Post/Author/DateTime	Post
BuddyL33 10-29-04, 12:27 PM	I just thought I would post my campaign log here for people who like to read what goes on in other campaigns. Comments & Questions are welcome. Before I begin I would like to introduce our intrepid heroes. Relic: Warforged Fighter1/Artificer1 Padimus Karee: Tiefling Wizard1 Vinarath: Kalashtar Soulknife2 Aztalan: Aasimar Cleric1 who worships the Dragon Above Session 1: The campaign began with the PCs on board a large seagoing vessel south of Khorvaire. All the characters had been captured on the continent of Khorvaire by slavers and now were being taken to an unknown location to be sold into slavery. They found themselves shackled to the floor of a room where they had to row when the shipped dropped sails. Along with them were about a dozen other slaves and several guards. Suddenly a horn sounded from on deck and the ship lurched as if it had impacted. The PCs could hear shouts from above and all of the guards below ran upstairs to be on deck. At that point the ship lurched again and a tentacle punched a hole through the side of the ship where the slaves were. Being below water line the hold began to fill with water and the slaves began to panic. At this time both Relic used is incredible strength to rip is chain from the floor taking part of the ship with him. He worked to begin freeing some of the other slaves. The ship continued to feel the impact of an unknown force with more holes being made as well as several bodies crashing down the stairs into the hold. Eventually all the PCs became free and made their way on deck, as the ship was beginning to sink. Once up top a huge creature was laying waste to their ship. Padimus ran to the quarters in the rear and was able to retrieve his spell book just before another tentacle destoryed the structure. It was beginnng to look grim for the PCs. Suddenly a large ship could be seen cutting through the water at incredible speed and maneuverability for its size. It began firing on the creature and quickly drove it off. A party of humans and half-elves boarded the sinking ship and told the PCs to quickly get aboard before the ship went down. Once aboard they were met by Captain Syrtis who was a very manly dressed, half-elven woman, bearing the mark of House Lyrandar. She told the PCs they were aboard a vessel known as the Sunrunner and she would take them to the port city of Freeport, located in a chain of islands between Khorvaire and Xen'drik. The next day the PCs witnessed the awesome spectacle of the Sunrunner as it anchored in the waters and the ship began to repair itself as it was bathed in the sunlight of the day. Upon reaching the city/state of Freeport, Captain Syrtis let the PCs in on a little catch. In exchange for their rescue, they would accompany her on a treasure hunt. She gave them each gold to outfit themselves and told them to return to the docks in about a week to set out on an expedition. At this point the PCs weren't to excited at the thought, but figured they had better go along with it. They found a market near the docks and began stocking up on supplies. Soon after they began exploring this new city. Aztalan took pity on a strange little girl sitting in the alleyways. He inquired as to the location of her parents but to his surprise found the girl to be in the accompaniment of several powerful elves that seemed to appear and disappear into and out of thin air. He couldn't make heads or tales of it and left content when he heard the girl's father calling for her to come home for dinner. Padimus was the next to find something special in a bath house located in the Old City, a fortress like section of freeport. Their he spent some 20gp for a private bath, complete with 5 course meal, entertainment, and female company. The rest of the part set out in search of suitable quarters for the night. They eventually made their way into the Merchant District, once Padimus was done with his fun and found a extremly nice place ran by House Ghallanda called the Last Resort. The settled in and became clean before heading out to get some food and find entertainment. They night was pretty quiet but they decided they wanted to see if they could find some sort of guide to help them do some adventuring in and around freeport. That night Aztalan awoke to a sound in his room, upon opening his everbright lantern, he discovered a monkey and entered through a balcony window and was rumaging through his pack. He moved to attack it, but it was far to quick and escaped off the balcony with some of his money. Vinarath also discovered his pockets were a bit light. The next morning Aztalan made is displeasure know the the innkeeper and arranged for a free weeks stay as payment in return for his robbery. They also inquired to the innkeeper of any guides. The inkeeper was able to provide them with 2 names. The first a guide who ran a shop down in the dock district and another by the name of Grundar that lived in a forsaken area of the city known as Scurveytown. Since they had yet to visit that portion of the city, the PCs decided to set out for the latter. Upon arriving in Scurveytown the PCs were set upon by street urchins determined to offer their "protection" services to the party. The party declined and soon found out that it wasn't an option. The thugs began attacking but were soon killed by the PCs save for one who managed to escape with his life. Oddly enough no guards were to be found. The party then were engaged by a rather gaunt, and strange looking man known as Captain Spooky. The Captain insisted he could lead them to Grundar if they wold just buy a poition from him. He told them he would sell them a potion of CLW for a mere 5gp. The party reluctantly agreed and Spooky took them to Grundars. They knocked on the door and were met by a short dwarf who was completely shaved, head and beard. They explained their desire to go into the jungle north of town for some adventure and he quickly signed on as their guide. The party inquired as to what they should bring and the dwarf told them to pack light since they would all be dead in a few days anyhow. The party wasn't to sure what to think of this but agreed to meet the next morning to set out. The next morning they set out into the jungle with their new guide. After several hours of walking and listening to Grundar talk about how it was a good day to die, they smelled a god aweful stench. The moved to investigate, only to find an odd looking plant surrounded by remains of several creatures. As Grundar approached he suddenly froze in his tracks, paralyzed it seemed. Relic launched an arrow into the plant to see what would happen. In response a swarm of spiders came rushing out and begain attacking the people that was threatening their home. The spiders did consderable damage considering their size. It seemed to be the fact that they were so many and so few the party didn't have effective means to combat them. Padimus decided to unleash a magic missile into the swarm destroying many of the foul vermin, but the swarm contiunued on. Padiums then became angry and his body suddenly bathed itself in flame. The party was astonished at this trick. Padiums walked forward, arms outstreched, and the swarm was soon engulfed in flame and destroyed. With the swarm now gone, but the guid paralyzed and unresponsive, the party decided to avoid the plant and get back to town. On their way back they noticed several lizardlike creatures circling over head, some big some small. Soon the creatures began swooping in on the PCs and attacking. The party took to the defensive and soon wiped out their attackers. In cutting open the belly of one of the larger creatures, they found an odd looking piece of adamantine hooked onto a black handle of sorts. The piece totaling about 7 inches in length was quickly inspected and although no magic was found, a design of sorts was inscribed in the adamatine. It appeared to be writings from House Cannith but somehow incomplete. Vinarath upon inspecting the item broke the black handle off. At that time Padimus suddenly detected a faint aura of magic radiating from the item. The piece of adamantine was shaped irregularly on one end and came to a point on another end. Relic insisted he carry the item and soon began to feel a desire to travel to the NW. Everyone else in the party except for Aztalan also felt this when holding the item. The party then decided to head that direction, but were stopped by the ocean itself. It seemed their NW destination was somewhere across the seas.
BuddyL33 10-29-04, 01:08 PM	This session a 5th PC was added to the group. So we now have: Relic: Warforged Fighter1/Artificer1 Padimus Karee: Tiefling Wizard1 Vinarath: Kalashtar Soulknife2 Aztalan: Aasimar Cleric1 who worships the Dragon Above Spencer: Human Fighter1/Ranger1 Session 2: The party awoke at the end of the week during a bad storm. Today was the day they were to embark with the crew of the Sunrunner on her quest. Aztalan decided to stock up on some potions from their friend Captain Spooky before they headed out. His prices were impossible to beat and the first one they had purchased they used and it was exactly what he had said it was. Seemed almost too good to be true! They headed out for the docks and quickly found the ship. A mast had been errected in the rear of the ship and a large air elemental was enslaved about it. Captain Syrtis waved them on board and told them she would be with them once they cleared the harbor. Out a sea the captain came down and told them a tale of an incredible battle at sea some 35 years ago between a pirate vessel and the navy of the Sea Lord of Freeport. The navy had driven the pirate into a cave located in a island chain to the south. Their they sealed the ship in to it's doom. According to a survivor that escaped, several years went by and the captain of the pirate ship went crazy and started killing his crew accusing them of trying to steal his treasure. The survivor, a man by the name of Lester Lobsterpot made a crude map so he could one day return. Unfortunately he never got to so upon his death, he entrusted the map to his dear friend, Captain Syrtis. She instructed the party that she was seeking an iron barrel and that they were to bring it to her. Any other treasure would be finders keepers so to speak as they were now members of her crew. Just to make sure they acted in her best interest she told them they would be accompanied by the Sunrunner's cook, a man named Spencer, who also doubled as someone good to have in a pinch. The party landed on the island along with a boarding party from the ship. Captain Syrtis said the PCs should look one way and she would go another. The PCs search for hours and found nothing. The sun was setting so they wandered into a cave surrounded by brush. Spencer noticed a large set of 3 toed foot prints entering and then leaving the cave. Deciding whatever it was had probably left they went inside for shelter. Once inside they found an abandoned campsite not more than a day old. They were quickly distracted as they began to hear whooping and hollering from outside the cave. Looking outside they notice that all the brush was now gone, and 8 goblinoids were now there jumping up and down, working themselves into soem sort of a frenzy. Padimus laid one out with a magic missile which caused the goblins to swarm. The began throwing their nets at the PCs without much luck, only netting Vinarath who made quick work of it with is Psionic power. The PCs destroyed the nasty goblins quickly. Upon waking in the morning they set out following the crude map and found yet another set of caves. The same tracks they had found the night before led into one of the caves. Near the mouth of the cave was several bodies in corroded armor and weapons, most likely due to the salty sea air. The PCs entered the cave, with Spencer and Relic in the lead. To their suprise a Rust Monster had taken up residence in the cave and quickly charged the Warforged causing mass amounts of damage. Battle ensued and Relic was severely injured, near death's door, before the party was able to defeat the creature. Once Relic was able to repair himself using his artificer abilities, the PCs searched the cave and found a large fissure in the back. The proceeded in, determined this was the way they needed to go, according to the map, and the large footprints heading that direction. Upon entering, Aztalan set off the first trap. A large portion of the ceiling gave way burying him, and bouncing harmlessly off Relic's adamantine shell. The party healed up and rested for the night. The next day they wandered into a room that ended in a ledge. In the center of the room were 10 pillars ranging from 3-7 feet apart like stepping stones. From the rigth a waterfall cascaded down into a pool smoe 40ft below. Several of the party members were quick to point out a saltwater crocodile swimming in the water below. Padimus became bored with the party's bickering over how best to cross and lept out onto the first column. At that point the room began to rumble as the column he was on began to move. Padiums quickly lept to the next column. At this point all the colums were traveling up and down on some sort of mechanical device making it very difficult to leap from stone to stone. The rest of the PCs began shooting at the croc, but not before Padiums missed a jump an plumeted into the water below. The croc quickly saught him out just as Padimus deployed his darkness ability in atempt to hide. He was struck by the croc and fell unconcious in the water. At this time Vinarath lept into the water and finshed off the croc with enough time to save Padimus from drowning.
BuddyL33 10-30-04, 05:39 PM	Relic: Warforged Fighter2/Artificer1 Padimus Karee: Tiefling Wizard2 Vinarath: Kalashtar Soulknife3 Aztalan: Aasimar Cleric2 who worships the Dragon Above Spencer: Human Fighter1/Ranger1 Session 3: The PCs climbed the ledge on the other side of the lagoon in the pillar room and decdied to rest as they were spent. Relic stayed on watch in case whatever it was they were following showed up. Fortunately it didnt. The proceeded following the footprints untill they came to an area where they could here tools working on the stone. Spencer and Relic crept forward to a bend in the tunnel in hopes of achieving a peek at what this thing was. As the moved up the tool sounds stopped. It seemed they had been discovered. Relic and Spencer crouched low and decided to wait and see whatever it was that was in the cavern ahead. Relic was alarmed when a large javelin suddenly struck the wall right next to his head. Relic raised is bow ready to shoot whatever it was. Next a gutteral shout came from the room that only Padimus recognized. Padimus leaned back to the Aasimar and told him that the thing wants us to leave. Just then a 9 foot tall black lizardlike humanoid strolled in to Relic's view. He let loose his arrow scoring a hit in the creatures chest. The creature a Blackscale Lizardfolk tribesman of the island named Nightfang, had been sent to the caves by his tribe as a right of passage. He was to return with something of value for the tribe or not return at all. Nightfang became enraged and charged into combat, flailing wildly about. He struck Relic hard, nearly destroying the warforged. Padimus and Aztalan let loose with spells, and Spencer closed in to assist with his sword. Vinarath decided to "guard the rear". The battle contiuned on with Relic, Aztalan, and Spencer nearly being killed. Relic, in a last ditch effort, called upon is Power Attack to try and land a mighty blow in hopes of slaying Nightfang. His axe came down and nearly cleaved the Blackscale in two. The battle was over, however the party was severly weakened, so they decided to rest once more. Deciding to press on rather than explore the rooms behind them, they came to a 20' cliff face they needed to climb. After a few failed attempts, the group made its way to the top, where Aztalan spotted two large centipedes scurrying about in the darkness with his darkvision. He alerted the party and they decided to procede with caution as the centipedes didn't seem to be paying them attention. About half way across the room, Vinarath suddenly felt a small amount of strength leave him. He called out, which alerted the centipedes. To his amazement, the shadowy figure of a pirate was floating next to him with an evil look in his eye. Aztalan immediately recognized the creature as a Shadow and instructed the party to beware of its strength draining ability. Meanwhile the centipedes closed in landing two nasty bites on Spencer. Aztalan attempted to turn the Shadow, but was unsuccessful. The Shadow, now angered, began sapping the strength from the cleric, while Relic and Spencer quickly destroyed the vermin attacking them. Aztalan, refocused on his faith and once again called out in the name of the dragon above, that this creature of undeath be turned from him. This time the Shadow cowered in fear and fled into the darkness of the cavern. The PCs pressed on working their way through a series of tunnels and passages in the rock, even managing to set off a nasty trap or two along the way. About halfway down one of the passages they noticed several hanging boulders over their heads. ABout that time Relic tripped something and the rocks began falling from the ceiling coming closer, and closer to the PC's. The PCs ran down the tunnel and dove into some holes in the wall that turned into a natural water flume. The PCs slide down the natural flumes where they were deposited in a large cavernous lake. In the middle of the cavern set a sailing ship they assumed to be the ship they were seaking, the Gallivard. Releaving the cleric of his cumbersome equipment, the party swam to the ship and climbed on board. Their they discovered a large ballista, as well as a gun of some sort, mounted on the ships railing near the front of the ship. Several corpses lay strewn about the deck, long dead and decayed, their equipment worthless. Padimus cast a detect magic spell and began walking about the ship, in search of the item they were instructed to find. Below deck they found Captain Erradus's quarters and Padimus sensed multiple magical auras from behind the door. Spencer pushed the door open and the party filed inside of the room, which was filled with gold coin and the large iron barrel they were seeking. They scanned about and noticed the captain's corpse, still sitting in his chair. Next to him was a Warforged, long dead as well. Or so they thought.... The Warforged suddenly stood up, a bandana on his head and a patch over his eye. He raised his right arm, which instead of a hand, had a nasty looking axe. "I am Gypsy and I am the protector of the Gallivard and her crew", announced the warforged. Relic seeing one of his kin, was immediately torn. He knew the party needed the treasure, but it was obvious this Gypsy, wasn't going to let them have it without a fight. Relic stepped forward in a neutral manner and began talking to Gypsy. Explaining to him the events of the last 35 years and how he was free. After some coaxing by Relic and Vinarath, Gypsy was convinced that it would be better to be free, living on the seas, rather than stay here and guard a dead man's treasure. Working together Gypsy and Relic loaded the deck gun and crossed their fingers. With enough shots it should be able to blow out the collapsed wall, as long as the gun didn't malfunction and kill them all! They fired several shots, and to their fortune, they were able to free the Gallivard from her tomb. Gypsy, a trained sailor, instructed the PCs on getting the boat out into the harbor. Once outside they were met by Captain Syrtis and the Sunrunner. The PCs handed over the barrel as they agreed and Captain Syrtis released them of their duty. Free of their bond, the PCs set sail on the Gallivard with Gypsy at the Helm. Several days later they arrived back in Freeport. Gypsy invited told the party that he had seen enough fighting in his day and would like to set sail and see much of the world, perhaps becoming an honest merchant. He offered the PCs a spot on his crew, which they accepted. As they strolled down the gangplank into town, Gypsy tossed Relic his armbond, saying he wouldn't be needing it anymore. The party strolled into the market in search of pearls so they could identify the cache of magic they had found.
THE_VESPER 10-30-04, 08:32 PM	The story is nice.Please post the stats of your characters,we like to know more about them. :)
BOK2 10-30-04, 08:38 PM	I like Captain Spooky and Gypsy. It would be interesting to know where Spooky gets his potions, If I was one of your players I'd like to find out if the potions are stolen or were found in some ruins and if I can join Spooky in his humble business. And I think all Warforged should be free :)
DolArrah 10-31-04, 03:26 PM	Do You mind if I use yiour campain, it is really good. I like the whole slave capture.
Zagumus 10-31-04, 05:30 PM	Thanks for the read it was great. I would like to see more about the characters too.
BuddyL33 10-31-04, 10:37 PM	I like Captain Spooky and Gypsy. It would be interesting to know where Spooky gets his potions, If I was one of your players I'd like to find out if the potions are stolen or were found in some ruins and if I can join Spooky in his humble business. And I think all Warforged should be free :) Captain Spooky is a very gaunt man who lives in the slums of Scurvey town. He is a very strange man and gives the characters the creeps. He is a sorcerer who is addicted to a powerful drug called Abyssal Dust or "Dust" as it's called on the streets. He makes the potions himself, usually when he is high, to support his drug habit. So far the PCs have found him to be quite the bargain!
BuddyL33 10-31-04, 10:39 PM	Do You mind if I use yiour campain, it is really good. I like the whole slave capture. Go for it. FYI, you can expect updates on this campaign each Saturday, after the session.
Alexander Cross 11-01-04, 06:09 AM	Very nice, I like the feel of the story as you've outlined thus far. Keep the updates coming. 3 shades of red, Cross
BuddyL33 11-01-04, 09:45 AM	The story is nice.Please post the stats of your characters,we like to know more about them. :) What "Stats" are you looking for. IMO, I do not feel attributes make the character. Just because the warforged fighter has an 18 Str or the Tiefling wizard has a 20 intelligence, makes him no more interesting if those stats were lower. However, I would be happy to post a little more of a look in to who these characters are. Here is an interesting tidbit for you to chew on till I post more. Aztalan, the Aasimar has 0 ranks in knowledge planes and was unable to correctly identify Patimus as a Tiefling. It's hard to miss Patimus's orangish skin as well as the constant stench of burnt sulpher that accompanies him, but beyond the inner feeling that something makes him a tad uncomfortable about this guy, he can't place why. Patimus, on the other hand, knows excatly what race Aztalan is and so far has chosen to ignore any racial differences. Whether this is intentional or just instinct, only Padimus knows. (and me of course!)
BuddyL33 11-03-04, 02:22 PM	Relic is another interesting character in the party. Since the Last War he has been to the Master of Blades and heard his prophecy. He now understands all too well his destiny. That is to make a place for all warforged in history, by finding or creating a creation forge and activating it. In his eyes the warforged will then be able to conquer the flesh bound races through superiority and numbers. The rest of the party is unaware of Relic's plans and have yet to look deeper in to their strange companion. To them he is simply the muscle they need to survive.
