the kobolds to a count of 3 to escape…
I loved Solum Cantors quote, and like you the Shackling made the players more nervous than the kyton…players…wierd
Let me know how the final session goes!
Rich
Wow! I'm surprised someone has found the patience to read this ongoing novel.
As a matter of fact, Rich, my group and I are having a blast with this one. I've been waiting for a while to run it. You really outdid yourself. It was part of the inspiration for my latest module I'm working on, which I just pitched the proposal to Dungeon on today. Well, that, insomnia, pain killers, every children's story I've ever read, and a reacurring childhood nightmare about a witch. That's inspiration! Hopefully "Faerie Tale" makes it to print.
I had to change the name of the town because my players would have never taken the people there serious! No offense intended. Just the nature of my players.
Imps! They are so much fun at this level of play. Anyway, great module! And FYI, just between me, you, and the bugs... though I like Greg Vaughn's work, I like your's the best!
Wow! I'm surprised someone has found the patience to read this ongoing novel.
As a matter of fact, Rich, my group and I are having a blast with this one. I've been waiting for a while to run it. You really outdid yourself. It was part of the inspiration for my latest module I'm working on, which I just pitched the proposal to Dungeon on today. Well, that, insomnia, pain killers, every children's story I've ever read, and a reacurring childhood nightmare about a witch. That's inspiration! Hopefully "Faerie Tale" makes it to print.
I had to change the name of the town because my players would have never taken the people there serious! No offense intended. Just the nature of my players.
Imps! They are so much fun at this level of play. Anyway, great module! And FYI, just between me, you, and the bugs... though I like Greg Vaughn's work, I like your's the best!
Glad your having fun with it, it was good fun to write too! Hope you have success with Faerie Tale, is the main villain a witch??
Watch out for Greg - he has a large pack of homing ropers he sends out to do his bidding and harass other dungeon writers so beware!
A pack of ropers eh? --
Ropers are my friends. Seriously though.... Greg sends them out to harrass other writers?! That doesn't sound like Greg to me... he has (so far) been very supportive.
Oh, and Steve... thanks for the witch comment, you made me think of an old nightmare I used to have about a witch. I think I see material for a Dungeon adventure here, and it's all your fault! Thanks you!
- Ashavan
ok so maybe its an adherance of ropers but he definately has them (probably)
Rich make funny! Me laugh! :) Ashavan, we all leach off each other. It's a great symbiotic relationship we writers have!
Rich make funny! Me laugh! :) Ashavan, we all leach off each other. It's a great symbiotic relationship we writers have!
It's a good thing. In this symbiotic relationship... any hints on how to deal with the anxiety? I'm still waiting to hear from Jeremy. I know, I know... I just need to keep writing, but knowing that the decision has been made somehow makes it harder.
Maybe I could volunteer to be their administrative assistant for a week to help them catch up - the only problem is that they're on the other side of the country.
Feh. Writing it is. And I'll go to my back up strategy, baking a cake.
By the way, I really mean it... I haven't had that nightmare in ages, but your post reminded me of a witch related dream I used to have all the time. I'll have to think of what I can use from it for adventure material.
- Ashavan
By the way, I really mean it... I haven't had that nightmare in ages, but your post reminded me of a witch related dream I used to have all the time. I'll have to think of what I can use from it for adventure material.
- Ashavan
Yeah, I had a reocurring witch nightmare for years from about age 4, I think. I can still remember it clearly. Fairy tales do horrible things to a kid's psyche, eh? But now I get to make it work for me... Hopefully...
Yeah, I had a reocurring witch nightmare for years from about age 4, I think. I can still remember it clearly. Fairy tales do horrible things to a kid's psyche, eh? But now I get to make it work for me... Hopefully...
I have a vague memory of it starting as a ghost story at the cabin at my grandmother's house, but that could have been part of the dream. At any rate, if it manages to snare me a coveted greenlight on a query, it was worth all the sleepless nights it caused.
- Ashavan
I remember watching a BBC play about a werewolf when I was a kid and it gave me nightmares for ages, best of luck with the adventures - have you heard anything from james yet Ashavan?
And dont forget Steve to tell me how the next session goes.
And its not fair me picking on Greg as he doesnt read the dragon messageboards - time to go and pick on him at the dungeon ones...muhahaha
I remember watching a BBC play about a werewolf when I was a kid and it gave me nightmares for ages, best of luck with the adventures - have you heard anything from james yet Ashavan?
No word from James or Jeremy yet on the adventure queries. But apparently Wolfgang Bauer is also waiting to hear, so I'm in good company.
- Ashavan
Rich, my campaign resumes tonight, so you can see how it went in the next couple of days when I post the next installment in this long sucker.
Another Friday Night Gamer? At our table, we call it "Friday Night Fights"!
Another Friday Night Gamer? At our table, we call it "Friday Night Fights"!
Indeed! We had plenty of that last night.
April 15. We resumed "The Devil Box" where we had left off the week before. Ambush at the Grumpy Hogfish had resulted in one character death (at the hands of another party member!) and 3 others sure that they had contracted filth fever from the numerous dire rats that had bitten them.
The local clergy of Pelor had removed the disease from Maccabee, the paladin, but had to pray for additional spells in the morning for the others. So, bright and early the next day they showed up just in time for morning devotional and fell victim to the church's +5 collection plate (suckers!). The spells were cast and everyone felt much better. However, they now owe the head priest for these costly spells and have agreed to verify the authenticity of a map he obtained to a nearby dungeon by traveling there to take a look around. Supposedly, a rare sun opal important to the church was lost there many years ago.
The characters agreed to pay off their debt this way, but more on that later...
The rest of the day the characters followed some clues that eventually led them to Max Muddletude's Sweatshop... err, I mean "Workhouse." But along the way one of the imps that had been watching them closely decided to once more take advantage of the easily influenced mind of Solum Cantor the favored soul of Kord. Wouldn't you know it, Dayton rolls a "1" on his Will save. The imp pops up near his head and quickly whispers, "Great job with the halfling! Why don't you kill that damned paladin now, eh?"
Long story short, Solum was subdued and held in the local city watch station for observation since his friends said he'd been influenced by magic. The rest of them head over to Mr. Muddletude's warehouse, but find the place closed. The occupants inside told them to go away through the locked door claiming they were closed for Shackling. They returned to check on Solum again and contrary to his words, he again tried to attack the paladin when he came near. The local militia was puzzled over news of Mr. M's business being closed, though, since he wouldn't close shop for his own funeral.
The characters received permission from the town guard to stake out the warehouse and act on anything suspicious within reason. Since the sighting of the imp that attacked them again was verified, Surl, the acting captain of the watch reluctantly gave over custody of the 2 kobolds and their strange coffin to the PCs with the condition that they would be held accountable for the little troublemakers' actions. After 5 hours of boring surveilance, a cat sauntered up to the front door and scratched at it. A moment later it was let in. Nothing weird about that, right?
Meanwhile, Maccabee returns to check on Solum again to find that he is truly himself again and is released from his cell.
When the group is together once more still staking out the warehouse, the front door silenly swings open and the same cat steps into the threshold, stares right at where the characters are hiding for a moment, and suddenly disappears.
Behind the DM's screen... One of the imps has been tiped off about the PCs' actions by the wererat hidden on the roof watching the PCs. Their tiny fiendish boss orders them to let the characters in and ambush them. The wererats hide on the high catwalk surrounding the the main work area where large vats for cleaning laundry dominate most of the warehouse. This provides them concealment and allows them to make ranged attacks with their crossbows with impunity.
The suckers take the bait and in they go. Well, it was quite a shoot out. The characters stepped back and forth over death's door numerous times and the DM made abundant use of the numerous opportunities for villainous monologuing. 14 rounds later the warehouse was filled with spent crossbow bolts, 3 dead wererats (including old Max Muddletude, himself), and one they took alive. However, one of them got away through an upstairs window. And as we brought the night to a close, Abercankus the wererat reported to the fiends in their lair below the warehouse of the events that transpired.
As the playes congratulated themselves on their victory, the imps and their diminutive kyton boss make their way upstairs to the warehouse to finish the meddling adventurers off once and for all...
I should have another installment of "Through the Eyes of a Paladin" for this session to post here in a day of so.
As promised, here is our paladin's take on the last session...
Through the Eyes of a Paladin: 6
The early morning in Murgen’s Honor was cool and clear as Maccabee awoke thinking of the challenges facing the group of adventurers in the ongoing quest. He knew that Solum and Orin were anxious to get to the Pelorian Temple to be cured of the sickness of the dire rat bites. Eventually all the adventurers made it down from their rooms at the Grumpy Hogfish Inn and took their meal at the tavern. Maccabee awaited the chance to clear his name about having to bring along the two kobolds. Once full, the party walked over to the Temple for healing and counseling.
With stars still visible in the morning skies, as the sun slowly rose, they could hear the sounds of chanting as the priests of Pelor were praying for the favor of their sun god. Once in the Temple, Brother Jared prompted the adventurers to join in the worship ceremony. After the worship Brother Jared healed the Servant of Kord, Solum as well as the faithful Rogue, Orin. As a payment for the healing, Jared asked the group to check on a lead about an artifact of Pelor, which was believed to be in an old dungeon south of town near the borders of Ratik. The church was given a map, but it was questionable in its origin, so they needed to investigate further. After the burial of their friend Tim and a few brief “farewells”, the group of adventurers made their way to see the Captain of the guard, Surl.
