Meet 6, Adv 1, 7/7/12

There was some more skulduggery as the group was learning how to be a group together, and another low level adventure hook dangled at them. It has been difficult to get them to leave the town and the surrounding environs but I think I should get them on the road and to a local adventure very soon. Assuming they stop dividing up into 3's and 4's.

Write up follows:

We returned to Shakun with Lirea in tow, returned the cart and horse to Zarik Ikarsbane, and split up. Again.

Fist’al took Lirea back to his place after stopping for a little food, where he proceeded to enjoy Lirea carnally for the rest of the evening. Multiple times.

As for the dog house @ Flimflam’s, it looked pretty decent. The gnome went to visit Eherego @ Exotic Transportation and paid him for his work and then took Whosea home and chained him up in the backyard.

We were offered another job, this time escorting the stabler and two of his boys on a trip to Ferron. Would be leaving on the 8th. Pay was 2 nobles per day per member who came with a 5 noble bonus for every bandit they encountered that the group would stop and capture for justice. It would be a 4-5 day trip and would be leaving on the 8th. We talked about it and said we would seriously consider it come that time.

Meanwhile Ironboar a few others went back to the Tanners and rooted around the place looking for anything of value that had been there. It took some time but a couple of flensing knives, a poor sloping 5’ drying and stretching rack, and a bloodletting bucket netted out their findings as far as leatherworking gear was concerned. They did also discover a small cask which Ironboar proceeded to pop open and drink from – and he announced, “This is some serious piss-shit beer.” Then he took a swallow and added, “It’s pretty good!” Outside of Tempi, no one else took him up on tasting it.

There was a room with a strange feeling in it, a few skeletal remains on the floor, and some of the items began to shake and the door slammed closed on its own. Ironboar charged the door and burst it open – the wrong way – blowing the door off its hinges. The strange feeling ended and the gnome proceeded to kick all the skeletons apart for good measure.

As an aside he did dig through the vagrant’s abandoned clothing and took a pair of pants and a shirt, put them on, and then hacked off the ends that stuck past his ankles and wrists. Gnome barbarian fitting in. They took their treasures with them back to the Waywocket home where they stored them in the upstairs bedroom. Then they went to the Rhyback home and had a short meal with Tempi’s mom.

Meanwhile Flimflam and Enthir went to the Broman home and went to look at and for the dead dog that Enthir told the leader about – along with the concerns that the dog looked like Whosea and had a number of wounds like Ironboar had done to Brandone. Flimflam wanted to put the dog to rest so they dug a grave near the back of the place by the ruined hedge and then buried it. After that he used his power from Demeter and caused a section of the garden (including the hedge) to grow and thicken, filling in and helping to cover the dog’s grave.

By this time Device had finished at the temple grounds and wasn’t sure where to go so he went to the Waywocket home. It was locked and no one was there. So he went around back to try and get in and while looking he heard a growl. And there was Whosea, in his house, with a chain around his neck and angry. He made to lunge and Device held his ground. He was bit, scratched, chewed and battered before he finally broke and ran, covered in dog bites and limping badly. Hurt, the cleric limped home and figured he would just rest.

He met his father there and Derrick Rhyback wanted to know why he was here and what happened. Device sort of lied to his father about a wild dog attack and yes he did win. No he did not have the carcass (mom had made Cat Stew earlier today). All he wanted was to eat, strip off his clothes, and go to sleep.

The party rested and the next day we had some errands to run and things to do. We sped through it and learned:

• The herbalist was sure there was rose and galangal and maybe blood in the goblinwater potion and would let us know for sure in the next day or two.
• We met with the Dormanger family and tried to get Verim and Lirea the change to talk. Orin wanted nothing to do with Lirea and wanted her to stay away. Lirea was going to ask Verim to accompany her to the tower with the party as he was handy, she liked him, and he knew of Brandone and the others. Orin tentatively agreed to it until Ironboar and he got into a verbal altercation and it came close to blows. As Ironboar said, “I’m trying to shut my mouth, but they keep talking to me!”
• As far as Ironboar was concerned, he only mentioned his time in the field 6 times. He must have been tired.
• We all agreed to gear up and get good rest and be ready for leaving in the morning – meeting with the Dormangers and a few others around 8 AM. It was 3 hours or so to the tower according to Lirea.

As the meeting ended we had two instances where the 4th wall was shattered – one was Marcus who had already lied to the party about the killing of the dog and refused to come clean about it who uttered, “This party lies so much that I am the most honest one here.”

The other was Ironboar’s controlled, Matt, who upon being lambasted by at least 2 of the party members for another Ironboar-ism and problem making moment, exclaimed, “It’s Ironboar! I can’t control him!”

Meet 5, Adv 1, 6/30/12

Splitting the party.

In the dungeon it happens and there is tension. In a town it happens and I have to make damned sure that everyone gets enough face time. It is too easy to get lost town adventuring and some poor schmuck is left sitting there most of the evening.

However I don't have to "make adventure" happen for this group - they are doing just fine making up their own intrigue and already we have in Meeting 5: death threats and untrustworthiness and thievery and all the good stuff that is the heart of older style gaming.

I'm enjoying the hell out of it.

Write up follows:

The party reconvened at the Waywocket home and proceeded to fill Flimflam with despair as they talked about their successes as well as their failures regarding what they had set out to do. Device came last and reported that the two homeless squatters were badly hurt and were currently on the Temple Grounds at the Hospice where they were resting up and tended to.

There was much arguing with Ironboar again about his actions but it went nowhere slowly. Bandages were handed out and the group got themselves ready after a short lunch to go out into the town once again.

Enthir and Marcus would go to the Broman home, Flimflam would go to the Herbalist, and Device, Fist’al, Tempi, and Ironboar would head back to Tanner’s Way.

The wheels fell off the cart quickly as the mob was abound the Broman home and Enthir and Marcus were identified as members of the adventurer’s guild. There was talk of spells and hexes and maybe evil spirits and curses from the Broman family and it would be laid to rest. Enthir mistakenly mentioned Brandone in jail and a mob of 70 or so started marching on the militia house to take Brandone out and have his blood somehow lay the evil spirits to rest. Marcus bled into the crowd and Enthir was carried along with it.

Meanwhile Flimflam had met with the Herbalist and they talked about rose scents and what not. Then she was going to go back to the militia house and check on Brandone to not only check his wound, but also to rouse him. The two of them met with the Captain of the guard, Thragriel, and then visited Brandone. He was breathing shallowly but alive.

The herbalist was surprised at how slight his wound appeared and remarked that Flimflam’s healing spell was more effective than he thought. It seemed suspicious to the druid and he watched carefully as Brandone was given some herbs under his nose and he woke up alert. There was a brief conversation between him and Flimflam and we heard the mob approaching. The militia drew themselves up ready and the Captain was ordering the group to disperse.

Then Brandone grew “nuts” and the smell of roses was heavy off of him. He charged the wall in an attempt to break it down with his face but the wall held. Plus the wounds he had on him seemed to fall off. Then the herbalist and Feril in the next cell grew tired and slumped a bit. After a few more hits Brandone seemed to sag, the smell of roses faded, and he fell over unconscious.

Meanwhile the rest of the group was back at Tanner’s Way, looking over Lirea and Brandone’s squatting home for a bit. Tempi was positioning himself at Sutor’s forge to look over the place, but he did talk to Fist’al first and confided in him that Ironboar had found some more of the rose water stuff and he had it. This bothered Fist’al as Ironboar and he were at odds with one another. So he wanted to go back to the squatter home and look over Ironboar’s backpack.

The gnome barbarian was getting bandaged again by Device who was watching the elf come in and creep up to Ironboar’s backpack. This alerted the gnome who whirled around just in time to stop the elf from taking it. There was some yelling and accusations and Fist’al ran outside. Tempi got involved, the half-orc was furious with Fist’al for betraying his trust and some more punches were thrown but Fist’al was like, “screw this” and was high tailing it to the Militia to talk to Flimflam and let them know what was going on.

Meanwhile Ironboar took the vials he had hidden in his backpack OUT and hid them in the house in a pillow before rejoining the others and also making his way to speak to his father.

At the militia we discovered that most of the mob had been dispersed and there was to be no lynching of Brandone to end the dreaded sleeping curse that was affecting those who traveled too near the Broman home. We learned about Brandone’s seeming superhuman feat and healing and then his knocking out. Ironboar had convinced Tempi to give up his vial of rose-water spice to Flimflam who gave it to the herbalist who said she would do what she could to identify the ingredients and let us know what we were dealing with. We then all went back to the Waywocket home for a nice after noon argument.

