I've had a recent spike in viewers thanks to Dyson over at A character for every game linking to my Dyson's Delve adventure logs. As a result, I'd thought I'd give a quick rundown on the campaigns chronicled here.
Active Campaigns:
Southern Reaches
This is a sandbox fantasy game based on the West Marches campaign style. I am the DM for this game and it has run 29 sessions at mostly one game a week, played on Friday evenings. We are using the Pathfinder RPG, but I'm applying a lot of old school ideas to the campaign. I've been very happy with the results.
Dyson's Delve
This is a basic dungeon crawl using Dyson's Delve. This is a training game for a brand new DM and most of the players started playing tabletop RPGs in this campaign or the previous one, Verden (see below). I like the game and the dungeon, but I'm still trying to feel out my character, Harkaitz of the Red Soul. This game runs Wednesday evenings.
Defunct games:
The Found World
This was a short-lived D&D 4E campaign I originally started this blog to document. I was the DM and one of the dominant characters was a female bugbear warrior. That and an off hand comment by Zak Sabbath on his blog, Playing D&D with Porn Stars, led to the naming of this blog. The game ended when I could not get enough regular players to run a 4E game. I could get players for the Pathfinder RPG and switched to that, starting the Southern Reaches campaign, listed above.
Verden
This was a slightly different sandbox game set a thousand years after the cataclysmic ending of the Necromancer Wars. The players were a group locked outside the city of Verden for three months amongst the ruins and war-debris left behind by the Necromancer Wars. The campaign ended abruptly when the DM got a better job in a different state. This was a fun game where I was a player. I miss it.
That's about it for now. I'm also mulling over a Traveller game. It doesn't have a name yet and I'm not even certain who I'd run it for, but I like the idea of it and will occasionally "talk out loud" about it here as I develop it.
Showing posts with label Verden. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Verden. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Friday, October 22, 2010
Verden: Assault on Fort Goblinton
This session happened Wednesday, October 13, 2010.
Adventuring Group:
Artemis (half-elf rogue)
Arthus (half-elf paladin)
Book (elf rogue)
Gilgamesh (uffnik artificer)
Having learned much and gained vital gear at The Library, it was now time to deal with the goblins and Gil’s missing pony. Most of us were certain that the pony was dead and eaten by the goblins, making this a reprisal rather than a rescue. We were all good with that.
We pulled out all of our gear and ran a full inventory prior to planning our assault. I finally opened the wizard’s book and gained four castings of elemental body I from it. I could definitely use that. The fire elemental gem figured prominently in our early planning, as did Gil’s new device that would turn us invisible and grant us flight. We set the following terms of the assault:
Goal: Kill all the goblins
Primary Target: goblin leader (healer)
Our base plan was to fly over the fort, Gil would lay down a barrage of fireballs, I’d swoop in and drop the fire elemental to rampage, and then the rest of us would attack any goblins still standing. A very basic plan, but with no map and days since the others were last there, it was the best we could make until we got there and scouted the area a bit.
Along the way to the goblin fort, we ran across The Hunter, relaxing and having a smoke break. We discussed what was about to happen and asked him what he knew of the area. Apparently, the goblins had been very busy over the last several days, pulling in patrols and setting out guard posts. Additionally, the goblins were allied with the lizardmen in the hills to the west and had called in a favor, so there were lizardmen at the fort now. Next, the goblin healer was not the leader but the second in command. The actual leader was a goblin wizard. Finally, the goblins and the lizardmen kept the undead population down in the area, so if they were completely eliminated, the number of undead would go up.
Great. Just great.
When we asked how many goblins their were total, The Hunter said there were about 400-500 goblins and a similar number of lizardmen, but the fort couldn’t hold anywhere near that many. After some further discussion amongst ourselves we decided to continue on with the planned attack with the following revisions to the terms of the assault:
Goal: Kill all the goblins at the fort
Primary Target: goblin healer
Secondary Target: goblin leader (wizard)
We asked The Hunter if he was interested in joining our plan of action and he agreed with the proviso that we needed to provide him with a way out as we did not have enough flight spells. I agreed to this, thinking I could use elemental body to turn him into an earth elemental and he could earth glide away. Being a wizard is terribly handy. I wish I’d thought to do some studying earlier in my life. Ah, well.
As we got closer to the fort, we discovered two sets of goblin scouts and dispatched both groups before word of our arrival could be given. That was the last of the good news for a while. When we reached sight of the fort, we discovered that the fort was now ringed with 15-20 lizardmen and two sleeping giants. Actual giants! Needless to say, this led to another revision of the plan. Now, after Gill hit the inside of the fort with two fireballs, I would fly down and plant the tree feather token to block the gates. This should keep the lizardmen out of the fight until the giants awoke, after that - all bets were off. The Hunter volunteered he had a way to keep the giants busy for a while, but it meant he would not be involved with the fighting inside the fort. We decided that anything that kept the giants off our backs was a good thing.
We stationed Jonathan back away from the fort, to keep him safe. We would need to fly out to him for any healing greater than our cure light wounds potions could grant, but it would keep him safe as we did not have enough flying or invisibility as it was. We put together a banner pole for him so we could find him. The minimal risk of the enemy spotting him would be significantly reduced, if not eliminated, by our flashy aerial assault.
As ready as we could be, Gil turned us invisible and granted us flight, then drank our only potion of stoneskin. [NOTE: the DM gave us this as a magic item before realizing that it was illegal to make stoneskin into a potion. We had been hording it ever since.] We kept close via holding onto each other until we were above the fort and could see in. Here we got our last piece of bad news.
The goblins had a pair of ettins guarding the leader’s house. A pair of ettins!