The adventurers entered into the town’s guardhouse and were met with a flurry of questions. Shank, a local fighter was to assist the adventures in the search for the imps in hopes to clear the group’s name. The only lead to the previous night’s battle with the dire rats and wererat was a crossbow left behind. The adventurers traveled to the towns’ only weapon smith in hopes to discover the name of the person who was the owner of such a weapon. Walking through the town’s market place, Maccabee and his comrades enjoyed the vendors’ sweet pastries and desserts. Maccabee treated Brandon to one of the local delicacies. As they lingered around the vendors’ carts, Brandon, always anxious to help the needy, noticed first that there were no beggars or any needy people nearby, as it often was in other cities. They found out that the homeless, young and old, were taken off the streets to be put to work at a cleaners owned by one, Max Muddletude. Orin commented that Muddletude’s sounded like a sweatshop.
Entering “Arestole’s Weapon Smith Shop”, they were greeted by Arestole himself, a short Gnome. The jovial owner of the shop was eager to sell the adventurers some weapons, and chatted cordially, answering their questions. Arestole was more than happy to help the party members in their search for the owner of the dropped crossbow: it was a fellow named Crump, who happened to be an associate to Max Muddletude. The circle of suspects was growing... With directions given by Arestole to the perpetrators house, Maccabee gratefully paid a silver piece to the friendly Gnome for his assistance and information.
The group quickly found their way to Crump’s home, which he shared with two fellows named Hank and Henry. Prior to the adventurers’ arrival, one of the imps reappeared once again, cast a spell on the oversized cleric, causing Solum’s demeanor to change. Solum’s deranged stare made it obvious that Maccabee was the imp’s next target. One of the locals, Shank, was there to witness the entire event. Solum brought down his sword upon the unsuspecting Paladin, while Mira Luna attempted to “Magic Missile” the fluttering Imp. Rather than returning Solum’s blow, Maccabee hit the imp with minimum to no damage. Solum attacked Maccabee once again, but this time all of the remaining party members assisted in neutralizing the stout servant of Kord. As the imp disappeared, Orin hit Solum over the head with his handy blackjack, knocking him out cold.
Shank was more than happy to take the unconscious Solum back to the watch station and as an eyewitness of the events, cleared the names of the wayward adventurers. The group continued their march to the home of Crump. Knocking on his door, they were denied access, but found out that Crump was at Max Muddletude’s.
Once at Max’s, they knocked on the door but a young woman on the other side denied them entry. Maccabee was becoming suspicious. The adventurers returned to the watch station informing the militia of the dilemma. Checking up on Solum to see if the enchantment from the imp had worn off proved to be problematic. Once again Solum, now tied up with rope, struggled to attack the Paladin. Solum was still affected. After discussing their situation with Surl, the acting Captain of the guard, they all found it suspicious that Muddletude’s was closed during Shackling, and they agreed to stake out the place to see if anything odd was going on. Shank came along after testifying to the story about the imps, but this time the kobolds were to come with the adventurers. Maccabee rolled his eyes in protest but agreed to go along with Surl’s plan. And so, Duke Chuppo and Raspet came to participate in the stake out.
After more than five hours passed, the kobolds were getting antsy, and so was the rest of the party. A cat happened to pass by scratching at the door of Max’s then the door mysteriously opened up giving access into the building. After this Maccabee returned to the watch station to check on Solum’s condition. Once inside the jail, Maccabee entered Solum’s cell; this time he did not attack. Quickly Solum was released and was briefed on what had transpired while he was out. They returned to the Cleaners; all was quiet. As Solum went to investigate an adjoining building, the door to the Cleaners eerily swung open. Maccabee slowly approached, followed by Duke Chupo and Raspet, Shank staying behind and Mira Luna placing herself at a tactical position. Maccabee looked inside the room and detected no evil. Maccabee whistled at his comrades to follow and the remaining adventurers entered in. Orin nervously whispered “this is a trap,” and the entire group looked at him with a “no duh” expression.
Once inside, they carefully walked through another set of doors at which point crossbow bolts whizzed through the air, as wererats were positioned for an ambush. Solum was initially hit the hardest and took cover immediately. Brandon boldly drew fire upon himself as to buy time for the others. Kobolds joined in the battle, much to Maccabee’s surprise. Orin bravely ran to the nearest ladder getting to the high platform from where the wererats were shooting. The lycanthropes were standing on a large catwalk 15 feet in height that surrounded the interior of a large warehouse. Quickly, Maccabee took up a defensive position over Mira Luna, giving her a chance to cast magic missiles at one of the largest wererats. The flurry of crossbow bolts whipped through the air while Solum was healing himself behind one of many large stone vats. Brandon continued to draw fire as he worked his way up the ladder in the opposite side of the warehouse. Once there, Duke Chuppo and Raspet followed Brandon’s lead and scrambled up a 2nd ladder on the same side of the warehouse. Maccabee turned to Mira Luna asking for his leave to assist the wounded Solum. Orin had made his way to the top of the catwalk engaging in melee with one of the four wererats. Once healed Solum followed close behind the Paladin, as both made their way up the ladder where Orin had ascended. Crossbow bolts continued to whiz through the air missing the Paladin. After making their way up the catwalk Maccabee and Solum confronted one of the lycanthropes Orin had already initiated contact with. The wererat fled from Maccabee and Solum jumping down to the lower level. Orin was now engaging another wererat, which was attacking Mira Luna. The battle shifted, as Brandon was making his attempt to get around behind the wererat attacking Orin then stumbled upon Max Muddletude in the form of an old white whiskered wererat. There were now five lycanthropes engaged in combat with the adventurers. Brandon was successfully drawing their fire giving the rest of the party a chance to whittle the enemy down.
Maccabee was having a difficult time striking a blow against the wererats, in doing so his morale was collapsing. As the battle continued Maccabee momentarily reflected on his failures in the battle from the prior evening; he had no desire to repeat it. Then, all at once, he simply had enough: enough of the foul creatures they were fighting, enough of the torment and anguish. He was overtaken with rage. The Paladin of Heironeous struck a major blow upon the one known as Max, followed by another with the assistance of Orin. The Paladin engaged another wererat, and struck it so hard it stood there, stunned. Orin then made the finishing blow. The battle shifted in favor of the righteous. One of the wererats had made its escape out a back window while the one female wererat, left behind, lied there unconscious from her wounds. She was the one remaining rat for the town guard to interrogate, which would enable them to put an end to the wererat menace. The floors were covered with the blood of the wererats as they returned back to their human form. It was a good day for the adventurers.
Your right Steve this is becoming a Novel. Didn't realize I had an audience of readers. Looking forward to the up and coming events. If Maccabee doesn't make it through the up and coming adventure his epitaph will probably read, "some times you have to die to learn your lesson.":)
I really love the way you are using the cats in this adventure steve, I'm using wererats extensively in a new campaign my players are about to embark on, as they were so much fun to run in Devil Box.
By the way Steve, if you're looking for an adventure to run after Devil Box may I suggest you look at 'Final Resting Place' in Dungeon #122. Mike Kortes has written a brilliant adventure with a great hook, strong story, and lots of trogs. I think this one will be a lot of fun to run and play.
Rich
By the way Steve, if you're looking for an adventure to run after Devil Box may I suggest you look at 'Final Resting Place' in Dungeon #122. Mike Kortes has written a brilliant adventure with a great hook, strong story, and lots of trogs. I think this one will be a lot of fun to run and play.
Rich
I've been looking at Final Resting Place also... really inventive. As I so often think looking through Dungeon, I should have come up with it first. I agree with Richard, it'd make an excellent following adventure.
Btw... is anyone else still waiting to hear on the results of the queries? Jeremy said he would try to have everyone notified two Monday's ago, and I still haven't heard, but I'm reluctant to bug him about it 'cause I know they're busy on issue 124 - with the first installment of the adventure path coming, I'm sure they're being extra careful with that issue.
- Ashavan
Thanks for the tip, Rich. I've only given that issue a cursory glance so far. I'll have to check it out.
The next one I'm running is "Dungeon of the Fire Opal" from issue 84. I was really excited that someone actually wrote a complete adventure from the sample dungeon that first appeared in the original DMG, but I never got a chance to run it. The premise is that the opal originally belonged to the church of Pelor and was stolen long ago. The local church has offered to raise the fallen PCs (yes, we had a couple of fatalities) to go explore the dungeon, which they recently obtained a map to and have heard that the opal may very well be hidden there.
Perhaps I can fit the one you suggest in to this campaign if its as good as you and Ashavan say it is :)
Btw... is anyone else still waiting to hear on the results of the queries? Jeremy said he would try to have everyone notified two Monday's ago, and I still haven't heard, but I'm reluctant to bug him about it 'cause I know they're busy on issue 124 - with the first installment of the adventure path coming, I'm sure they're being extra careful with that issue.
- Ashavan
Ashavan, bug him, bug him, bug him. He's forgotten, you fell through the cracks, or he needs a reminder. Get on him!
April 22. This session was 24 rounds of bloodletting! Like "I've Got Reach" calls it, Friday Night Fights.
As we started this session, the PCs had just informed Shank (acting on behalf of the town watch) of the presence of wererats and he took off to get some of the regular watch to help take the incapacitated wererat, Kricket, into custody.
Meanwhile, while Maccabee and Mira Luna waited downstairs in the front office, the rest of the adventurers began searching through Max Muddletude's office upstairs for records and other incriminating stuff that might give more insight into his nefarious deeds.