Enthir and Marcus wanted nothing to do with this so they went to the Broman home to stake out Exotic Transportation and see if Lirea showed up.

There was talk of Fist’al being a traitor and Ironboar being a liar and hiding and stealing and overall just douchbaggery. Flimflam tried to set it all to right but there was no easy way out of the argument so it just ended on its own when Enthir and Marcus came up and let us know that Lirea had bought a mule from Eherego and was riding out of Westgate out of town towards Orland.

We needed to follow and do it soon. Fist’al went out the gate and then began running/jogging in order to close the distance and catch up. The rest of the group went to the guildhalls, met with Zarik, asked to borrow his cart and horses (which he agreed to reluctantly) and then climbed on. Meanwhile Ironboar snuck BACK to the squatter home and took his vials once again out of the pillow and hid them deep in his bedroll before rejoining everyone.

Fist’al kept pace and eventually got to with a few hundred yards of Lirea and her slow moving mule. When she trundled off the road and went south past the last homestead marking he sped up and left a series of arrows in the road pointing the direction she was riding and then followed.

The group rode off and almost rode past Fist’al’s markings but did turn at length and went south as well. They caught up with Fist’al, helped the thief aboard, and then rode on until they were able to hail and stop Lirea.

We spoke with her for some time and learned a few things. Her brother was a fuck up. He fell in with the drug users maybe 3 months ago and had been using ever since. They hadn’t lived in her parent’s house because they were not a noble family and the home was not theirs. However, Baron Taugis had told them that he would hold the home for them for 1 year, allowing them to get the 115 crowns needed to once more buy into it.

Their younger sister Edan was not going to live with them during this time so they had indentured her to a nice family in Ferron where she would act as a house maid and eventually learn seamstrissing skills. They were given 60 crowns up front and would have to return 40 of it after 2 years when they would get their sister back. Lirea had been very against this entire thing but Brandone had convinced her of the possibilities of turning the 60 crowns into the 115 they needed.

His plans never worked. They were always just barely making it one step above the last. Eventually the last one was to have a homestead and turn one hard planting and harvesting season into enough coin to buy Edan out of her indentured servitude and then pay off the Baron for the home. But there was all this talk of stealing what they needed and Lirea wanted zero to do with it. And now he was arrested and she was done. The drugs he was taking was something that he and the other guys had called Goblinwater and it did make him high, unfocused, and crazy.

She was going to Mahr’s Tower, to the southwest of Shakun. It was a little known old mage’s tower that Brandone’s friends had been using as a base of operations for a time now. Between Brandone and her that was over 60 crowns that was there that was theirs that she was going to use to buy her sister out and then go revisit the Baron and try to talk him down on the price.

She agreed to come back to Shakun with us and we would all talk to her boyfriend Verim on the 4th and then go to the tower together on the 5th.

Meet 4, Adv 1, 6/23/12

The new group is still going through their growing pains, but this time they don't have a dungeon to try their fumblings on but the town and it's people. And we have had altercations (almost deadly) at least three times, sleep spells going off on townsfolk, as well as two party members tearing their clothes to shreds and hurting themselves badly while fleeing.

I have not stopped laughing most meetings.

Write up follows:

The party was at the Waywocket home when the fighting began. Ironboar was fighting with Device and Fist’al, claiming that no one came to help out (Tempi did!) when he was getting stabbed. Flimflam was trying to mediate but the gnomish barbarian and the half-orc cleric were trading barbs back and forth while Ironboar regaled everyone about how in the field, there are times to make decisions and not talk about it. In fact he brought up the need to react fast like in the field 12 times.

As he was pointing out, “I did MY part as a team,” which caused some head scratching. It was 42 minutes of back and forth before Flimflam took out the pipe and weed and Ironboar eventually calmed down. It was an uneasy peace but we did manage to put it briefly behind us and discuss what our next course of action was to be.

There were three: 1) Someone was going to need to talk to Bradone and the other thug taken into custody, 2) someone should go to the herbalist and learn about rose smells and some of the strange behavior Bradone was displaying, and 3) we should check out Tanner’s Way and see if can find Lirea there.

No matter what, Ironboar was NOT going to be in on the questioning, although he DESPERATELY wanted to be the one. HE did point out that the need to get information and the danger involved sometime was not to be taken lightly and “This is not a game” – which momentarily poked a hole in the fourth wall around the table.

We settled on: Flimflam would go to the herbalist, Enthir, Marcus, and Fist’al would go to the militia to question the prisoners, and finally Tempi, Ironboar, and Device would poke around Tanner’s Way for clues. We agreed to meet back at the Waywocket’s around 3ish and scattered at just after quarter past 10.

Flimflam left the Waywocket home with Whosea and turned right at the end of the block, heading towards Exotic Transportation. Once there he spoke long with Eherego about the lack of war rhino’s and riding pegasi but settled eventually on the prospect of training the 120 lb mass of hunting dog that he now owned into a riding dog. They went back and forth for a while, also commissioning a half-assed build dog house and chain run for the animal to be built by Eherego’s sons, settling on a total of 17 crowns paid in 4 installments over 3 weeks.

Enthir, Marcus, and Fist’al did make their way past the gallows to the militia house where they spoke to Captain Thragriel. The three of them were led to the back of the militia house where 4 small cells were arranged. One of them held the injured and unconscious Bradone Broman while the other had his captured friend, Feril.

The 3 of them learned that Bradone was badly injured but lucky to be alive as the wounds came close to his carotid artery. The herbalist would be back this afternoon about 1:30 to check on him and should let us know if could be questioned then. As for Feril, he did tell us that there were 8 of them that wanted to have their own homestead and Bradone was the “leader” of the group. He had 2 friends that he had been talking/hanging out with lately who had been giving him the rose scented spicy water – some sort of drug. He has been a bit weird but still their friend.

As for the thefts, Feril said they had been knocking off the furthest homesteads and in regards to Verim getting wounded, he thinks it was Bradone who had done it. Just before it happened he got nutty and ordered everyone to drop everything and run for the back gate.

Tempi, Ironboar, and Device left the Waywocket home and traveled southeast across town towards Sutor’s Forge and eventually the run down section referred to as “Tanner’s Way”. Long it had been a slummy section of town but after Shakun had been under the cruel overlording of the Leech and his torturous use of the tannery, this part of town had not been cleaned up, repaired, or even properly patrolled. Most of the buildings were hovels and single story thatched dwellings.

The three of them walked the dirty streets for a bit, seeing dogs, cats, rats, and even a few furtive people hiding in the alleys and broken shells. Eventually they came to the Tannery and decided to check it out first. The door was closed and once forced open showed the gloomy interior of the Tannery. Most of the place was in terrible disrepair. There was a catwalk with 4 doors on the second floor and Device volunteered to hang right outside the main door while Tempi and Ironboar went up each opposite stair to the floor above.

Flimflam went next to the Herbalist where he talked about the effects of rose scented herbs and possible effects. They did not come to much of an accord and the gnomish druid left with no questioned answered.

As for the 3 elves, their questioning of Feril did let them know that Lirea was unhappy with Bradone’s new friends and they usually stayed in Tanner’s Way somewhere. Yes she did sleep around but used her body more as a bargaining chip than just slutting around. As for Verim, she was seeing him and the rest of the group didn’t think much of the farm boy. They left, talking once again with Captain Thragriel and reiterated they would be back later this afternoon. They left and headed towards the Broman home to poke around some more.

As Ironboar and Tempi looked over tow of the four doors they gave them a kick and started two vagrants to come bursting out of another, central door. They took a look at the group and one tried to bull his way past Tempi while the other saw Ironboar chasing towards him and he hung over the catwalk and dropped 12 feet to the ground – rolling to his feet with only some superficial scratches on him.

Tempi elbowed the fleeing one near him into the chain rail and then wrapped his arms around his neck in an effort to knock him out. When he was struggling and scratching at the half-orc he did grow a bit angry and kneed the bum hard. In the nuts. Very hard. The bum cried, pissed himself, and passed out in agony.

Ironboar charged down the stairs and yelled at Device to “stop that guy”. The guy in question hit the doors with a smack and Device was surprised, unable to stop him in time. The barbarian hit the streets, turned left, and charged after the fleeing man, Device right behind him.

Flimflam went to Sern’s General store and spent a few minutes haggling with the shopkeep on a gnomish felt cone hat.

Ironboar was growling as the bum tore into a hovel and disappeared inside. Device yelled out, “Right behind you!” and without pause, Ironboar flew into the home. It was a shit hole and warren. He leapt over a tipped over chest of drawers, heard a noise to the left, and blew through a hole in the wall. He charged right into the next house and heard noises upstairs while two frightened vagrants pointed upward in time to his howling cries of, “Where’d he go!?!?!” He grabbed the ladder/stairs and crawled/raced up them.