Goblins plus lizardmen plus TWO giants plus TWO ettins was starting to be a daunting task. Oh, plus the goblin healer was riding a worg, not a “large wolf” as Gil stated when he first told me about the goblins, a worg. At this point I was starting to suspect that we would not achieve our goal of killing all the goblins. After some quick whispering to direct where Gil’s fireballs needed to land and confirming that if nothing else, we needed to take out the healer, we moved into position for the assault.
Gil started raining fireballs on the goblins (plus the linked scorching ray and magic missile, which targeted the healer specifically) while I cast enlarge person on Arthus so he could dance with the ettins. This was a good thing because after the first fireball, Gil was visible and the ettins targeted him with their javelins. If not for the stoneskin potion Gil would have died right there.
Gil’s second fireball (plus linked spells) cleared the inner fort of most of the grunt goblins and set the tents on fire, allowing me to fly in completely unobserved and plant the feather token by the gates, blocking the gates from opening with a sudden 60-foot oak tree. At the same time, Arthus attacked one of the ettins, drawing its attention from Gil, while Artemis started clearing the walls of archers. Outside the walls, an elephant and a griffin suddenly appeared and charged the two sleeping giants, keeping them occupied and mostly pinned in place. The lizardmen rallied, but did not attack.
The leader of the goblins and his two bodyguards charged out of his burning house and started shouting orders. The ettins concentrated on attacking Arthus, hitting him multiple times and forcing him to retreat to Jonathan for healing. I crushed the fire elemental gem, releasing the fire elemental inside, and ordered it to attack the goblin leader. As I was still invisible, this attack came as a surprise to the goblin leader. Gil continued to rain down his fireball/scorching ray/magic missile combo, eventually taking out the goblin healer, but not his worg mount, which picked up the body and fled.
In the meantime, with a large fire elemental fighting the goblin leader and fireballs raining from the sky, the ettins apparently decided that they had had enough and fled, one making it over the walls and running while the other sat on the wall and waited to see what happened next. The lizardmen also surrendered at this point. I think they realized they were being excluded from our attacks and wanted nothing we were dishing out. I verbally accepted their surrender while assisting Artemis in clearing the walls of the last of the archers.
The goblin leader cast invisiblity on himself and ran from the fire elemental, into his burning house, I think because it backed to one of the walls of the fort. To me it looked like jumping out of the fire into another fire, with no frying pan in sight. The fire elemental was able to track him into the house and blocked the only exit – until the goblin leader created another by using lightning bolt to blow out the back wall. Arthus was just returning at this point and had the hand of glory, which allowed him to see invisible. He flew down the goblin leader and killed him. (For a paladin, Arthus can be kind of vicious at times.)
Gil returned from chasing the worg and reported that it got away. He was down to only his magic missile device, having used up the fireball combo device on the fort. Taking stock of the situation, we realized we had won!
I talked with the leader of the lizardmen a bit. They had been contracted to help defend the fort by the goblins, not fight a war for them. When we bypassed them and kept our attacks on only the goblins, he (the lizardman leader) had decided that the contract was over. Respecting our obvious strength (and not knowing that we were about out of fight), we were granted an invitation to (a peaceful) visit to their city in the hills. We graciously accepted the invitation and sent them on their way.
After they left, we got to talking with the last ettin, who was still sitting on the fort wall. Gil and Artemis spoke the giant tongue and translated what he said. He had noticed that every goblin who fled was attacked and killed and wanted to avoid that fate himself as he was heavily wounded. I was going to give him a healing potion and send him on his way when Gil suddenly attacked him with magic missile, killing the ettin in cold blood!
This did not set well with any of us, particularly Arthus and The Hunter. The Hunter just stalked off without another word. Arthus and I demanded to know why Gilgamesh had killed the ettin. Gilgamesh’s only defense was, “He hit me with a javelin.” I believe Gilgamesh belatedly realized he had gone probably too far. If he had not been a reliable travelling companion up until that point, I think Arthus would have struck Gilgamesh down as a murderer right there and then and Artemis and I would probably have agreed with him.
Not wanting to talk with Gilgamesh very much at that point, I turned to the goblin leader’s house. It was on fire, but it was still the best place to find the goblin’s treasure. I used elemental body to turn myself into a small fire elemental and went in and searched the structure. I was able to pull out a chest that was not burning, despite a burning log falling on it. This seemed promising.
Artemis disabled the trap and unlocked it (with some minor assistance from me). Inside we found a set of very well made leather armor and a ring. Arthus had taken a ring and a headband off of the body of the goblin leader. We set these all together and had Gilgamesh check for magic and identify them. They were all magical [leather armor +2 of light fortification, headband of intellect +2, ring of water-walking, and a ring of jumping]. We were also pleasantly surprised to find that the pony was still alive and still had our chest (although the dart trap had been sprung at some point). After chasing it so long, Gilgamesh decided to name it Amy.
With the sun setting, we made camp near (upwind of) the burning fort, fairly confident that nothing would attack us while the fort burned. It would have been almost pleasant if it were not for the smell of burning goblins when the wind shifted. Then it was wretched. We were undisturbed for most of the night. The red dragon flew around, very high up, during third watch, but made no effort to land or even get close. I think it was curious.
The next day we made our way back to the waystation. It started raining heavily about mid-day and the red dragon flew by again near sunset, but we hid from it and it flew on. Due to the mid-day rain slowing us down, we had to camp in the debris field. On my watch I noticed a small boat in a debris pile. Curious as to what a boat was doing this far from water, I investigated. Inside was a dead body wearing a pristine cloak. I suspected the cloak was magical and took it off the body. The next morning Gilgamesh identified it as a cloak of the manta ray. Very puzzling item to find out here, but I am becoming less and less surprised by this place. After another hour we arrived at the waystation for a good long rest.