BuddyL33 11-07-04, 12:54 PM	Relic: Warforged Fighter2/Artificer1 Padimus Karee: Tiefling Wizard2 Vinarath: Kalashtar Soulknife3 Aztalan: Aasimar Cleric2 who worships the Dragon Above Spencer: Human Fighter1/Ranger2 Session 4: Setting out into the city of Freeport, the heroes decided it would be best to stock up on supplies before they set out in a week with Captain Gypsy and the Gallivard. Potions and Scrolls seemed to be on the minds of most. Padimus and Aztalan decided to visit their old friend Captain Spooky down in Scurveytown. The rain was coming down hard and the unpaved streets of Scurveytown were ridden with muck and sewage, making a haven for mosquitos. Captain Spooky answered his door in the usual manner, darting his eyes around nervously. In the end he agreed to sell them several potions and a few scrolls to help support his nasty Dust habit. When Aztalan returned the next day he was lucky enough to see the Captain scribing away at a scroll while stopping breifly to suck up a line of Dust. I very rainy and stormy week went by and it was time to set out for the Northwest where the mysterious adamatine spike seemed to me pulling many of the PCs. They boarded the Gallivard, which had now been cleaned up and repaired. It was a beautiful ship and it was quite apparent Captain Gypsy the warforged (now with parrot on shoulder) was quite proud. The Gallivard, no longer flying the independent, pirate colors it once had, now flew the flag of Freeport. The PCs stowed their gear and prepared for the month long journey across the see to mainland Khorvaire. During the trip the PCs were surprised (although not pleseantly) by the fact that their old guide, the suicidal Grudar, had been hired on as a crew member. Grundar went on many times how the sea was a fantastic place to die. Several times Grundar was in fact washed overboard, but somehow, would miraculousy survive. One time getting hung up in a fishing net, and another catching his foot in the ships rigging. It seemed Grundar would have to wait to get his wish of death. One stormy month later, the Gallivard arrive in the city of Korranburg, located in the Gnomish nation of Zilargo. Greeted immediately by the guard of the docks, the PCs were shipped off to House Sivis in order to obtain proper identification and travel documents, since they had none. After obtaining their papers they decided to check with the strange, adamantine spike. It now desired them to travel to the Northeast. After securing lodging at the King's Road Inn, the party began asking around as to what might lie to the Northeast. They discovered that there was an old ruined city that existed during the Empire of Dhakaan, called Paluur Draal. They decided to settle in for the night and perhaps set out in the morning. While enjoying dining and entertainment from the gnomish bard, Curly Barns, Spencer accidently bumped into a halfling while walking through the tavern. This nasty little halfling got up in Spencers business and told him to watch himself otherwise he may find himself on the other end of a dagger (pulling back his coat to show Spencer he meant business). Spencer, not to be out done, order a round of milks for the halfling and his companions (a half-aerenal elf dressed in black, a pock marked, hideous looking human, and a gray haird young man in his twenties). The halfling was not amused and stood up on the table announcing that Spencer and his friends would soon get theirs! The next morning the PCs hired the bard, Curly Barns to investigate their halfing advesary and then set out to gather more information in the city of Korranburg. In their investigations they learned that a young member of Hous Sivis named Charlie D'Sivis had gone missing a few weeks back and there was a 500 gp reward for information leading to his return. The PCs it might be good to get some more money and Aztalan was very much interested in doing good in their new surroundings so they set out in search of young Charlie. They learned Charlie was last seen in the slums, walking about. They also learned that the Temple of Dol Arrah had the most ties to the slums of Korranburg so they decided to start there. Upon arriving at the temple they were greeted my a guard overseeing some goblins scrubbing hard at the temple's surfaces to keep them clean. They saught out the head priestess, Elan Kantro. In talking to mistress Kantro they learned she had done a fine job, finding work for the city's growing homeless. Over the last few years the beggars on the streets numbers had been cut by over 70%, something the government of Korranburg was excited about. After leaving the temple of Dol Arrah, the party was pulled aside by an old man. He introduced himself as Beamus D'Jorasco a member of House Jorasco. Beamus took the party to a new healing center that he had just taken over. He told the PCs a tale of a young beggar that had come to him scared. The beggar said mistress Kantro was sending im to a more beautiful place, but wouldn't answer anymore questions he had. This didn't sit right with the beggar so he informed Beamus. Beamus had done some investigation of his own and found that something wasn't quite right in the Temple of Dol Arrah, so he informed the athorities. The guard, however, was not interested in any of this and simply ignored the information. Beamus pleeded with the party to look into what was going on. The party decided perhaps they should break into the temple that night and see what they could find out. On the way back to the Kings Road Inn they stopped by a House Sivis message station and learned they had a message. Turns out a member of the city guard wanted to meet with them back at the Inn. They joined the guard over dinner and learned he was a close friend of Charlie. The guard told the PCs that he had heard screams from a noble house owned by the Pulanti family, that sounded like Charlie several days before Charlie was reported missing. The guard had reported this, but again, his claims went uninvestigated. The PCs also met with Curly Barns to see what he had found out. They learned the halfing's name was Zero Strangelevine and he was a member of an adventuring party that was planning on going out to the ruins of Paluur Draal. It seemed Zero had a taste for Apple Brandy, so much so, that a few nights back he become so drunk, his own purse was cut, much to his embarassment. They also learned the hideous looking human was a man named Da-Leek Ahts Du. The party thanked Curly and told him to keep digging. The PCs decided to drop by the Pulanti manor that evening and check it out. Situated on the river, this small manor was overrun with weeds and tall grass. It appeared as if no one was keeping this place up. The front entrance was gated and locked, so Spencer decided to go up over the 10 foot wall that surrounded the compound. He looked about the grounds, noticing that there were a few lights on inside. In order to offer him a disctraction the party decided to pull the cord near the gate, sounding a bell. A few minutes later a fat, pock marked man, in butlers uniform, came strolling out. He greeted the party. He introduced himself as Gaston and answered the PCs questions about Charlie and some other topics with very short, and calm no's. Gaston insisted he had work to do and strolled back inside. During this time Spencer had determined the front door was unlocked and made his way back over the wall to meet up with the party. Upon conveying the news to the rest of the PCs Aztalan informed the group that he noticed something wasn't quite right about Gaston. Gaston, while looking very much human, was very much not. Gaston was in fact, a Ghoul....
BuddyL33 11-14-04, 05:47 PM	Relic: Warforged Fighter2/Artificer1 Padimus Karee: Tiefling Wizard2 Vinarath: Kalashtar Soulknife3 Aztalan: Aasimar Cleric2 who worships the Dragon Above Spencer: Human Fighter1/Ranger2 Session 5 The party quickly began discussing their options. Should they raid the Pulanti compound? Was Charlie's disappearance somehow tied with the missing beggars working for the Church of Dol Arrah? Should they forget the House Sivis matters all together, and head out for the ruins of Puular Draal? During their discussion they were surprised to see Vinarath going up and over the wall surrounding the Pulanti compound. He was shuffling quickly towards the front door. It appears their decision had been made for them, so the remaining party members chased after Vinarath so that he wouldn't get himself killed. They opened the front door to find the ghoulish butler, resting on a stool. The butler immediately hopped up and made for a set of double doors. Acting in haste, Vinarath threw his mind blade into the butler's back, just as Relic charged forward and cleaved the undead in half. It seems they had stopped whatever warning the buter may have been trying to get off. They checked all the doors in the room, discovering a long hall to the left, a large room behind the double doors that the butler was going through, and finally, a sitting room of sorts, filled with all sorts of serving items, that was covered in heavy dust and cobwebs. The decided to head down the hallway to the left. Vinarath attempted to tear one of the everbright lanterns from the wall as a light source, but was unable to do so. The party proceeded around the corner to what appeared to be an old kitchen. The food in the pantry was old and rotten and in the back their was a staircase descending into the darkness below. They quickly discussed and decided the stairs were where they should go next. Heading down the stairs, they arrived in a small room with a little table in it. On the table was a decanter filled with red wine and two crystal goblets. They turned to the south and discovered a large wine cellar filled with approximately 1,000 bottles of wine. They patiently searched the room for secret passages and found none. Shifting their attention to a room to the north. There they found another wine cellar, this one filled with about 500 bottles of white wine. Something didn't sit right with Spencer, so while the party searched this room for a secret way in or out, Spencer decided to check out the decanter. Upon inspection, his skill in cooking told him this dark red liquid was not wine, it was in fact blood. He quickly told the rest of the party the news just as Aztalan found a hidden passage in one of the shelving units. They opened the door and walked down a tunnel to find a most disturbing sight. They stared into a large room. The most notable feature was a large, pentagon shaped basin in the center of the room, that was filled with blood! Hanging above it, was the body of a young, gnome, boy, whose blood was dripping out into the pool below. Several dire rats were scurying about so the party decided to clear them out so they could get the body down. After dispatching a few of the rats, a hidden passage revealed itself and a gaunt, male gnome revealed himself. Aztalan quickly recognized this as the spawn of a vampire and warned the party. Relic made quick work of the spawn, driving it to gaseous form, just as another one, this time female, came out of another secret passage. They recognized these two as children of the Pulanti family, from the pictures in the rooms upstairs. Patimus chased the gas into it's coffin, setting the box ablaze with fire from his wand of burning hands. The rest of the PCs shiffted their attention to the new spawn that had appeared. Alztalan decided to call upon his faith in the Dragon Above and attemped to turn the undead away from him. The nasty spawn shifted to gaseous form and fled to its coffin where it cowered in fear. Patimus quickly chased after it with his wand in hand. About this time, a third secret door in the wall opened up, and a nasty looking, male, gnome appeared and called out for his children. This had to be the father! Aztalan tried to turn this new foe, but the sick, little gnome only mocked his god's weak power. Close behind this new gnome was his undead wife coming to join the frey and protect their children. Vinarath and Spencer closed in but were unable to harm the little bastards in the least bit. It was up to Relic, who had infused his axe to be the bane of all undead. Aztalan called upon his god again, turning the female away in hopes of improving the party's chances. Padimus again gave chase, but the gnome vampire wasn't about to let his wife get burned alive. He charged in on Padimus hitting him solidly with his small, gnome fists. The battle ensued for what seemed like forever and even the warforged Relic managed to finally drive the little vampire to gaseous form as it fled up the stairs and into the night. They made sure the remaining corpses were burned and then lowered the young gnomes body to the floor. Spencer decided he would return the body while the rest of the group checked out the house. They found another staircase upstairs which led to a master bedroom of sorts. Filled with instruments, a bed and several wardrobes, they searched but alas, found nothing. They moved past a hall to a grand ballroom. There they found two, undead ogres. The ogres closed in on the party, but their efforts were for not. Aztalan tapped into his power of the sun domain and the power of The Dragon Above, causing the ogres to explode instantly. The party looked around and decided to alert the authorities. They left the house and headed back to the inn. In the morning they met up with Spencer who passed out the 500 gp reward from House Sivis for the return of Charlie. They met up with Curly Barns to learn the name of another member of the adventuring party they had encountered earlier. After discussing some, they decided to head out to the Ruins of Paluur Draal just in case the other party was heading there too. Not to mention the pull of the strange, adamantine rod led them in that direction. They set out in the rain passing through a logging camp along the way and a strange shack in the woods that they decided not to investigate. The night passed by uneventfully and they pressed on for a second day. Only one or two more days and they would be at the ruins. One the second day they came to a clearing with a beautiful, white, marble fountain in it. Engraved on the fountain were beautiful symbols of the goddess Arawai. As they closed in they realized something was gravely wrong here. Skeletal remains surrounded the base of the fountain, and the grass was blood stained. The water was murkey and a body was floating face down. Vinarath pulled the body from the water which was identified through the decaying flesh as a young, elf maid. It appeared she had been killed by a spear like object, however the wound was far larger than any spear they had seen. About this time a squirrel came to drink from the fountain. It's eyes began glowing a dull red and it quickly began attacking the warforged. Obviously not being able to do any harm, Relic was not in fear, but decided to splay the creature with his axe in order to remove the small vermin. After further discussion, the PCs determined they needed more time to devote to this mystery and would return to it after exploring the ruins.
BuddyL33 11-18-04, 10:35 AM	Any more comments, suggestions, flames? :P
Neofish 11-18-04, 07:07 PM	One, just keep this stuff coming.!!! This is a great group and very creative game. One more thing, Captain spooky, what level/class is he, I love that guy.
Tmpst2Prphsy 11-19-04, 12:22 AM	i look forward to reading this thread every week, this and BOK2's thread that he started posting on. being starved forD&D and not being able to play it more than 1-3 times and mostly just once a week and just on weekends, i need to get my fix somehow. :weep:
BuddyL33 11-21-04, 02:29 PM	Relic: Warforged Fighter2/Artificer1 Padimus Karee: Tiefling Wizard2 Vinarath: Kalashtar Soulknife3 Aztalan: Aasimar Cleric2 who worships the Dragon Above Spencer: Human Fighter1/Ranger2 Session 6 The group decided the fountain was a cause beyond their power but vowed to come back by on the return trip from Paluur Draal. Pressing out towards the Seawall Mountains they began to run into a large series of caves. Knowing the city was underground they assumed the entrance to be in one of these caves. Spencer thought it would be most likely, in a cave higher up in the mountains. They climbed for a day and came across what looked like some sort of volcano. Not sure if it was active, dorment, or extinct, they decided to investigate. On the way up they discovered a small tunnel that ended after about 40 feet that ran into the side of the mountain. This had to be it! The climbed to the top where they found a 30ft wide chute in the top of the mountain that looked down into a monsterous cavern some 50 ft below. Peering down they made out what looked to be a large pile of coins. Aztalan removed his armor and volunteerd to lower himself down into the chute for a closer look. Descending down the rope some 20 feet Aztalan was able to catch a better glimpse of the cavern. Gold and jewels were strewn everywhere. However he found he wasn't alone. Laying in a corner out of view from the top, was a 55 foot long, red dragon. Though the dragon appeared to be sleeping, Aztalan froze in fear for a few seconds before scurrying back up the rope. He informed the party of what lay below and it was decided that they would be dragon bait if they decided to go for the booty below. Pressing further up the mountain they came across a smaller cave. Spencer spotted some barefoot, humanoid tracks leading in and out. They crawled through the low entrance and came across an underground river. Fishing in the river were creatures Spencer identified as Grimlocks, an underground dwelling race that was highly zenophobic. The creatures quickly ran for an exit at the pack of the cave. Vinarath and Relic chased them down and killed them before they could get help or whatever it was they were doing. Heading in the direction of the now dead Grimlocks, the PCs game across a strange sight. In this room there were four more of the creatures and they were excavating some sort of statue. The party decided to try sneaking by but Relic, making way too much noise, alerted the creatures. The Grimlocks moved into attack. Spencer took a ton of damage and fell to the ground. It was clear he was mortally wounded and a grimlock stood over him ready to deliver a finishing blow. Patiums called upon his inate abilities and ingulfed his body in flame. Pressing forward he burned all Grimlocks in his path and finshed off the Grimlock standing over Spencer, just before it ended Spencer's life. Heading East into the next cavern they ran into another seven of these creatures huddled by the river. The Grimlocks quickly attacked and in turn were quickly defeated. After resting in a small cavern they had discovered by the entrance the party awoke to Aztalan feeling more of his god's power coursing through him. They searched around and learned that this was not the entrance that they sought. Heading further north they came across a set of oaken doors, dangling by rusty hinges. A message was written above, however they were unable to determine its meaning. The party headed in ascending a large, 80ft long staircase. Once inside Relic and Vinarath spotted a Ghoul crouching in a corner. They attacked from range and the nasty undead was defeated. On the floor was a large mosaic pattern of stone heading to the north and the east. Deciding to follow it to the north it lead them to another cavern, this one with a statue of the Mockery. Also moving about in this room was an Orc and his 2 dogs. Spotting the party, the Orc ordered his dogs to attack and began hurling javelins. Relic beheaded one dog instantly while the other landed a nasty bite on Patimus. The party closed in on the orc as it rage over the loss of its dog, as Spencer ran to Patimus's rescue. The PCs soon made short work of this encounter. The party headed east and found themselves on a ledge overlooking what appeared to be a massive underground cavern. The decided to backtrack and head to the north instead. Following the bends and twists of the cavern they were slowed by a trap or two in which Relic took the brunt of the damge from spiked clubs and such swinging down and bashing into him. As they were approaching yet another cavern Relic heard a snap as a stepped and a large net fell down on him and Vinarath, entagling them up. In the room they were about to enter, several Kobolds were having target practice and were shocked at their intruders. They immediately turned their attention from the dummy targets to the new "live" targets that were now available. Their crossbow bolts bounced harmlessy away. Relic made short work of the net and engaged, making even shorter work of the Kobolds. Meanwhile the rest of the party spent their efforts trying to free Vinarath from his net prison. Aztalan, using his darkvision, peered into the cave to the south. There were a dozen more of these kobold creatures lounging about. They party quickly came up with a plan that maybe they could intimidate the kobolds out of some answers. Relic gathered up the kobold heads like a six pack, while Aztalan engulfed his body in a nimbus of light. The final touch would be from Vinarath and his blazing sword of psychic energy. The party strolled into the chamber and demanded the kobolds attention as they had failed their god. The kobolds, failing their checks, quickly dropped to their knees and began preying to PCs for mercy. Vinarath, speaking in the kobold tongue of Draconic, questioned them about the ruins of Paluur Draal. The kobolds knew nothing of a city but agreed to disarm all of their traps so the PCs could move freely about their area. Pressing on to the east, the PCs once again found themselves in the huge, underground cavern, though this time from ground level. In the center of the cavern, they discovered a large lake with three, rocky islands in its center. On each of these islands rested a small, 3 inch, iron box. Deciding this to be something they could check in to later, they decided to check out some of the surrounding caverns. First walking the circumfrance of the lake, they learned it was fed by a shallow, underground stream. They headed to the northeast into another series of caverns where they found one with a large pile of useless, leather armor. Suddenly a scream filled the room and Aztalan, Vinarath, and Patimus froze in fear. I disembodied head came flying out of the darkness, with tentacles writhing about it. Spencer instantly recognized this as a Vargouille. The Vargouille went instantly for the helpless Aztalan. Vinarath used his autohypnosis ability to over come the fear that possesed him and tried to stop the creature, only to miss. Just as the Vargouille was about to strike Aztalan, Relic swung his axe down, cleaving the thing in two. They had once again nearly escaped what seemed like certain death. The party moved a little further north where they found a small statue of a mermaid. Relic recognized this thing as magical and so Aztalan focused in on the power of the statue. It seemed this thing was embued to protect the room from evil. The party decided this would be a good place to rest for the night....
DolArrah 12-03-04, 09:06 PM	I love this campain. It is so original. How do you think of this? You should, if these are your original ideas, send something to WoTC. Keep it coming, it is great. Thanks. Peace, Dol Arrah
Rinna 12-04-04, 12:39 AM	Great campaign! Might use one of these characters in my own campaign, if you didn't mind. They're rather amusing. I like hearing about their adventures. Makes me want to write about our current campaign, although it's not in Eberron. I got yards and yards of notes on their adventures. Maybe one day I'll write it all out. You should write your campaign in story format. Great job! Rinna
sh0 12-04-04, 12:53 AM	I play Relic in this campaign. BuddyLee has done an excellent job integrating Freeport into the Eberron world, placing it in the islands north of Xen'drik. I know he is influenced and brings in ideas from many sources, including a popular 80's teen adventure movie.
Shimura 12-09-04, 10:20 AM	What an excellent campaign; can't wait till the next update next week. I want to hear more of Relic's mighty hewing... I love the adventure ideas, it beautifully original and sounds excellent fun. It sounds like your group is having excellent fun. Now of course the temptation is to copy you and write up my groups adventures...