About this same time, the poor and sickly laundry workers hiding in the adjacent mess hall finally worked up the courage to look out into the warehouse now that the sounds of battle had ended. Seeing all of the blood and the dead bodies (now reverted back to humans) of Crump and the rest, they freaked out and rushed out the front door screaming "Murder!" and other incoherent babblings. Maccabee and Mira Luna stepped aside and let them go their way.
On the heels of this human stampede came the kyton and imps. As Maccabee stepped back into the warehouse, Matilda the imp suddenly appeared in the air 15 ft. away from him and said, "Heh, you've been fooled by those kobolds into thinking that box of theirs traps devils, but it really traps HUMANS! Go on up their and kill 'em and kill those others up there, too!"
Paul rolled very low on his save and Maccabee thought it was a great idea. Mira Luna, meanwhile, heard the whole thing and cautiously followed Maccabee to see what he was going to do.
As he headed to the ladder up to the catwalk, the imps and their kyton boss (the kyton being carried by one of the imps) flew up to the catwalk where some of the adventurers were standing outside of Max's office. Glister attempted a suggestion on Solum Cantor having been told by Ognort how easy his mind was to manipulate. But, alas, Dayton rolled a 20 on his save, and proudly refused the suggestion.
After that, it was fighting time. After the first few rounds, the kobolds hid under Max Muddletude's desk and were pretty much forgotten. However, after listening to the ebb and flow of battle outside of the office for nearly 10 rounds, they decided to get the hell out of there, but not before looting everything inside the office and throwing it into their little coffin. They then clambered down a rope with their loot through one of the front windows and hastily made for the town gate...
Back in the warehouse, the imps were drawing numerous AOO's in their attempts to sting the PCs to death. Their attacks were, on average, much more successful than the PCs' AOO's, so they continued this tactic to devastating effect as the Dexterity loss slowly hampered their tagets, especially when it came time to make the secondary saves a minute later after each sting. Zorith, though, not very hard a hitter with his tiny little chain, was hitting almost every time and slowly whittling down the hit points of his enemies.
The first to fall in combat was Orin the rogue. In an act of sheer spite, Zorith stepped atop his prone body, wordlessly challenging anyone to come to his aid. Then, noticing the large vat directly below the catwalk where he stood, he decided to twist the blade a little further. Though it prompted attacks from the 3 town watchmen that Shank had returned with to make AOO's on him, Zorith heaved with all his tiny little strength and pushed Orin's body over the edge and down he fell to land with a sick splash in the dirty water of the vat 15 ft. below.
Though Orin was still hanging on to life, all that could see him in the water below knew that if he didn't get help immediately, he would drown. Zorith snickered.
While combat continued along the catwalk, Mira Luna bravely ran and jumped down into the vat. It was a painful landing, but she was now in a position to try to save him.
However, a second splash right behind her caused her a momentary pause as Solum Cantor, who had been taking a severe beating from the imps and now the hacking blade of the ensorcelled Paladin, flopped down in the water and lay there dying also. A quandary, for sure. Who will she try to save?
She finally made up her mind and attempted to stop the life from flowing out of Orin, but her attempts failed and Orin expired.
Meanwhile, it was cannon ball time Paladin style. Maccabee launched himself off of the catwalk and down he crashed atop Solum Cantor inflicting painful injury on Solum, but only minor hurts to the paladin since Solum cushioned his fall.
Up top on the catwalk, the 3 town watchmen grappled the tiny chain devil preventing him from inflicting anymore wounds with his little chain. Shank planned to have them hold the creature down while he stabbed it to death with a silvertipped spear. He had already used it to deadly effect on 2 of the imps. Mira Luna just prior to her brave jump had slain Ognort the imp with a critical wound from a crossbow bolt.
During this combat Brandon the monk of Rao had bravely interposed himself between Maccabee and the other adventurers he aimed to kill. Brandon proved impossible for the paladin to strike more than once as the monk nimbly bobbed and weaved away from every stroke of his blade. However, Brandon had taken other wounds and lay dying on the catwalk until he also was pushed over and fell into the vat below. Death from falling and drowning seemed to be the order of the night...
However, as it turned out. Maccabee was fooled into thinking all of the targets for his killing were dead except for the kobolds. As he climbed out of the vat and made his way to a nearby ladder to find where the little lizard cowards were hiding, Solum quietly rose from the filthy water and healed Brandon with Mira Luna's assistance. Once Brandon was on his feet, he ran to the middle of the warehouse and shouted at Maccabee, "Hey! Where are you going? I'm still alive! Catch me if you can." Goaded by the wily monk, Maccabee pursued him and Brandon lured him out of the warehouse leading him on an exhaustive chase through town, the monk always just out of the paladin's reach.
When these 2 left, the rest of the party witnessed to their horror the sudden surge backward of the men grappling the chain devil. Suddenly the kyton had regained his former size and smiled wickedly at his would be grapplers. Each of them gulped in nervous fear and were soon cut to ribbons by his sharp chains. He then went on a murderous tear searching for more victims to take his anger out on for the indignities he had endured for so long. The remaining adventurers fled from the warehouse. However, Solum was not fast enough in his escape. His attempt to carefully jump out of one of the upper windows was painfully unsuccesful and as he lay in the dirt below the high window, the kyton jumped down to join him and made quick, bloody work of slaughtering him.
Brandon, meanwhile, eventually led the paladin into the Pelorian church and while he dodged and sidestepped Maccabee's blows explained to the priests what had happened. They had no qualms in clubbing the paladin with their maces until he was unconscious.
The Bishop, hearing of the kyton loose in town and of the novice adventurers' inabilty to deal with it, quickly grabbed a few potent scrolls and took a team of experienced warrior priests to the warehouse and dismissed the fiend back to the hells.
After the battle, the PCs figured out what the kobolds had done, but learned that when the kobolds tried to sneak out of town they were attacked and killed, their ill-gotten loot recovered by the town watch.
And so, the PCs find themselves without Solum Cantor the brave Favored Soul of Kord and Orin the cagey rogue. Alas, they join Tim the Warmage in the local cemetary of Murgen's Honor.
But they will soon find another pair of brave and honorable adventurers that will gladly take their places.
The surviving party members were offered half of Max Muddletude's recovered gold, the rest being claimed by the local government. And, of course, the things they stripped from Max's dead body turned out to be fairly valuable. Not nearly enough by a long shot to make up for the loss of life, but enough at least to better equip them better for future challenges.
After they take some time to obtain better training and skills while in town, they depart to a distant dungeon for the church of Pelor in hopes of recovering a holy relic for them...
Here is our good paladin's miserable (and I mean self-loathing!) recounting of the events of our last session...
Through The Eyes of a Paladin: 7
Once taking stock of the last fallen Wererat, it was decided that Maccabee and Mira Luna would take the surviving Wererat down to the lobby area for interrogation. The remaining adventurers and Kobolds stayed behind, searching Max’s office for any incriminating evidence. While guarding the one surviving Wererat, Maccabee watched as the double doors of the adjoining room swung open and a large group of destitute looking people hurriedly left the building. Detecting no sign of evil, Maccabee allowed them all to pass without any opposition. Right behind the pitiful group of people followed a tiny creature wrapped in chains. Apparently, this was the Chain Devil, which Duke Chuppo and Raspet tried to warn the adventurers about. Soon, one of the Chain Devil’s allied Imps appeared and a suggestion spell was cast. Under the spell, the Paladin thought that his fellow adventurers and especially the Kobolds had tricked him into thinking that the mysterious small box was constructed to capture humans, not to hold the Chain Devil and his Imps.
Maccabee was filled with rage, fuming at the treachery of the group of ex-comrades. Purposeful in his stride, he seethed with resentment. He focused on his objective: to kill those Kobolds and the double-crossing former friends. Moving quickly, Maccabee marched through the lower area of the warehouse making his way to the second level to challenge the traitors. He realized that the adventurers were fighting both Imps and Chain Devil, yet Maccabee was fixated on punishing the group for their infidelity. Mira Luna called out to Brandon who immediately stood before Maccabee like a towering wall. The Paladin viciously attacked the Monk but to no avail. He kept missing the Priest of Rao and quickly became frustrated with the useless venture. The Knight zeroed-in on Orin, thinking that the Rogue would be easy pickings, the Paladin hit the Thief, with his sword, Reaver, inflicting a deep wound in his shoulder. Blood splattered across the catwalk and onto the Paladin's shield. Orin grimaced in pain, his face twisted with a haunting look of shock and dismay. The Rogue stood there a moment, then collapsed, eventually sliding over the edge of the catwalk into the vats below.
Brandon attacked next, striking the Paladin hard with his fists, but the Paladin was unhurt, not even shaken by the annoying Monk of Rao. Next, Maccabee moved on to Solum, the bulky barbarian priest of Kord. Solum struck the Paladin with his great sword, but missed his target. Maccabee’s focus remained unchanged: kill the traitors and put an end to this unpalatable coalition. Maccabee made a crippling blow against the Favored of Kord without any reservations. Brandon provoked the Paladin’s attack, allowing Solum to heal. The Paladin turned and struck the Monk of Rao decisively. Brandon’s fate soon became as that of Orin, as he fell into the vat below. Attempting to save himself from the Paladin, Solum jumped down into the vat below. Solum, lying face down in the murky water, gave Maccabee an opportunity to jump down upon him. Solum thrashed about in the watery vat under the Paladin’s weight, struggling for breath and attempting to strike the Paladin. Standing on his body, Maccabee stretched out his sword and hit the barbarian priest with a death blow. Stepping off the limp body of Solum, Maccabee’s hunt for the two Kobolds was next in his plan. Shank and several of the town guards were wearing down the Imps and the remaining Wererat, which had recently rejoined the battle. The town guards were struggling with the Chain Devil, but that did not dissuade the Paladin of Heironeous from his goal of destroying the Kobolds.