*End Session*
[This was the last session of Verden I was able to attend. I missed the final session due to a bad combination of a cold and allergies. The DM is now moving to Ohio, so there will be no more Verden posts, which is a shame as I was very much enjoying playing in that game. I would have liked seeing if Gilgamesh could re-earn the group’s trust after his cold-blooded murder of the ettin prisoner. Plus, we were looking forward to tracking down the “Locked Saltwater Grave” to see what was there. This game (and the DM) will be missed. Good travels Kyle.]
Adventuring Group:
Artemis (half-elf rogue)
Arthus (half-elf paladin)
Book (elf rogue)
Gilgamesh (uffnik artificer)
Having learned much and gained vital gear at The Library, it was now time to deal with the goblins and Gil’s missing pony. Most of us were certain that the pony was dead and eaten by the goblins, making this a reprisal rather than a rescue. We were all good with that.
We pulled out all of our gear and ran a full inventory prior to planning our assault. I finally opened the wizard’s book and gained four castings of elemental body I from it. I could definitely use that. The fire elemental gem figured prominently in our early planning, as did Gil’s new device that would turn us invisible and grant us flight. We set the following terms of the assault:
Goal: Kill all the goblins
Primary Target: goblin leader (healer)
Our base plan was to fly over the fort, Gil would lay down a barrage of fireballs, I’d swoop in and drop the fire elemental to rampage, and then the rest of us would attack any goblins still standing. A very basic plan, but with no map and days since the others were last there, it was the best we could make until we got there and scouted the area a bit.
Along the way to the goblin fort, we ran across The Hunter, relaxing and having a smoke break. We discussed what was about to happen and asked him what he knew of the area. Apparently, the goblins had been very busy over the last several days, pulling in patrols and setting out guard posts. Additionally, the goblins were allied with the lizardmen in the hills to the west and had called in a favor, so there were lizardmen at the fort now. Next, the goblin healer was not the leader but the second in command. The actual leader was a goblin wizard. Finally, the goblins and the lizardmen kept the undead population down in the area, so if they were completely eliminated, the number of undead would go up.
Great. Just great.
When we asked how many goblins their were total, The Hunter said there were about 400-500 goblins and a similar number of lizardmen, but the fort couldn’t hold anywhere near that many. After some further discussion amongst ourselves we decided to continue on with the planned attack with the following revisions to the terms of the assault:
Goal: Kill all the goblins at the fort
Primary Target: goblin healer
Secondary Target: goblin leader (wizard)
We asked The Hunter if he was interested in joining our plan of action and he agreed with the proviso that we needed to provide him with a way out as we did not have enough flight spells. I agreed to this, thinking I could use elemental body to turn him into an earth elemental and he could earth glide away. Being a wizard is terribly handy. I wish I’d thought to do some studying earlier in my life. Ah, well.
As we got closer to the fort, we discovered two sets of goblin scouts and dispatched both groups before word of our arrival could be given. That was the last of the good news for a while. When we reached sight of the fort, we discovered that the fort was now ringed with 15-20 lizardmen and two sleeping giants. Actual giants! Needless to say, this led to another revision of the plan. Now, after Gill hit the inside of the fort with two fireballs, I would fly down and plant the tree feather token to block the gates. This should keep the lizardmen out of the fight until the giants awoke, after that - all bets were off. The Hunter volunteered he had a way to keep the giants busy for a while, but it meant he would not be involved with the fighting inside the fort. We decided that anything that kept the giants off our backs was a good thing.
We stationed Jonathan back away from the fort, to keep him safe. We would need to fly out to him for any healing greater than our cure light wounds potions could grant, but it would keep him safe as we did not have enough flying or invisibility as it was. We put together a banner pole for him so we could find him. The minimal risk of the enemy spotting him would be significantly reduced, if not eliminated, by our flashy aerial assault.
As ready as we could be, Gil turned us invisible and granted us flight, then drank our only potion of stoneskin. [NOTE: the DM gave us this as a magic item before realizing that it was illegal to make stoneskin into a potion. We had been hording it ever since.] We kept close via holding onto each other until we were above the fort and could see in. Here we got our last piece of bad news.
The goblins had a pair of ettins guarding the leader’s house. A pair of ettins!
Goblins plus lizardmen plus TWO giants plus TWO ettins was starting to be a daunting task. Oh, plus the goblin healer was riding a worg, not a “large wolf” as Gil stated when he first told me about the goblins, a worg. At this point I was starting to suspect that we would not achieve our goal of killing all the goblins. After some quick whispering to direct where Gil’s fireballs needed to land and confirming that if nothing else, we needed to take out the healer, we moved into position for the assault.
Gil started raining fireballs on the goblins (plus the linked scorching ray and magic missile, which targeted the healer specifically) while I cast enlarge person on Arthus so he could dance with the ettins. This was a good thing because after the first fireball, Gil was visible and the ettins targeted him with their javelins. If not for the stoneskin potion Gil would have died right there.
Gil’s second fireball (plus linked spells) cleared the inner fort of most of the grunt goblins and set the tents on fire, allowing me to fly in completely unobserved and plant the feather token by the gates, blocking the gates from opening with a sudden 60-foot oak tree. At the same time, Arthus attacked one of the ettins, drawing its attention from Gil, while Artemis started clearing the walls of archers. Outside the walls, an elephant and a griffin suddenly appeared and charged the two sleeping giants, keeping them occupied and mostly pinned in place. The lizardmen rallied, but did not attack.