BuddyL33 12-09-04, 12:37 PM	I am about four days behind, but I will get the session from this past Saturday posted sometime today/this evening. Stay tuned!
fredramsey 12-10-04, 11:16 AM	Good use of the Lost City of Barakus. Great module. ;)
DolArrah 12-10-04, 04:33 PM	Do you make these up as you go, or do you have a written adventure? If it is the latter, please post it. I would love to see it. Peace, Dol Arrah
BuddyL33 12-10-04, 05:10 PM	It really depends on my level of time. Since I work a lot and play in 2 other games, my story writing time is limited. So what I often do is take a module or modules, pull things from them, re-arrange things, and so on, so as to: 1. Disguise them as best possible so my players don't get the urge to peek! (Thanks fredramsey) 2. I want to give them a feel and flair for my campaign. Everything up until the point where the party went to Zilargo was my own doing. A lot of it inspired by "The Goonies" in case you didn't pick up on that part. In the case of the ruins of Paluur Draal, I pulled heavily from the Barakus module, since it was a "ruined city" module it was easy to make fit. Though I have made it way more Eberronish. However I had to find a module that fit my overall idea for a campaign, which in turn has been pulled from several other modules. In the end it's more of a frankenstien's monster of modules (60%) and my own stuff (40%), put together to make something I hope will turn out to be epic. So far the players really haven't a clue as to what they have stumbled on to. Not sure if any of you have either (like I said, it is module inspired). If you figure it out, please don't post it (feel free to PM me) as I am enjoying the level of surprise I have been able to maintain. I Promise notes from last weeks session tonight, since the next session is tomorrow!
sh0 12-10-04, 10:19 PM	...
DolArrah 12-11-04, 07:52 AM	I am sorry if I sound. . . rude but where is Session #7? Sorry, but you promised. If you are to busy, thats cool. So you have been doing this for 7 weeks. Cool. Peace, Dol Arrah
BuddyL33 12-12-04, 03:50 PM	Ok, so I dropped the ball on my promises for getting timely updates out on this campaign. So here it is, a mega-update covering the last two sessions. Session 9 will be next Sunday. After that the group will be on a two week break, due to the holidays. Enjoy! Sessions 7 & 8 Relic: Warforged Fighter2/Artificer2 Padimus Karee: Tiefling Wizard3 Vinarath: Kalashtar Soulknife4 Aztalan: Aasimar Cleric3 who worships the Dragon Above Spencer: Human Fighter1/Ranger2 After camping out in the large cave with the underground lake, the party had a quick debate on where to head next. They discussed swimming up the river that fed the large lake, or heading south out of the cave to areas they thought they hadn't explored. Dry land won over, so the party headed south, lead by Spencer. They passages to the south were a maze, sloping upwards. After carefully negotiation they came up a couple of ratlike men, that appeared to be guarding the the passage ahead of them. Relic gripped his axe tightly as he wanted nothing more than to eliminate these fleshies. Aztalan, however, thought he could attempt to talk with these new creatures. He introduced himself and his order and asked the ratmen to please let the party pass. The ratmen stood their ground firmly though appeared very skiddish. Aztalan continued to try and communicate, slowly inching forward. At this point the ratmen had enough of this and fled into the dark passages. The party gave chase but quickly lost their quarry in the maze of passages. They zig-zagged through the tunnels when they were suddenly ambushed by a large group of ratmen. One of the ratmen began casting spells, to the astonishment of the party. Relic quickly waded in, splaying ratmen guts about the walls and spencer shot crossbow bolts in to the fray. Patimus, fond of magic involving fire, used his burning hands spells to finish off the remaining creatures. The group took what they could from these dead creatures and then moved on. The group wandered in circles a bit before ending back up in the room with the large lake. Vinarath did his best to document their progress on parchment, but his maps were crude at best. The group decided there was another passage to the south they hadn't gone down yet so proceeded in that direction. They wandered into a room filled with sarcophagi. Patimus instantly recognized the writings as orcish. These writings depicted the works of a great orcish king and his accomplishments. Spencer rummaged through the sarcophagi in search of something salvagable, instead finding a false bottom in one of the coffins. Upon removing the false bottom a staircase descending into the darkness was revealed. After some quick discussion, the group decided down was the way to go. They descended some 200 feet into the darkness below before coming to a small, unlit room, with but a single passage heading out of it. They followed the passage to a dead end, where Aztalan pushed on the wall, revealing a way out. The group was now in an immense hallway, lined with polished pieces of metal. These pieces were shiney enough, as to give of a dull, distorted reflection. At each end of this lit hallway, were sets of double, oaken doors. The party headed south first and opened the set of double doors. Inside was an incredible sight. A large room filled with some 25 or 30 mausoleums. Deciding to check the other direction, the second set of double doors were opened. This revealed another large room, that had 4 large statues of heads, surrounding a large, red diamond, painted on the floor. Neither room provided a clear cut choice, so back to the mausoleum room they headed. Upon entering this massive room, a ghoul was spotted roaming about the room. Aztalan confronted the undead creature, turning it from him with the power of his faith. The ghoul fled into the maze of masoleums, and the party spent several minutes searching for the undead, before they finally found it crouching in a dark corner, where they releaved it from it's undeath. Back to the head statue room they headed. Heading through a door in the north side of the room, a small passage led the group to a shrine dedicated to Bolderi. A strange language was inscribed on the walls. Patimus was able to make out the words "Behold, Might, & Master." Even more disturbing, was that the walls and floors of this shrine were smeared with dried blood, along with several, headless corpses, splayed about the floor. Searching the walls a secret tunnel was discovered. Relic headed in, discovering a small ante-chamber. Hanging on the wall in front of him was a greataxe with a black haft, the blade smeared with dried blood. He touched the weapon and instantly felt the presence of magic, due to his artificer abilities. Removing the axe from its home, he slung it across his back and headed back into the shrine where the rest of the party waited anxiously. The party returned to the statue room and proceeded east where they found a series of small rooms. In each of these rooms were workbenches, with remains of intricate tools lying about. Patimus began digging through the trash of one room, when a monsterous scorpion attacked. Narrowly dodging the scorpions tale, Patimus unleashed his flame, burning the vermin badly. Vinarath and Relic rushed to his aid, finishing of the nasty, before it could strike again. Heading out of this room, they came upon a larger room, whose walls were painted purple, although much of the paint was either chipped or pealing. Standing in this room was five goblins. The party began communicating with the goblins in their crude tongue. The goblin that appeared to be the leader of the small group, accussed the party of being allies to someone named Grezzo. The group denied the accusations the the goblins wouldn't have it. The goblins were not going to budge. Relic had enough, and quickly laid waste to the majority of the goblins, while the rest of the party cleaned up behind the mighty warforged. Leaving through a door in the east, the group found a room, where a large sinkhole dominated the center of the room. Shining the lantern down it only seemed to drop about five feet, so it was decided that Vinarath would explore head. Crouching in the narrow passage, Vinarath inched forward to a small cavern. Out of the darkness a large weasel lunged and bit into his flesh. Vinarath screamed out in pain and the rest of the group, sans Aztalan, dropped into the passage. Vinarath swung is psyonic blade, biting into the flesh of this creature, but it fought on with firceness, latching onto him with it's next bite. Relic, realizing his companion was in danger, moved in to help. Vinarath luckily freed himself and finshed the vermin off before it could do him more harm. Climbing back out of the sinkhole, the group headed north, through a secret passageway they had found after several minutes of searching. While walking down this new tunnel, they heard mad screams of, "Forgive them, they did not know what they did." The group moved forward to investigate, discovering a large room, dominated by a three tiered ziggaraut in the center. Atop this ziggaraut was a bearded man that Aztalan identified as a worshiper of the Silver Flame. The bearded man continued to shout about his innocent friends and motioned to the suits of armor, laid out before him, like a group of fallen soldiers, all while waving his longbow about. Aztalan walked forward begging for the man to come down and talk. Relic watched on carefully noticing the strange man begin to draw his bowstring back. Relic let an arrow fly in hopes of stopping the man before he harmed Aztalan. His shot flew wide and the strange man let an arrow fly with amazing speed. His shot was true, sinking deep into the chest of Aztalan. The bearded man quickly reloaded and fired again, landing another shot into the shoulder of the party's cleric, Aztalan. Realizing he was in grave danger, Aztaln retreated back to the safety of the group, while Vinarath, Spenser, and Relic closed on the Ziggaraut. Relic began climbing up, while Vinarath and Spenser circled around. Their crazed opponent dropped his bow, drew a mighty greatsowrd, and screamed out, "You can't have them!". He lept from the ziggaraut and was quickly blocked by Relic. The crazed man and Relic engaged in hand to hand combat, sword vs axe. Blows were exchanged and although moderately damged, relic managed to drop his foe. The man lay dying on the floor and Vinarath strolled up, driving his psyonic weapon deep into the heart of the dying man, squelching the final bits of life from him. Relic removed the bracers this strange man wore after noticing their magical energy and placed them in his pack. The group searched the surrounding chambers, discovering one room with the remains of several humanoids and their gear and another room that held what seemed to be the remains of the soldier of the Sivler Flame. These included a silver pendant in the shape of the symbol of the Silver Flame. Aztalan pocketed this, perhaps in hope of discovering the identity of their strange foe. In their searching, Spenser found another secret passage. Upon opening this door, they discovered the skeleton of a hobgoblin on the floor. Stepping over the remains they wound through the passage to a small room, where several zombified hobgoblins lunged forward at them. Relic removed the head of one, while Aztalan held the rest at bay with his turning ability. The rest of the party waded in, and mercilessly destroyed the undead. Continuing on they came to a room with an incredible pool in the middle. Patimus scanned the writings on the wall and informed the party that this pool was used in a ritual to the Keeper that could turn it's waters unholy. This disturbed the party and they decided to leave the room immediately. Retracing their steps they discovered that the zombies they had just slain, were once again moving about the room. This only disturbed them further. Using the same tactics as before, they once again finshed off the undead, this time Patimus and Spenser burning their corpses. After spending the night in the sinkhole room, the group decided that with their food supply dwindling, they needed to get out of here before they starved to death. Calling upon his magics, Patimus found several secret doors they had missed. One of these held a staircase leading upward. At the top they discovered an oaken door. Upon opening it water began to pour in and the room beyond lie filled with a mist that was so thick, they could not see through it. Patimus wandered into the mist and began feeling about when suddenly he felt his strength leave him. His pack suddenly became to heavy for him to move! He screamed out for help and the party quickly yanked him through the door and shut it. Patimus described the sensation and decided that the mist must have somehow drained his strength, which was now returning. This would not work the party decided, so they decided to try and find their way back out the way the came. After wandering through passages and caves for hours on end, the group finally made their way from the complex. Pulling the adamtine spike from his pack, Relic once again, felt the pull to return to the cave. This would have to wait though, until the rest of his group could restock on food. Weakness he thought to himself. The group wandered from Seawall Mountains back to Korranburg, only to find themselves on the tail end of a hurricane. The winds blowing at speeds of 125 mph brought the temperature and the party to it's knees. The group secured themselves to the ground and waited the storm out, running out of food in the process. The storm moved out after a couple of days and the party limped on with Spencer providing them with food. On the third day the made their way back into the city. Spending some ten days here the party stocked up on supplies, spells, and identified magical items. The bracers taken off the palidan of the Silver Flame, turned out to be in fact, cursed. While the provided the wearer with incredible physical enhancements, they also drove the wearer mad. Vinarath seemed to show no remorse in his judgement to finishe off the dying palidan and Relic stood by his side. The battleaxe Relic held was also imbued with powerful magics. Known as the Executioners blade this weapons blade was sharpend magically, giving it the keen edge enhancment, but like the braces was cursed. When used to kill the wielding would hear the screams of those it had killed before. These screams would continue even after combat was over, ultimately disturbing the ability for the user to rest. Relic loved the idea of being able to hear the screams of the fleshy victims, but of course didn't tell the party of this. However, he wasn't to fond that the screams would most likely disrupt his ability to cast his infusions. None-the-less, Relic decided to hang on to this unique weapon. Now fully stocked up, Patimus copying some spells out of the spellbook he had found, and Relic creating some potions and scrolls, the group headed back for the ruined city of Paluur Draal in the Seawall Mountains. It was now nearing the end of the month of Barrakus and the temperatures were dropping. The group made their way back into the caves and using Vinarath's map found their way back into what they felt was the city below. This time heading through the secret door they had not gone through they found their way into a large chamber. In this room were some 40 statues of kings and queens, most of which were in need of repair. Taking the path of least resistance, the group made their way through the ajar door to the east. This lead to a wide hallway, which inturn lead to an intersection of equal size. To the north lie a massive cave in that was insurpassable. To the east, another cave in, though it looked like they could negotiate their way through. Finally to the south lay a choice of two passages. One leading to the SE, the other to the SW. Southwest was the choice and the party moved down this narrow hallway. After travelling some 60 ft, several of the group noticed an ebony skinned, white haired humanoid, crouched at the end of the hallway. The creature fired a bolt from it's hand crossbow, and Vinarath returned fire with his soul knife killing the creature instantly. The party had no idea they had stumbled upon a deadly fow, the Drow. Pushing on they found another one of these and quickly killed it as well, only suffiering some light wounds. While searching the bodies, Relic opened a door to the east. Beyond it, four more of these creatures stood, much to his surprise. One of them lashed out with magical energy, quickly sapping the strength from the mighty warforged. Patimus was first into the room, taking cover behind a wall. The rest of the party flowed in behind him, missing with their ranged attacks. Aztalan took two crossbow bolts to the chest, though his immune system fought off the effects of something coursing through his veins. Patimus threw a grease spell at the feet of the spell caster who slipped and fell to the ground. Relic was quickly upon her but now felt his heavy axe, awkward in his hands, missed with his mighty blows. Two of the drow warriors were quickly dispatched, though another appeard from the party's rear, attacking Aztalan and Spenser. The drow spellcaster rose to her feat and began casting again, all while dodging the blows of Relic. This time the magic consumed Spenser and he fell to the floor in a deep slumber. Aztalan would have to act quickly, before his foe finished off Spenser. He swung his morning star wildly and was able to connect with a killing blow. Meanwhile, Vinarath was engaged with the other drow and finding this one to be a bit more elusive, only able to land one blow. Relic finally landed his axe killing the wicked spellcaster. The loan drow rolled around the room quickly, dodging Patimus's wand of burning hands several times. He closed on Paitmus to stop the spellcaster, but Vinarath arrived in the nick of time, finishing of the creature before he was able to drive his rapier through the heart of the party's wizard, Patimus. What were these strange creatures and how had they arrived in this ancient city. They weren't goblinoid, human, or gnomish. Who were they and how had they come to arrive here, in what the party was sure were the ruins of Paluur Draal?
Hardware Jedi 12-12-04, 07:37 PM	What a great adventure! :clap: :clap: :clap: This would make a great TV series! One that I would never miss and would have to own the DVD's when they were released. Keep the sessions coming!!! :thumbsup:
BuddyL33 01-04-05, 09:45 PM	Wow, it's been a long time since I have posted to this thread. In that, I offer my apologies. Work and the holidays have caused turmoil in the time I usually spend here. With that said, here we go. Sessions 9 & 10 Relic: Warforged Fighter2/Artificer2 Padimus Karee: Tiefling Wizard3 Vinarath: Kalashtar Soulknife4 Aztalan: Aasimar Cleric3 who worships the Dragon Above Spencer: Human Fighter1/Ranger2/Rogue1 Having defeated the dark skinned creatures, and looting their corpses, the party decided to investigate a door to the south. They passed beyond the door where before them lay a hallway and yet another door. Moving cautiously down the hallway the opened the second door. Far different from rooms they had been in before, this large room was covered floor to ceiling with thick spider webs. The floor littered with with skulls and other bones. Only a small path through the center of the room was free of spider webs. Out of the corner of his eye, Vinarath noticed a strange creature, sort of a large spider with human arms. Immediately it began casting causing the remainder of the room to fill with sticky webs, trapping the party. Death would certainly follow. Patimus, however, had other ideas in mind. Calling upon his inate, racial ability to engulf his body in flame at will, he frees himself from the webbing while the fire he produced began to quickly engulf the remaining webs. Vinarath and Relic also freed themselves and began hacking at the webs, slowly making progress forward, towards the monster. Meanwhile the spider creature began hurling balls of magical energy at the entrapped heroes as patimus watched his fire work forward. In half a minute the flames had burned the webs completely and the party engaged the creature in hand to hand combat. Vinarath was bit, but his body was able to fight of the poisonous venom delivered into his system. Now in melee combat, the party's fighters, Vinarath and Relic made short work of the monster. When the smoke cleared a staircase, spiraling into the darkness below, lay before them. Patimus instantly knew he wanted to descend but was quickly over-ruled by the party, as they wanted to look over the rest of this level, just in case. Much to his disapproval, Patimus returned with the party back to where the passage forked, this time heading Southeast. In travelling down this long hallway the group was unaware they were being watched by the half-orc Garrick. Garrick watch closely as the party marched by, then quickly ran down the passage to alert his brother Braam. The party entered a small room where Garrick and Braam began firing arrows at them from secure positions behind arrows slits. Thinking quickly, Spenser and Aztalan moved to cover the slits with their shields. Patimus moved in alongside, blasting the arrow slits with his wand of burning hands. The brothers by this time and moved out of the way, deciding to attack hand to hand. Sliding the secret passage asside, Patimus quickly realized he was in trouble since he was standing where the half-orc brothers emereged. Braam landed a nasty blow on Patimus with his great axe, opening up a nasty wound in the wizards chest. The party moved in to aid their wizard, and aid they did as the steel of their weapons quickly finshed off the half-orc duo. Searching the secret room the party scraped together some silver and a few trinkets. Trying to decide where they had been and where they hadn't been the party backtracked to a large hallway they had been in before but had never travelled to the East. Heading East in this massive, 20-foot wide hallway, they moved forward to discover a massive cave in. Huge amounts of rock and debris, filled the way in front of them. Sounds of digging and pick axes could be heard and as they pondered as to the nature of these sounds, several Goblins appear from behind the rubble to learn what the clanking of armor was coming from the hall. Led my their leader, a goblin named Kissel, the goblins warned the party to turn back. Patimus stepped forward, alerting the goblins that there would be no turning back, and if they did not obey him they would be destroyed. Kissel assured Patimus that it is he that would die, ordering his troops forward. Kissel quickly targeted Relic with a Ray of Enfeeblement spell, sapping the strength from the mighty warforged. None-the-less, Relic charged in removing the heads from the goblins while Patimus used his magic to finish the goblin necromancer. Wounded in the goblin skirmish the party decided they needed to rest, and a large set of iron doors to their south looked like just the place to go through in order to achieve that. Spenser moved in to pick the lock while the party looked on over his shoulder. The door, however, had been enchanted with powerful magic, unleashed a lightning bolt into the group. Several members lept out of the way, but all were struck by the powerful stroke of electricity. Spenser, now in worse shape decided to drink of of the healing potions purchased from the strange Captain Spooky of Freeport. As he guzzled the liquid, he was suprised to see that instead of his wounds closing up he began growing in size! Now easily over 10 ft tall, Spenser dwarged even Relic. Deciding to take one more shot at the door, he touched it and no lighting blost came forth. Deciding it now to be safe he set in on the lock, this time taking all the time in the world. Not realizing his mistake until it was too late, Spenser was again struck by lightning halfway through his effort. Now near unconciousness, he wouldn't have anything more to do with these massive doors. The party agreed and helped Spenser limp back to a safer place to rest and heal up for the night. Sleep was rough as strange sounds plagued the party throughout the night. In the morning Aztalan tended to the wounded before setting out for this day's adventure. Looking over their maps the group wandered back to an area near where they entered this section of dungeon, in which they had marked the wall where the magic of the wizard Patimus, had determined their to be a hidden door. Pushing the piece of masonry aside the group moved into a hallway where Vinarath and Aztalan instantly noticed arrow slits, lining the wall. Relying on their previous tactics with arrow slits, the holes were covered with shields and Relic, while Patimus blasted his wand of burning hands through a hole. A scream was let out then silence. Relic made short work of the locked door in front of him as he swung his mighty greataxe through the wood, tearing the door from its hinges. This time another room, again filled with arrow slits greeted the group. Arrows began firing upon them and again the party's arrow slit tactic was put to work. Relic, was determined to hack through this next door so he would kill the nasty little goblins that were causing the group so much trouble. He again burst through this door to find several goblins behind it. The party charged in behind him to assist, but it was too late, Relic had killed them all. Ahead of the group to the south were to massive, iron doors, one of which was partially ajar. Sounds of many voices could be heard from behind them so Vinarath threw open the doors anxiously, to see what was behind them. To his and the party's suprise some 25 to 30 goblins occupied this massive room. Relic's eyes glowed with bloodlust as he charged into the room. The goblins used swarming tactics in attemp to overwhelm the warforged, as well as Patimus and Vinarath. Several goblins lept on Patimus taking him to the ground. This would surely be the end of the Tiefling wizard. It would indeed be the end, but not for Patimus Karee. Calling once again on his racial abilities, he engulfed his body in flame, catching his goblin captors completely off guard. The flames were far too much for the little creatures and their smoldering corpses fell from his body as he stood to his feet. Relic dusted the vermin from his hide and then removed them from this world with his great axe. Aztalan assisted with his mace, and Vinarath answered with his mindblade. The goblin army was soon decimated along with their priestly leader, Grezzo. The group waded through the filth and garbage that filled the room to investigate what they had stumbled upon. Three large diases adorned the room, each with an 8 foot high metal post that reached towards the huge, 30 foot tall ceiling. Atop the metal posts were black spheres measuring 9 inches in diameter. In each post, the party members discovered a depression, each one a different shape; a circle, a triangle, and a rectangle. The center of the room was dominated by a large, red, metal plate. In the center of this plate was a depression, the size and shape of a great sword. Patimus scanned some writing along one of the walls. Using his skill of deciphering scripts of all kind, he was able to learn the message this ancient form of common held. The passage read: Take that which is not there Follow the warm way Say thee the prayer And the sword is yours He commited the passage to parchment and the party pressed on through the next set of double doors which lead to a wide hallway and another set of double doors. Yet another massive room lay behind these doors. More of the strange script adorned the walls of this room, as well as the facing wall of the building that dominated it's center. Patimus set to work, trying to decipher the ancient common tongue and did so with great success. The passages adoring the outer walls of the room spoke of a great wizard named Devron who thrived among Paluur Draal for fifty years until there was a great falling out and he became "one who does not die". According to the wall tableau, for his heinous crime, Devron was imprissoned, "deep beneath Paluur Draal." The tableau goes on to describe how the key to the prison was hidden beneath the "three islands" and that a key was given to the high priest of each island should a "champion ever be chosen." Turning his attention to the wall facing the group he again read the ancient common passage. This one appearing to be a riddle of sorts, it read: Pass now if though art a guardian strong Pass now if though art a keeper of the sword Pass now if though art a warrior fearless For he who waits fears nothing and knows only death Pass now if though speakest the word that all men wish to know Not knowing the answer, Vinarath grew impatient and moved past the building to the double doors on the other side. In doing so he was struck by poison tipped darts, and fell into a 10 foot deep, spiked pit. Focusing his mind on fighting the poison, Vinarath was able to ward off it's effects and he pulled him self from the pit with only minor wounds. The fall, apparently jarring something in his mind, Vinarath strode back to the wall and spoke the word "fearless". Instantly a doorway appeared in the wall, where one had not been before. Inside a large pedastal stood and on it was a small, circular stone. Patimus strode inside and removed the stone from its resting place. Taking it back to the room before them he placed it in the stone indention, matching the circle. The black sphere, coming to life with a burning light. It seemed to the party that they would have to collect these strange pieces in order to assemble some sort of puzzle. Pushing back through the doors were Vinarath had fallen into the pit, the party strode into an odd shaped room guarded by a small contingent of orcs. The orcs laid in wait while Relic had chopped at the door and immediately charged forward only to be met with quick doom. Noticing a cavernous passage to their left, they decided to move out of the masoned halls and into this strange, new passage. Their everbright lantern's light, reflecting off of the magnificant, rainbow-like crystals, that adorned all surfaces. Circumventing the passages they came upon a large cavern filled to the brim with orcs. Easly over a dozen the party may have met it's match. Several of the orcs charged forward and engaged the party head on, their falchions biting deep into the flesh of many of the members. Patimus once again used his genius and called forth a web spell, fllling much of the room with sticky strands, trapping much of the orc army. The remaining orcs were finshed of and then the real slaughter began. Patimus explaned to Relic how he would enchant him so he could wade through the webs while the goblins lay trapped helplessly. The warforged's eyes gleamed with desire as Patimus laid the Spider Climb enchantment upon him. We waded in ending the meaningless lives of the trapped goblins, ignoring their agonizing and fearfull screems. Patimus decided it safe to dismess the web spell and in doing so, freed a truely powerful foe, the orc Thraad. Thraad gave out a whistle and his Dire Wolf companion came rushing forward, following the command to attack the warforged, Relic. Relic was quickly overwhelmed by the duo of Thraad and Fang and was forced to retreat just before fang was able to deal the killing blow. Vinarath was next into the fray. He was no match for the powerful Fang as he was ripped from his feat and quickly found himself at deaths door. He tumbled to his feet and rolled away as Fang nipped at his heals. Blood gushing from his massive wounds, Vinarath retreaded behind Relic. Patimus attacked with his magics and Spencer with his crossbow. Aztalan waded in with his mace and he too was quickly overcome by Fang. Before Thraad could deliver a killing blow, Aztalan got of a Hold Person spell, stopping the orc in his tracks long enough for Aztalan to escape. Patimus and Spencer finally finshed off Fang and Aztalan using a command spell, told Thrall to flee. Relic, who had been repairing himself with artificer infusions, took the opening and charged after Thraal, killing him with a final blow from his greataxe. The party now severely wounded found themselves in an unknown cavern, not knowing if they would be make it out of this one alive....