Maccabee made his way up to the catwalk, but Brandon, thought to be dead, stood challenging the Paladin. The Paladin sneered and chased after the Monk of Rao. Maccabee, still on his murderous rampage, ran through the town of Murgen’s Honor, trying his best to kill the Monk.
Following close behind Brandon, they entered the Temple of Pelor, and several priests gathered around the bewildered Paladin. As Brandon kept his distance, the Paladin heard the sounds of voices, then felt a shattering blow to the side of his head, and darkness gave way to oblivion. After some time Maccabee was awakened, his head sore and heavy. Regaining his faculties, and made aware of what had transpired by the testimonies of Mira Luna, Shank, Brandon and a handful of priests of Pelor, Maccabee grieved for his fallen comrades. The Paladin found it disturbing that his will was taken over so easily. Maccabee, reeling with anguish, prayed to his god for strength and guidance. He knew he had to find a way to become immune to such sorcery so that he would never find himself in this torment again.
Thanks for the tip, Rich. I've only given that issue a cursory glance so far. I'll have to check it out.
The next one I'm running is "Dungeon of the Fire Opal" from issue 84. I was really excited that someone actually wrote a complete adventure from the sample dungeon that first appeared in the original DMG, but I never got a chance to run it. The premise is that the opal originally belonged to the church of Pelor and was stolen long ago. The local church has offered to raise the fallen PCs (yes, we had a couple of fatalities) to go explore the dungeon, which they recently obtained a map to and have heard that the opal may very well be hidden there.
Perhaps I can fit the one you suggest in to this campaign if its as good as you and Ashavan say it is :)
Hey!
I ran that as an intro to RTEE and it was a great adventure! I had a dig taking place with some trogs of Tharizdun looking for the Opal, a great choice! Yes definately give FRP a close look -Ashavan has impeccable taste!
Rich
April 29. We started this session leveling up characters in Murgen’s Honor. Dayton would be bringing in his new character Padril the elven Scout. Stanley was bringing in Kymble the gnome Bard.
One of the things Maccabee the paladin wanted to improve on was his intimidation skill. This led him to a gnome named Kymble. During their training sessions, Kymble expressed a desire to leave Murgen’s Honor with the party. Kymble turned out to be a somewhat different kind of bard. His skills as a performer were along the lines of a comedian and not fully appreciated in Murgen’s Honor. The adventurers agreed to have him join them and once all of them were done with training a few weeks later they made their final preparations to leave.
At the church of Pelor, they met with Brother Jared and the Bishop to go over their job (Dungeon of the Fire Opal by Jonathan Tweet from Dungeon #84). They were given a tattered map of the dungeon where the Sun Opal was last seen and directed to travel south from Murgen’s Honor following the well-used roads to Ratik. They would come to a split in the road and need to follow the less used road to the right. The journey would take about 5 days and eventually bring them to a ruined abbey in the foothills of the Griff Mountains. If the map was authentic, they should find a dungeon entrance in the ruins of the abbey.
Maccabee had a private meeting with the Bishop before the group’s departure and then they were off.
Near the end of the first day the adventurers met a group of Fruzti goatherders. They conversed with them a bit. The goatherders were interested in local gossip from the “gnome town.” They told the men what they knew and in return were warned of a creature called a horned felldrake, a big lizard with massive horns that had been attacking travelers along the road to the south. They thanked them and continued on.
The next day, they came to the split in the road and took the trail heading off to the right. They had only encountered small copses of trees up until this point, but now began to enter a lightly forested area of large firs and pines. This far north, snow was still heavy on the ground and on the trees even though they were now into Planting (low summer).
A couple of the adventurers noted a stirring in the brush to the side of the trail some ways up ahead and warned the others. Not long after that a hoarse coughing sound from a large animal rang out. And as the sound of snapping twigs heralded its nearness, the group moved off of the trail and hid behind some trees. A moment later a large bluish-white scaled lizard the size of a small pony with four deadly-looking horns protruding from its head stepped out onto the road and sniffed the air. It hissed threateningly and then charged over to where Maccabee and Brandon were hiding.
Using the large pine trees, the group was able to evade damage from the great horns of the drake. During the battle a mysterious archer had aided in defeating the creature, though the party could not locate their hidden benefactor. Maccabee called out a thank you, waving the archer’s spent arrows in the air, but there was no response. The adventurers puzzled over this for a few minutes, but finally regained the trail and continued on.
A few hours later they came to a large A-framed cabin and met a Fruzti woodcutter named Hans, his wife, and his 10 children. News of the death of the horned felldrake was greeted with celebration and the adventurers were welcomed into their home. One of Hans’s children asked why the adventurers’ other friend wasn’t joining them, which puzzled them. Hans sent the boy out to bring the other adventurer home and the rest of the party finally made the acquaintance of the archer Padril, who had been the one that aided them in felling the horned felldrake.
During a feast of sweet apple-glazed goat meat, vegetables, and mead they learned that Padril was a grossly deformed elf with scars to his face, which he took great care to hide in the shadows of his hooded cloak, but reluctantly removed for the sake of their host. For the most part he was quiet and shied from social interaction in the folds of his cloak.
After their meal, Hans had his son bring him a bottle of his homebrewed spirits, which the group tried out with gusto. It proved too much for Brandon and Maccabee, but the rest enjoyed several cups of Hans’s homebrew before retiring to sleep in Hans’s shed.
The next morning, the group set off for the abbey in company with their new friend Padril and arrived there in the early afternoon. They found the dungeon entrance exactly where it was supposed to be, brought out their torches, and descended.
The first room appeared to have seen use by spiders over the years. Cobwebs were thick everywhere and a few old husks and bones appeared to have been trampled underfoot near the middle of the 30-ft.-by-30-ft. room. A corridor headed south, another short one led east, and a third one led west ending at a partially open door.
The group investigated the door to the west and found a room with a stream flowing through it with barrels and buckets obviously used to fetch water. When they entered to search, Maccabee was bitten viciously by an unseen attacker and had to retreat to the far end of the room. Brandon approached to help, but was bitten grievously on one of his hands as he attempted to splash water onto where he thought the creature was. Padril landed a lucky blow with his bow that helped the group target the creature, which they finally slew. A minute later the dead thing appeared: a phantom fungus, and a vicious one, by the wounds it had inflicted.
After Kymble used a wand of healing on the group, they finished searching the room. Brandon had found a limed over skeleton in the water and chipped away at its bony hand until he freed a large key it had been clutching.
The party left the room and returned to the web-filled chamber. They searched some scorched sacks of grain in a corner and found nothing there. So, they headed down the long south corridor. Before they could enter the large chamber it opened into, Maccabee suddenly found himself entangled in a web that had been spun across the entrance. A fight with a pair of large arachnids followed, but the group came away unscathed.
Searching the room, they could see that the spiders had captured a meal recently and had hung him in a web cocoon. It looked like it was probably a man and still alive, judging by its squirming. They cut him down and removed webs covering his face. It was a man, alright. His skin was tightly drawn and sallow as if suffering the ravages of poison and starvation. His sunken eyes were closed and his head lolled from side to side.
They removed the rest of the webs and suddenly the man’s eyes opened and he sneered, “Thank you!” and jumped to his feet trying to bite Shank, who had removed the last of the webs. It turned out that this was a ghoul. No sooner had they killed it than 2 more emerged from the tunnel behind them and attacked Mira Luna. These two were quickly killed as well with little harm to the adventurers.
The ceiling of this room was very high; a 25-ft high dome. And along the southern wall, four 6 inch deep depressions looked to have once been used to support some type of structure, possibly scaffolding. Padril the elven scout noted a peculiarity in the stonework about 10 feet up the wall in that area and Shank decided to give it a closer look. Removing his cumbersome armor and handing it to Maccabee, he scaled the rough dungeon wall and found a stud protruding from it. Pressing it, a 10-ft.-by-10-ft. section of the wall slid aside revealing an opening. Wooden stairs must have once been there to reach the opening, but were now long gone.
Shank climbed back down and had Maccabee help him put his heavy chainmail suit back on. As they were just about finished, Brandon ran and leaped up to the opening, catching the edge and lifting himself the rest of the way up. As he did, 4 more ghouls that had been drawn here by the sound of the door scraping open attacked and paralyzed him. To their horror, the other adventurers saw grey arms drag Brandon into the dark opening and heard wet gobbling, chewing sounds. Three stepped up to the opening and leaped down to attack the characters while the last one stayed behind and feasted on Brandon.
This fight was much tougher than with the other ghouls and the party lost Brandon. They retrieved his body from the secret passage and retreated from the dungeon. They headed back to Hans’s cabin with heavy hearts carrying the fallen monk of Rao, helpless to do anything to bring him back out here in the wilderness.
I should have our paladin's take on things soon...
Just one side note on Orin's death. Steve forgot to mention that the kyton stood atop Orin's mostly dead body for 4 rounds before Steve, "Channeling the Evilness of a Kyton" who had been locked in a box for who knows how long, decided to push him off the cat walk. Luckly I take character death very well, after all I sorta agree with James Wyatt (author of City of the Spider Queen v3.0) in the fun"ness" of character creation.
And let me just say Steve you are the best DM I have ever had the pleasure of gaming with.
Well, shucks, folks! I'm turning red.