The leader of the goblins and his two bodyguards charged out of his burning house and started shouting orders. The ettins concentrated on attacking Arthus, hitting him multiple times and forcing him to retreat to Jonathan for healing. I crushed the fire elemental gem, releasing the fire elemental inside, and ordered it to attack the goblin leader. As I was still invisible, this attack came as a surprise to the goblin leader. Gil continued to rain down his fireball/scorching ray/magic missile combo, eventually taking out the goblin healer, but not his worg mount, which picked up the body and fled.
In the meantime, with a large fire elemental fighting the goblin leader and fireballs raining from the sky, the ettins apparently decided that they had had enough and fled, one making it over the walls and running while the other sat on the wall and waited to see what happened next. The lizardmen also surrendered at this point. I think they realized they were being excluded from our attacks and wanted nothing we were dishing out. I verbally accepted their surrender while assisting Artemis in clearing the walls of the last of the archers.
The goblin leader cast invisiblity on himself and ran from the fire elemental, into his burning house, I think because it backed to one of the walls of the fort. To me it looked like jumping out of the fire into another fire, with no frying pan in sight. The fire elemental was able to track him into the house and blocked the only exit – until the goblin leader created another by using lightning bolt to blow out the back wall. Arthus was just returning at this point and had the hand of glory, which allowed him to see invisible. He flew down the goblin leader and killed him. (For a paladin, Arthus can be kind of vicious at times.)
Gil returned from chasing the worg and reported that it got away. He was down to only his magic missile device, having used up the fireball combo device on the fort. Taking stock of the situation, we realized we had won!
I talked with the leader of the lizardmen a bit. They had been contracted to help defend the fort by the goblins, not fight a war for them. When we bypassed them and kept our attacks on only the goblins, he (the lizardman leader) had decided that the contract was over. Respecting our obvious strength (and not knowing that we were about out of fight), we were granted an invitation to (a peaceful) visit to their city in the hills. We graciously accepted the invitation and sent them on their way.
After they left, we got to talking with the last ettin, who was still sitting on the fort wall. Gil and Artemis spoke the giant tongue and translated what he said. He had noticed that every goblin who fled was attacked and killed and wanted to avoid that fate himself as he was heavily wounded. I was going to give him a healing potion and send him on his way when Gil suddenly attacked him with magic missile, killing the ettin in cold blood!
This did not set well with any of us, particularly Arthus and The Hunter. The Hunter just stalked off without another word. Arthus and I demanded to know why Gilgamesh had killed the ettin. Gilgamesh’s only defense was, “He hit me with a javelin.” I believe Gilgamesh belatedly realized he had gone probably too far. If he had not been a reliable travelling companion up until that point, I think Arthus would have struck Gilgamesh down as a murderer right there and then and Artemis and I would probably have agreed with him.
Not wanting to talk with Gilgamesh very much at that point, I turned to the goblin leader’s house. It was on fire, but it was still the best place to find the goblin’s treasure. I used elemental body to turn myself into a small fire elemental and went in and searched the structure. I was able to pull out a chest that was not burning, despite a burning log falling on it. This seemed promising.
Artemis disabled the trap and unlocked it (with some minor assistance from me). Inside we found a set of very well made leather armor and a ring. Arthus had taken a ring and a headband off of the body of the goblin leader. We set these all together and had Gilgamesh check for magic and identify them. They were all magical [leather armor +2 of light fortification, headband of intellect +2, ring of water-walking, and a ring of jumping]. We were also pleasantly surprised to find that the pony was still alive and still had our chest (although the dart trap had been sprung at some point). After chasing it so long, Gilgamesh decided to name it Amy.
With the sun setting, we made camp near (upwind of) the burning fort, fairly confident that nothing would attack us while the fort burned. It would have been almost pleasant if it were not for the smell of burning goblins when the wind shifted. Then it was wretched. We were undisturbed for most of the night. The red dragon flew around, very high up, during third watch, but made no effort to land or even get close. I think it was curious.
The next day we made our way back to the waystation. It started raining heavily about mid-day and the red dragon flew by again near sunset, but we hid from it and it flew on. Due to the mid-day rain slowing us down, we had to camp in the debris field. On my watch I noticed a small boat in a debris pile. Curious as to what a boat was doing this far from water, I investigated. Inside was a dead body wearing a pristine cloak. I suspected the cloak was magical and took it off the body. The next morning Gilgamesh identified it as a cloak of the manta ray. Very puzzling item to find out here, but I am becoming less and less surprised by this place. After another hour we arrived at the waystation for a good long rest.
*End Session*
[This was the last session of Verden I was able to attend. I missed the final session due to a bad combination of a cold and allergies. The DM is now moving to Ohio, so there will be no more Verden posts, which is a shame as I was very much enjoying playing in that game. I would have liked seeing if Gilgamesh could re-earn the group’s trust after his cold-blooded murder of the ettin prisoner. Plus, we were looking forward to tracking down the “Locked Saltwater Grave” to see what was there. This game (and the DM) will be missed. Good travels Kyle.]
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Verden: The Library
This session happened Wednesday, October 6, 2010. I missed the previous session due to illness and the adventurers had stopped at one of the I.C.E. waystations rather than return to Vestige, hence my abrupt trans-location.
Adventuring Group:
Artemis (half-elf rogue)
Arthus (half-elf paladin)
Book (elf rogue)
Gilgamesh (uffnik artificer)
Four days after Gil, Artemis, Arthus, and Jonathan headed out (without me), I awoke to discover I was in a waystation, not back at the Gnome Hill Inn. Somehow I had been transported to the waystation the Artemis, Arthus, and Gilgamesh were in. This implies either a deeper link between I.C.E. and Gnome Hill or our I.C.E. tokens do a lot more than we were told. I’m not certain I like the implications of either solution.