The three elves were going to the Broman home when Master and Misses Todron came out to thank them for their help in fixing the curse and that he had no gout flare up since yesterday. He did say that he was talking to other friends of his about the group’s skill and the Meriks next door wanted to hire the group. We were pleased and found out it was to move a couch, a heavy couch, from the upper floor to the lower. Less enthused we thanked him and said we’d contact them soon, heading onward to the Broman place.

Ironboar was at the top of the loft where he spied a hole in the thatch and noises from outside. Device was cursing but shouting to “keep going, I’m right behind you.” Bursting out the hole, the gnome heard the running vagrant and charged up the slope of thatch. At the top he saw the other guy already on the next roof and scrambling to get into another hole there. Running at full tilt he jumped across the intervening space and tried to grab at the fleeing man’s foot but failed miserably and instead plowed his should and neck into the hidden support roofing beam, making himself see stars and allowing the fleeing man to make it inside.

Flimflam then took a nice walk across town to the Hall of Heroes where we used the key Zarik had lent him to poke around the long unused building.

Marcus volunteered to stay outside the home near the front gate while Enthir and Fist’al would check out the grounds and eventually the inside of the home one more time. The scout and mage made their way to the gardens and smelled something foul amidst the roses.

Ironboar climbed up to the hole, pulled himself in, and was on the second floor loft of another peasant’s home. The fleeing vagrant had made it to the bottom of the stairs and on seeing the gnome gave shriek of fright and made to run. It was then that Ironboar used himself as a weapon, throwing himself OFF the loft and landing feet first on the running bum. His boot cracked the man’s collar bone as 180 lbs of gnome and all his gear landed at a 9’ drop from above. The bum hit the ground, Ironboar wrapped his hand in the man’s hair, and then lifted up and smashed his face into the floor to knock him out (and breaking his nose).

He called to Device and the half-orc cleric came, to hear Ironboar say, “Got him.”. Got him? He was badly bruised, right shoulder hanging 4 inches lower than his left, bleeding, and his nose was a mass of busted chewed up cartilage. Using one of his last cure minor wounds he was able to stabilize the unconscious man and then fireman carried him out of the hovel and the two of them walked back to the Tannery and Tempi.

Device was livid – Tempi’s guy was out completely and his nuts were paste and Ironboar’s was badly wounded and would need hospice care at least. The gnome didn’t care and said, “But they ran – had to stop them.” Eventually Tempi’s guy woke up, in terrible pain. Name was Genorin and we coaxed out of him that Lirea might be living in a home behind the Tannery – brown door and one green shutter on left window. Ironboar and Tempi went to check it out, with orders from Device to “LOOK – DON’T GET INTO A FIGHT” and to bring the information to Waywocket home and tell Flimflam. He was going to stay and help the two men for now.

Enthir and Fist’al discovered the dead dog in the garden and the wounds were just like the same ones that Ironboar did earlier today on Bradone. The dog also looked like Whosea. This disturbed the two elves who would be telling Flimflam about this later. A fast detect magic revealed no magic in the area and none on the ground floor. The two elves checked the ground floor one more time and then went back to the 2nd floor.

Marcus was in the front waiting when a group of pilgrims stopped on the other side of the hedgerow outside the Broman home. A realtor was talking about the house and the Final 30 and the good location. It was when he offered to show the place that Marcus panicked and kicked the gate shut. Someone outside yelled “Hey” and “What’s going on”. It was then that he grabbed another handful of rose petals, tossed them ahead, and called out a sleep spell.

Putting nine of the 10 visitors to sleep. The last one was surprised and making lots of noise – so Marcus ran. He cut and ran around the back of the Broman house as fast as he could. He did not alert Fist’al or Enthir inside, instead he booked. As he hit the deck he charged to the end and leapt – attempting to clear the thorn bushes and make it to the grassy garden area beyond.

He failed.

His legs got tangled up and he shredded his pants, the thorns cutting into his flesh and ripping his skin below. In pain he grit his teeth and kept on running.

Inside the home Fist’al heard the sound of yelling out front and then crashing and cursing out back. Peeking through a window he spotted a lone figure charging across the garden area and vaulting into the Waywocket backyard! He told Enthir that it must be one of Bradone’s buddies and they should get him now. The two of them charged towards the back of the house, closing the door and locking it swiftly behind them.

Meanwhile Marcus failed to clear the Waywocket hedges and his pants were nothing just shredded cloth falling off his waist. He was bleeding terribly and had two painful wounds. He limped to the back door and it was locked, and so were a number of windows. He did get lucky and managed to rip the lock on one of the living room windows open, clambering in and slamming it closed behind him.

Limping and in pain he went to the kitchen where he pumped the well handle and filled the wash basin. Then he proceeded to remove the last of his leggings and tried to staunch the flow of blood and clean himself up.

Fist’al jumped over the hedges but Enthir did not, instead he too hurt himself on them, rolling over the tops and ruining his shirt in the process. As they made it to the Waywocket yard Enthir instead slammed his waist into the hedges, flipped over the top, and rolled to a painful stop, in pain and covered in blood. Fist’al just looked at him and shook his head, before going up to the house and looking around. Someone was in the kitchen. Lock picks out, he broke into the home.

As Marcus was finishing up he heard the click of a lock, a breeze of fresh air, and a single creak of flooring from the living room. He took out his bow and backed up, eyes firmly fixed on the door. Both Marcus and Fist’al played cat a mouse for a minute or two until they realized they knew each other. Then Fist’al berated Marcus for not only firing off another sleep spell, but by NOT warning them in the house that visitors were here and running away. Enthir was just glad to clean himself next at the kitchen sink.

Ironboar and Tempi found the house in question and then it was a quick look in and a boot to the door and BAM – they were in. They heard a slamming door further inside the hovel and the two of them went looking.

The found the only other door led to the front of the place – and the main street near Sutor’s Forge (Hi Forge, Tempi waved). Lirea had been here but she was gone now. So the two of them proceeded to tear the place apart – and they found two items of interest – a pillow made of sky blue cloth shot through with white thread and 4 vials of amber colored semi-opaque liquid in small vials that smelled faintly roselike. They pocketed the items and after getting Device who was transporting the two injured men to the Temple Grounds to rest and maybe get medical attention, the 3 companions were heading back to the Waywocket home to find out what the other’s had found and share their own news as well. Time is roughly 12:30 in the afternoon.

Meet 3, Adv 1, 6/9/12

Wheels came off the rails for this meeting. I write my adventures in advance, laying them out before the party runs into them - it's a combination of me being fully prepared as well as having the general path of the adventure already in place. The group is always free to do what they want, but sometimes they do go in their direction and I have to DM off the cuff.

I actually like making the shit up as I go along. And it's a good thing because that's exactly what I did here about half way through the night. The group is moving in whatever direction they feel they need to - and we have 7 distinct and strong willed characters around the table - each with their own opinion on what's important and what should be done next and in what order.

Write up follows:

Flimflam was awakened late at night by Whosea who needed to seriously pee. The gnomish druid took Whosea for a short walk outside before coming back in to get an interrupted night sleep. As for the rest of the group, Tempi had the hardest time waking up as he had been very drunk the night before. His father was unresponsive to his plight and suggested strongly again that the younger Rhyback child should leave the house at some point and have his own place.

By 7 AM we had all reconvened at the Waywocket home where we talked about what our plans were for the day. The main crux of the conversation was a 3 way round about between Device, Flimflam, and Ironboar – with the orcish priest complaining that Flimflam was letting his son run away with his actions and not trying to reign him in. They talked for awhile but honestly there was little resolved.

We had settled on the fact that we should scout Tanner’s Way, the large stretch of street and run down hovels on the south east corner of town around where the old Tannery was. It was an unsafe place under the best of times but we were thinking of going there and shaking down the residents there for whatever we could find or get in order to locate Lirea and Bradone Broman.

We spent some time talking about splitting up and covering the main roadways, and maybe placing someone with a bow on a rooftop to scout out for any fleeing people.

It was about 8 when we had a knock at the door, a young man looking for Fist’al. The elven scout came forward and received a cryptic message that long and short said the Broman’s were not in Tanner’s Way and in fact, one of them was watching the house – this house, right now.

Whazzawhat?

We checked every window and looked everywhere. We noted that the back of the Waywocket home was in visible sight of the old Broman home. But even after 10 minutes of careful checking at the windows, we could see no sign of any watchers there. Eventually Fist’al and Marcus climbed onto the thatch roof and stayed low, looking at the Broman house from a higher loft. Still didn’t see anyone.