Though many parts of mine and Paul's minutes are similar, there's always something one of us writes that the other overlooked or forgot about. This one is no different. Here's his paladin's thoughts on our last session, April 29.
Through the Eyes of a Paladin: 8
During the four weeks spent in Murgen’s Honor Maccabee and his fellow adventurers trained in new feats and abilities. The Paladin had befriended a Gnome named Kymble, a bard who was more than happy to teach the Paladin the ways of intimidation. After their sessions, Maccabee spent many hours training in the martial arts and working on the ability to cleave a second foe, should one stumble in their midst. As he trained, Maccabee felt removed from his deity’s presence. He knew that he was instrumental in Orin’s and Solum’s deaths during the battle with the Chain Devil and its’ Imps, and that there would be repercussions. Throughout the Paladin’s time off he visited Brother Jared at the Temple of Pelor. From these meetings the Paladin learned that the up and coming venture of finding the artifact of Pelor was not a simple quest. Maccabee was enspelled with a “quest” to help restore him as a repentant, righteous servant of Heironeous. The Paladin’s faith strengthened as he spent much of his time in prayer and gradually overcame the remorse he felt for his fallen friends. He tithed to the local worshipers of Heironeous and was comforted by going through the motions of restoring his sense of worth.
Late at night, the images of his slaughtered comrades appeared in his mind. Orin’s shocked look after receiving a powerful blow from the Paladin’s sword and Solum walking away and disappearing into darkness haunted Maccabee. Night terrors would whisper and echo through the evening hours with memories of the first day in Stone Hold, sitting amongst the adventurers in the presence of the one known as “The Seer”. The initial quest to search for the Destiny Stone seemed too far behind to recollect, but in those evening hours it seemed like yesterday. Eventually, the lingering images stopped, giving way for the Paladin’s fitful night’s sleep.
Four weeks passed as the group trained and made new friends. Jared presented the adventurers with a map for their quest to recover the artifact. With kind “farewells”, Maccabee, Mira Luna, Brandon, Shank and Kymble began their trek southwest. Under the priest's spell, Maccabee was determined, his mind set to overcome whatever the obstacles. After a day’s travel out of Murgen’s Honor the adventurers stumbled upon a small group of Fruzti tending their goats. The Fruzti shepherds warmly approached the adventurers asking for any local news from town. Speaking for the party, the Paladin told them of the past month’s Festival of Shackling and the encounter with the Chain Devil, Imps and Wererats. Grateful to hear the latest news the Fruzti then shared with the adventurers the rumors of a horned felldrake, which could impede their march to the ruins of the old monastic order. Thankful for the warning, the group went on. (As it turned out, it would take five days to reach their goal).
As they traveled through the pine forest they came upon a signpost warning of the present danger, known as the felldrake. Proceeding carefully, they saw movement ahead in the brush. They took cover amidst the trees at Brandon’s advice and after a few moments passed, suddenly they faced the horned felldrake. It came out from the brush and rushed at Brandon attempting to run him through with its great horns. Maccabee drew his silver blade Reaver, hitting the creature with a powerful blow. The creature merely grumbled and circled around the tree to attack Maccabee. Mira Luna cast a Magic Missile at the creature and Kymble spoke a few humorous words to boost the groups’ morale. Brandon came towards the creature hitting it squarely on its snout, when suddenly an arrow came seemingly out of nowhere penetrating the creature mid shanks. Grateful for the mystery archer’s help, Maccabee hit the creature again and it finally fell. The Paladin pulled out the arrow from the creature’s carcass openly thanking the mysterious archer. The group, unable to see who had aided them, continued on their path.
Not too far from where they fought the felldrake, the adventures came across a friendly family of Fruzti. Invited into the family’s charming cottage, they were able to rest, as they talked about their adventures. Enjoying the cheerfulness of the Fruzti children, Maccabee entertained them with an ever-burning torch. The children, horsing around, noticed someone approaching the cottage. It was the “mystery archer”, who helped the adventurers earlier. Hiding behind a cowl, the woodsman, a man of slight physique was introduced as Padril. He turned out to be a deformed Elf, painfully aware of his appearance. Padril was welcomed as an honored guest of the Fruzti, who hastily broke out some of his homemade wine. The group thanked the archer for his help as they all enjoyed the wine. Obviously a very potent brew, for after only one glass the Paladin was already asleep.
After an uneventful night, the adventurers continued on to the ruins. They recalled the night before when the Fruzti told them about the monastic ruins. As their dad spoke, the children would cheerfully sing a nursery rhyme: “Stones and timbers, Fell and burned. But the secret stone, Is yet unturned.” The adventures made their way to the ruins, as they laughed at exchanging the ever-burning torch for some of Han’s great wine.
Once there, the adventurers surveyed the location. Seeing no signs of Gnoll tracks they were warned about, Maccabee cautiously entered the depths of the ruins. Following the general outlines of the map Jared had given them, they came upon a large hall, littered with small heaps of trash, rubble and cobwebs. Maccabee was compelled to go down a long hallway, but Brandon and the rest of the adventurers protested wanting to check an adjoining room where an underground water passage could be. Maccabee gave in to the party’s prodding and they entered the room with the underground water way. Carefully moving through the area, Maccabee was attacked by an unknown assailant. Injured, Maccabee turned and attacked the invisible creature. Hearing Maccabee’s grunts, the rest of the group entered the area. Failing to hit the invisible creature the Paladin was forced back into a corner, and since Brandon engaged the invisible attacker, it gave the knight time to drink a healing potion. Brandon’s pointing out the location of their opponent gave Padril the chance to shoot at the invisible creature. Fortunately the arrow stuck into its target giving the Paladin and Monk a better idea of its whereabouts. Battle ensued when Brandon and the remainder of the party attacked the creature. Once dead it turned out to be an invisible Fungus Monster, similar to the one they fought in the Underdark. The only thing of value found in the area was an old silver key, which was underwater, clutched in the hand of a lime-covered skeleton.
After healing up, they returned to the long corridor, watching out for caltrops or traps. Just as he was about to enter the next large room, Maccabbee was caught in a web, inside of which two large spiders waited for their prey. Maccabee attacked the arachnids, and with the help of the party the two large spiders were disposed of. As they cleared the room of the webs they noticed a large, moving cocoon hanging from the ceiling. Uncertain of its contents, Shank cut it down. They cleared the top webs and uncovered what appeared to be a humanoid creature. Detecting evil, Maccabee wondered out loud whether the creature should be released. Shank sliced away the remainder of its bonds, only to release a Ghoul upon the party. As soon as they dispatched of it, two more Ghouls appeared behind Mira Luna. One after the other the creatures fell to the party’s weapons. Maccabee called for everyone to set up a gauntlet, but no one paid attention to the Paladins’ strategy. Frustrated at the adventurer’s lack of discipline, the Paladin rolled his eyes back, murmuring “never again.”
When the creatures were neutralized, the group searched the large room, and Shank discovered a mysterious access way to an upper chamber. He opened the large door and returned back down to the lower level. Brandon, eager to test his skills jumped to the upper level. As Brandon stood there, happy with his abilities, suddenly several grey hands pulled him away from the entryway. The remaining adventurers watched as unexpectedly, four Ghouls appeared above. Two Ghouls jumped down facing Shank who was trying to get his armor back on, as Maccabee assisted the fighter. Quickly, the Paladin drew his sword Reaver, and made a cutting thrust into one of the attacking Ghouls. The creatures paralyzed Shank. Mira Luna sent forth several Magic Missiles. Kymble, the bard, made his shot with his short bow hitting his target with ease. Unable to see Brandon, the Paladin was greatly concerned for his safety. Padril’s expert marksmanship quickly reduced the creatures’ number. Once the Ghouls were dead, the horrified adventurers discovered Brandon’s lifeless, desecrated body, lying beneath one of the Ghouls. Maccabee, filled with anguish, desperately tried to process the events leading to the young warrior’s death. Somber and shocked, the party took Brandon’s body to the nearby home of Hans. That night, the last two of the party’s original adventurers, Mira Luna and Maccabee, mourned the senseless passing of a good friend and faithful companion.
May 6. Our current campaign date: 13 Planting, 592 cy.
At the home of Hans the woodcutter, a funeral pyre is erected and Brandon's body is consumed in the flames after a few words are said on his behalf. The sounds of someone running through the slushy snow heralds a large, out-of-breath man in armor carrying a greataxe. The man is Bastion, a retired adventurer and brawler working on a nearby farm. He came to see who had died when he saw flames from what he guessed was a funeral pyre.
Hans introduces him and tells the party that Bastion came by yesterday after they had left and was interested in tagging along with them on their adventure into the nearby ruins. Bastion has come prepared with his gear, rations, and his massive axe he affectionately calls "Chopper."
The party could use some extra muscle so they welcome him to join. They spend the night there in Hans's woodshed, but Maccabee and Mira Luna are troubled by dreams about some strange alien city of massive cyclopean buildings. Everything seems to be frozen. The voice of the Seer from Bastro says that this place is part of their destiny. The Destiny Stone must be used here.
The two are puzzled about this strange nighttime vision, but the group gets thier things together and meet up with Bastion. Kymble uses his crafting skills to erect a homemade ladder to climb up to the secret passage where Brandon was slain and they head back to the dungeon.
Climbing the ladder, which actually holds their weight, they head down a long corridor that joins up with another wide crisscrossing hallway. Chemicals in the air later turn out to be the scent coming from an ancient funerary chamber. Heading right and then around the corner the party encounters a mixed group of skeletons of humans and gnolls, which attack them as soon as they notice them here.