After a hearty breakfast, the others partially brought me up to date. They have been in all sorts of trouble, including nearly burning down an evil temple with a library and a failed attack on a goblin fort to retrieve Gil’s pony, which somehow got stolen by the goblins – I never got a complete or straight story about that. After telling me what they were willing to share, they asked my opinion as to which location we should return to.
I decide to investigate the evil temple instead of attacking the goblin fort (I mean, really).
After a half-day’s travel, we arrived at the underground remains of the temple. I was escorted through the chapel, where they fought animated skeletons to an area I refer to as the Rector’s Office. There is a desk and several shelves of books and the remains of an exploded armoire (Gil is bad luck when helping with traps apparently).
After searching around to see if anything was missed, they show me the illusory wall that hides the entrance to the library. This area has possibly the largest concentration of books, scrolls, and papers I’ve seen outside of the University back in Verden. (Yes, I’ve been to the University. They have a number of valuable items which can fetch a nice sum when sold to a reliable fence, including certain books. It was my specialty, hence my nickname, Book. You didn’t think my parents named me that did you?)
After they showed me around the library, they showed me the trapped set of double doors, one of which had been set off, sealing the door shut permanently somehow. The other exit was a secret door leading to a room with a summoning circle permanently inscribed on the floor. That room also had a set of stairs leading down. The trick here was that both Arthus and Artemis had been teleported into the circle when they entered the room and been weakened when Gil tried to get them back out. To avoid this trap, we disassembled an adjacent set of shelves and knocked out a part of the wall separating the two rooms. Easy, really.
The Summoning Chamber contained even more books, but these concentrated on summoning magics and other fell topics – we could not read most of them as they were in the fell languages of demons and devils. On a writing desk was some stationary and a quill. Inside a drawer of the desk was a jeweled coffer, an unflawed gem, and a bag of gold coins with twice the gold value of regular gold marks. Bribes or rewards?
We took the stairs down to another room full of books, this time all index books covering the rest of the library. Each page indicated title, author, subject, location on the shelves, and had a short synopsis of the contents. We spent some time trying to decide which of these we would take for later referral, but we eventually gave up when we peaked into the next room – the main library chamber.
A short aside here. So far, we had been through four rooms full of books. Back in Verden, I could parley this into a size-able amount of gold, but transferring the whole thing would take months if not a year or two. So I did my best to keep an eye out for noticeably valuable books and picked up a few on magic that caught my eye. If nothing else, I could read them later to see if they were really worth anything, and this I ended up doing later.
The Main Library was a very large chamber with an impressive number of books, most of which weren’t very valuable. General topics of varying degrees of complexity. I didn’t bother trying to move any of them I was so unimpressed. Turned out to be a good thing, too. There was a valuable carpet in front of the main doors, which I rolled up to check for concealed trap doors (and so it would fit in my bag of holding – hey, it was treasure, alright?). The only impressive things were the stained glass main doors and some oddly placed mirrors on the walls.
Thinking stained glass doors meant access to the surface, we opened them and went into the next chamber. We were wrong – the doors led to an underground cemetery. Not a crypt, mind you, a cemetery with grave markers and such. We checked the grave markers and they listed people by job description. The dates indicated that they had all died on the same day. The markings were obviously in the same hand as all the books in the catalog, suggesting the catalogist survived, but there was a grave for him as well, listing the same date of death. This was very odd.
While searching the chamber, Artemis and I spotted a secret door over in one corner on the back wall. Opening it, we found a golden coffin, extremely similar to the one in the Mausoleum. Inserting Creation’s Key into a circular opening caused the coffin to light up under the effect of a daylight spell, illuminating the entire cavern. It also unlocked the coffin. Inside was a body holding a wooden box, just like in the Mausoleum. I carefully opened it, pulled out a white robe and a pair of gold glasses, and then reclosed the box and the coffin, which still glowed intensely. It was odd that this provided so much light in an underground chamber, which set my mind to thinking.
I returned to the Main Library with Artemis and we closed the stained glass doors. The sunlight spell lit the doors, which also gave off six beams of light and projected an image where the carpet had been. Artemis and I followed the beams of light (some of which were reflected off the oddly placed mirrors), realizing they illuminated particular book titles and only certain words on those books. Writing them all down and sorting it out, we came up with a sentence: “Bring Light to the Locked Saltwater Grave”. Clearly a clue, but to what we have no idea. I re-rolled out the carpet and the image projected on the floor was two identifiable columns bracketing the symbol woven into the carpet, that of a book and sword, backed by a sun. I quickly sketched this out and we let Gil and Arthus back in as they had started complaining like small children about being locked out on the porch.
I suggested Gil and Arthus re-check our findings in the Main Library and then borrowed Gil’s shovel. He had an idea of what I was about to do and started dragging Arthus around to look at things with Jonathan in tow. Artemis and I stepped back outside and closed the doors. We then stepped over to the catalogist’s grave and dug it up. How could a dead person bury everyone else and himself while leaving no traces? We were determined to find out.
We uncovered the coffin and opened it. Inside was a body with a journal and a quill. I retrieved both and Artemis and I started reading the journal’s final entries. Apparently, the temple was a center of learning and the home of a monastic order. About five years ago, the place was attacked and sacked by evil forces and the catalogist survived by hiding in an armoire (the one Artemis blew up last time they were here). After the evil forces left, the catalogist buried all his brethren. But if he survived, who was actually buried here under his name and title and why? Neither Artemis nor I had an answer and we quickly re-buried the coffin, keeping the journal. Something is definitely up here. By the time we finished our digging (and cleaning up a bit), Gil and Arthus had confirmed our interpretation of what the lights meant. If Arthus noticed the dirt on Artemis and I, he gave no indication.