DolArrah 01-05-05, 07:24 AM	What Tieflings do you use? They are really powerful. I never heard of one that cpuld turn their body into flame. What powers does the AAsimar have? Or is he a regular one out of the MM? This is a really good campain! Keep up the good work, Dol Arrah
BuddyL33 01-05-05, 10:10 AM	Glad you like it still. It loses some excitement in the translation to the boards, especially when typing on it for hours! :) To answer your question, I use your standard Tiefling and Aasimar for that matter. I have, however, allowed the players access to a book called "Aasimar & Tiefling: Guidebook To the Planetouched", which is part of Green Ronin's "Races of Renown" series. The character of Patimus actually used two feat slots to gain the ability he has. The first feat, which I can't remember the name, basically allows the planetouched character access to further racial feats. The second feat he took is one called "Unleash Vulcan's Heart." At the expense of 1 temporarty Cha point a round, Patimus can engulf his body in flame. These flames do 1d6 points of damage and can be negated by a reflex save. Patimus has a relatively low Charisma of 9 I believe, so this is something he uses sparingly, though very dramatically. Click Here (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1932442138/qid=1104937328/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/104-2333515-9707933?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) for a link to the book referenced above.
DolArrah 01-06-05, 08:10 PM	By the way, I have copied and pasted your adventures into Microsoft Word. You have 20 full pages of it!!!! :clap: :clap: :love: :bow: :twitch: Good Job Peace, Dol Arrah
BuddyL33 01-06-05, 09:35 PM	I can only imagine how long it would be if I were more detailed! What I write is a very condensed version.
greatmonkey 01-08-05, 01:22 PM	I too am enjoying the tales of your party's adventures. Do, keep them coming. Oh, and :bump:
Lord Psynister 01-09-05, 09:16 AM	Some of the items you've mentioned sounded quite interresting (the axe in particular). Can I bother you to post the details for some of the magical weapons/items you're using?
DolArrah 01-09-05, 01:13 PM	Can you post what monsters you are using? Thx
KathyNoland 01-10-05, 03:42 AM	I only want to tell you that I think yours its a really interesting campain and I want to know more about it! :)
BuddyL33 01-10-05, 11:31 AM	Some of the items you've mentioned sounded quite interresting (the axe in particular). Can I bother you to post the details for some of the magical weapons/items you're using? In all honesty most of the magic items the party has are rather mundane ones. The axe you speak of is more unique. It is designed to be a cursed item, however, due to Relic's nature, has been kept even after being correctly identified. The axe is a +2 keen battleaxe known as "The Executioner's Blade". It was used to commit many exections after the fall of the city. The moment the user begins wielding the axe in combat he hears the cries of the souls who's lives were ended by the blade. The voices call out and cry for mercy in a most horendous manner. If you use the axe to kill once, the voices will subside after three days; if the axe is used to kill twice the voices last for three weeks; if the axe is used three times, the cries do not subside for a year. As a result of being tormented by the voices, the wielder cannot cleep, rest, memorize or pray for spells. A heal, remove curse, atonement, wish, or miracle will stop the voices, but only if the axe is never used again. Since Relic is a warforged he requires no sleep or rest. His only bane is he is an artificer and the axe would prevent him from obtaining his spells. Yet he still hangs on to the axe! Sick bastard isn't he? :)
BuddyL33 01-10-05, 12:05 PM	Session 11 Relic: Warforged Fighter2/Artificer2 Padimus Karee: Tiefling Wizard4 Vinarath: Kalashtar Soulknife4 Aztalan: Aasimar Cleric4 who worships the Dragon Above Spencer: Human Fighter1/Ranger2/Rogue1 The session began with our party in the cave where they had just slaughtered a small tribe of orcs. Wounds were heavy and they would need to rest. Shining the everbright lantern around, the connecting caverens seemed free of monsters, and one seemed to be stocked full of tin boxes. They would return to this once they were healed up. The party moved back to one of the previous rooms and barred up the doors so they could have peaceful rest. Rest was anything but that. While no monsters attacked, rubble would shift, releasing large amounts of dust and dirt from the ceiling. Also various moans and voices could be heard throughout the days and nights. During several watches, Vinarath and Aztalan discovered some bodies that weren't orc. One was an elf and the other human, which was quite puzzling. Both were long dead, and had been picked clean, except for a back of bow strings which Spenser took. After camping for two days in here, the party counted up their rations and determined they can survive 5 more days in here before they run out of food. Of course if worse came to worse they could always ask Aztalan to use his abilities to create it. Moving back to the cave with the pile of tin boxes they set to work opening them all. In all they found about 245gp worth of coin, mostly copper, a golden statue of a maiden with a lamb and a silvered suit of chainmail still on it's owner, an elven skeleton of the dead variety. Also a +3 mighty composite long bow was hanging on a nail on the wall, so it too was taken, as a spare could always be handy thought Spenser. The group decided to continue through the cavernous passages, rather than return to the buildings of the city. They came to a door, which after Spenser determined was safe, opened and proceeded through. In the small room beyond were two orc sentries. The orcs attempted to escape, but Relic and Spenser finished them quickly. Heading through the only door in this room, which appeared to once again be part of the underground city, the wound through the passageway untill they reached a strange sight. Before them was a rather empty room, occupied only with a large stone pillar in the center, covered in cryptic writings. Patimus, being the party's linguist, moved in to investigate. Upon reaching the pillar it crackled to life with electricity and unleashed a bolt at him. Fortunately for Patimus, his Tiefling heritage allowed him to take the bolt without any harm. He backed off and instructed the party to do the same. Deciding to look at the door to the east they found an extremely long hallway with three alcoves in it and a door at the end. Spenser instructed the party to stay put and set to searching the alcoves for clues. In doing so he found secret compartments in each alcove. The first contained a red and blue button, the second and yellow and red button, and the third and green and red button. After short discussion the party decided it best to press all the buttons that weren't red. Upon doing so a faint hum began emitting from the strange pillar, so they returned to investigate. This time the pillar did not release it's energies. Aztalan was sure the red buttons were needed as well so he, Relic, and Spenser went to press them, while Vinarath and Patimus observed the pillar. Upon pressing the buttons both Vinarath and Patimus were hit with bolts of electricity and quickly the other buttons were pressed once again. Spencer moved and and searched the pillar, but to no avail. There was nothing he could find, so the party decided to press on and passed the pillar off as some sort of city defense. Proceeding down the long hallway they opened the door where they were greeted, in a not so friendly manner, by two hobgoblins. One hobgoblin wore a red headband, while the other a blue one. Both immediatle fled in opposite directions at the sign of the party, but didn't have a chance to get there, as they were killed instantly. Aztalan commented how he was beginning to notice various monster ecologies in this city and wondered how they were co-existing? Who was friend and who was foe, and more importantly, why were they still here? They moved through the door infront of them again finding two hobgoblins, again one with a blue headband and the other with a red one. Again both hobgoblins tried to flee. The blue one was cut down, but this time, the red one made it through a door. Shouts were also hear from the kitchen in front of them and four more hobgoblins in red headbands attacked with their longswords. Vinarath attempted to bring down the fleeing hobgoblin, but wasn't able to. He did see that the hobgoblin was warning others and that one of those hobgoblins appeared to be going to get even more help! Vinarath shouted that the party was going to have company, and battle was on. With the hobgoblin numbers steadily increasing from the alarm the party fought hard. Relic, ending the lives of several, and both Aztalan and Patimus releasing spells into their foes. Patimus cleverly unleashed a grease spell in front of one of the doors, causing several of the hobgoblins to fall prone, as well as prevent reinforcements from entering, for a few short seconds. With most of the hobgoblins finshed off, a nasty looking bugbear with a red headband charged into the room wielding a spiked chain. He lashed out with it at Vinarath, ripping him from his feet. This was the last attack he got as spell and sword were unleashed upon him and he was quickly finished. The party, only lightly wounded, tried their luck through the other door. This time met by a handful of hobgoblins wearing blue headbands. In similar fashion one fled for help, while the rest stayed to defend. Relic charged into the room inbetween to hobgoblins, preparing to fell them with his mighty greataxe, his taste for flesh not complete. The hobgoblins, were not intimidated, however, and together thrust their longsowrds into relic, bringing him to his knees in a disabled state. The party realizing that their mighty warforged companion was now near death, fought hard and pushed back the hobgoblin defenders. Also entering the combat with hobgoblin reenforcements was a bugbear in a blue headband, weilding a greatclub. This bugbear set in on Vinarath and began clubbing him like a baby seal. Vinarath, realizing his danger, retreated into the halway where he could be aided by the party. Aztalan called out to the Dragon Above and was able to stop the bugbear in his tracks with a hold person spell. Seizing this opportunity, Spenser walked up to the mighty creature and thurst is sword into its gut, ending the bugbears life in a spray of blood and gore. The party again wounded heavily decided to hold up in one of these rooms and rest, so they could repair and heal. Now down to four days of food, and Relic repaired to about 75% the pressed on through southern door which lead to a short hall and another door. Spenser moved in to determine if this door was trapped. Luckily he did, as he determined that if the door were opened, some sort of magic would be unleashed on the party. Without the proper skills to disable this trap, the party discussed what they should do. Do we go through this door and release it's magic they asked? Or perhaps head back to the west and use Patimus's magics to get us through some doors we couldn't get through before....
sh0 01-10-05, 02:32 PM	Since Relic is a warforged he requires no sleep or rest. His only bane is he is an artificer and the axe would prevent him from obtaining his spells. Yet he still hangs on to the axe! Sick bastard isn't he? :) Bwaahahahahahha! sh0 a.k.a. Relic in this campaign
BuddyL33 01-15-05, 07:09 PM	Session 12 Relic: Warforged Fighter2/Artificer2 Padimus Karee: Tiefling Wizard4 Vinarath: Kalashtar Soulknife4 Aztalan: Aasimar Cleric4 who worships the Dragon Above Spencer: Human Fighter1/Ranger2/Rogue1 Trying to decide what to do about this door, the party rested so they could recover their spells and try at it again in the morning. The night went by peacefully save for a few sounds echoing through the halls of the ancient city. Patimus first cast a knock spell on the trapped door, releasing the locking mechanism holding it shut. He quickly followed that up with an open/close spell, which released three bolts of magical energy. Patiums ducked around a corner but the magic missiles followed spashing into is chest and nearly killing him. Aztaln rushed to his Tiefling companion's side and quickly healed the damage dealt with his divine magic. Pressing forward, the party walked into a large room, whose centerpiece, was a large, ivory sarcophagus resting on a stone dias. Using his magic, Patimus sensed a faint, magical aura coming from withing the ivory tomb. Aiding each other, Relic, Vinarath, and Aztalan, lifted the lid of the ancient sarcophagus. Inside a small ivory box rested. They didn't have time to enjoy their find, as another wall slid open and a mummy lumberd forward from it's place of rest. Aztalan knew this thing was undead but what kind he hadn't a clue. He sensed it's strength and tried to counter it with his turning ability. His power was not mighty enough for this powerful foe. Instantly the mummy turned on the cleric, slamming into him with his fists. Aztalan felt several ribs give way as the incredible strength of the mummy came down upon him. Patimus unleashed a grease spell at the mummies feet, causing the mummy to fall to the ground. Patimus grinned as his tactic had worked yet again. The party surrounded the fallen mummy and began to strike at it. Having a difficult time getting their weapons through the wrappings the party regrouped to make another assault. Vinarath stayed in, determine to defeat the creature of undeath. The mummy pummeled Vinarath with his fists breaking the young Kalashtar's ribs with each blow. Seeing their comrad in trouble the party waded back and and Patimus unleashed more of his magic missiles on the mummy, finally reducing the creature to a pule of dust. Vinarath slumped to the floor in a cold sweat, scratching at his skin as it began to sluf off. He screamed out in agony over his injuries. Aztallan rushed to the Kalashtar's side and began applying his healing magics to Vinarath. For some reason whatever it was that was hurting Vinarath was resisting Patimus's magic. Deciding that Vinarath must have contracted some viscious disease, Aztalan decided to use the scroll of Remove Disease that he had found earlier in their adventuring. Once again he sensed a resistence from the disease and the party instantly knew their friend was in deep trouble. It was obvious if they didn't get back to Korranburg quickly, Vinarath would perish from this malody. Exiting the ruined city in haste the party spilled out in to the warm sunlight of the Seawall Mountains. They pressed West through the Zilargo countryside in hopes of reaching civilization soon. The party moved unopposed through the forest and arrived in Korranburg some two days later. Thanks to the efforts of Aztalan, the disease affecting Vinarath hadn't seem to progress in their journey. Immediately the party sought out a House Jorasco healing enclave. Aztalan rushed inside and pleaded for help from the halfling attendents. The House Jorasco halfing applied his magics to Vinarath but again the Mummy Rot resisted them. The halfling shook his head and rushed to the back. Returning a few minutes later, the halfing told the party they were fortunate, as a senior leiutenant of the house had stopped through to inspect the business and should be able to remove the disease for a mere 350 gold pieces. The group ponied up the funds for their friend and the halfling set to work removing the supernatural disease from the Kalashtar. Vinarath emerged a few hours later, battered and disfigured from the disease, but he was alive. The group decided to stay in the city for a few days while Patimus worked on the creation of a Hat of Disguise. Meanwhile magical items were identified and treasure was taken to the market to be sold for some much needed funds. Now fully healed and completly stocked up on equipment, the party once again set out for the ruins of Paluur Draal. The weather was pleasant andn they enjoyed their journey back as they soon knew they would once again be underground in the dismal, stone architecture. Using the map that Vinarath had been keeping, the party descended into the depths of the city, returning to the large, iron doors that had previously unleashed lightning bolts when touched. Patimus was prepared this time, however. He cast his knock spell, hearing the massive locking mechanism release. He then followed up with an Open/Close spell swinging one of the huge, iron doors open to reveal another set of huge iron doors. It seemed Patimus wasn't as prepared as he had though. It was late in the day, so the group decided to camp against part of a wall that had caved in. The next morning Patimus set out to complete what he had started. This time using the same spell combination to open the second set of doors. Beyone lay a massive hall, filled with pillars. At the back of the hall a large cone, streched fifteen feet into the air, with a steep staircase ascending it's northern face. Atop the cone was a magnificant mace. Flanking each side of the cone was a pair of flesh golems. Patimus instantly recognized the guardians for what they were, warning the party that they may be in over their head. Aztalan scanned the room from the entrance, trying to determine the nature of it, and was able to make out holy markings of the Goddess Arawai. Deciding it best to return to this room later, the party made their way through the tunnels back to where they had fought the mummy. Passing through the western door in this room, the party found a familiar sight. Another ivory sarcophogus adorned the center of this room. Vinarath began to sweat at the thought of having to face another mummy. Moving forward the party looked about nervously. The decided to lay in wait while Relic moved in to remove the lid of the ivory sarcophogus. Sliding the lid aside Relic turned to see where the mummy would be coming from. A wall slid open and sure enough, a mummy emerged. this one wearing a cerimonial Karnnathy Deathmask. Patimus was ready this time, letting lose a scorching ray and burning the mummy with his magic. Aztalan followed, cursing the mummy for his crimes against nature, and striking down upon him with a deific vengeance spell. Relic then moved in to strike with his axe, but slipped and was unable to hit. It was not matter, spencer landed a blow and Aztalan and Patimus finshed off the undead with a one two spell combination. Spencer searched the sarcophagus finding a wand of cure moderate wounds. They group rejoiced at their find. They searched through the doors in this room. To the north a room filled with some 100 vases. Spencer dug through them finding a key in a five foot tall vase. Through the southern door, a staircase, spiraled into the darkness below. The group decided it was time to head down and see what lay below them, but for just a bit. The group descended down into the depths of worked stone. From underneath the staircase, a troglodyte in chainmal armor and weilding a greatsword, lept out from under the staircase. Screaming wildly, he launched an attack on the party. Aztalan, tired from his day of adventuring, used his magic to gain control over the creature's mind and hold him in place, while Relic and Spenser finished it. Should the group stay down here and search for the Lich they were certain was down here, or should the ascend the stairs and continue looking about the massive level above? The discussion began on where to go next....