Bastion took heavy damage, but also dealt out incredible amounts of it with Chopper as he raged. The combined efforts of the group crushed the skeletons and they proceded to investigate the anteroom they were guarding. It led into another chamber that appeared to have been the rooms of the head monk. There the adventurers fought the skeleton of an ancient bone devil and then had to contend with the ghost of a gnoll warrior obsessed with finding the Sun Opal.
The ghost proved difficult, but in the end, Shank's jovar coated in magical oil and Mira Luna's magic missiles, destroyed the creature.
They discovered a secret door that would open in 2 different directions, but they could only get it to open in 1. Using the key they had found, they inserted it in a hidden keyhole and the secret door grated open to reveal two adjacent 20-ft.-by-20-ft. rooms. Entering the first one, Maccabee triggered a glyph of warding that inflicted painful injury upon him. Beyond, the second room contained a pedestal holding the legendary Sun Opal, a massive gem fashioned into the likeness of a fiery fist.
They grabbed the gem, but were still trying to figure out how to get the secret door to open the other way it looked like it was meant to go. Eventually, the simplest answer was the right one. They closed the secret door back to its original position and pushed with all their might revealing a tunnel heading off in a different direction. Stairs led down to a large cavernous chamber containing another pedestal and yet another gem identical to the other. This, too, they grabbed and exited the cave.
Maccabee's quest spell he was under was now pulling him back to Murgen's Honor so off they went with their 2 prizes and 5 days later they entered the church of Pelor. The Bishop was surprised to see not one, but 2 Sun Opals. Studying them revealed that one was the original and the other was a copy of it. However, they were both worth a fortune. The Bishop kept the original stone and gave the other back to the group.
The church mourned the loss of Brandon, a fine young man with a pure heart. Since the return of this holy relic could not be measured in gold and neither could the life of Brandon, they did what they thought was proper and awarded the party with a parchment that could be presented to the High Priest of the Temple of Pelor in Marner, the capital of Ratik, to have Brandon brought back hale and whole without need of his body, just his name.
This was a blessed boon and the adventurers smiled at the thought of Brandon returning to them. However, in the meantime, they split up their new wealth and purchased things they felt were necessary and helpful for thier continued adventuring careers - a magical sword for Maccabee and a magic bow for Padril. Kymble invested in a magic ring that would allow him to no longer need food or water to survive and reduce his need for sleep to a mere 2 hours each day. Mira Luna and Bastion both decided to save thier shares and Shank spent his gold on some potions and magic armor.
The group then traveled back to the dungeon to investigate it more. They encountered a fiendish wrymling red dragon upon first entering, threatening them from the darkness, and breathing on them when it finally decided to make good on its threats. However, too much damage was inflicted on the young dragon, and it quickly died.
Later, the group found an incorporeal creature babbling gibberish that befuddled Padril and Bastion. Again, Shank's magic oil coated on his weapon saved the day.
When the PCs began to explore the western portion of the dungeon they were met by a pair of imps and a tiefling sorceress. It was a long combat with them and the sorceress was quite a handful. Her web spell was very problematic. And her wand of magic missile was a "sore" spot for Kymble who managed to keep her talking while the others crept up behind her using the adjoining corridors. In a desperate move, she read a scroll of ice storm hoping to kill everyone around her. It nearly finished little Kymble, but ultimately it wasn't enough to hinder the adventurers from cutting her down.
The rest of the dungeon proved to be anticlimactic after all of the dangerous encounters the group had experienced. They found a bit more treasure, looted the body of the sorceress, and finally left the dungeon.
The party's next destination is Marner and a meeting with the High Priest of the Temple of Pelor.
It was the intelegence of Kymbul that lead to the finding of the second Stone, after carefully looking over everything, no one could see a way to move the wall that everyone "knew" had to open another way. Everyone was about to give up and exit the room to "come back later" which Kymbul knew was not going to happen after all the "great minds" of his adventuring party couldn't figure out what to do... they had tried the key every wich way, the had lock some on one side of the door to see if you could only get to the passage with the door closed, no one could see a way out... as the party was beginning to leave the room, Kymbul, remebering what he had learned about architecture and engineering came up the the brilliant idea of having the big strong fighter types push on the wall... he had to jump so show this guys where to put there hands to push, but eventually the fighters got it right, and low and behold it moved...revealing the opening... Kymbul the little statured hero saved the day... and good a good chunk of gold for the party. And for once actually got praised by his friends.
As for the fight with the sorceress Kymbul found it more than just a "sore" spot, he almost died... countless times... for it was a wand war. Unfortunaly the one who was getting hit with the wands was the same person every time... poor little Kymbul, the evil no good mean chick would send magic missile after our brave little hero, almost killing him, and he would then use his wand to send healing energies back into his body... wich only angered the evil mean one more so she would do it again, and again Kymbul would have to use his wand... While it did give the rest of the party time to find a way around, it also made Kymbul quite angry... It got really mad when he heard the paladin shout for his and Kymbul's buddies to "come into the room" The whole group was abandoning poor young Kymbul... he just knew his fate was to be stuck in this web and die... and before his carreer had even begun... But then hope... his friends had come around the corner... behind her... Huhza, the day was saved man was she gonna get it now, and then all of a sudden.... big chunks of ice started falling from the sky... and young Kymbul knew no more, untill he opens his eyes to see Shank forcing a potion of some sort down his throat...life is good, I not dead, yet.
And for once actually got praised by his friends.
Hey, Kymble I praised you on the great job on the ladder, so get off the pitty pot. Oh and BTW, good thing I found away around to get at that Tiefling. Hmmm good job Maccabee....Yeah whatever.:)
Hey, all we need is Dayton on here complaining about not being able to roll above a 10 to get free of the webs for like... 10 rounds or something. Hmmmm... Maybe I should channel Bastion to remind you all of how good his "wee Chopper" did against the skeletons!
Good job, you guys! This is what I like to see ;)
Here is Paul's excerpts from our last session.
Through the Eyes of a Paladin: 9
It was late in the evening as the adventurers arrived at Hans’s home. The woodsman welcomed them into his quaint home where they had celebrated their disposing of the local menace, the Fell Drake. This night, though, they were mourning the death of their close companion, Brandon. Overwhelmed by the loss, the group of adventurers assisted Hans in building a funeral pyre and laid Brandon’s body atop. Reaching towards the star-filled sky, the crackling fire grew quickly. The blaze was hypnotic, the moment solemn and peaceful. Then, while they reflected on the monk’s life cut short, they heard the sounds of someone barreling down the forest road, questioning the group about the fire. Maccabee had little to say, immersed in his grief, but overheard the introductions and the conversation between the unfamiliar Fruzti (who’s name was Bastion) and the group. The stranger wanted to come along with the group the next time they traveled back to the ruined abbey and they agreed, as they could always use another fighter. As the pyre burned down to a pile of burning embers, the group fixed their bedrolls and settled in for a restless night’s slumber in Hans’s wood shed.
Late in the night the Paladin dreamt about a metropolis with giant, atypical buildings, very different than any he’d seen on Oerth. As the Paladin slowly awoke, he heard the voice of the Seer, instructing him to travel to that strange city. With the vision still fresh in his mind, Maccabee realized he wasn’t the only one who dreamt of that city. Mira Luna had a similar dream, and after comparing notes, puzzled, they fell asleep again until the morning.
Morning came, and the adventurers got busy preparing for the trip back. Padril and Bastion left early to hunt for food. Anticipating their return to the abby, Maccabee sought out materials needed to build a ladder. Kymble began skillfully constructing the ten-foot ladder while Maccabee watched in amazement.
They returned to the Dungeon and cautiously entered the area where Brandon had met his untimely death. They placed the ladder at the edge of the dungeon wall and easily ascended, the Paladin leading. Padril using his keen sight to scout out what was ahead and Maccabee detecting for any signs of evil, they moved towards a junction where they decided to go right. At a nearby corner Padril and Maccabee stumbled upon seven animated Skeletons, three out of which were human, four Gnoll. Battle broke out, with Bastion ahead of the party, surrounded by the undead creatures. Fearing that Bastion would meet Brandon’s fate, Padril and Maccabee plowed ahead, striking down one skeleton after another, Maccabee’s Cleave feat coming in handy.
After healing their wounds they continued on down the corridor. They encountered two more undead creatures, the first a large skeletal -Demon and the other one a Haunting Spirit, which Shank was able to quickly overcome with the sole magical weapon in the party. Bastion, after furiously battling ahead of the group formation, fled in fear of the ghost, apparently overwhelmed with dread. Mira Luna retrieved the discouraged Barbarian shortly thereafter. The last room they fought in was thoroughly searched. Discovering a secret passage and a hidden lock behind a flagstone gave the party the chance to use the silver key they found last time clutched in the hand of the lime-covered skeleton. Once inserted into the lock, the key turned on its own and with the sounds of moving gears the secret door opened. It was apparent that the secret door led to another passage as well, but the adventurers first explored the hidden room. Maccabee, eager to find the Sun Opal, made his way into a large anti-chamber. Inside the room, a Sonic Glyph went off causing serious damage to Maccabee. Shaken, but focused on the task, he continued on to the chamber where he saw a large Opal laid on a stone pedestal, its background a mural of a Demon Creature with hell’s armies at her side. Making sure no other traps would hinder the adventurers the Sun Opal was at last taken off the pedestal. Maccabee felt relieved, as the quest seemed to be nearly over.