Eventually Fist’al did note that we were being watched – but not from the Broman house – from the gallows on the west end of town square. There were people under the gallows (only about 110’ from the Waywocket front door) and they were the watchers. Marcus climbed down and went back in, telling the rest of the group of what was going on.

We came up with a plan. We would all leave the house, out the back door, through the garden, over the hedge all, and around the side street. From there we would come upon the group from behind them by coming around the armory. Everything went without a hitch and when we arrived at the armory, Fist’al and Marcus stayed further behind with bows out and arrows at the ready.

The group approached the gallows – there were three thugs and Bradone and they were sharing a pair of ale jacks amongst themselves. It was a surprise that we were there and they tripped over themselves a bit in an effort to avoid a confrontation that was already here. Bradone spoke to the group and Flimflam was the speaker for us. He admitted he was watching the house, said he was allowed to. Tomorrow he’d watch a different house.

Then he stonewalled and did not answer any question directly, outright lying in some places. It wasn’t until Ironboar began by commenting on his sister and her slutty ways that he grew wroth. The party was trying to goad him into a fight. The smell of roses was getting strong off of him and he was developing a strange tic. Two of his friends made to run and then he lunged forward. Fist’al shot, hitting the Broman elder in the leg and then in the back. Marcus held his blow. Tempi fell upon the other thug, wrapping his arms around his neck and driving his knee in his gut. They went down punching and struggling but the half-orc’s strength was beyond measure.

As for Bradone, Ironboar was fighting with him as Whosea made to bite at his legs. It was when the 9” knife blade came out and the Broman male started quivering and shouting and slobbering, stabbing it into the gnome barbarian’s shoulder that Ironboar let himself go. He let his bloodlust take over, Grabbing the knife and twisting. There was the sickening crunch of breaking fingers and then he stabbed Bradone.

16 times.

5 of them in the neck.

At this point the militia arrived and we were able to calm Ironboar down. Enough people verified that we were attacked first and did defend ourselves. Ironboar was reprimanded that he should be more like Tempi and show some restraint (which did draw a chuckle). As for Broman, a fast Cure Minor brought him stable and he was bandaged up. From there he was going to be brought to the jail and we spent a few minutes answering questions (attacks in town, arrows flying, an almost death – adventuring charter or not – we had to step carefully as this was NOT the wild west and we had to answer for our actions).

We hoped to be able to question Bradone after he was better and as it was Plantmonth the 3rd and roughly 9:30, we talked about what our next actions were and what to do next.

Meet 2, Adv 1, 6/2/12

The party finished their fact-finding search with the outlying farmers and then returned to town for some dinner, arguing, sneaking around, and lying. There is a different mix of characters in this group than the last one, also as evidenced moreso by the people playing the characters (people who were "good" and honest and level headed in the last group don't have nearly the same compunctions in this iteration).

I am still taking it slow at this point, it's a different area of the world and I want to encourage LARPing and town exploration since it is something they haven't had much opportunity to partake in as of late. This does mean though that they are quickly realizing thattheir actions in a town setting have longer ranged and unexpected consequences. I'm having a good time, and it seems they are too.

Write up follows:

The group rode on to the Gallowspire Homestead. It was literally the last location and the most recent awarded, the Gallowspire’s being there just only a bit over 2 months. The wall was a mix of stone and barbed wire and what we saw of the place it was still in the construction phase. The house was complete, the barn was not, the animal pens were mere staked areas and the fields looked like they had been cut and burned. To our best guess it was only about 3 acres prepared so far.


The Gallowspires were willing to talk and invited us on after verifying our credentials. We had learned that once again various horse and farming gear was taken as well as plowshares and strangely enough – 25 lbs of wheat seed. But the seed alone was taken, not the bag it had sat in.

We assured Gallowspire that we would get some resolution and Brother Device once again reached into his pouch and gave the farmer some coin from his pouch as well as his own promise of justice. From here we left Gallowspire, rode back to Shakun, and talked about what we had learned.

At Southgate the guards informed us that we were expected at Town Hall. So the group went where they found Zarik Ikarsbane as well as the third elf that had expressed an interest in joining the group: Fist’al Deiner, elven scout. Introductions were made and then we spent some time giving Zarik the heads up on what we had learned and catching Fist’al up to date.

Enthir took a short detour to Pelis, his friend and landlord, to ask him (as a merchant and occasional raconteur) is he had heard of the Broman family or Liera or Bradone. He didn’t have much to add and couldn’t truly give Enthir too much information.

As for the group, they went to the Pixie Down Tavern for a meal and to talk about what to do next while some of the party detoured to the temple grounds and talked to Father Gavilerin. We learned that the Broman family was part of what had been called “The Final 30”, the last group of men and women who gave their lives to hold the battlelines when the goblins were attempting to flee Shakun 16 months ago during the lifting of the siege by the elven and human liberators. There were 4 who died Master and Misses Broman, his elder brother, and their eldest son. Four of the 30 who gave the ultimate sacrifice for everyone else. They had a home on the west end of town, somewhere near Exotic Transportation.

We all reconvened at Pixie Down where we ate dinner (of which bacon figured heavily!) Then there was some talk about what we had learned and what to do next. Marcus and Device volunteered to go to Exotic Transportation in order to find some more info on the Broman family.

The proprietor of Exotic Transportation was a flamboyant and sad man named Eherego who bemoaned the fact that years ago before the goblins came he had rhinos and pegasi and racing lizards for sale and he was known the county wide. Today his wares were nags and mules and ponies. During the conversation with Device the half-orc priest promised he would get in touch with someone he knew who had a Pegasus and see what he could do to get it to him. Eherego believed him, no one else did.

We did learn more of the Final 30 and the Broman family and their home was across the road – the middle home. It was a nice upperclass structure that had been unlived in for some time. Marcus and Device checked it out. The path was over grown and it led around the back. The front door looked unused for some time.

They chanced a trip into the garden out back and it was there that a hunting dog that had gone somewhat feral had growled angrily at the two of them. Device responded swiftly and stepped in front of Marcus who was beginning a spell. The cleric was badly bit and mauled across the left arm as he tried to pry the 120 lb shepherd dog back. And then Marcus’ spell went off and the dog fell asleep. So did Marcus. So did another dog further in the garden behind a fountain. And so did some guy in the next house.

Marcus knew we had only 5 minutes so he quickly tied up the dog here and then checked out the other one. Not having enough rope he drew a belt knife and instead stabbed the dangerous 2nd dog a few times. Like 16 of them.

As Device woke up (and the other dog too) they quickly took note of the area (yes, there were roses here – and they were cut – as well as some spices from the gone feral garden) and decided to leave. Device muzzled the dog with some of the last of the rope and then hoisted the animal and the two friends began the walk back to the Pixie Down Tavern.

Marcus walked ahead. Leaving Device – 260 lbs of half orc, one of 4 in the entire town, bleeding down his left arm and carrying a 120 lb. tied up and angry snarling German shepherd in front of him. That’s why Marcus walked alone.

As Pixie Down we got Flimflam who stepped out and took control of the situation, calming the guards who had come to see what the heck was going on. He charmed the dog, making it HIS friend (not the group as was evidenced by the snarling and growling) and then we all went back to the Waywocket home to talk about what Marcus and Device had learned.

Flimflam spoke with the dog and settled on “Whosea” as a name (short for “who’s a puppy?”) – learning that there were 2 dogs at some point and they lived there and someone would come and visit.

And then we had visitors. More militia guards came, this time with Master and Misses Tudron. They lived on the west end of town and while Master Tudron was going to be resting his gout filled feet he was overcome by an unnatural fatigue and fell asleep for no reason! He was convinced it was foul spirits and he was cursed and with the demonic noises that came next door from the old Broman place, he would like the group to investigate and solve his hexing!

We used this as an opportunity to get militia approval to look over the Broman house without sneaking about and the Tudron couple were willing to pay 11 gold coins to have the issue fixed. We took the money, the job, and went back to the Broman home at 7:15 PM.

The front door was locked, the back as well but a simpler lock. Fist’al opened it and then we checked out the home. Mudroom, living room, kitchen, dining room, pantry, den, various closets and upstairs 4 bedrooms and a water closet. Most of the furnishings were gone but what was there showed a few clues. A copy of the back door key was under the couch cushions and the smallest bedroom had little girl clothes and beddings still there (as well as some dolls).

We also discovered three pictures. One of the entire family maybe 6 years ago, one of them perhaps 2 years ago, and a recent one of just what we assume to be Liera and Bradone. It was noted that the little girl that was in the earlier pictures was not in the last one and that the two Broman’s depicted appeared to be troubled and haunted in their expressions.