Above the double doors was a balcony that seemed to lead back into the area we could not enter earlier. Using a grapple, we climbed up and investigated. There was a set of plain glass doors leading to an office of some sort, possibly of the head librarian. Inside was an ornate desk with two drawers, four dressing dummies wearing three sets of armor and a set of robes, and a large statue of a man in robes. Where there were double doors in the Library, this side only had one door and a blank wall. Apparently the trap, when triggered on a door, permanently seals the spot by magically placing a wall where the door should open.
Artemis and I determined that the desk drawers were trapped, but the dress dummies were not. The armor and robes either tested as magical or were made of rare metals, so we quickly put them in the bag of holding for later identification. While moving them, we noticed a secret door on a side wall and decided to hold off on exploring that until we finished with this room. The traps on the desk drawers were very difficult to disarm, reset themselves, and were nigh deadly (luckily we had plenty of healing available). Convinced there were things of value in the desk, we persevered and eventually disarmed the traps and gained entry into the drawers.
Inside the drawers we found treasure indeed, including another bag of holding, a belt of giant strength [+2], a circlet of persuasion, goggles of night, a hand of glory [a mummified human hand on a cord], a pouch of the double-value gold coins, and a very well locked book. We did not know all of this immediately, but when we camped later Gil was able to identify all but the book.
Having finished exploring this room, we next checked the secret door. Behind it was a shallow but wide room containing five chests – the Treasury! Artemis and I took our time and thoroughly checked the room out. This was a good thing as all the chests were linked to a single trap that would have immolated anyone in the room and possibly the chests and their contents. These people were very serious about no one getting their belongings!
Disabling the room trap, we had Arthus haul each chest out of the room individually to the balcony, where Artemis and I worked on them, one at a time. Each chest contained a large sack of coins and we filled out bags of holding with coinage of various denominations.
At this point we were all tired and so we camped in this office. During the night, Gil claimed that the statue was watching him, but none of us saw anything of the kind. I spent much of my time on watch reading several magical theory books and reference books and I think I have some definite insights on things arcane now. Reading the magic was difficult and tedious, but I have learned much about the art of evocation.
The next morning Gil identified all of the magical items we had accumulated the previous day and we were quite pleased with ourselves. Having completely explored this area, we decided to return to the waystation to prepare for our next goal – retrieval of Gil's pony and revenge on the goblins. We closed and locked the doors of this area on our way out (there are still a great many books that I wish to return and collect). By the end of the day we were back at the nearest waystation to rest and plan our assault of the goblin fort.
*End Session*
Adventuring Group:
Artemis (half-elf rogue)
Arthus (half-elf paladin)
Book (elf rogue)
Gilgamesh (uffnik artificer)
Four days after Gil, Artemis, Arthus, and Jonathan headed out (without me), I awoke to discover I was in a waystation, not back at the Gnome Hill Inn. Somehow I had been transported to the waystation the Artemis, Arthus, and Gilgamesh were in. This implies either a deeper link between I.C.E. and Gnome Hill or our I.C.E. tokens do a lot more than we were told. I’m not certain I like the implications of either solution.
After a hearty breakfast, the others partially brought me up to date. They have been in all sorts of trouble, including nearly burning down an evil temple with a library and a failed attack on a goblin fort to retrieve Gil’s pony, which somehow got stolen by the goblins – I never got a complete or straight story about that. After telling me what they were willing to share, they asked my opinion as to which location we should return to.
I decide to investigate the evil temple instead of attacking the goblin fort (I mean, really).
After a half-day’s travel, we arrived at the underground remains of the temple. I was escorted through the chapel, where they fought animated skeletons to an area I refer to as the Rector’s Office. There is a desk and several shelves of books and the remains of an exploded armoire (Gil is bad luck when helping with traps apparently).
After searching around to see if anything was missed, they show me the illusory wall that hides the entrance to the library. This area has possibly the largest concentration of books, scrolls, and papers I’ve seen outside of the University back in Verden. (Yes, I’ve been to the University. They have a number of valuable items which can fetch a nice sum when sold to a reliable fence, including certain books. It was my specialty, hence my nickname, Book. You didn’t think my parents named me that did you?)
After they showed me around the library, they showed me the trapped set of double doors, one of which had been set off, sealing the door shut permanently somehow. The other exit was a secret door leading to a room with a summoning circle permanently inscribed on the floor. That room also had a set of stairs leading down. The trick here was that both Arthus and Artemis had been teleported into the circle when they entered the room and been weakened when Gil tried to get them back out. To avoid this trap, we disassembled an adjacent set of shelves and knocked out a part of the wall separating the two rooms. Easy, really.
The Summoning Chamber contained even more books, but these concentrated on summoning magics and other fell topics – we could not read most of them as they were in the fell languages of demons and devils. On a writing desk was some stationary and a quill. Inside a drawer of the desk was a jeweled coffer, an unflawed gem, and a bag of gold coins with twice the gold value of regular gold marks. Bribes or rewards?
We took the stairs down to another room full of books, this time all index books covering the rest of the library. Each page indicated title, author, subject, location on the shelves, and had a short synopsis of the contents. We spent some time trying to decide which of these we would take for later referral, but we eventually gave up when we peaked into the next room – the main library chamber.
A short aside here. So far, we had been through four rooms full of books. Back in Verden, I could parley this into a size-able amount of gold, but transferring the whole thing would take months if not a year or two. So I did my best to keep an eye out for noticeably valuable books and picked up a few on magic that caught my eye. If nothing else, I could read them later to see if they were really worth anything, and this I ended up doing later.