DolArrah 01-23-05, 11:34 AM	I love all the description!!!!!!!!!!!!! Could you please wrte those in a story format? It is great.
Ascariat 01-23-05, 02:46 PM	I loved the story and it seems like your character are having a lot of fun. Keep it coming!
collinf 01-23-05, 06:50 PM	Mr. GM: Since at least one person here would like to see the adventure updates in a narrative form, how about sending me your next update and I will try to put some narrative to it. I can then send it back to you for any editing and you can then post it. Sound okay? collinf (a.k.a. Spenser) :cool:
BuddyL33 01-23-05, 11:36 PM	Mr player, you have 12 sessions of notes to start with. You could even write it from Spensers point of view.
collinf 01-28-05, 02:46 PM	Here is a recap of Sessions 2 and 3 from the POV of the character Spenser: Silver: Greetings from your lover, former chef of the Sunrunner. As you can tell now, I am no longer a hired hand aboard that marvelous vessel. Or perhaps, “hired ladle” would be more appropriate, since I was plying my trade as the galley chef. The good Captain Syrtis had seen fit to make me feel like a regular part of the crew. Tis not always an easy task being indentured to an elf, but considering where I grew up, it does not bother me in the least. The sea motion on the other hand . . . well, let us just say I have managed to keep my cookies down, as have most of the crew. Some of our recent guests had not been as fortunate. Believe me, it has not been my cooking, and you know this to be true. I will elaborate . . . We put into dock at Freeport a few days ago. The good captain wished to hire some mercenaries to retrieve a barrel of great importance to her. These are the guests I mentioned above, but they prefer to be called “adventurers”, or some such nonsense. No bother. What is in a name, after all? Dragons above and you all know that I have worn many titles in my life already. To be my age and still looking for my trade in life is an oddity and somewhat disconcerting to be sure, but I digress. So, we took aboard our lovely vessel Mr Padimus Kree, an odd, demonic-looking sort of fellow I am not sure how to describe; Aztalan, a gentle and charming soul, who amazes me he has managed to make it as an adventurer given such a nice and friendly demeanor; Vinarath, a warrior after my own heart (perhaps literally); Relic, a war-forged combatant, no less. I thought I had seen the last of his kind when the war ended. Of the four, Relic is the one whom I seem to have found a kindred spirit in the ways of combat. Perhaps he has a similar past to my own. Do you remember that big bruiser half-orc thug I used to hang around with? Relic shares at least some of his values, and the bastard’s good in a fight. The strong, silent type, although Relic is perhaps not as anti-social as our half-orc friend. I think they might be brothers. More for another time. In any case, we five were chosen by Captain Syrtis to retrieve this barrel of importance and bring it to her for a bounty. A simple task you might surmise, but not at all. Upon leaving Freeport, we embarked on our quest to find the barrel and were set upon a tropical island the likes of which I have been fortunate to see more of recently since signing on with Captain Syrtis. We ventured out to find this object of Syrtis’ obsession, but found little except grass, trees, and mountains. A cave was our first sign of anything remotely promising, and after finding some 3-toed tracks leading inside, the group decided to venture in. I know what you are thinking: not the sharpest cleavers in the kitchen. As you (and I) soon learn, this is an apparent common tactic of this rag-tag group. You might think that I, being the experienced military veteran from the Great War and probably the eldest one of the group, would be given the role of leader/decision-maker. Not on your life, babe. Just wait, there is more of this to come. Once inside the cave, we heard strange noises from outside, like war cries of some kind. Some goblinoid-like creatures began to try and ensnare us with nets. The group of fivemade short work of them. Ahhh, just like the old days! We then decided to bed down for the night and continue on our quest in the morning. Upon sunrise, we set out again and found a series of caves in the mountainside. Several dead bodies were strewn at the entrance to a cave entrance (I’m sorry, sweetheart. You know how messy my jobs can get at times, and not just the cooking ones). Of course, curiosity dictated that we investigate. Even I am prone to periods of inquisitiveness. Relic and I charged forth and discovered a rust-monster had taken up residence here. Not the happiest day in Relic’s life, I have no doubt. The monster wasted no time in seeking out its prey (Relic) and went after the hulking machine-man like a fly to sugar (I’ll keep it clean as best I can). The remaining four of us waded into the creature as best we could. The beast finally succumbed to our onslaught, a second testament to the fighting abilities of our rag-tag group, if nothing else. Relic took sufficient damage that I thought we might lose him. Nevertheless, he managed to promptly repair himself, a facet of the war-forged that I had forgotten. We then searched this particular cave and found a fissure at the back of it. We had come this far, why not continue on? Unfortunately, as you may have noted, this group of mates is somewhat headstrong. Our man of the holy order, Aztalan, managed to bring a nice pile of rocks down on top of him by setting off a trap as we tried to venture further into the mountain. If he would have died, it would have saved us the trouble of a burial, but without a priest. Score one for the rocks. After all of this excitement, we decided it was time for a siesta. After our rest, we pressed on through the narrow tunnel until we came to a ledge. Beyond was a chasm but containing pillars set apart at various distances. Beneath about 40 feet or so was pool of water with what some of our party described as a reptile of some sort, crocodile, alligator, or something of that nature. Too difficult for me to see in the dark, but not for some of our merry band. Speaking of which, guess what happened next while were trying to figure out how to cross this chasm with the pillars to the otherside? That’s right: somebody grew impatient in our group and decided to strike out ahead. This time it was Padimus. He leapt out onto the first column and suddenly they started moving up and down. Reminded me of some sort of carnival pipe organ I saw once in Sharn. Of course for any of us to move out onto any of the pillars now would be even more hazardous. Padimus, however, did not seem to see it this way. While Relic and I try to shoot the elusive croc with our arrows and bolts, the devilish mage begins trying to finish his movement forward by leaping onto other moving pillars. Our attempts to shoot the moving reptile down in the water were futile and it immediately sought out its next meal: Padimus. He had encased himself in darkness, which of course prevented the rest of us from seeing him or being able to shoot the croc. What fools these adventurers be. At this point, Vinarath took action and leapt into the water, finishing off the beast with his natural ability. (I believe he is what is referred to as a Soulknife. I’ve never seen one before so I was quite amazed, as you can imagine.) Vinarath seems to have more the personality of my old half-orc buddy, which is to say, when in doubt, just kill it. I suppose that philosophy works for some people. I just wonder how many dawns a person will see if they continue down that path. Luckily, Padimus was not eaten, nor did he drown. If there is one thing I can say for this group, they are truly blessed by lady luck. Whether that is fate smiling or something our holy avenger Aztalan is responsible for is anyone’s guess. So now, the rest of us climb down into the murky water, make our way across, and manage to climb up on the other side with some difficulty. Reminded me of the time Dolby was trying to light a fire by rubbing sticks together for several minutes and Balder walked up with a tindertwig: full blaze in seconds. Anyway, after all of this excitement, the group thought it best to take another rest once we reached the ledge on the other side. Wimps. One nice advantage with having Relic on this excursion is that he does not require sleep, so the rest of us could catch some winks while he remained on constant vigil. He certainly is a handy man – uh, machine – uh, thing to have around. Pressing on. We continued on through the cavern until we heard some noises, the kind that sounded to me like tools or cutlery being used or sharpened. The noise stopped suddenly, and so Relic and I prepared for some kind of attack. What came next was a bit of a surprise to us both. Silver, do you remember those lizardmen I told you about back in ‘82? Well, this thing was twice as big, bad, and ugly. It was time to throw down, so we did. The bugger hit Relic a good one. Padimus and Aztalan, our spell-throwers, started letting the sparks fly. The thing did quite a number on our group, including yours truly. You know me, I try to pick the right fight, and then I give it everything I got. Unfortunately, the big, bad lizardman gave it even more. I’ll spare you the gory details and just say we all made it, except for the lizardman, may he rot in the abyss. Relic dealt him quite a blow, proving he is worth more in gold to our party than he weighs. At this point, we were all pretty well spent and took a breather. Okay, so now we continue to move on and have to climb another cliff. We managed to get up and were moving along fine, not even bothering the large centipedes, when – oh, yes, I forgot to mention the vermin, but really they were no bigger than our two great danes . . . standing nose to tail . . . each. At this point, Vinarath was attacked by something from behind. It turns out, it was an undead creature, and you know how I feel about the undead! Scum who belong in the deepest bowels ofEberron. Send them all back to the grave from whence they came! They’re vile creatures of evil who deserve utter decimation (not to mention what they do to property values in some cities). Okay, I’ll get off my soapbox here. However, Relic and I had our hands full with the giant vermin, so it was up to our holy man, Aztalan, to take on the ghostly monster. He nearly bought the farm, but prevailed in the end, sending the shadowy fiend screaming back through the caves. At this point we continued on with some minor difficulty which I won’t bore you with. It ended up with Relic tripping a trap that sent some large boulders rolling our way. Again, a favorite tactic of our merry group is to let our war-forged buddy plod ahead and set off any traps laid for curious treasure-hunters like ourselves. Takes me back to those days in the military again. We lost so many scouts that way. Fodder for the enemies machinations. A pox upon them all. But I digress again. We saw an opportunity to escape through some holes up ahead, so without having to think twice, we dove forward, and rode down some water rivulets into a large lake in a very large cavern. At this point I think we had all forgotten just what we were doing here in the first place when we saw a sailing vessel anchored up ahead. We agreed to all approach the ship and get a better look, as it sounded familiar to me from something Captain Syrtis had said. The ship was in need of some repair and replenishing to say the least, starting with what appeared to be its dead crew strewn about the deck. Padimus led us down into the bowels of the ship, all of us ready to face whatever we might find. Best to let the little guy go first, you know. What we found is something for the great tomes in the Sharn library. I thought I had seen it all up till then, but would you believe a dead pirate captain with a war-forged pirate standing guard? Relic seemed to be having some trouble dealing with the situation. I was just hoping to find some hooch so I could get drunk and chalk this up to some kind of delirium. This war-forged pirate was named Gypsy – I’m not kidding. Guess what was also in the room? That barrel we had been searching for since we arrived on the island. Gypsy and Relic entered into a dialogue that had me tense. I thought we were going to have to go at it, but cooler heads and conversation prevailed. I wasn’t worried so much for myself, or even Relic, as he seemed to have things fairly well in hand. The other members of our merry band, however, had me nervous considering the impetuousness that had been the norm up to that point. Gypsy gave us instructions on how to blow a hole in the cavern, raise the sails, and low and behold, we were sailing out of that Dragon-forsaken hole into the great outdoors. Sunlight at last! It takes so little to make me happy! We were not far from the Sunrunner, so Gypsy steered the old hulk to that beautiful sleek ship and we turned the barrel over to Captain Syrtis, bless her mercenary heart. We sailed back to Freeport and put in for the night. Syrtis is gone and I am relieved of my agreement with her. Yes, honey, that’s right, I am unemployed again. Gypsy has agreed to sail us to another destination, so I since I have nothing better to do, I have decided to hang on with these adventurers (mercenaries) for now. I am a journeyman, afterall. Might as well live the part. We’ve decided to stay here a day or two and then set out with Gypsy as part of his crew. He wants to continue an honest life – er, existence – as a merchant. I say, good for him/her/it. We did make a killing with gold that we found in the dead pirate captain’s cabin, among other things, so all in all, I’d say we made out pretty well. I will write to you again after we have gotten to our next destination. Please tell Uncle Dalen that I will write him next time. I know it’s been quite a while since he has gotten a letter from me. Don’t forget to feed the dogs. Your most faithful and lonesome lover, Spenser
BuddyL33 01-29-05, 09:12 PM	Session 13 Relic: Warforged Fighter2/Artificer2 Padimus Karee: Tiefling Wizard4 Vinarath: Kalashtar Soulknife5 Aztalan: Aasimar Cleric4 who worships the Dragon Above Spencer: Human Fighter1/Ranger2/Rogue1 Deciding that they had better finish exploring the level above the group decided to climb back up the spiral staircase they had just descended. This level would have to wait. After climbing what seemed like hundreds of steps the group focused to the West. Ahead of them lie a long, stone bridge whose surface was convex. It extended out into the darkness of a large cavern, well beyond the light of Relic's Everbright lantern. Shining the lantern down they were able to make out the cavern floor some 40 feet below. Deciding it was important that they find out what was on the other side of this massive span, the headed across. About half way across a large spider emerged from the underside of the bridge. The vermin focused it's attacks on the rear of the party. Aztalan stood his ground and clubbed at the creature with his morningstar, landing a wicked blow. Just as the creature was about to strike, Vinarath lept in front of Aztalan taking the blow for him. Vinaraths strong fortitude was able to fight off the effects of the poison coursing through his veins. Aztalan and Vinarath continued to attack the creature untill finishing it off where it fell to the cavern floor below. Moving the rest of the way across the bridge the adventurers found themselves in a massive hall filled with pillars and a ceiling that vaulted into the darkness. After spending an hour rumaging about this room the found an exit to the North. Carefully studying the map that Vinarath was keeping, it was decided this direction would lead them to the door that had the large boulder placed in front of it. No one thought to question why someone had placed a large boulder in front of a door, but they would soon find out! The northern passage led them to a series of paths heading in almost every direction. This would prove very difficult to map but they pressed on deciding to head East. The halls were littered with broken spear heads, filth, dried blood, feces, and bones. Obvicously Orcs were living here somewhere many of them thought. Rounding a corner they came upon a score of dead orcs as well as a dead Minotaur. This really caught them by surprise. Why was a Minotaur here? At least it was dead they thought. The continued navigating the mazelike passages when suddenly they found themselves surrounded. Down a hallway to their left a Minotaur emerged, however, this one was very much alive. Another one emerged to the party's right. The Minotaur's charged in, horns lowered. Relic's eyes gleamed with blood thirst as the Minotaur closed in on him. It struck him with a nasty blow, but Relic stood tall. He began swinging his axe in a mad frenzy, making quick work of the man-bull. The other Minotaur was brought down by Spenser, Aztalan, and Patimus, while Vinarath floated in between the two engagements. They party's woulds were not light after this encounter and it was obvious they were going to need to rest and soon. They decided to hold up in what appeared to be the Minotaur's bunk room. Sleeping through a restful night the party decided to continue exploring the maze like passages. Heading further west they encoutered a strange, bird-like creature guarding yet another staircase. Patimus quickly warned the party that this was a Cockatrice and the party should be carefull as it's bite could turn them to stone. Relic, certain nothing could harm him strode forward and smashed the bird to bits. Deciding it best to stay on this level the group headed to the South through a set of iron, double doors. In this room was a single door, and above it, written in draconic, were the words "Vershaw, Kazip, & Florn." Patimus and Vinarath, knowing the language, commited these words to memory and moved on. This doorway led to yet more passageways leading in every direction. What was different about these passage ways was that every so often there were 20' x 20' squares of orange set into the floor. The group passed over several of these when finally, Patimus stepped on to one and said the word Vershaw and vanished from sight. The party shocked began to call out for their Teifling wizard. Vinarath stepped on and said Vershaw and he too vanished. Vinarath found himself in a hallway and just some 40 feet away was Patimus. The two got together on another square and together chanted the words. This time Patimus vanished from sight but Vinarath did not. Vinarath said the word Vershaw and once again found himself down the hall from Patimus. This time, however, a ghoul was closing in on him. Quickly Vinarath shouted the word Kazip and appeared in the room where he had firt read the draconic words. Patimus seeing Vinarath vanish called out the word Florn and he too vanished from sight. Meanwhile, Vinarath ran forward to catch up to the party and tell them what happened. The group scoured the halls for Patimus but he could not be found. Meanwhile, Patimus found himself in a strange room without orange squares in the floor. Instead there were 13 scrawled pictures of a rock. His surroundings unrecognizable, Patimus moved north through a doorway. He found himself in a large cavern. Before him two massive trunks filled with what had to be thousands of gold coins. Patimus's eyes gleamed at the possibilies this gold offered. The research he could conduct, the components he could buy. This money could help fund is dream to purchase a sea going vessel. He moved towards the gold not noticing the giant crouched in the shadows behind it. Just as he was about to touch the coins, the giant stood up, towering over Patimus by 6 or 7 feet. Patimus froze as the giant raised a rock to smash Patimus like a bug. Patimus braced for the killing blow that never came. The giant just stood their with the rock above his head eyeing the Tiefling. Patimus backed off and cautiously made for the exit he had used to enter the room. Deciding to try to the South, Patimus headed through a series of rooms before coming upon a Halfling wearing just a tunic. Hanging on the walls were bedsheets that have been covered in a hasty scrawl describing the inevitable demise of the halfling race to to a chronic shortness of breath. Patimus asked the Halfling for assistance in getting out of this place. The halfling frowned and told Patimus the halfling race, along with all other races, including Patimus, were doomed. He explaned to Patimus that there was nothing he could do, and that the Tiefling might as well accept his fate. Patimus, deciding he didn't have time to wait around for his impending doom. He headed through the doorway to the south and came upon a room in which lay a dead Troglodyte, dressed in chainmail. He recognized this creature as the one they had fought the day before. His eyes lit up with excitement. If he could just remember the way back to the party he could lead them back here to recover the gold from the giant! Focusing on his mental map of the city, Patimus navigated the tunnels and passageways untill he ran into his comrades. The group, now re-united, was excited to hear Patimus's tales of the giant and his gold. Patimus began lobbying for the party to following back down. He insured them that their power was enough to overcome the giant that lurked below. After much debate, the group decided to follow Patimus's lead and headed into the level below. Retracing his steps, Patimus lead the group past the pesamistic, halfling prophet, and into the cavern that held the giant. The whole time Spenser vocalized that he didn't think the group should be down here and perhaps they should just go back to Korranberg and sip some warm cider. The group organized a plan and moved in to corner the giant. Again the giant stood and held his rock about his head. Vinarath approached and this time the giant let the rock loose as Vinarath dove for the ground. Patimus now realized he may have made a mistake, as this giant didn't appear to be the Hill Giants he had learned about in wizard school. In fact this was a Stone Giant and had every intent of defending it's treasure hoarde. It began by smashing Vinarath with it's huge club and then Spenser. It soon followed by dropping Relic to his knees. While the party was landing blows on the massive humanoid, their blows paled in comparison to the damage he was unleashing upon them. It appeared the group was going to meet it's maker in this dark cavern. Relic back on his feet thanks to the divine magics of Aztalan retreated to a corner where he could begin infusing himself and his weapons for a last stand with the giant. The giant closed in on Patimus, but the Tiefling wizard thought quickly and ignited his body in flame and unleased the power of his wand of burning hands simeltaneously on the giant. Not liking being burned, giant backed off from the wizard. This was the opening Vinarath and Relic was looking for. Spenser surely would have joined the fight, had he not been laying motionless on the cavern floor. Aztalan surmounted that their ranger friend would survive for now and charged in behind the two fighters. Vinarath would strike with his psionic weapon and then recieve a blow from the giant. Aztlan in turn would use the power of his wand of cure light wounds on Vinarath to reverse the injuries. This process continued for what seemed like an eternity, when suddenly the giant fell. Just in time too, as the wand that Aztalan was using to sustain Vinarath, crumbled in his hands as it's magics were spent. Aztalan, using the last of his magics, brought Spenser back to conciousness. There the party sat in shambles. There injuries quite severe and not knowing what to do next. Strange sounds filled the air around them as they pondered their next move....