By 8:15 we were back at the Tudron’s and used a variety of gnomish tricks to make one of the little girl’s dolls appear to be a voodoo doll of some sort and the group made a show of “breaking” the spell and ending the curse. Then they advised Master Tudron to lay off the alcohol late at night or at least cut the amount in half and it would resolve most of gout issue. We were paid for our services and the Tudron’s spoke highly of our skills.

We left and although it was getting late we wanted to see if there were some other trees we could shake to find the two elusive Bradone teens – Enthir was pushing for Tanner’s Way and the lower class section of town, there was talk of watching the house over the next few days to see who came, possibly using Whosea to help sniff out the identity of Liera, or even having Fist’al get involved as there were thefts going on near the town and someone might have an idea.

Meet 1, Adv 1, 5/12/12

Simple premise for the 1st meeting, 1st adventure - bandits. But as usual, I have long reaching ideas and eventual pathways that this can go - and it's never as "face value" as the group thinks. I also like to name my adventures - and this one is called "A Touch of Spice". Comes from being an old Star Trek fan and enjoying the revelation sort of titles to the episodes.

This was a get together, role play, go out and get a feel for the area and the people that make it up. There will be d20 rolling at some point, but not for another meeting or two.

Write up follows:

Flimflam had a sit down with his son Ironboar about the possibility of running an adventuring group as the elder gnome had been asked by Baron Taugis to head a group. The younger gnome who was in the process of self pleasuring agreed to the group and the two of them spoke into the night about the meeting the next day and who might join up.

Meanwhile across town near Sutor’s Forge, the Rhyback family was sitting down to dinner. Derrick, the patriarch of the half-orcish family, listened to his 2 younger sons casually bring up the criers today and their interest in interviewing people for an adventuring party on the morrow. Device, the elder and templar cleric to Athena and Tempi, the younger and known to be a bit unstable and brutish, both wanted to join. Their mother was worried about them and wanted them to remember to come home often.

Device snuck out with a few bottles of homemade swill he had been making and “bribed” Flimflam Waywocket to accept his 2 sons into the group tomorrow. The gnome was familiar with Device and the younger one was familiar with Tempi, so it was assumed the answer would be yes.

On the eastern end of town just north of the Elven Quarter, a trio of three elves were meeting in the Ogre Doors Inn and knocking back a weak wine, each of them agreeing to join the possible group on the morrow. Enthir, the eldest, was a scribe and wizard, Marcus was a spellsword and archer, and Fist’al, the youngest of the 3, had come to town as a scout over a year and a half ago with lots of money in his pocket and never seemed to need for anything. They agreed to meet in the morning and apply for the job.

Plantmonth the 2nd dawned bright and clear and the Town Hall was opened with Zarik Ikarsbane, the local hero and town’s First Citizen, sitting court to help guide Flimflam and usher in the possible applicants. And it was a dismal showing. For the majority of the morning on three people showed to join: Device Rhyback the half-orc cleric, Tempi Rhyback the half-orc warrior and hothead, and Enthir the Grey Elven wizard who was outmassed by the Rhyback brothers by almost a factor of 3. Each.

Small displays of power were given as well as a short speech of who each person was and their skills and shortcomings. Eventually we learned that 2 other elves were supposed to come but hadn’t shown up as of yet. We agreed to each other and a Charter was requested from the Baron as well as a brief discussion of what our job would be.

Banditry was the first on the list. We had three of the furthest homesteads been targeted over the last 4 weeks where a variety of sundry items were taken. In one case, the Dormanger family, the eldest son had actually interrupted some of the theft and had been wounded in the scuffle. It was suggested we go and find what is going on that far from Shakun and bring the bandits to justice. 50 crowns if we disrupt their banditry and bring them to justice, 25 crowns if we are unable to recover the stolen goods.

At this point the 2nd elf, Marcus, strode in. Resplendent in his armor, a 4 and half foot long bow across his back, he looked every bit the elven warrior. His application was accepted almost immediately and we brought him up to speed. Flimflam had asked the Baron Taugis would lend us a horse and cart and we were given a swaybacked nag and hay cart to use, knowing we would have to return it at end of day.

We geared up and met at south gate where we took ownership of the cart and horse, climbed on, and rode out of town through the fields and homesteads. It took us the better part of an hour to ride to the furthest south and west homesteads – larger parcels of lands each over 70 acres large. The first family was the Jerinston family.

From our conversation with the family patriarch, Henes, we learned that he was robbed at dusk when coming back from town. They took his nag, the short cart he had been driving, as well as whatever he had gotten that day: 50 commons, 80 bits, 3 weeks of food stuff and feed for the horses, 40 worked 2x4 plankings, 2# of iron nails and the metal bucket they were in, as well was 5 yards of sky blue with white thread shot fabric he had picked up for the misses and daughter for the Gaia’s Day dance next week.

We know it happened on market day and he was a little inebriated on the way home. Also he could tell there were 2 assailants. One was behind him with a knife to his throat and he suspected a second one and it smelled faintly…pretty. It was dark and did not see and they took his stuff and left.

From there we went to the next homestead the Dormanger family. It was here that we spoke to the family leader, a proud man named Orin. He had been robbed twice – the first time they only took a single plowshare and he at the time thought his younger had left it in the field. The second time was just 3 days ago and his eldest son, Verim, was accosted during the robbery.

They took 1 yoke for his oxen, a second plowshare, 100’ of braided wire for fencing, some pliers and snips, 2 bridles, 5 gallons of distilled vinegar and 1 gallon of olive oil.

We spoke to Verim and had the young man healed, his arm wound was in bad shape. The Dormanger family was happy to talk to us and we sat at their table to eat. Verim was not very descriptive of what happened and some of his points were vague. It was at the early part of the morn and he was hit from behind, struggled, and then slashed and left there as they stole from him.

Under more direct questioning he claimed he was tired and went to his room to rest. So Flimflam and Ironboar went in to talk to him after Orin let us know that Verim was upset at moving out here 6 months ago and leaving his friends in the city behind. There was a girl involved, Liera, and she was part of a family that Orin didn’t want his son associating with.

The two gnomes talked to Verim but Ironboar and the young man grew angered at one another and then blows were thrown and the two men struggled as Verim claimed it was goblins and Ironboar called him a bloody liar. Flimflam was forced to heal the young man again and we got him to calm down and learned that Liera was there with her brother and some of her friends. They wanted to get some stuff and maybe have their own homestead. Verim had relations with Liera and was very in love but the gnomes think that she was using and duping the young man.

As for the goblins, he swears it was true and the goblins came from nowhere and attacked Liera and her friends and well as Verim and then everyone fled.

We went with Verim and Orin the back of the acreage where we saw the back gate had been forced opened and crudely wrapped with wire fencing. Some drag marks led off to the west and the hills there but that meant little to us as it was lost quickly.

We left the Dormanger family it was just after 2 PM on Plantmonth the 2nd and were talking of what we learned, Ironboar needing to chill the hell out, and going to see the Gallowspire family next.

New Campaign - The Players

When it came time for character creation I had gone back to a more original way of deciding who would be playing what.

They were allowed to roll two sets of 7 numbers derived at 4 D6 dropping the lowest. The order of the rolls was the order of the stats: Str, Int, Wis, Dex, Con, Cha, Com (yes, I play with comeliness). Normally I would have let the players arrange whichever set of 7 they like in whatever order they want. Not this time.

We ended with with people at the table playing things that are a bit outside their baliwick but I think in the long run will result in a better game for everyone.

Our group looks like:

Gnomish Barbarian
Gnomish Druid to Demeter (actually the father of the above barbarian)
Half Orc Cleric to Athena
Half Orc Fighter (actually the younger brother of the above cleric)
Grey Elven Wizard (with a strength of 4 and a constitution of 6!)
High Elven Fighter/Wizard (with a mighty 5 hit points)
Wood Elven Thief.

The druid is ostensibly the party leader for now but the group knows that this is temporary and can change should they find the need or want to.

Also, we got rid of personal initiative and went back to the roots - Roll D6, highest group reacts first. The initiative round is broken down into: Flee, Missile Fire (and positioning), Long/2 Handed Weapons (and positioning), Melee Weapons/Spells (and positioning). This also meant I went back to what I had used for years - if you're a wizard or cleric, make sure no one has a bead on you or you will not be casting any spells.

Cash rolled was sort of light and some of the party members had to balance what they could buy, a few of them settling on a single weapon or downgrading armor where need be.