Returning to the room where the key was first placed into the wall, the adventurers wondered about the other entryway. Kymble coaxed the fighters to jointly push on the wall and as they did, it gave way. The door opened, revealing a deep cavern, and in the middle of it stood yet another, identical Sun Opal. Maccabee wanted to leave, but the party protested, so they continued their exploration of the ruins. Next, the party stumbled upon a babbling apparition who dumbfounded Bastion and Padril. Fortunately, Shank’s Magic Weapon potion neutralized the creature and with Bastion’s help he destroyed it. To Maccabee’s relief, the party members agreed it was time to return the Sun Opal to the Church of Pelor.
After five uneventful days the party arrived at Murgen’s Honor. The Priests of Pelor were most grateful for the party’s efforts. As the Bishop, Brother Jared, and the clerics of Pelor examined the Sun Opals, it turned out that the evil Monks had duplicated the original, possibly to throw off any potential thieves. It was decided that the adventures would be given the duplicate, along with a boon to raise their friend Brandon from the dead. The group split the spoils, and upgraded their items. Maccabee’s sword the Reaver was now a +1 sword. Padril’s bow was now a +1 magical weapon as well, while the Gnome acquired a “ring of sustenance.” They rested a week; once strengthened, they traveled back to the monastery ruins to neutralize its evil once and for all.
Immediately upon arriving, the adventures heard a bellowing, sinister voice calling from the shadowy ruins. They walked down through the hallway to the large adjoining room from which the secret passage led to the other chambers. The adventurers sensed it was a trap. Shank readied his “Sun Rod“, got it lit and threw it as far as he could down the corridor. The hallway exploded in flames, and the loud creature withdrew for a moment. Then, a Fiendish young Red Dragon stepped out of the darkness. Everyone was ready: Padril’s arrow hit the creature in its shoulder; standing in the shadows, Shank, Maccabee, and Bastion felt the dragon’s fiery breath. As they fought this new foe, Shank drank a Potion of Enlargement, came behind the two warriors, and hit the dragon with a devastating blow. The dragon fought for its life and was able to wound Maccabee with a painful gash across his waist. Bastion and Shank hit the young Red with a major blow and finally the creature fell.
The adventurers decided to take the creature back to town as a trophy. The group moved on to another part of the ruins to explore further. With caution, they systematically searched each room. They neutralized a Shrieking Mushroom and, moving on to another room, they were greeted by the voices of two Imps. Maccabee hated Imps and recalling their ability to charm their opponents, he quickly drank a potion of Protection from Evil, which gave him a slight edge over his companions. Shank planned on using subtlety to diplomatically win his way into the Imps’ lair but Maccabee wouldn’t hear of it. He charged down the hallway, not caring about the devils’ intent. After chasing them down the corridor, Maccabee and his companions saw a closed door and broke it off its hinges. Once inside the small simply furnished room the Imps appeared around them out of nowhere, attempting to charm Bastion, who slammed one of the creatures with a mighty blow. Shank chased the other as the Imps failed to sway his will. Maccabee came around the corner from the room and dealt the killing blow to the Imp that Bastion had already hit. Shank and Bastion chased down the last Imp, after taking damage from its dreadful sting. Just as the tides of battle seemed to turn in the group’s favor, a Tiefling appeared from the entryway and cast a Web Spell upon Maccabee, Kymble and Padril. Frustrated by the restriction, the three struggled to break from their bondage. Padril was unable to loosen his bow on this new enemy. Kymble, entangled in the web just stood there, vulnerable. Maccabee forcefully broke free from his bonds, and bolted through the door.
Shank and Bastion neutralized the last Imp and made their way towards Kymble and Padril. They began clearing the webs with torches as Maccabee lit the nearby cot on fire and pushed it into the webs. The sounds of Magic Missiles sliced the air, as Kymble endured the Tiefling’s agonizing attacks. After the cot burned down, Maccabee’s instincts kicked in as he searched for a passage, which could lead him behind the threatening Tiefling. Maccabee found the secret passage and whispered to Padril, who was finally free from the Webs, to follow him. Sprinting through the corridor, Maccabee, Padril, and Bastion found their way to the door behind the sorceress. Regrettably Bastion had made it to the door well ahead of the party and they were not at the ready. The Tiefling used her Blizzard Scroll, threatening the lives of all present. Maccabee was standing just inches away from the spell’s fury, large icy shards filled the room, Kymble’s life was in mortal danger. Shank delivered one final blow against the evil Tiefling and with potion in hand hastily stabilized the young Gnome.
The adventurers healed up, searched the Tiefling for valuables, and cleared the rest of the dungeon, gathering up small tokens of treasure. Once again they would have to return to Murgen’s Honor with the carcass of the Red Dragon.
Friday, May 13. This session we no longer had Todd with us. He's going on hiatus for a while, but we hope to see him return soon.
Since Paul and I seem to be repeating most of the same stuff I'll wait to post his "Through the Eyes of a Paladin" for the details of our night, which should be very interesting this week.
I will, however, briefly summarize the events of this session.
The party had cleared the Dungeon of the Fire Opal the week before. As we resumed, the party dragged the carcass of the fiendish red wyrmling back to Murgen's Honor (thanks, Rich, for providing a cool town that my players and I have used abundantly!). There they sold its carcass to a local armorsmith named Jurgen, parted ways with Shank, and set out for a Fruzti town called Djekul on the coast of Grendep Bay.
Djekul is a trading port that has grown up around a village used for Fruzti reavers to stage yearly raids. It was a rough place, but the group didn't stay long. They paid for passage on the Ice Shark and sailed for the next 5 1/2 days along the coast down to Marner, the capital of Ratik.
When they arrived, they sought out the Temple of Pelor and had Orin Dales and Brandon true resurrected. Orin thanked them for a 2nd chance at life, but decided to retire from adventuring. Brandon rejoined the party as he still had things he was meant to accomplish.
They learned about a huanted estate in Marner that has become sort of a local legend and landmark and met a teamster in need of help from heroes like them. They agreed to help him track down his missing father and kid brother that had been missing since hauling supplies to a sanitarium in the nearby Rakers.
They soon set out for the mountains on a journey to the asylum to investigate. They found an empty thorp that had been decimated by a horde of crawling claws, the details of which I'll leave to Paul. As we finished the night, the party piled all the dead bodies of the slain folk of the thorp together and made a massive funeral pyre.
Hey Steve,
the red drake in the fire opal dungeon was the first dragon my players had had a pop at for years and it went to their heads, they immediately went on to RToEE which as you know is full of different dragons, caring a disturbingly small amount about Tharizdun being freed and much more about completing a full set of slain dragon colours...they still nickname the whole adventure path 'the one where we killed all those dragons' instead of 'the one where we saved everything in existence.' Players...
The Fire Opal dungeon is definitely one of my favourites although the group found it very tough.
Glad you like the town, I'm just playing about with some lower level stuff in The Styes for my group, they dont deserve anywhere nice at the moment! A spell in The Styes Prison will focus their minds...
Rich
Glad you like the town, I'm just playing about with some lower level stuff in The Styes for my group, they dont deserve anywhere nice at the moment!
Muffin's Honor (aka Murgen's Honor IMC), was kind of fun to place at foot of the Rakers in the Frost Barbarians (WoG) since that land is mostly full of Norse type barbarians. So I had to explain that the gnomes from the mountains, a more domesticated bunch of barbarians, and racially mixed traders and craftsmen had settled the area at the mouth of a trading pass and the town had grown up around it. Made for some interesting NPCs.
A spell in The Styes Prison will focus their minds...
Heh! That sounds fun! I'd love to hear how it goes ;)
I'll let you know Steve, keep up the journal, its great fun!
Rich
More adventure details from Paul, our awesome campaign chronicler...
Through the eyes of the Paladin: 10
Murgen’s Honor buzzed with excitement and curiosity as the town’s people wondered about the carcass of the young Red Dragon the adventurers brought with them. The adventures sold off the hide and made their way to the local Inn for a rest. The following morning they headed for a town called Djekul; the journey took nearly a week. There the adventures would seek a merchant ship for passage to a city in Ratik called Marner. Almost another week on the high seas and the group landed in Marner midday. It was a great blessing to have traveled so far without any incident.
Making their way through the busy city the group arrived at the Temple of Pelor. The huge shrine was decorated with frescos, icons, and an assortment of fine art exalting the deity and its saints. While opulent, Maccabee thought that it was a bit overdone and tacky. Brother Arthur greeted the group warmly and after a brief deliberation, they were received by Elhonna, the High Deaconess. Once in the meeting, the authenticity of the parchment pertaining to the boon of resurrecting their comrades was addressed. The High Deaconess left the group for a short time to gather as much information about their departed friends as possible for this miracle to work. Long moments passed and finally Elhonna returned with Brandon and Orin following. The group was overwhelmed with emotion. Orin was a bit guarded seeing Maccabee once again. Maccabee in turn was uneasy at his friend’s distrust. After a brief joyful reunion, the group gathered their belongings and made their way to a local tavern and inn known as the Rumbling Hedgehog. Orin made his peace with the party and went his own way with plans of settling in Marner to ply his trade as a locksmith.
Brandon shared with the group his impressions of the afterlife. He explained that it felt a bit dismal and isolated, apparently somewhat like the dream Mira Luna and Maccabee had shared weeks ago. The remainder of the day was spent gathering information about the local buzz. The rumor of a haunted mansion piqued the curiosity of the group. They also learned of a local man desperately seeking adventurers’ help to find his missing father and brother. Moved by compassion, they set out to find out more about the missing men.