Lord Psynister 01-30-05, 09:26 AM	Not to nitpick here, but... Since Relic is a warforged he requires no sleep or rest. His only bane is he is an artificer and the axe would prevent him from obtaining his spells. Yet he still hangs on to the axe! Wouldn't that have stopped him from... Relic back on his feet thanks to the divine magics of Aztalan retreated to a corner where he could begin infusing himself and his weapons for a last stand with the giant. ;)
BuddyL33 01-30-05, 06:49 PM	if the axe is used to kill twice the voices last for three weeks; if the axe is used three times, the cries do not subside for a year. As a result of being tormented by the voices, the wielder cannot cleep, rest, memorize or pray for spells. Nitpick away, but before doing so I suggest you read everything carefully. As noted in the above passage the wielder of the Executioner's Blade has to kill with the axe. Relic has yet to do this. He has only continued to carry the axe on his person.
collinf 02-02-05, 02:08 PM	Recap of Sessions 4 and 5 from Spenser's point of view: Uncle Dalen, I know I haven’t written to you in quite a while, so I thought I would correct that oversight by sending you this letter and updating you on what I have been doing. Hopefully Silver has kept you informed on my travels. You have no doubt heard from Silver that I have been sailing the high seas on the Sunrunner, under the command of Captain Syrtis, for the past several months as ship’s cook. I was finally given a task that was better suited to my past training in aiding some hired mercenaries (calling themselves ‘adventurers’) in retrieving a precious artifact for the dear lady captain. That mission completed, we then sailed back to Freeport. I will here on relate to you what happened after that perilous adventure. We docked in Freeport for a short time. My new companions (since I had decided at this point to throw my lot in with them) set out to resupply their needs. One place of note that we came to was inhabited by a strange gentleman who went by the name ‘Captain Spooky’. A curious fellow, to be sure. We ran into a bit of bad weather, and so we ended up remaining in Freeport for about a week. Once the weather had cleared, we gathered our provisions and climbed aboard our newfound friend’s vessel, the Gallivard. Silver hopefully has relayed to you our encounter with the war-forged pirate, Gypsy. He is now captain of the vessel we found him in and proclaims to no longer be a pirate. We shall see. At any rate, flying under the banner of Freeport, we set sail once again. I, of course, am quite used to traveling by rough waters but my new comrades are still trying to get their sea-legs, as the saying goes. We set out for Khorvaire and I settled back into my old role as ship’s cook for a time. It was a rough go, but we managed to pull into dock in Korranburg roughly a month later. I should mention here that our direction was determined by some kind of mysterious divining device, which looks by all appearances to be an adamantine spike. It pointed us to the northwest, so that is the direction we headed. Along the way, we had a passenger by the name of Grundar who seemed to have a difficult time of remaining on board. He managed to get back aboard each time he fell off the deck, though. Lucky bastard. I’m not sure if you are familiar with Korranburg, Uncle, but it is located along the southern coastline in Zilargo. Yes, that’s right, Zilargo. I have not had much exposure to gnomes in my travels, and last I knew you have not had any, so this was bound to be anything but dull. Unfortunately, none of us had proper identification on our persons, so we were shuttled off to the House Sivis and got what we needed. The adamantine spike seemed to be pointing us in a northeasterly direction from the city. We set out in that direction and came across a decent establishment called The King’s Inn to bed down, as we had experienced quite an exhausting day. We soon began to ask around as to what lay beyond Korranburg to the northeast. It turns out that an old city which now lay in ruin called Paluur Draal was about a 2 day’s journey in that direction. Curious. We decided to wait until dawn to set out for this place. While partaking of The King’s Inn’s finery, we met an entertainer there by the name of Curly Barns. Nice chap. I can’t say the same for the next fellows whom we met. I accidentally bumped into a halfling. Although I have generally found the little folk to be kind and good-natured, this little twerp had a foul temper and fouler looks to match. I won’t go into what his breath was like. He made some threatening remarks and showed me he meant business by giving a good look at his dagger. You can imagine how scared I was. Just to show the little punk I was a good sport, I ordered a round of fresh goat’s milk for him and his three buddies. They didn’t seem to take kindly to the drinks, though. Imagine that. The little fellow made some declaration at that point about “You’ll get yours!’. Thinking maybe at this point I should relieve myself on the obnoxious runt, and then deciding it would only befoul the tavern, I gave him a wave of my hand and dismissed him. The next morning while we were asking around for information about that old ruined city to the north, we learned that a young gnome from the House of Sivis had been missing for some time. Distressing though this was, the good news was that the family was offering a 500 gold reward for his return or whereabouts. Seeing an opportunity to do good and raise some cash, we all decided to forego our interest in Paluur Draal and assist the Sivis family in search of their boy. The priest Azatalan was particularly keen on this idea. Nice guy. Oddly enough, this rich gnomish young man was last seen roaming around in the slum area of Korranburg. This investigation led us to the Temple of Dol Arrah, which seemed to be involved in some kind of mission work with the poor folk from the slums. We headed over to the church and managed to gain an audience with the high priestess, Elan Kantro. You can imagine how I felt being back in a church, but I hold no lingering feelings of regret. It was the right decision for me, as we both know. In talking with Kantro, we learned that her church had managed to cut the poor homeless population by quite a bit, giving them various chores to do and providing shelter. You can imagine how happy the local government was about that. After leaving the Dol Arrah temple, we encountered a fellow named Beamus Jarasco. It seems Beamus had been doing some investigating of his own and relayed to us that not all was right with the Dol Arrah church. Why am I not surprised. Next followed a discussion about us possibly breaking into the temple at night and having a look-see of our own. We returned to the Inn and found a city guard waiting to meet with us. Over dinner, the guard told us he was a friend of Charlie Sivis (the missing boy) and that coincidently he had heard some strange sounds and screams coming from a house on a hill in town known as the Pulanti house. He thought the screams belonged to Charlie, but this was not substantiated or investigated by any other member of the guard. Curiouser and curiouser. Our bard entertainer arrived for his evening set and gave us the low-down on that obnoxious halfling and his traveling companions. It seems they were talking about going to the ruins of Paluur Draal as we had been. And get this – the halfing’s name was Zero Strangelevine. Tis a label most becoming to the little bastard. Well Uncle, we decided to forego the temple in favor of checking out that Pulanti mansion that evening. On first glance (and second for that matter), it was not all one thought it was cracked up to be. It was in need of some severe gardening and landscaping to start with. I decided to scale the 10-foot wall and entered the grounds in order to get a better look around. My companions took a more direct route – they rang the bell at the front gate. Sure enough, a butler came sauntering out of the house and presented himself to the new arrivals at the gate door. From what I could overhear, he seemed to answer questioning with a very non-emotional demeanor and voice. I would later discover this so-called gentleman was more than he appeared – or perhaps, he was exactly as he appeared. Although he seemed right for the part in an ugly sort of way, the butler Gaston was but the first of interestingly foul encounters to occur that night. I made my way back over the wall not having found much other than very little light coming from within the house. Upon hooking up with the rest of the group, our friend Aztalan informed us that Gaston the butler was in fact a ghoul. There go the property values. So now, we were in a quandary. What should we do? Investigate the house? Check out the temple? Set out for the ruins? Well, Vinarath, a member of our party, decided for us by going over the gate and up the main walk to the front door. This was but the first of many such actions to follow with my new companions whereby all reason, thought, and discussion is reduced to one idiot taking action which could very likely get him, and perhaps all of us, killed. You’ll see what I mean as I continue to relay my adventures. We arrive at the front door and enter, weapons at the ready. Sitting on a stool in a corner of the foyer was our old buddy Gaston, like a cover boy for Harper’s Bizarre. He hopped up and made for a set of double-doors, but Vinarath threw a mind-blade (he’s a Soul-blade, or something like that, in case you were wondering) at the creature with the retarded tailor. Our war-forged buddy, Relic, closed the distance and finished the task by cutting the ghoul in half with his axe. We looked through all of the doors from the foyer and decided to head down the hallway on the left. The kitchen was in need of quite a bit of cleaning, as was the rest of the house. Definitely a fixer-upper ; a money-trap if there every was one. We found a staircase and tip-toed cautiously down to the basement. Downstairs we found what appeared to be quite a nice wine cellar. I decided to check out the vintage but found it to be lacking. It was blood! What manner of evil resided in this house? The next moment, Aztalan found a secret passage. Now we were all in agreement: we must press on and see what lay ahead. What we found next took me back to horrors I saw on the battlefield during the Great War. A chamber with a young man who hung from the ceiling, splayed open, coagulated blood having flowed from his wounds into a pool below. I am nauseous just recalling the sight. Some rather large vermin were scurrying about so we quickly dispatched the not-so-little beasts. A door opened that we had not previously seen, and out came another hideous undead spawn. You know how I am when it comes to the undead. The Aasimar priest isn’t too keen on them, either. Relic charged the creature just as another of its kin (literally) emerged from another secret door. These vampires (as that is what Aztalan confirmed them to be) looked very much like a couple of portraits we saw in the foyer upstairs. I believe we’ve found the Pulanti’s! A family of gnome vampires. Only in Zilargo. Padimus, chased one of the vampires into its coffin and set it ablaze with some fire magic. Can you guess what happened next? Another member of the vampire family arrived – little daddy. He looked p.o.’d! Daddy Pulanti started carrying on about his children. Yeah, whatever. Aztalan tried to rebuke this vampire, too, but no such luck this time. He just laughed. I have to admit, a hideous gnome vampire with that kind of laugh sent some chills up and down my back. And then, as if life wasn’t becoming difficult enough, momma vampire appeared on the scene. This time, Aztalan came through and managed to turn Mrs. Pulanti from us. Padimus then took it upon himself to chase after the fleeing creature. So Mr. Pulanti decides to protect his beloved and lays into Padimus, trying to rip him a new one. We fought the Pulanti family in a battle of good vs. evil that could have ended either way, but we managed to prevail in the end. One of the family managed to get away, but we were just thankful to have the fight done with. We surveyed our situation and our first order of business was taking down the filleted gnome body in the main room. I thought it best to return him to his family forthwith, as they were still no doubt gravely worried about his outcome. I did not relish the idea of presenting him to them in his current state, so I decided to drop off at the local mortician’s place of business and put everything in order before going to House Sivis to inform them of what had happened to their boy, Charlie. I was not present when my comrades continued investigating the Pulanti estate, but from what I hear, they ran into a pair of ogres. Undead ogres, no less. Aztalan managed to dispatch them even moreso than he had to the vampire spawn. We met back up at The King’s Inn and I presented the 500 gp reward that the Sivis family had given us. We had a decision to make now: where do we go next? The adamantine rod still was pulling us towards the ruins of Paluur Draal, and Curly Barns the bard had informed us that the inhospitable four milk-drinkers had already set out in that direction. My companions, fearing we might get beaten to some goodies, decided we should head straight for the ruins. I left my horse Trigger at the Inn, since most of the rest of the group did not have a mount, and we set out on foot. Ahhh, to be in the great wide open again! We passed a few sites of little interest. By the second day, we found a marble fountain with some interesting characteristics. Dead bodies and blood around it, for one. Vinarath turned over a fresh dead body from the base of the fountain and it was an elf maid, apparently speared to death. What happened next was most strange. A squirrel came up and took a drink from the fountain. Its eyes grew red and it actually started to attack us. I of course would normally have tried to reason with it, but it appeared quite wild and in a feverish homicidal state. Relic, big war-forged that he is, decided not to take any chances and killed the furry critter outright. We decided not to linger, but perhaps return later to the fountain, and went on to the ruins of Paluur Draal. I shall end my letter there, Uncle Dalen, as I am sure you are quite exhausted at this point from reading about our exploits. I will keep Silver informed about the happenings and goings-on here in Zilargo. I promise to right you again soon. My best to you and good health. Sincerely your loving nephew, Spenser
collinf 02-16-05, 03:34 PM	Another letter from Spenser, recreating the events from sessions 6-8 in his own words. :cool: Dear Silver: It’s your great big piece of loving again. I hope things are well with you. I wrote to Uncle Dalen last time. I hope he shared with you the information in the letter I sent him. When I left off writing my uncle, my new comrades and I had arrived in the region of Zilargo in the rather large city of Korranburg. After a couple days of adventure and intrigue, we had decided to set out for the ruins of Paluur Draal – some old city located in the mountains northeast of Korranburg. Information we had obtained from a bard named Curly Barns and others told us that Paluur Draal had been home to just about anything and everything over the centuries. We could be walking into an interesting situation. Well, we came along the Seawall Mountains and headed upward. We found a series of caves, so naturally curiosity dictated that we have a closer look. That adamantine spike we had was sending us some kind of message that we were in the right place. We spent another day going topside, as I thought it might make more sense to start at the top and work my way down – kind of like when we play that little game you like. Anyway, we found some kind of crater opening at the top, and what looked like some gold at a 50-foot drop. Our righteous and courageous friend, Aztalan, volunteered to be lowered down to take a closer look. What he found at the bottom was a halfling’s (or gnome’s, or human’s) dream: gold, jewels, and one other little thing – a red dragon. Aztalan chose the better part of valor and we all were in agreement. Moving on. We came to one of those cave entrances, so we decided to check it out. It took some stooping, but we managed to make it inside. Not too far inside, we found a stream and a couple of the ugliest cave-dwellers I had ever seen doing some fishing. I remembered seeing some of these things once during scouting mission during the War. They were grimlocks. I think your ex-husband is one. They tend to be prejudicial to a point beyond any sort of reason. Sort of like your father. Anyway, as soon as they saw us, they took off. My old memories and instincts kicked in, as did my traveling companions’. Vinarath and Relic took off after them and cut them down quick. The rest of us joined our two companions and continued a little further into the cave. The next site was really something: four of those grimlocks were busy digging some kind of statue out of the ground. We tried to sneak past them, but Relic made some noise and then all hell broke loose. Next thing I know, we’re throwing down with these bad boys. Something made me want to say, “Get your stinkin’ paws off me, you damn, dirty ape!”, but before I could get the words out, all went black. I’m told Padimus saved my bacon, but I was out and unavailable for comment. Some more of those things met their end at the hands of my comrades, but ultimately, this was not the cave we were looking for. Thanks again to Aztalan for the save. You should probably consider sending him and Padimus something for saving my life. After a respite, we did find an entrance into the mountain that was a little more hospitable. Except for the ghoul we saw, crouching in the corner of this big deserted hall. Before I had a chance to end its miserable existence, Vinarath and Relic once again beat me to it. They certainly enjoy their work! A Soulknife and War-forged after my own heart. We found a lovely mosaic pattern on the floor of this great room, pointing north and east. We decided to go north, and soon encountered a rather unsociable orc and his two doggies. This fight lasted much shorter than the previous ones, and we cut these rascals down in no time. Next we headed east and came to a ledge that overlooked a huge underground cavern. So, we thought it best to just backtrack and try a different path. We went through some twisting tunnels and managed to trip off a couple of traps. Fortunately, we have Relic. He’s a big guy with target painted on him like none I have ever seen before. That body of his can sure take a lot of punishment. Still we kept on moving, trying to discover what this place was and what secrets it might hold. The next surprise to spring upon us was a net – on Relic and Vinarath, actually. We had finally come across some living beings. In this case, it was kobolds. Ugly little critters. They tried to turn us into shishkabob’s, but Relic once again made short work of the net and the kobolds. He is a veritable living, walking machination of death. I am grateful every time I see him at work that he is on our side. The next part was kind of weird in a sick sort of way, but effective. Relic made some good use of the dead kobolds, as we had detected more of the little nuisances nearby in a chamber. Aztalan really got into the act and played god. As if that was a big stretch for the clergy. The ploy seemed to work, though, and our mage Padimus was able to engage the kobolds in some conversation. I have to admit, I got a little thrill as the creatures bowed low and gave us their respect. I could get used to this god-thing. Maybe Aztalan is on to something. It turned out the little morons were of no help in telling us about Paluur Draal, but they at least agreed to help us get past their traps, which was a nice gesture on their part. Pressing on, we now found ourselves in that huge cavern I mentioned earlier, only this time, at ground level. There was a big lake in the center of this cavern with a few little islands in it. We walked the circumference of the lake and found a stream which fed it. Finding some more caverns, we decided to head off to the northeast. Boring, I know. As we progressed through this tunnel, we came across a pile of stuff which included some leather armor. The boredom then ended when we all heard a piercing scream throughout this area. What we saw next would freeze your blood. It did to Vinarath, Padimus, and Aztalan. We saw what looked like a disembodied head with tentacles dangling form it come flying at us from out of the darkness. Now there’s something you don’t see every day, I thought. I had head about these creatures before, but never seen one in person. It was a Vargouille, and it went flying straight for the petrified Aztalan. Vinarath managed to somehow shake himself out of his fear. And then, guess what. If you guessed, “Relic swung with his big axe and killed cleaved the nasty Vargouille in two”, you would be correct. I’m telling you, he is a lethal killing machine. I’d hate to tangle with him, that’s for sure. We next found a magical statue of a mermaid in this cave room, which Aztalan claimed would protect those within the immediate area from evil. Sounded good to me! We decided we’d had enough for one day and rested. When we got ready to move out the next day, we debated on which direction take: lake or cave tunnels. Dry seemed to win out over wet, so we headed south with me in the lead. I figured it was my turn. The passages were maze-like and we were concerned that this would be a good place to get lost. We soon came across some more ugly bipeds. This time, it was rat-men instead of kobolds. Yes, I wrote that right: rat-men. Relic wanted to do his thing again, but cooler heads prevailed and our friend to all, Aztalan, tried to make contact with these critters and get them to let us pass. They high-tailed it out of there, instead. I guess he was as weird and frightening to them as they were to us. But, to be on the safe side, we decided to pursue them and let Relic have his way with them. We found a big cave-room with a whole band of rat-men, and they were none too pleased to see us. We waded into them with everything we had. Our group managed to make short work of these hairy beasts, too, and so, we moved on. I won’t bore you with some the rest of our search throughout the big cave, but we finally stumbled upon a room with some coffins in them. Strange thing number 1: they were empty. Strange thing number 2: one of them had a false bottom that revealed a staircase underneath. So, Alice, into the rabbit hole we traveled. Down below, some help from Aztalan revealed a passage that led to a large hallway and even larger rooms beyond. We ended up in this immense mausoleum room. Knowing how much you love antiques, I couldn’t help thinking how much you might have wanted to check this place out. But, we were soon to find that it was not just a nice-looking old room. A ghoul came at us from out of a far corner of the room and seemed intent on a little snack. Aztalan, brave young cleric that he is, stepped forth and sent that ugly brute running off toot-sweet. Of course, you know me, I can’t let any undead just – well, “live”, so we chased after it. After going through a bit of a maze in this place, we found the ghoul and released its cursed soul from this plane of existence. At this point, we decided to continue exploring throughout what must be Paluur Draal, or at least part of it. We found some interesting goodies (a magical greataxe which Relic chose to claim) and some more nasties (like a giant scorpion, for one). I’ll spare you the details here – I know how you detest bugs, especially when they are bigger than our two dogs combined. Our next encounter in this not-so-deserted place was with a group of goblins. Tricky little devils. You have to keep your eyes on them at all times. Never know what they might try. This group, like most, was hard to reason with. They accused us of being in league with some guy named Grezzo. We denied it, of course, but they would not believe us. Just shows how liers can’t even believe others who do tell the truth. We had to kill them. Sorry, honey, but that’s they way it is out here. I am beginning to find my time with these new companions of mine very much like being back in the war. Maybe I’ve finally come home, in a sense. We continued on, having to send some more vermin to the great beyond. Our next encounter was quite strange. We entered a room where a Knight of the Silver Flame, no less, was ranting and raving about forgiving his fallen comrades who lay at his feet, or some such nonsense. He looked like a grade-A looney. See why I told you I left that gig? To be 18 years old and subjected to the Church’s doctrine for years is enough to drive anyone stark raving mad. This poor fellow must have been a grad student from the local abbey. At any rate, Aztalan, poor naive holy man that he is, tried reasoning with the S.O.B. and getting the man to come down off his ziggurat. He got an arrow in the chest for his effort from Mr. Crazy Knight. Vinarath, Relic, and I then sprang into action. They took a more frontal approach while I tried to circle and come at him from another angle. The nut-case then dropped his bow, shouted “You shan’t have them!”, drew a greatsword, and leapt off his pedestal. Relic was at the ready to meet him. They exchanged some swings, but our fine war-forged buddy managed to take flake down. Vinarath seemed to take the whole incident more personally and took the fallen knight out for good. Poor bastard. As a side note, I had not known Vinarath to be this blood-thirsty before. Impetuous – yes; head-strong – to be sure, but this was a side I as of yet had not seen of the Soulknife. We found some goodies in and around this area, but then pressed on. Another secret passage ended up bringing us face-to-face with some zombified hobgoblins. As if those bad boys weren’t ugly and disgusting enough, someone had to go and make them undead. Of course, we slew them with great vigor. This group of undead would not stay down, though. We left the room, came back, and discovered they were back up and ready for another fight. Reanimated undead. What could be worse? This time after we finished the buggers off, our friend Patimus and I made sure they would no longer rise by burning them to ashes. About this time, we realized we had had a full day and we were hungry. To complicate matters, we were short on food, so we decided to try and leave this city of horrors. That proved to be more of a challenge than getting there. It took some doing, but we made it out through the cave we had originally entered to get there, and headed on back to Korranburg. I managed to find some nice game along the way to feed the party. My culinary skills never go to waste, even out here in the wild. We did not stay long in Korranburg. Just long enough to restock our supplies and get some rest. We headed back to the Paluur Draal site as soon as we could, weather permitting. We found our way back to the cave entrance and into the complex once again. This time, however, we chose a different path. We eventually came to an intersection with a choice to make as to which direction to go. We chose the Southwest for no particular reason, and soon observed some kind of dark-skinned, white-haired humanoid. He/she seemed rather elf-like, but I may be wrong. This creature was not much for talk, but he did respond with a crossbow bolt firing at us. That seemed mighty inhospitable to us, so Vinarath in his infinite wisdom killed the sonuva*****. We continued on and kept stumbling upon these same dark humanoids, all with a penchant for wanting to skewer us. Another thing we learned about these foes is that they seem to have magical powers, for as soon as Aztalan and I entered the fray, I was put to sleep by one of them. I can’t say much about the rest of the fight other than we won and Aztalan saved my bacon. I owe him another one. I hope I can pay up one day. Well, I think that does it for now. If you have any ideas as to what these creatures are, honey, we would all welcome any information. As for the future, it looks like I will be sticking with these adventurers for a while longer until we can determine why that adamantine spike points us here and what other secrets does Paluur Draal hold? If I find any nice antiques, I’ll try to remember to send them back to you. Bye for now. Hugs and kisses, Spenser.