New Campaign - Background

For this campaign I went back to my roots and one of the first areas of my world that I had ever worked on or settled. Very old school and greyhawk in flavor as belied what was relevant to me at that time. I have revisited this area a few times since then and felt that it was time to return here for this group.

The "set up" and common knowledge follows:

It is the spring months of the year 182 of the 30th age (as the elves measure the passage of time).


The land you are in was once referred to as the Duchy of Argos, part of the greater and unified kingdom of Daro. However the heart of Argos was the area known as Woodhelven, a separate and self governed land of the elves who had lived here since before recorded time. The barbarian kingdoms that made up this land were unified generations ago under the banner of Daro and those that lived here assumed they were part of the great kingdom.

During the goblin wars which lasted well over 25 years the throne of Daro sent less and less aid to the southernmost Duchy and demanded more taxes and tribute from the war torn nobility until the Duke of Argos had the king’s exchequers thrown out, the ambassador from Daro put to the sword, and declared himself King Argos the 1st. From there he aligned with the Speaker of the Sun, the high ruler of Woodhelven, and asked for the elves' aid in driving the goblin tribes back.

Other barons, counts, and lords also declared themsleves free of Daro and followed suit, elevating themselves and adopting titles to match. This fracturing of the feudal system caused enough internal strife that the goblin forces actual took over and occupied for some time the towns of Ferron, Shakun, Brewersbridge, and even the larger city of Timberton.
It was through a combination of magic, sword, and many tens of thousands of men and elves that the goblins were driven back and their stranglehold broken. The goblin tribes had been united under a mysterious Lord Hammer and it was his influence and direction that had given the goblins such insight and capability. Lord Hammer’s undoing was eventually the assumption of his identity, and a sorcerer of great skill known as Fendinthalis was pivotal to his demise.

Without their binding general, the goblin tribes have been less cohesive and the rangers and spellswords from Woodhelven have aided the beleaguered men and women of Argos in sending the greenskins back to the cracks in the earth from where they came.

Representatives from Daro have come south again and again, in some attempts to reintroduce King Argos and the other lords back under the imperial banner but their efforts have been rebuffed. The people of Argos are proud in their accomplishments and even with the hardships they have endured, see no reason to return to a distant crown.

The elves of Woodhelven are happy too to be out from under the rule of a distant human king and have taken to governing their own lands as they see fit.

Most of the towns that the goblins had occupied are once again in the hands of the original people who had lived there and were forced to flee over fifteen years ago. There has been much work to set things right and the times have been lean. Prices are still very high and finished goods are outside of most people’s price range.

There are talks though. The traderoads to the western lands of Pervia are filled with stories of the K’Darial kobold marauders waylaying travelers and taking their heads and skins. Duuk Sarathian Goblins are still seen everywhere, emerging from the Endless Forest and causing havoc in trios and gangs from stealing chickens to burning families out of house and home.

But closer to home are the bandits; rough men and women who have lived so long in the wild scraping by that they have forgotten lawfulness and decency and will stop a group of travelers to take their coins, clothes, and shoes. This lawlessness has gone on for some time and some of the local lords have felt that their mustered militia and home guards are ill equipped to handle the situation. So the call has gone out for the first time in over a score of years for adventurers stout and true to be commissioned and charged with reining in some of the chaos that exists outside the palisade walls of our cities.

Meet 164, Adv 13, 4/14/12

This wasn't the plan nor the way that I or anyone at the table expected it to go, but we had a practical TPK and at the end of it, it spelled the end of the campaign.

The group's biggest problem and something I had to remind even the experienced players around the table was that they never think of fleeing as an option. Ever. One of the players was talking about how it wasn't balanced for the group and seemed over powered. And it was. They were surprised by the BBG and in the surprise round, got 4 characters knocked down or killed.

It's the first thing they should think about - do we stay or flee. Monsters with Int's of 7 make that call every encounter - why shouldn't the group?

On a brighter note, we all rolled up new 1st level characters and will be back to playing again 1st week of May.

Write up follows:

Roughly 100’ from the battle site with the giant worm and the carrion crawlers the party had holed themselves up and waited carefully while Detheron cut his way into the caterpillar like creatures and successfully extracted the paralytic glands. Once done, he then carefully filled three vials with the contact poison and the group divvied them up. From there he attempted to do some surgery on the worm but was interrupted by Mebali (who was on watch) comment that “he heard something.”

Norris shot off a bolt of light and it revealed a 9 count of Grylians. Angry Grylians. Of which 8 of them shot their elongated bows atus. Mebali went down, shot. Then Norris was hit, and then Aleron was shot – the ranger plugged in the skull and slain instantly. Draugmor was hit and the Grylians tore into the group with arrows.

Most of us quickly struggled to get bows back in line and we shuffled around, doing our best to protect the group that had been knocked down. Smokey and Jerrig made great gains in holding the line but it was Finrod and Detheron who saved the day by using a combination Ride the Wind and Gust of Wind spell – the combination sending the back 2/3rds of the Grylians flying away with clattering bashes and smashes against the wall.

From there it was only a few solid hits and the last of the Grylians were taken care of. We looked over the party and healing was dispensed. But for Aleron there was nothing we could do as the ranger had been slain. From here we were getting unsure of what to do next. We were getting deeper in the cave and there was no ready or easy way out. We divided up Aleron’s belongings and then set off once again.

After a short walk we came upon a larger junction with 4 possible ways to go. And in the middle was a large oversized, left boot. Justlying there. It was obviously giant sized but it was there all by itself. We detected magic and found none and then eventually decided to cross the chamber spread out and wary.

It was while we were crossing that Detheron happened to turn around and spotted a large concentration of magic at the extreme range of his spell. As he was trying to say what it was – it closed. Fast. Charging. Gullin.

Over 6000 lbs., 12’ tall, 15’ wide, 25’ long, it plowed into the back of the party with decimating effect. Mebali, Finrod, Norris, and Draugmor were all knocked down – kicked, crushed, and gored. Norris managed to back pedal away, the bard scrambling barely upright and out of the way. The razorback crushed Mebali to paste, killing him. Arrows and swords came out and they bounced off the beast’s hide for the most part. We were screaming orders and trying to make room as Gullin continued to ravage the group.

And then Norris was able to read off the disintegrate spell. And the razorback rolled “1” on its save.

It’s entire left leg up to and including the shoulder and part of its chest turned to dust and the razorback was screaming. Blood was fountaining everywhere. Guyus was horribly battered and his summoned war steed was badly hurt as well. Smokey went toe to toe with the razorback but it was obvious that the bear was not in the same class. The paladin’s horse was dismissed and we watched as Gullin staggered, his combat effectiveness hampered and his speed almost brought to naught.

A few of us ran around the beast back in the direction we had come from but Guyus was not to retreat. He continued to hold his ground and entice the razorback to follow him as he backed up. Only Gwyn stayed local, shooting poisoned bolts into Gullin at every chance. Shields were being splintered at every turn.

And then the paladin died as Gullin gored the paladin inthe chest. Smokey tried to end the fight but the mighty bear was eventually killed and Gullin was woozing horribly, almost dead and gallons of blood allover the floor. But it bent its head down and ATE Guyus’ magical sword. And the wound on his chest stopped bleeding. He did not regrow his leg, but he was no longer in any danger of dying from blood loss.

We called Draugmor and Gwyn closer and Detheron transformed himself into a horse, the dwarf climbing up. Meanwhile Gullin bent down and ate Guyus’ magical mace – and healed even more damage. And its red eyes bored into us and we knew it was time to run.

Jerrig and Detheron in horse form (with Gwyn on his back) were in the lead, followed by Norris, Finrod, and Draugmor. We had a lead on Gullin who was laboring to keep up the pace. But it was obvious that Detheron and Jerrig would be running in the dark shortly as they outpaced the rest of the group but Norris shot a blast of light at Detheron’s ass and illuminated it as they charged off.

It was obvious after a few minutes that although we were initially faster than Gullin we did not have the stamina to keep up the running for any extended length of time. It was Finrod who began falling back, the elf unable to keep up the head long charge for so long. In fact the gap between Finrod and Detheron was over 60’ and growing and we could hear Gullin getting closer and closer.

Jerrig, Detheron, and Gwyn blew through the Carrion crawler room so quickly that they did not know the party was even closing. The decision was made to run south, back towards the pit. Finrod, fearing he was not going to make it cried out a levitate spell and jumped, rising to the ceiling and pressing himself flat – just as Gullin ran under him and failed to see him there.

Norris hit the carrion crawler room and jumped over the one crawler that was there, clearing the tentacles by over a foot and a half. He too ran to the south head down and watching the distant bouncing glow of Detheron’s enchantedly lit horse’s ass. He tossed the bluish ice gem behind him as he ran, hoping it would slow Gullin down.