The Main Library was a very large chamber with an impressive number of books, most of which weren’t very valuable. General topics of varying degrees of complexity. I didn’t bother trying to move any of them I was so unimpressed. Turned out to be a good thing, too. There was a valuable carpet in front of the main doors, which I rolled up to check for concealed trap doors (and so it would fit in my bag of holding – hey, it was treasure, alright?). The only impressive things were the stained glass main doors and some oddly placed mirrors on the walls.
Thinking stained glass doors meant access to the surface, we opened them and went into the next chamber. We were wrong – the doors led to an underground cemetery. Not a crypt, mind you, a cemetery with grave markers and such. We checked the grave markers and they listed people by job description. The dates indicated that they had all died on the same day. The markings were obviously in the same hand as all the books in the catalog, suggesting the catalogist survived, but there was a grave for him as well, listing the same date of death. This was very odd.
While searching the chamber, Artemis and I spotted a secret door over in one corner on the back wall. Opening it, we found a golden coffin, extremely similar to the one in the Mausoleum. Inserting Creation’s Key into a circular opening caused the coffin to light up under the effect of a daylight spell, illuminating the entire cavern. It also unlocked the coffin. Inside was a body holding a wooden box, just like in the Mausoleum. I carefully opened it, pulled out a white robe and a pair of gold glasses, and then reclosed the box and the coffin, which still glowed intensely. It was odd that this provided so much light in an underground chamber, which set my mind to thinking.
I returned to the Main Library with Artemis and we closed the stained glass doors. The sunlight spell lit the doors, which also gave off six beams of light and projected an image where the carpet had been. Artemis and I followed the beams of light (some of which were reflected off the oddly placed mirrors), realizing they illuminated particular book titles and only certain words on those books. Writing them all down and sorting it out, we came up with a sentence: “Bring Light to the Locked Saltwater Grave”. Clearly a clue, but to what we have no idea. I re-rolled out the carpet and the image projected on the floor was two identifiable columns bracketing the symbol woven into the carpet, that of a book and sword, backed by a sun. I quickly sketched this out and we let Gil and Arthus back in as they had started complaining like small children about being locked out on the porch.
I suggested Gil and Arthus re-check our findings in the Main Library and then borrowed Gil’s shovel. He had an idea of what I was about to do and started dragging Arthus around to look at things with Jonathan in tow. Artemis and I stepped back outside and closed the doors. We then stepped over to the catalogist’s grave and dug it up. How could a dead person bury everyone else and himself while leaving no traces? We were determined to find out.
We uncovered the coffin and opened it. Inside was a body with a journal and a quill. I retrieved both and Artemis and I started reading the journal’s final entries. Apparently, the temple was a center of learning and the home of a monastic order. About five years ago, the place was attacked and sacked by evil forces and the catalogist survived by hiding in an armoire (the one Artemis blew up last time they were here). After the evil forces left, the catalogist buried all his brethren. But if he survived, who was actually buried here under his name and title and why? Neither Artemis nor I had an answer and we quickly re-buried the coffin, keeping the journal. Something is definitely up here. By the time we finished our digging (and cleaning up a bit), Gil and Arthus had confirmed our interpretation of what the lights meant. If Arthus noticed the dirt on Artemis and I, he gave no indication.
Above the double doors was a balcony that seemed to lead back into the area we could not enter earlier. Using a grapple, we climbed up and investigated. There was a set of plain glass doors leading to an office of some sort, possibly of the head librarian. Inside was an ornate desk with two drawers, four dressing dummies wearing three sets of armor and a set of robes, and a large statue of a man in robes. Where there were double doors in the Library, this side only had one door and a blank wall. Apparently the trap, when triggered on a door, permanently seals the spot by magically placing a wall where the door should open.
Artemis and I determined that the desk drawers were trapped, but the dress dummies were not. The armor and robes either tested as magical or were made of rare metals, so we quickly put them in the bag of holding for later identification. While moving them, we noticed a secret door on a side wall and decided to hold off on exploring that until we finished with this room. The traps on the desk drawers were very difficult to disarm, reset themselves, and were nigh deadly (luckily we had plenty of healing available). Convinced there were things of value in the desk, we persevered and eventually disarmed the traps and gained entry into the drawers.
Inside the drawers we found treasure indeed, including another bag of holding, a belt of giant strength [+2], a circlet of persuasion, goggles of night, a hand of glory [a mummified human hand on a cord], a pouch of the double-value gold coins, and a very well locked book. We did not know all of this immediately, but when we camped later Gil was able to identify all but the book.
Having finished exploring this room, we next checked the secret door. Behind it was a shallow but wide room containing five chests – the Treasury! Artemis and I took our time and thoroughly checked the room out. This was a good thing as all the chests were linked to a single trap that would have immolated anyone in the room and possibly the chests and their contents. These people were very serious about no one getting their belongings!
Disabling the room trap, we had Arthus haul each chest out of the room individually to the balcony, where Artemis and I worked on them, one at a time. Each chest contained a large sack of coins and we filled out bags of holding with coinage of various denominations.
At this point we were all tired and so we camped in this office. During the night, Gil claimed that the statue was watching him, but none of us saw anything of the kind. I spent much of my time on watch reading several magical theory books and reference books and I think I have some definite insights on things arcane now. Reading the magic was difficult and tedious, but I have learned much about the art of evocation.
The next morning Gil identified all of the magical items we had accumulated the previous day and we were quite pleased with ourselves. Having completely explored this area, we decided to return to the waystation to prepare for our next goal – retrieval of Gil's pony and revenge on the goblins. We closed and locked the doors of this area on our way out (there are still a great many books that I wish to return and collect). By the end of the day we were back at the nearest waystation to rest and plan our assault of the goblin fort.
*End Session*
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
The End of Verden - Soon!