Ellipsis 02-16-05, 03:54 PM	I want to know how many campaigns have warforged named Relic! (not dissing anyone - I have a relic fighter/juggernaut munchkin with a net +10 bonus scimitar and a threat range of 12-20 in the party)
BuddyL33 02-17-05, 11:18 PM	I don't know. I never heard of any before my campaign, which I promise to update with the last three sessions tomorrow.
dante4242 02-23-05, 09:42 AM	Tomorrow was four days ago. Chop chop!!!
BuddyL33 02-23-05, 10:00 AM	Indeed, I do have the rather daunting task of posting notes from the last three or four campaign sessions. I am not looking forward to the pain!
collinf 02-23-05, 03:16 PM	Here is another letter from a member of the party, Spenser, to an old comrade-in-arms. This recaptures sessions 9 and 10 in his own words: Joe: How are things? I know we haven’t written or talked since the war, but I have been in a writing mood lately and decided I might try one for you and see if it gets through. I hope you’re still in the same place. I’ve hooked up with a band of four traveling adventurers (you and I might call them mercenaries) and we are currently in Zilargo, of all places. The place is actually not bad. I think you’d like Korranburg. Anyway, we are currently investigating a very old outpost/city located in the mountains just north and a little east of Korranburg. It’s been an alternating between tedious and exciting so far, but at this point, let me tell you, I’m starting to see as much action as I did during the war. I have given up the cooking profession to make better use of my other talents. Shut up. We’ve been making our way through some kind of building or structure within the mountain, perhaps part of once was Paluur Draal. You may remember that name, but I was at a loss to recall its origin. So far, we’ve tangle with a variety of men and beasts. We managed to get cut up pretty good (or at least, I have) but have made it through to a juncture in the hallway. We were led here by some divining rod that is basically an adamantine spike, and now we’ve just finished off some dark skinned humanoids the likes of which I have not seen before. They had white-hair, and were elvish in some ways, but yet not elves. They like to use crossbows and rapiers. Who knows where they come from. Perhaps you’ve run across some of these creatures in your lifetime? Anyway, we’ve arrived at this juncture in the hallway we were traveling and had to kill some of the dark-skinned people in self-defense (not that you’d care). Perhaps they think of us as trespassers. We actually were told this place is pretty much abandoned and up for grabs. Abandoned. Yeah, right. So, we decided to head south at this juncture for no real reason, passed through a couple of doors, and came to a room with spider webs all over the place. I am immediately not liking this situation, but my new comrades tend to have more of a devil-may-care attitude. We have a war-forged named Relic in the group (reminds me of that half-orc I used to hang with), a heavenly-looking priest (how appropriate) named Aztalan, a devilish looking mage named Patimus (handy to have in a fight), and a fellow named Vinarath who is a soul-knife (perhaps the most reckless of the bunch). Not a bad squad, would you agree? Anyway, we’ve moved into this room, Relic on point, and we notice that not only are there webs in this room, but bones as well. Nice. Vinarath noticed something, but before we could do anything, some spider-like creature cast some webbing spell that now nearly had all of us engulfed in the sticky stuff! Of course, I got stuck, but Relic and Vinarath managed to chop themselves free rather quickly. Patimus put on a nice show by flaming on (you’ve have to see it to understand – he really looks like a devil when he does it), and that freed him as well as started burning some of the webbing away. The creature began hurling some kind of energy at us, not doubt wanting to end the fight quickly so it could dine. Relic and Vinarath saved the day, though, and made short work of the spider-creature. We got out of there, let me tell you. We went back to the juncture and this time, we headed down the corridor to the southeast. We entered another room, and I was already wary. Sure enough, I saw the arrow slits but too late. Aztalan and I rushed to the arrow slits and covered them with our shields, just like old Sergeant DiGeorgio taught us in basic. I chucked in a smokestick for good measure. Patimus came next with a magic wand that added some fire-power (literally) to the party. He blasted our assailants right where they live. Wizards certainly are handy. We could have used more like him during the war. Unfortunately this guy likes to go where angels fear to tread a little too often, and he next found our assailants with large axes on the other side of the arrow-slits ready to slice him open, which they almost did. At that point, my comrades and I rushed in and whacked these orcs (or perhaps they were half-orcs) with due speed. We found a small booty, took the money for our trouble and got out of there. So much for our two recon missions of the day. We backtracked again and this time headed east down a big hallway. We came to a large room that had suffered a cave-in, something we had noticed already in part of the corridor we had just come through. We were met by a group of goblins. Their supposed leader named Kissel told us to turn back. Yeah, right. The goblin and his minions were foul smelling, foul tempered, and all around ill mannered hosts. So, we killed them. Another one for our side. You’ll love this next part. We decided to rest after this last skirmish and saw a large set of doors to our south from this room. “Where could those lead?” we asked ourselves. Naturally I stepped up to try and pick the lock. Unfortunately, the door was magically trapped and I got zapped big time. The result left me in pretty bad shape, as you can imagine. So, I reached into our stash of potions and pulled out what I thought was a healing liquid from a vendor named Captain Spooky in Freeport (long story). I downed the potion, and next thing I now, I am now about 12-feet tall! So what do I do now? I try the door again like the idiot that I am. And yes, eventually I was zapped again. At that point, I gave up and called it a day. The next morning, we went back to an area where we had entered this part of citadel and found a secret door. We decided to press onward and see where it led. Another hallway, and this time, Vinarath and Aztalan noticed arrow slits. We immediately went into our standard tactics and dealt with these bad boys the way we had the half-orcs the previous day. Relic moved ahead with that big greataxe of his and turned the door into kindling. Another hallway. Another set of arrow slits. More shields, more fire from Patimus. Another door. More Relic slashing and smashing. This time, we get to see our assailants are more pesky goblins. Relic has as much use for them as I do. He sliced and dices them into pulp. Up ahead was a pair of iron doors which were slightly ajar. We could hear noises coming from beyond them, like voices perhaps. So far we’ve met nothing but inhospitables in this place. The enemy appears to be around every corner and beyond every door. So what does my companion Vinarath do? Remember my comment about him earlier in this letter? Well, he naturally rushes up and throws up the double doors! Remember Private Dorfmann? Sad. This is the hand I’ve been dealt. This time, we hit the jackpot: a really big room, and lots more of the pesky goblins. Lots more. What the hell, it’s like the Eldeen Reaches all over again. We fought, they died, end of story. This room was more interesting than the ones we had come across so far. Not only big, but three large daises, each with an eight foot high metal post that reached towards the ceiling. On top of the metal posts were black spheres, like magic-8 balls. In each pillar, a depression, each one a different shape; a circle, a triangle, and a rectangle. The center of the room contained by a large, red, metal plate. In the center of this plate was a depression, the size and shape of a great sword. Patimus scanned some writing along one of the walls. He was able to read a message on one of them. The passage went something like this: Take that which is not there Follow the warm way Say thee the prayer And the sword is yours Cryptic graffiti. Cool We moved into another room beyond this one with some kind of structure in the middle. There some more words about a wizard named Devron (ever hear of him?). Upon further reading of this script along the walls, Patimus found the following: Pass now if though art a guardian strong Pass now if though art a keeper of the sword Pass now if though art a warrior fearless For he who waits fears nothing and knows only death Pass now if though speakest the word that all men wish to know A riddle. I hate riddles. At this point, our boy Vinarath became bored and decided to set out on his own. He was soon inundated with some poison darts and fell into a pit. It never ceases to amaze me how this group managed to live as long as it did before I met them, let alone after. However, to his credit, the soulknife managed to somehow stave off the effects of the poison and pull himself out of the pit. He returned the wall and said “fearless”. This opened up a small chamber in which we found some kind of round artifact. If you thought this might fit one of those depressions in the pillars, you were right. So, it appeared we now had a puzzle in addition to a riddle. I hate puzzles. We continued on past where Vinarath had been heading, and a ways into this cavernous hallway we came across a group of smelly orcs (are there any other kind?). This led to an interesting fight, with Patimus setting up the orcs by using a web spell. Nice touch. He then laid some enchantment on Relic, and the big bruiser was able to stride on in and hack up the orcs. What a sight! You know, I was never as big on killing other living creatures as you, Joe, but I have to admit so far we had run into some pretty nasty customers and I was having quite a time at dispatching these bastards to the hells that awaited them! I spoke to soon, though, because as soon as the web-spell disappeared, there remained one bad-ass looking orc. And he had his doggie with him. Actually, I thought at first it was a worg, but I was mistaken. It was a dire wolf. Mia culpa, I am undone. The orc was tough one, to be sure, but the wolf – well, let’s just say I’ve had better days, and so had my comrades. Relic took quite a beating up front. So did Vinarath. That left Aztalan, Patimus, and yours truly. Vinarath tried to put some distance between him and the canine (smart boy). Patimus and I took up the fight from a distance, which I thought seeing how it had managed to chew up two of our best fighters in no time, was the more prudent mode of attack. Aztalan, brave, courageous, good-hearted fool that he is, waded in with his mace. You can imagine how that went. Patimus and I managed to put some hurt on the wolf and send it off into a corner, tail between its legs. Same with its orc master. Relic, a blood-thirsty cuss at times, decided running away didn’t satisfy him, so he ran after the orc and hacked the brute to bits. End of story. We’ve stopped to take a break in this cavern now. Well earned, I must admit. I am not comfortable being couped up in this undermountain maze of caverns and buildings, but for now I’ve decided to stick it out with this group and see where our journey will lead us. If I get bored, or think things have gone on long enough with no end in sight, I’ll part ways. If anything more exciting happens, I’ll be sure and let you know. Doesn’t this remind you a little of the old days? I hope you’re doing well, whatever you’re doing and wherever you’re doing it. Take care, Spenser
collinf 03-03-05, 03:05 PM	Spenser’s Journal It was a dark and stormy night. Except we were inside some huge mountain, so I am not sure if it was stormy or even if it was night. At any rate, my companions and I had just finished wiping out a group of Ziffels, or as my army buddies used to say, Tuskers. We had been used up by what looked like a dire wolf and I for one was ready to call it a day and find the nearest tavern. Unfortuately so far, this inner mountain city did not seem to have anything even remotely resembling a drinking establishment. Our collective bad. Rest is hard to come by in this gritty, dirty, monster-infested work referred to as dungeoneering. Some of the group heard some whaling and moaning through the night. Must have been some ghosts getting it on. Kind of made me homesick for Silver. But while some of us were busy snoozing, like me, Vinarath and Aztalan found some more bodies in our vicinity, and they weren’t orc. Two bodies, to be exact: one elf and one human. Probably some explorer brethren who had found their way to this point and met their demise by the orcs or some other bad guys. The elf had some bowstrings on him, so since he didn’t seem to be needing them anymore, I relieved him of the precious filaments. A ration count told us we could spend maybe five more days in this place before food became an issue. Then it was time to get to the issue at hand, which was opening up some tin boxes we found in these caves. Instead of sardines or spam, we found some copper, a statue of a golden maiden with a lamb, and an elven skeleton wearing some chainmail. The best part of this booty was a mighty composite longbow that was hanging up on the wall. I’m pretty handy with a bow, Relic already had one, and I’m getting a little tired of lugging this repeating crossbow around, so I put dibs on it. It’s now mine! So now the party decided to keep going through the caves rather then double back to the city, so that’s how we went. After a short distance we came to a door. I, being one of great caution, checked the door to make sure it wasn’t booby-trapped, and then proceeded to open it. A couple more orcs were stationed inside. Relic and I charged in turned them into pork cutlets. We continued following this passage and then we came to a weird room. The only thing worth noting in his place was a stone pillar from floor to ceiling. It was covered in graffiti, the kind only wizards, clerics, and old guys with lots of books and no life would even begin to understand. Patimus decided to step up and take a crack at reading it, smart mage that he is. The pillar didn’t seem to like him getting to close, though, and shot him with a bolt of electricity. Maybe he was making some kind of obscene gestures to the pillar, but I never saw any. Patimus is made of tough stuff, though, and he shrugged off the bolt like it was cool breeze. At that point he thought it best to back away and told us to do likewise. To this I say, “Duh.” We noticed a door headed in an easterly direction, so we opened it and saw a long hallway with not one, not two, but three alcoves in the hallway to our left. I decided it was time I be the more reckless one so I had the rest of the group sit tight while I checked out the scene. Each alcove contained some kind of studs or buttons on the wall. Each one had a red button, but there was a blue, yellow, and green button in alcoves 1 through 3, respectively. Must be some kind of children’s game, I reasoned. I told the rest of the group what I saw and we decided to press the non-red buttons. This caused the pillar to start humming, but no electricity. Vinarath and Patimus stayed in the room to observe the pillar while the rest of us pushed the red buttons. This was getting fun! However, not so much fun for Vinarath and Patimus. Those boys got zapped big time. Well, I guess we know what the buttons do, now. We passed it off as some kind of defense mechanism and left it alone. Moving on, we continued on past the alcove hallway and opened a door into which we found two hobgoblins, and they didn’t appear happy to see us. This looked like some kind of gang summit, because each hobgoblin wore a different colored headband. Is this where we can apply to become members of the crypts or the bloods? Well, both of these tough guys took off in opposite directions as soon as they saw us. Must be Relic’s physique or Aztalan’s cologne. We cut these two down before they ever made it out of the room. Score two ore for our side. Some funky neighborhoods in this place. I don’t suppose Mr. Rogers will be visiting anytime soon, though. We continued moving ahead and found a couple more head-banded hobgloblins. We managed to cut down Mr. Blue but Mr. Red was able to get out before we nailed his ass. At this point, Vinarath shouted, “We’re gonna have company!”, andall hell broke loose. Shouts, scurrying, weapons being drawn – it was time to throw down once again. Shades of the orc caves we had just come from. Ambushing the ambushers, always a treat. I thoroughly respect Relic a little more each time I see him in combat. He cut down hobgoblins in a few quick swipes of his greataxe before any of us could do anything. Patimus and Aztalan began chanting, which is what they are best at. Patimus is particularly effective in this. He let loose with a grease spell that was not only helpful but created some much needed humor in an otherwise humorless situation. Hobgloblins on their butts is about as funny a think as I will ever see. The next person to join the party was a bugbear – my favorite. He had a spiked chain and he used it quite effectively. Vinarath was the first learn this fact. The rest of us could have none of this, and we proceeded to rip the bugbear a new one. So now we’ve managed to wipe out this squad of hobgloblins, and we press our luck by going through another door. Such is the usual procedure of this group. We found another group of hobgloblins, blue-banders, and so Relic of course felt the need to rush in and kill some more. Unfortunately this time he met a more unsavory welcome. Two of the hobgoblins brought the big warforged to his knees with their steely blades. The rest of us of course jumped in to aid our fallen comrade, but this just incited the hobgloblins and brought forth their own bugbear. This one was packing a big club and he meant to put some serious hurt on us, go figure. He set to work on Vinarath first, which was not a pretty sight to behold. Aztalan the priest managed to summon some mojo from the dragon above and stopped the bugbear cold in its tracks. Not one to miss a golden opportunity such as this, I took the opportunity to send my longsword into the belly of the bugbear, twisted it a few times, and then removed it to allow the greasy, grimy guts to spill out onto the floor. Big ugly critter got what he deserved, as Vinarath will no doubt testify. The group thought it best to stop and take a breather at this point. I went up a little further from this area and checked out a door. It was trapped, and magically so. That pretty much killed any thoughts of heading in that direction. Now which way do we go?
DolArrah 03-03-05, 03:33 PM	Ummm, when is the next official new addition. The journals are good, but it has been 11 days now . . . Sorry if I sound abrupt but we all love your adventures and want to see more of them.