Draugmor not knowing what happened to Finrod and knowing he was the last in line now to Gullin, also jumped over the carrion crawlers as he hit them but instead dodged to the right down the corridor we did not go down, rolled himself down the slight incline and then buried himself to the left and stayed quiet in hopes that Gullin would miss him.

The razorback ran left – following the sound of hoofbeats and the smell of the party.

Detheron slowed down and the tiger did as well as they approached the pit. Gwyn ran towards the edge and used his last flask of oil to cover the ground. Meanwhile Norris finally ran up, exhausted. We had little time left. He took out Thurin’s spell book, thumbed to the page marked “Rope trick” and read it right from the book – burning the spell away but opening up an enchanted pocket 5’ in the air that needed to be climbed by the rope. The bard scrambled up and motioned for Detheron and Gwyn to hurry.

The druid looked at Jerrig; there was no way for the tiger to get in. He climbed up and they called for Gwyn to hurry. The dwarf ran back was able to grab the rope but Gullin was upon him. The razorback hit the dwarf so hard he was torn from the pocket dimension and sent back towards the pit. Gullin hit him again and sent him to the edge and then it was one last push and the dwarf fell down 90’ and hit the rocks below with a deafening slam.

Jerrig turned and ran back down the corridor and away.

Draugmor was waiting quietly and then was hit by something cold that robbed his strength. Shadows. He pulled out his luck blade and ran back down the corridor, forced away from his friends and down a slope. Eventually it opened up to an area where the floor was lit with some yellowish/orange glow. He pulled out his bow and fire silver arrows at the undead (3) stopping two of them but was unable to destroy the last one as his strength was drained and Draugmor died, doomed to rise as a shadow himself.

Finrod was going to levitate down but heard Jerrig and Gullin getting closer so he hugged the ceiling and crab walked himself closer. As Gullin ran past he dropped down and ran off towards the pit. Once there he did not see his friends and called softly. Norris and Detheron motioned him to come up and they lowered the rope for him. He climbed up and they waited.

Gullin limped back towards the ice crystal, ate it, and released a Fire Giant from within. They talked and came towards the pit where the friends were in the enchanted place. The giant was talking about the dwarf and Gullin and what had happened but they eventually went away to go to where the razorback had seen the group.

Terrified – down to just Detheron, Norris, and Finrod–they stayed in the rope trick until enough time had passed and then snuck out, crossed the pit, and carefully made their shattered way under Finrod’s direction towards Clan Gullin, the gnollish enclave, where they would hole up and come to some grim realities of their situation.

And that is the end. Campaign over, party shattered, no way home.

Meet 163, Adv 13, 3/24/12

Carrion Crawlers are those sort of monsters that it doesn't matter what level you are, if you get caught by the buggers you will be very unhappy. 8 attacks and poison to paralyze you. In this case the group had prepared as much as possible with Delay Poison and it helped.


Write up follows:

While the three friends were working in the pit below, our group was approached above by a 12 count of gnolls. Glaskar of Clan Gullin had come with a number of his people and one other in an effort to help us out. The last person was an elf named Finrod. He had come through a Tiger’s Eye gate many decades ago from somewhere near a town called Ferron. Once here his companions had been either killed or taken by the Grylians and he had been a mage slave for almost a century. During a raid on the Gullin caves his troupe had been killed and he had survived, barely, taken by Clan Gullin, nursed back to health, and folded in with the rest of the gnolls.

After Glaskar had come back and told of the Dritka he had met, Finrod had hoped to meet up with them and go with them on their trip eventually out of Freysteig wherever they would end up. We took him with us and Glaskar went on his way

We had some difficulty and comedy in our attempt to cross the pit. Finrod did have a floating disk spell which he used to ferry most of us across. And Detheron cast Jump on Jerrig to allow the cat to leap over the pit on its own, and Spider climb on Smokey to get the bear across. But the bear was very afraid of the unnatural traversing and Detheron was forced to hang on and push the bear from behind along the entire journey.

Once across we drew back into formation and Aleron held torch aloft, tracking as we went. Eventually our voices echoed back strangely and we came to a “T” intersection. The area was honeycombed with holes roughly 18” to 2’ in diameter, from the floor to maybe 3’ in height. There were almost 20 of them spaced about the widened area. We didn’t trust it. Detheron called to Frey to search for poison, discovering a burst of venomness inside the walls somewhere. Alright, we suspected it was something alive and inside the walls.

With great care Draugmor, Norris, and Guyus all crossed the room, protected by a Delay Poison spell. And then they came from the wall – almost a dozen carrion crawlers oozed out and approached the group. We took aim at a distance where able to and at other times marched right in with weapons swinging. We also got a chance to see Guyus’ new mace in action. It vibrated strangely in his grasp but when it connected – WOW! There was a blast of flame, a popping sound, and the target struck was sent crumpled across the chamber.

Aleron had a bad fumble where he pretty much shot Smokey in the gut. But it was shortly after the battle started that we had other issues. Two worms – each roughly 40’ long and pus-like in color came out and made to assault us. Their bite was acidic and they had a stinger on their back tail. Once again it was Guyus’s mace that made the day, sending worms flying about the chamber. Eventually the battle ended with one of the worms retreating and 3 of the carrion crawlers oozing back into the wall holes again.

We grabbed the back end of one worm and three of the crawlers and following Draugmor went down the hall another 100’ (taking the right fork) until we felt safe enough. It was here we dropped our quarry and turned to Detheron to see if our druid could harvest the paralytic poison from the monsters.

Meet 162, Adv 13, 3/17/12

All characters like to find artifacts. However I also know that most DM's don't like them in the game since they do tend to skew things crazily. Either the bad guy has them and the group kills him and takes it, or the bad guys wipes the party out because they are too stupid to run.


So here it is, artifact in the game and available for them if they want to keep it. The problem is that now that they have it, it's too dangerous to just leave it somewhere and letting the bad guys take it.


We'll see how it plays out for them going forward. Write up follows:

It was decided that we were pretty much shot, our reserves were non-existent, and as a group we needed to hole up somewhere and rest. Problem was there wasn’t any place we had passed so far to do that, and from what we had deduced by talking to the gnoll Glaskar, there wasn’t any such place near here.

So instead we decided that Roper was a fairly known and large threat – we would rest perhaps 50 paces from the monster’s corpse, relying on the fact that its presence would deter casual wanderers. This placed us sort of mid-way between the pool and the Roper and with luck, we could relax and get some sleep.

Detheron cast Log of Everburning on a pile of wood and we lit two torches – placing one 30’ up corridor and 30’ down corridor from where we were camping out. Mebali, Draugmor, Guyus, and Norris all took watches, the party opting on two at a time. Eventually we ate a dinner of cold rations and we drained some water from our skin. Just before sun”out” Detheron made to cast create water so we could refill our skins – but the spring disappeared almost immediately and we heard 3 or 4 distinct musical notes ring out from the direction of the pool – echoing towards us.

We froze and waited silently, it did not repeat. Norris said a water spirit or elemental might live in the pool and we should avoid any sort of water effects while down here. He then cast Invisibility sphere on the party (and animals!), we all took camp sites on the edges of the corridor (leaving the center open) and fell asleep. Norris took first watch, then Mebali, Aleron, and eventually Draugmor.

It was during this time that we had some visitors. Two cockatrices – one male, one female, came down the hall from the direction of the pool. They seemed puzzled by the torches and gave them a wide berth. Eventually the male used his serpentine tail to drag it away, down the hall, where eventually we heard a distant “hiss” of it extinguishing (most likely the pool). They came back and took the 2nd, making the corridor darker by that much more – leaving only one.

Daring, Draugmor lit another stick of wood and left it in the area of the former and when the cockatrices came back – they were hopping and hissing and disturbed. They stayed in the distance, just outside of light range, silent for 10 minutes before coming back to the torch. This time they took the new one, and the last one – plunging the hall into pitch blackness and Druagmor waited. They did come back and went onward in the direction of the piercers – where he was satisfied to hear the sounds of “dropping” stones and angry cockatrice hissings.

It wasn’t until after Guyus woke up that we had our next issue – out of the darkness came a chilling cold sensation that crawled across the party. Guyus hissed “undead!” and willed his connection to Odin to flare brightly – driving the shadow away. Lights were lit and we swung what we could to force the undead menaces away, their touch not only chilling but also draining our strength! At one point Gwyn even lit his underwear on fire and was swinging it wildly about, dropping burning embers everywhere before accidentally engulfing his own head. It was when the last shadows were being finally destroyed that our battle sounds recalled the 2 cockatrices and we gave the stone turning a short battle from the distance. Flare spells, arrows, crossbow bolts, and even Guyus daring to run up and intercept the charging cockatrices until the battle ended.