The group entered a tavern, the Leaping Rabbit, where amidst large number of patrons they encountered a drunken man asking people for assistance. He was “falling down drunk” and kept hanging on to anyone who passed, slurring his pleas for their help. The innkeeper was obviously appalled by the man’s demeanor. Maccabee approached the fellow, at which point he passed out. The Paladin threw him over his shoulder and carried him back to the Rumbling Hedgehog Inn. There Maccabee dunked him in an icy-cold bath, and the inebriated fellow nearly jumped out of the water; but Maccabee forced him back in. The drunken stupor turned into shocked sobriety as the man objected to the Paladin’s strong-arm tactics. Maccabee released the fellow allowing him to dry off. Toweling himself off, the man introduced himself as Wohin. Maccabee, leaving Wohin with Brandon, went downstairs to get a cup of the strongest and hottest coffee for the frazzled man.
The adventurers were put off by Wohin’s state, questioning the direction the quest had taken. Maccabee and Brandon were unwavering in helping the needy, and as the story unfolded it turned out that Wohin’s dad was missing. He disappeared after visiting a distant Asylum run by a Dr. Ashworth. Wohin’s younger brother Larion vanished during the search for their father. Brandon and Kymble made Wohin comfortable and decided to gather as much information as possible before proceeding to the Asylum in search of the two men.
While the remainder of the adventurers rested, Kymble used his newly acquired ability to be sustained with minimal sleep, walked the streets of Marner alone that night in hopes of discovering additional info about the disappearance of Wohin’s relatives. Kymble was accosted by three thieves, but fortunately, using his invisibility spell, he escaped from his assailants and returned safely to the inn.
By early light the adventures headed to the Temple of Pelor to question Brother Arthur about the Asylum and Doctor Ashworth. The Cleric, always ready to help, told them that all contact with the Asylum has ceased for some time. From the Temple the adventurers made their way to Wohin’s home in the furthest outskirts of Marner to meet his ailing mother. After Wohin’s mother graciously offered them a home cooked meal, the adventurers were off for the Asylum. After a day’s travel the group happened upon a small community. Scouting ahead, Padril investigated and reported back that there was no sign of life. Cautiously, the adventurers entered the thorp and noticed the homes showed evidence of forced entry with blood trails everywhere, but no signs of any dead bodies. The adventurers hastily readied flasks of oil anticipating threats of Trolls known to frequent this area so close to the mountains. The group continued on to a large home, apparently once owned by a retired wizard. Inside, they found an opened chest, with blood around it. On one of the tables there was a Last Testament forewarning the ones it was left to not to open the chest, which was hidden under the flagstones in the basement. It was evident, that the warning was disregarded.
The group set out to find some answers, with Padril following a trail which led to a small store. Behind the store they found a storm cellar, opened, with many blood trails leading into its depths. Maccabee, moving in with caution, came upon the slaughtered bodies of all of the villagers; men, women and children all with their left hands claimed by whoever committed the murders. As they stood there trying to make sense of the sight, Maccabee “detected for evil” and Padril and Mira Luna yelled out something about “hands.” Ascending the stairs, Maccabee could see many severed hands, somehow animated, attacking the party like a swarm of macabre spiders. Bastion and Brandon ran in joining the fight, as Kymble, using his Bardic ability entertained the group in an attempt to boost morale and improve their fighting abilities. Maccabee’s repeated attempts to turn the creatures failed; somehow these hands, although detached, were not undead. Maccabee then cast a “spell of protection” and moved into battle with the swarm of animated hands, realizing that the hands must be strange constructs. The battle continued, with wave after wave of animated hands avoiding damage because of their size and number. After a while, a large skeletal Hand, apparently demonic, materialized in the midst of the battle.
Mira Luna quickly attempted to attack the large Hand with a Magic Missile, but was unable to penetrate its spell resistance. The Sorceress’ Magic Missiles and Burning Hands helped to whittle down the enemy’s numbers. Brandon was a blur of motion during most of this encounter. Covered with numerous animated hands, he seemed to twitch, twist, jerk, and spasm in place in such a way that the tiny enemies trying to claw and tear at him could only land a few lucky wounds as he kept them occupied until the rest of the companions could deal with them.
Bastion, frustrated, went into a rage as Kymble set him on fire in an attempt to rid him of the swarming hands. He jumped off a nearby cliff, killing the remaining constructs as he hit the ground far below, but managing to survive the fall himself.
Kymble then doused Maccabee with oil, the flames killing most of the swarming hands attacking the Paladin. Padril kept moving, dodging the annoying hands, when suddenly, the skeletal Hand attacked him. In that instant, Maccabee hit it with such vigor that it collapsed under the weight of the Reaver. The remaining hands were lying about bludgeoned, burned, sliced and diced. The onslaught of hands finally arrested, the adventurers began their healing. It took the reminder of that day to set up a funeral pyre for the dead folk of this thorp. They made sure that on that clear night the pyre could be seen for miles around, and the people of Marner could not miss it. Kymble made a marker for the deceased, with a brief account of what had transpired, and laid it in front of the pyre. The group of adventures set up watch in the thorp to rest for the night. It would take them several more days to reach the Asylum.
May 27. We resumed our campaign last night after taking a week off. The party had just built a funeral pyre for the dead of the tiny thorp Goats' Steps. In the morning, they resumed their trek through the Rakers mountain range to find Jacob & Larion Mason (the missing kin of Wohin from Marner) - "Deep Freeze" by Cameron Widen, Dungeon #83.
During their trek on the first day (6 Flocktime) they were forced to pay a road fee of 17 gp by creatures hiding in the nearby treeline. Not sure of who or what was hiding there after hearing various rumors and tales about what to expect in the Rakers, they paid and continued on, grumpy over the loss of coin.
As the day waned, it was clear they were going to get caught in a massive rain storm if they stayed out in the open. Spotting a sign that read, "Kinneth's Rock Garden, Bestiary, and Jerky," they turned up a winding road and entered an old dwarven fort that had been converted into an odd petting zoo, mineral exhibit, and common room where one could buy various types of jerky from an old dwarf named Hallgood Kinneth. The adventurers passed an amusing evening there and in the morning continued on to the asylum under a light downpour.
As night fell on the following day, the rain again fell upon them in thick sheets accompanied by thunder and lightning as they finally reached Raker Asylum.
They were let in and met Dr. Jonathan Asworth. He was kind and helpful, but was obviously not truthful to them. However, they were given a pair of rooms to sleep in that night, though they slept with their backs against the doors.
In the morning they found the place empty. Apparently, the doctor had slipped away in the night and had taken the last of the inmates with him. After searching the place and finding odd clues about some creature the Dr. had been dissecting and grains of black sand that could also be found in a stream outdoors, the party left the asylum and tracked the Dr. into the mountains to a huge glacier. At its center, a massive black spire jutted skyward amidst clouds of steam coming from below.
Descending this huge tower down a spiraling ramp for several hundreds of feet, they found themselves in a massive, partially thawed out city of gigantic black stones.
Thier exploration of the place touched on strange remembrances by Maccabee, Mira Luna, and Brandon. They all knew that their presence here was meant to be. As they wandered the massive streets, they found themselves heading in the diretion of a massive temple of some sort with its gargantuan doorway yawning open. As they approached, they were attacked by the missing inmates along with a grotesque aberration like a cross between a giant black toad and a squid. Brandon convinced the rest of the party not to kill the inmates attacking them as they seemed to be controlled by the aberration or something else. They subdued the inmates and killed the creature, but were immediately attacked by another of the things that charged from the shadows of the temple.
This next creature was slain as well and the adventurers could see two more slinking back into the darkness of the temple. Following them in the group pressed their attack, but in thier investigation of the interior Maccabee and Bastion became enslaved by a large obelisk at the center of the temple and turned on their friends. Fortunately, Maccabee was subdued before he could harm anyone, but Bastion was killed in the encounter.
No time to mourn, though. The rest of the inmates led by Dr. Asworth were approaching from the south with weapons and torches brandished obviously intent on killing the adventurers.
While Mira Luna targeted the strange obelisk with over 2 dozen volleys from her wand of magic missile, Brandon and Padril dealt with the inmates and the Dr. They were able to subdue all but 2 of these. Among the inmates, they discovered the men they had come here looking for as well.
Finally, the obelisk shattered under Mira Luna's assault. The enslaved men and women were freed from their magical compulsion and were tended to.
It took all of the next day, but the adventurers and the Dr. escorted the inmates and the 2 Masons (Jacob & Larion) back to the asylum. They learned a bit more about what had happened from the embarassed doctor and the following day (12 Flocktime) departed back to Marner with Jacob & Larion.
The finer details for this evening's events, I leave to Paul to elabborate on in his "Through the Eyes of a Paladin."
Hey Steve am I suppose to get xp for these chronicles?
Yes! One Million xp for you. Or something like that...
How about a gold star? A brownie button? No? Mmmmmmm. Brownies....
Yes! One Million xp for you. Or something like that...
How about a gold star? A brownie button? No? Mmmmmmm. Brownies....
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, brownies:)
As for the brave and valiant young gnome hero Kymbul... he uhh well, after witnessing the aftermath in the tiny little thorp he decided that the story of the "creepy crawly man hands" need to be past to the little burrowing animals in the near by mountains and so, being the only one in the group capable of chatting with the little fellows Kymbul wanders off to find one and have a nice long sit down chat with the little ones... He will of course eventually become board with this and hopefully find his friends again...