BuddyL33 03-03-05, 05:31 PM	Hell it's been longer than that. I think I have 4 or 5 sessions to add to this thing! I know the longer I wait the worse I get. Perhaps I can hire someone to listen to me talk and type it for me! :P
Ascariat 03-04-05, 01:41 AM	I really enjoy reading about the exploits of your party and eagerly wait for the next posting.
BuddyL33 03-04-05, 11:42 AM	Parents are in town this weekend. Perhaps I will try and get some written out tonight. I imagine it will be more abbreviated than my previous postings since I am 4 or 5 sessions behind. Things have gotten interesting though, I can tell you that they are now fully aware of a wizard that does not die imprisoned in the levels below. It also seems he may very well be aware of them and anxiously awaits his freedom!
BuddyL33 03-21-05, 11:34 AM	OK here goes, gonna be some major summarization here. Sessions 14 - Current Relic: Warforged Fighter2/Artificer4 Padimus Karee: Tiefling Wizard5 Vinarath: Kalashtar Soulknife5 (MIA) Aztalan: Aasimar Cleric5 who worships the Dragon Above Spencer: Human Fighter2/Ranger2/Rogue2 Khashana : Kalashtar Monk4 The group forced their way through the Ruins of Paluur Draal in search of the mysteries that were unfolding before them. In their adventuring they learned of a once great wizard, now a lich was imprisoned in the lowest level of the city. To get to him they would need a special sword and in turn that sword would have to be activated some how. They searched for days and after near loss of life found the Sword of Kell and learned how to activate it using three keys and a ceremony they had discovered. Spencer was nominated to carry the blade into the depths below to destroy the wretched lich Devron. All the while Aztalan battled inwardly at the fact he had detected the faint prescense of evil in the heart of Relic during one of their battles. What could this mean? Was Relic not the companion he had first thought he was? It would have to wait. The group charged into the depths of the city and made their way past through a magical gate, past an army of undead, to the lair of Devron himself. Devron had been watching the party and was awaiting their arrival so he could once again be free. The party had different plans. A mighty battle ensued which left Relic badly damaged to the point he ceased to function for a brief time period. Patimus was also barely hanging on by life and limb. Spencer charged in and did battle with the Lich, finding that the blade he held cut through Devron's defense's with ease. Just as Devron was about to flee from the group, Aztalan called for deific vengeange upon the lich for the crimes he had once commited against the fair citizens of the once great city of Paluur Draal. Crackling light thrust down from the heavens upon the lich, turning him to dust. "May your soul burn in the fires of hell", cried Aztlan as the divine light ceased. Aztalan told the party to quickly spread out and find the lich's phylactery. He gave the party a rough description of what they might be looking for. A few minutes later the group decided that the armband layign in the pile of lich remains was it and the proceeded to destroy it. They then gathered up the lich's treasure which included another piece of adamantine which appeared would fit together with the first piece they had found on the island of Freeport, and which led them hear in the first place. The two pieces would not stay together however. Relic, in toying around with the second piece, got it to fire a beam of sorts which splashed harmlessly into the rock wall. Upon exiting the magical portal that held Devron prisoner they found their companion Vinarath, who hadn't been able to enter for unknown reasons, was now missing. There was no sign of a struggle or anything. He was simply gone. The group made their way up through the depths of the ruined city and once again the light of day shown upon their faces. They stepped out into the rain, where they were greated by eight humans in full armor. Aztalan immediately recognized them as Knights of the Emerald Claw. Once know as a patriotic order to Karnnath, they were now considered a terrorist organization. The Emerald Claw demanded the phylactery of Devron. Aztalan told them he himself had overseen its destruction and that the Claw would not be getting its hands on the item. Angered the Claw leader ordered the adventures slain for their blunder. Things turned out quite different, and after a short battle, the Emerald Claw soldiers were no more. The group managed to capture two of them and decided to haul them back to Korranburg for a bounty if one existed. Upon arriving in Korranburg they turned the knights in to the justicar and decided it was time to relax. House Sivis had a message waiting for Spencer that he had a guest awaiting his return to the Kings Road Inn. Spencer told the party he would meet up with them later while they were busy selling off the treasure they had returned with. Once inside the King, Spencer was greeted by a Kalashtar named Khashana. Khashana explained to Spencer she was Silver's sister and was in search of the person or persons responsible for the death of their father. She suspected an Inspired ploy, but could not uncover evidence of such. So until she could find more, she felt it best to protect her sister's man, Spencer. Spencer explained to Khashana that the road ahead would be dangerous with this group but she agreed to join up anyhow. The rest of the group returned with the coin and distributed it out. For the next 16 days the group went about their various tasks and all in all, caught up on some much needed rest. On the 16th day they emerged from their rooms, only to find themselves in a great domed room, instead of the hallway of the King's Road Inn. The hall had no windows and no entrances and exits including the one they had come through to get in here. In the middle of the hall was a lit brazier that filled the room with a dull light. A voice boomed out for the party to step forward and as they did so, the light rose revealing a figure seated behind a pedestal, but only in shadow. The group could not make out any features. The individual praised the group for destroying the powerful lich Devorn and told them their services were needed. They were to travel to Droaam in search of two missing gnomes named Gimble and Hondo. Gimble and Hondo had gone missing while in Droaam collecting Eberron Dragonshards. When the group asked who it was they would be working for they were only assured that it was in the best interests of Zilargo and the Zil people. To sweeten the deal the voice revealed the true nature of the mysterious adamantine item the party was carrying. During the War of the Mark an item came into the hands of the Mark of Making and House Cannith. This item was a 5 foot long, adamantine rod, that allowed the user to absorb any schema into it. Giving it the ability to record any known schema and then in turn be plugged into a creation forge and any of its known schema recalled for creation. It was rumored this rod aided in Cannith's rise to power. Later on in history, this rod was stolen. When the theif was captured, the rod was no longer in his possesion. Under the influence of a Zone of Truth, the thief revealed that soon after he had the rod, it suddenly levitated out of his hands, split into seven pieces, and then vanished into thin air! The voice went on recounting the history of parts of the rod being found and even joined together, only to be lost again. In exchange for the party's help the unknown organization would turn over their research to the group, along with a third piece they had found themselves. The group discussed and agreed that they would take on the mission, realizing the potential enemies they might run into after this rod as it had the power to challenge Cannith itself The group loaded aboard an airship and headed out to western Breland. Upon arriving in a small border town, they learned through the Breland Ledger that the House Orien trade road was currently closed into Droaam, due to a recent battle between monsters of Droaam and the Brelish Army. The group decided to hire the services of the Defender's Guild and took on several Deneith soldiers including a couple of Ogre's and a Troll for their horseback ride to the city of Graywall The journey was uneventful as it proved having the Deneith Defenders with them was a good idea. They found their way to a run down tavern ran by a human. They decided to ask around using the guise of missing party members to find the gnomes they were searching for. The barkeep directed them to a woman named Sheeva who was sitting at one of the tables. Aztalan bought a bottle of wine and he and Khashana proceeded over to the table to talk with Sheeva. Meanwhile, Patimus thought he would try and loosen up the mood and make friends so he ordered a tankard of something called "Spine Shiver". Turned out to be a putred, moss covered liquor made by ogres. He sent it over to a fellow human in the bar and gave him a wave. With one sip the human fell over to the floor and began spasming uncontrollably. Patimus flipped out and quickly rushed over to the floor to help the man ith a vile of anti-toxin from his pouch, bringing the spasms of the human to a halt. Back at the table, Aztalan and Khasana sat down at the table of Sheeva's and gave their gift of the bottle of wine. The heavily cowled woman thanked them and asked how she could be of service. Aztalan asked her about the missing gnomes and to his horror he noticed her hood on her cloak, was writhing. He gave a scared look to Khashana but kept a straight face. The woman told them they should check out a tavern on the west side of town called "The Harpy's Breath", all the while small snake's heads began poking their way out of the folds of the hood. Aztalan thanked the lady and grabbed the rest of the party telling them they needed to get out of this place as he didn't have a clue as to why in the name of the dragon above they were in this forsaken land. The group made their way in to the far less friendly, west side of town. On their way to the inn the group was jumped by a group of harassing Gnolls and their Flind leader. The dog men insisted the group hand over their spoils and of course the group told them that wasn't going to happen. Patimus began casting and a brawl ensued. Aztalan thought he would be sneaky and leveled the Arm of Arawai at the Flind leader and a few of his companions, only to have it torn from his grasp by the strange weapon of iron and chain the flind was using. A crowd began to form, made up of other monstersThe brawl continued on with several gnolls landing blows to the party, but ultimately the gnolls were cut down. With the Flind lying dead in the streets and a few gnolls remaining, a portal opened up in the air and a Mind Flayer stepped into the streets. He telepathically commanded them all to cease this fighting and asked what was the party doing attacking citizens of Graywall. The group told them that they were simply defending themselves and wanted to know who was in charge. The Illithid responded saying he was and that his name was Xor'chylic. The group responed saying that they were only here in search of a couple of friends. Xor'chylic responded with, "ahh you must mean the gnomes. First you will come with me, then we will discuss your friends." The party was taken into custody by several giants, ogres, and trolls to a building where Xor'chylic informed them that before he would give them the information they were seeking, that they would first prove themselves worthy, by fighting in the arena.
Altaris 03-25-05, 03:23 PM	:bump: :waits: :whatsthis
BuddyL33 04-18-05, 10:16 AM	Relic: Warforged Fighter2/Artificer4 Padimus Karee: Tiefling Wizard6 Vinarath: Kalashtar Soulknife5 (MIA) Aztalan: Aasimar Cleric5 who worships the Dragon Above Spencer: Human Fighter2/Ranger3/Rogue2 Khashana : Kalashtar Monk5 Xor'chylic revealed to the party that the city of Graywall was in some discord. Morale was low, monsters were fighting amongst themselves, in all things were in shambles. He offered the party a choice. They could either fight in the arena against the current champion, known as "Eddie", or he would remove them from his city in a most unpleasant way. After Patimus let loose with his usuall sarcasm, the party agreed that they would fight in the arena. Xor'chylic commanded his guards to take the group to the preperation room and then dimension doored out of the prison hallway. The ogre guards took the party to a small armory, where they were instructed to arm themselves. The equipment was not in the best condition and no where near the power of some of the magical arms that many of them carried. Relic was convinced he could even the playing field some and through the art of subtrafuge and distraction, was able to place some magical infusions upon the party's equipment. The group marched into the arena to the sound of cheers and jeers from the large, monsterous crowd. Several things were hurled in their direction as they made their way to the center of the arena. The arena, a large dirt floored area, surrounded by large grandstands, was a very imposing place for the party. They had never seen anything like it in there time. On the other end a large portcullis raised and out walked the champion, Eddie. Spenser immediately recognized Eddie as an Ettin. Eddie was armed with morning stars and javelins. This would be no easy task. Patimus was able to get off a mage armor spell, sealing himself in protective magics, while the rest of the group surged forward. They engaged Eddie almost immediately. The Ettin began pounding at Relic with a force unlike the mighty warforged had ever seen before. The blows were creating huge craters in his adamantine plating! Khashana began circling around but the Ettin was quick. One well placed blow, and Khashana was pounded into the soil where he body lay unmoving. The Ettin then focused on Patimus, launching a javelin into the Wizards shoulder. Patimus screamed out in pain as his life blood began to seep from the massive wound. The party quickly changed up their tactics for if they didn't Eddie would make short work of them. It was obvious he had previous battle experience, as he countered many of their tactics. Finally the group got Eddie backed into a corner where they finshed off the mighty Ettin. Several of the crowd errupted in cheers, but many began shouting in anger. Xor'chylic quickly dimension door'd the party out of the arena, back to his private chambers. It was in his chambers that Xor'chylic revealed to the party that he was once in possession of the missing Gnomes that the party was seeking. However, the meddling Daughters of Sora Kel decided they had other plans for the Gnomes and took them from him. Xor'chylic told the party that the gnomes would most likely be found in The Great Crag, if they were still alive. Xor'chylic offered the group a fighting contract in the arena, but the group declined. "Perhaps on our way back", responded Spenser. In response to this loose verbal agreement, Xor'chylic gave the party a banner. He instructed the group to fly it for "safer" passage to The Great Crag, whatever that meant. ....More to come later today
BuddyL33 04-18-05, 01:52 PM	Relic: Warforged Fighter2/Artificer4 Padimus Karee: Tiefling Wizard6 Vinarath: Kalashtar Soulknife5 (MIA) Aztalan: Aasimar Cleric5 who worships the Dragon Above Spencer: Human Fighter2/Ranger3/Rogue2 Khashana : Kalashtar Monk5 So the group head's out across the cold, baron lands of Droaam. At this point it's early winter and the temps are frequently dropping below zero at night. Fortunately Padimus has learned a new spell in the way of Tiny Hut. Using this spell, PK was able to keep the party warm in the cold of the night, as well as keep them safe, hopefully, from any wandering creatures. A few days into the journey, several members spotted a red cloaked figure off to the side of the road. As the party approached with their colors of Droaam, the figure stepped out and knocked and arrow into his bow, commanding the party to stop or he would cut them all down. Spenser became a bit nervous as he had little doubt in his mind than a lone man able to survive out here could do exactly that. The group approached calmly towards the man, who continued to refer to them as allies of Droaam. The party insisted they were anything but, however, the flag they were flying seemed to be contradicting their statements. Finally able to gain an audience with this strange man, the group learned he was some sort of special forces trooper from Breland, a Red Cloak named Xander. Xander quickly conscripted the party in the name of Breland to do his bidding, citing that if they were not with him, then they were certainly foes of Breland. Padimus did not like this at all. He wanted nothing to do with the politics of Breland or Droaam for that matter, however, it seemed the party was left with little choice. Xander told the party of an emmisary from camp of the Queen of Stone named Carash would be passing through. That emmisary would be carrying a message to the Daughters in Great Crag. The message and it's carrier were not to make it. When the party inquired about the contents of this message, Xander responded that it was necessary in the internal relations of Droaam and its distruction would cause certain instabilities that Breland could use to retake it's lost lands. The party finally agreed to do so just to get this psychopath off their case. Xander gave them a stone and instructed the group to touch it to the dead body of the courier. Should they complete their mission, Brenland would glady deposit the sum of 500 Galifars in House Kundarak accounts in each of their names (the party had turned over their identification papers briefly to Xander and now realized he had copied information down about them). Moving out the group decided a road ambush would be best. Part of the group would hide in some scrub, while the rest would launch an assault from PK's Tiny Hut spell. Relic commanded his Iron Defender to keep watch down the road and alert him when the Queen of Stone's emmisary was approaching. Sure enough, along game the emmisary, along with a compliment of Gnoll guards. The medusa and gnolls stopped upon sighting the Tiny Hut spell. The gnolls were ordered to approach with caution, but it was too late for them. Padimus unleashed a fireball spell through the walls of the Hut, engulfing all but one of the Gnolls. Carash lept out of the way only being partially hit by the blast. Aztalan called to the goddess Arawai, namesake of his weapon, and unleashed a blast of lighting, again Carash dove to the ground, narrowly escaping certain death. The lone Gnoll moved to the Hut, poking at it's surface with his sword, surprised when it passed through the seemingly solid and opaque walls. Gathering up the courage, the Gnoll stepped through, only to be surprised by the likes of Padimus, Khashana, and Aztalan, all waiting inside. They quickly cut down the remaining Gnoll. Meanwhile outside, Carash closed in on Relic and Spenser. The medusa flung back her cloak and gazed into the eyes of the mighty warforged. His joints began to stiffen, however, he somehow fought off the effect of her attack. The medusa began to close for another devistating gaze when suddenly a ball of fire exploded on her location, incinerating her and her documents instantly. Padimus had come to the rescue once more. ....Still more to come later today.
BuddyL33 04-18-05, 05:29 PM	Relic: Warforged Fighter2/Artificer4 Padimus Karee: Tiefling Wizard6 Vinarath: Kalashtar Soulknife5 (MIA) Aztalan: Aasimar Cleric5 who worships the Dragon Above Spencer: Human Fighter2/Ranger3/Rogue2 Khashana : Kalashtar Monk5 The party searched the corpse of Carash, however there really wasn't much left, as the documents she was carrying were incinerated. With that, Spencer touched the stone Xander had given them to the body. It glowed brightly and then faded. Mission accomplished it seemed, though the party really didn't have any feeling of statisfaction. They pressed on until nightfall where they set camp. Since Padimus had used his only Tiny Hut spell, they would have to camp outdoors. Aztalan placed an endure elements enchantment on Kashana as both he and Padimus were resistent to the cold already. It seemed Spenser and Relic would have to tough out the night. It was a hard night but they made through with only light injuries from the cold. Pressing on towards the Great Crag they set camp once again. While enjoying some dried Tribbix around the fire Relic's Iron Defender alerted the group to several small creatures moving toward the camp at a hurried pace. The group arose and waited for whatever it was that was inbound. A few moments later three goblins scurried in. The seemed excited shouting they had found allies of Trondor in goblinoid and kept pointing towards the flag the party was flying. Padimus, being the only party member that speaks goblinoid stepped forward to speak with the goblins. After introducing themselves, the goblins insisted that the party protect them from the beast that was hunting them. They had been running for hours and were tired. The party quickly agreed to help, though still not sure who Trondor was or why they were still flying his flag. It was no sooner than their decision when a Chimera swept down out of the darkness at the group, unleashing it's cold breath weapon upon the party. The group hit the dirt as the Chimera went by and then unleashed spell and arrow upon it. The Chimera turned back in on the party and landed in the dirt in front of them, figuring it could make quick work of this new prey. It couldn't have been more wrong. While landing many solid blows on both Spencer and Relic, it was Relic's mighty axe that cleaved the creature in two. The goblins cheered and gave many thanks to the party. They even insisted that the party come to Trondor's camp. Padimus further questioned the goblins and learned they were on some sort of espionage mission against someone called "Ashlord." They were returning from this mission when they decided to loot a Chimera nest of it's eggs. No sooner did they do this and the mother attacked them. They also learned that the flag they were flying was that of a local warlord named Trondor. It appeared Trondor was at war with this Ashlord fellow as well as the Daughters of Sora Kell. The party now realized just how sick the sense of humor belonging to Xor'chylic was. They also learned that Trondor was allied with the Queen of Stone as she too was battling the Daughters. Spenser became increasingly nervous upon finding out this information. They agreed to go to the camp of Trondor in hopes of finding safe passage into Great Crag much to Spenser's disagreement. After a few hours, the group arrived in the camp of Trondor, where the goblins took them to meet the mighty Trondor himself. Trondor was a mighty Minotaur warlord, bent on bringing down the hags and their minions. He was tired of their diplomatic policy with Breland and felt Droaam should take what was rightfully theirs. The information the goblins had stolen was troop movements of Warlord Ashlord. It seemed that Trondor was going to use this information to mount a surprise attack in the morning. But first they would dine on the Chimera egg the goblins had returned with. Spenser quickly offered to cook it up for the camp, volunteering that he was a great chef. Trondor agreed and Spenser was led to the kitchen tent. Meanwhile, Padimus attempted to negotiate with Trondor. Offering up gold for the Chimera egg. Trondor refused, saying gold wouldn't feed his men out here. Patimus then offered up his horse as dinner, insisting that the meat the horse would yield was much larger than that of the egg. After some thinking, Trondor agreed and the exchange was made. Spenser was shocked to learn that the menu was changing. A gnoll cook led him outside in time to see the horrific act of the horse's head being removed from it's body by that of an axe. "You cook that", he said to spenser and pointed. ...Oh yes there is still more to come tonight!
BuddyL33 04-18-05, 05:29 PM	double post
Ascariat 04-18-05, 10:02 PM	i really like the tales of your group. If you keep writing I will keep reading.