We hadn’t gotten enough sleep as a party and only a few of us were going to get spells back. Eventually we had Detheron’s sun”on” notification and we broke our fast, struck camp, and marched on.

As a group we came back to the “pond” room and decided to leave it alone – heading instead down the eastern corridor and onward. It meandered a bit and eventually opened to a large pit. It was 30’ across, the ceiling showed some damage, and the floor was crumbling at the end. Do we cross? How? The bottom was unseen. We dropped a rock and guessed at over 50 feet. It was decided that a light spell from the wand down the pit would work – and it was instead about 90’ deep – the floor was all broken rock and uneven. Gwyn let us know that the collapse of the floor was less than 10 years old and more than 1. From what we could tell – at the bottom of the pit was a 4’ metallic looking handle.

It was decided that we would go down – Draugmor, Norris, and Guyus being the people in question. One by one they went down the silk rope we had bound together and anchored with Smokey until they made the floor. Then it was careful navigation across the broken expanse until they arrived at the handle – it went down into the rubble and was well over 5” thick. While checking the area out carefully before daring to touch it, we did spot something faintly bluish and glittering under the broken stone.

We moved the pieces aside one at a time, the last three larger ones the most difficult to maneuver. It was taking so long that Detheron, from 90’ up, was constantly calling down for us to “forget about it and let’s go”. The group refused. Eventually they did reveal a crystal – 18” in diameter or so, and shaped like a 20 sided die. There was something inside, bluish and distorted through the facets. Norris told us that it would be something that a powerful minion/follower of Thrym might have used for imprisoning purposes. And it would be VERY difficult to open. We took it with us.

As for the handle – Guyus was the one to dare to take it. He reached out, gripped the handle, and pulled – and it broke free of the stone and was now a 4’ long footman’s mace that he held – and as he held it – it felt “good” in his hand. It was perfectly balanced, had 5 flanges, and swung with a serious practiced ease. When Draugmor tried to hold it though it fell immediately to the ground and he could not lift or budge it! Guyus took it again and it felt wonderful.

We took the mace and the crystal and called up to Detheron that we should work on getting the group across the pit to the other side. Almost 3 hours after sun “on”.

Meet 161, Adv 13, 3/10/12

Wandering Monsters have been the mainstay in Gullin Caves and the party has has some pretty unlucky rolls. Like the Roper. I had no idea it was there, I had the yellow mold in the mist on the floor, and the piercers are in the area - but they made so much noise that I rolled a wandering check and blammo - Roper. So the roper had "always" been there - moving slightly - it was Schroedigar's Roper - neither there nor not there until they ran into it.

From both sides of the screen - we are having a blast.

Write up follows:

As a group we decided to walk northward. Cautiously we traversed the misty chamber until our lead members trod on something soft that released a cloud of yellowish spores into the air. Gwyn, Aleron, and Guyus all ran forward, choking and coughing but relatively unharmed while Smokey and Jerrig fell over dead from the spores.

Detheron called to Guyus to help somehow and the paladin dared to go back into the spores, grab Smokey, and pull/roll/tug the massive ursine closer to the edge of the next corridor. A quick prayer by the paladin brought Smoky back to life which relieved the rest of the party. The group was very nervous about coming across the opening to help when the stalactites from the ceiling suddenly began to let go and fall amongst the three on the other side. Piercers!

One of them brained the barely conscious bear, killing him again and the others were raining on the paladin, dwarf, and ranger. Getting hurt and trying to avoid being killed, they ran ahead, shields overhead as they fled from the spores, the dead bear, and the falling piercers. They disappeared around a turn in the corridor and was gone from sight.

And they ran right into a roper.

9 feet tall, 7’ diameter at the base, 6 tentacles went flailing out and they slapped about the group – sucking strength from some of the party (Aleron and Gwyn) and wrapping around the ranger’s leg. Aleron fell over and was tugged closer to the monster’s gnashing teeth. The group tried to sever the limb and the ranger was brought to the roper’s mouth.

Meanwhile Draugmor was picking his way through the chamber; feeling ahead to make sure that there was no other yellow mold on the floor, circling around to the far right of the clearing.

Guyus hacked at the limb, cutting it free from the ranger and swinging Aleron over to avoid getting bit. The roper gnawed at the paladin’s armor, crunching some of the steel plates. Meanwhile Gwyn’s strength was growing weaker as the roper kept whipping at him. They plied blows at the roper’s limbs, cutting another tentacle free.

Once across the chamber, Draugmor motioned for the rest of the group to join him, the druid anxious to get to the bear that was bleeding out on the other side of the chamber, the tiger Jerrig slain with piercers in his body.

Gwyn was able to slam some of the wyvern poison into the roper, the terrible stuff causing the monster to twitch and writhe and snarl as it coursed through its body. It bit at Gwyn’s scimitar, swallowing it whole. Gwyn suffered more strength drain, bringing him down to a 4 strength. Aleron plied dagger from a distance and Guyus went toe to toe with the beast, keeping it at bay as the poison finished it off.

Detheron called to Frey and halted Smokey’s death while Draugmor and Norris went ahead to the sound of the battle.

The Roper Gave one final tug and Gwyn was inside the beast’s mouth as it crunched down, killing the dwarf. Aleron hacked at its base with his dagger, his blows weak but still effective. Guyus was bathed in roper spittle and the excretions from its tentacles but the paladin refused to give up, sword slamming again and again. Finally with a gurgle it stopped moving, fell down to its base, and died.

We fished out the dwarf and healing was applied. Gwyn drew a gasping breath and was breath but still knocked out for some time. We grouped up again and doled out what healing we could. It was bad.

Inside the roper we grabbed Gwyn’s scimitar and under its first stomach was a handful of gemstones that we took. Norris took two of its tentacles to use as scourging whips and we were unsure of what to do next. Draugmor scouted ahead and let us know that that for the next 5 minutes down past the roper, the corridor was empty.

Norris opted to go back to where we had left both stretchers filled with wood and get our belongings. Picking his way past the piercers easily (those that had fallen, Mebali had stabbed their undersides until they stopped moving) and around where the yellow mold was – but did see that our cache of wood was now looked over by 9 crudely armed and armored gnolls! The hyena-like men barked to the bard in their own language – and Norris understood gnoll!

He spoke to them, they were from Clan Gullin and their leader was named Glaskar. They wanted the wood and Norris was trying to let them know it was our wood. They were friendly and referred to Norris as Dritka – so they traded out 100 lbs of wood and two stretchers for the bard’s broad sword. He gave it up to Glaskar and the gnolls were happy with the trade.

They then spent some time talking about the cave and we learned some things – there are two ropers, displacer beasts are aplenty, Gullin is what makes the gouges in the stone and is big, Clan Gullin lives off the main chamber and their lair is warded by yellow mold, there is a lair of ice toads, something lives in the darkness along the western corridor and the gnolls give it a large gulf, Gullin really dislikes Grylians, and before we get to Gullin there is an area of the ground that is lit from below and if you touch it it will burn you.

We thanked Glaskar and left with our wood and Norris told the party of what we had learned. As a group we were knackered and needed to rest, but to our estimation there was still at least 5-6 hours until sun”out”. Eventually Gwyn was awakened and between him (strength of 4 down 14 and suffering from a near death experience), Aleron (strength of 13 down 6), and Smokey (suffering from a near death experience) we were pretty messed up. The ranger and dwarf couldn’t handle their own gear it was too heavy for them and a lesser restoration was cast on Gwyn to return some of his strength (2-3 points).

With slow steps and great care we followed Draugmor’s lead down past the roper, following the winding corridor for 15 minutes until it opened into a grotto. Some stalactites and stalagmites, nothing really past 2-3 feet in length. In the center of the ceiling was a 7’ long stalactite, hanging straight down over a 6’ diameter round subterranean pool. Every minute a single drop fell from the tip and into the pool. There were two other ways out of the grotto, on the east and west.

The party debated the pool for a few minutes. Guyus assured us it wasn’t evil, and Detheron cast a spell to let us know the pool was magical. Alright…weird. Draugmor dared to get closer and looked down with the lantern – at the bottom of the pool was a skeletal hand sticking out of the rocks at the bottom, and it was holding a black cloth wrapped bundle maybe 3’ in length and cylindrical ay perhaps 10”. The pool was also over 5’ deep.

We talked about what to do next for a bit and decided we were NOT going to screw with the pool. Leave it and move on.