So my Wednesday night game is running into an issue - the DM just got a job out of state. Like, Ohio, so commuting is NOT an option. We have tonight's session and then next week's and then the campaign closes.
This is a shame on two levels: 1) I get to play, as opposed to DM like I do in two other games, and 2) it's a darn fine campaign that has been an excellent foil for my Southern Reaches campaign. He does things differently and we are able to compare our games and learn from each other. I'll miss both of these things.
Now I'm part of a group with four players and no DM. I'd rather not start yet another campaign just now. Two of the other players are new to RPGs, this being their first game and gaming group. The fourth is newer than me, but might step up (and he's possibly reading this, so consider it a hint). Other options are to track down a DM looking for players or switch to boardgaming.
To track down another DM, I'll need to skip a Wednesday game and see if I can find some guys I gamed with once during the first season of D&D Encounters. They were not the group I started with, but, due to a switch in location and a car that was cranky, I played with these folks for an evening and had good fun. I deeply regret not getting any of their contact information that night. I don't want to post a general call as there are some folks I have no strong desire to sit at a table with again. The other issue with a new DM is a possible change in game system. For me this is a small issue as I'm willing to play several systems, but it might be a bit more frustrating for the newest players who are just getting up to speed on Pathfinder.
Switching to boardgames could be cool as well, as they are another passion of mine. I think I'd rather play in a RPG, but if we end up playing boardgames, I'm good with that too. Possibly even so Arkham Horror... :)
All that said, I have notes for one Verden adventure log (cleaning out a hidden library) and will have notes for two more sessions (likely the assault of Fort Goblinton) and then Verden will be over. I'll have last week's session written up, uh, "soon". Traps pay out good experience points, especially the nail-biters.
Later!
This is a shame on two levels: 1) I get to play, as opposed to DM like I do in two other games, and 2) it's a darn fine campaign that has been an excellent foil for my Southern Reaches campaign. He does things differently and we are able to compare our games and learn from each other. I'll miss both of these things.
Now I'm part of a group with four players and no DM. I'd rather not start yet another campaign just now. Two of the other players are new to RPGs, this being their first game and gaming group. The fourth is newer than me, but might step up (and he's possibly reading this, so consider it a hint). Other options are to track down a DM looking for players or switch to boardgaming.
To track down another DM, I'll need to skip a Wednesday game and see if I can find some guys I gamed with once during the first season of D&D Encounters. They were not the group I started with, but, due to a switch in location and a car that was cranky, I played with these folks for an evening and had good fun. I deeply regret not getting any of their contact information that night. I don't want to post a general call as there are some folks I have no strong desire to sit at a table with again. The other issue with a new DM is a possible change in game system. For me this is a small issue as I'm willing to play several systems, but it might be a bit more frustrating for the newest players who are just getting up to speed on Pathfinder.
Switching to boardgames could be cool as well, as they are another passion of mine. I think I'd rather play in a RPG, but if we end up playing boardgames, I'm good with that too. Possibly even so Arkham Horror... :)
All that said, I have notes for one Verden adventure log (cleaning out a hidden library) and will have notes for two more sessions (likely the assault of Fort Goblinton) and then Verden will be over. I'll have last week's session written up, uh, "soon". Traps pay out good experience points, especially the nail-biters.
Later!
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Verden: Bounty, Crypts, and the Waystation
This session happened Wednesday, August 25, 2010.
Adventuring Group:
Artemis (half-elf rogue)
Arthus (half-elf paladin)
Book (elf rogue)
Gilgamesh (uffnik artificer)
Before setting out to collect the bounty on the orc wizard, Arthus, Gilgamesh, and I collected up Artemis at the Gnome Hill Inn. We decided to pool our monies and purchase a group membership in ICE from Richard, the paladin leader of the organization. After doing so, he invited us into the guild house for the first time. It is plush and comfortable, completely different from the more ramshackle look on the outside.
Richard provided us with guild membership tokens that indicate we are members and also grants access to the waystations. Where are the waystations? Clearly marked out on wall-mounted map of the area. We spent a few minutes updating our map to match the Wall Map, then purchased some healing potions and a tanglefoot bag – items only available to guild members.
After stocking up, we headed out towards the wizard’s hut, taking the trail north and then cutting west to the hut. Along the way, Artemis kept me from stepping into a pit trap she noticed. Good elven eyes on that woman! We lowered her into the pit to look for loot and she found a bit of gold, some minor gems, and a bear trap. Hunh. I re-hid the trap (doing an excellent job if I may say so) and arranged some stones to remind us of its location. Never know when something like that could be useful.
We got far enough the first day that we could have made it to the hut, but only if we exhausted ourselves. Not wanting to be winded when we faced the wizard, we camped early. Gil was working on a new gadget of some sort and as a result, everyone woke up with a bad case of leaves. Not like leaves were dropped on us from a tree, we were actually sprouting leaves. We all insisted that if he is going to take apart items like that, he do so at a distance from the rest of us. Artificers are more trouble than they are worth sometimes.
The following morning, after haranguing Gil about the leaves again, we made our way to the wizard’s hut. We noticed a few things different from our last time here: the strip of grass had been mowed, the naked body of the guy previously in half-plate was strung up again, and the wizard now owned a ballista. It was parked right next to his hut. Big thing too.
After formulating something like a battle plan, I hustled around to the back of the hill of war debris backing the hut and started climbing it. The entire hill was lousy with bells on wires as alarm systems. That might have stopped some, but not me. I got into position above and slightly behind the hut with the wizard noe-the-wiser and signaled to Gil. Gil hopped the fence and attempted to use detect magic to spot the hidden mines all over the wizard’s “yard”, but tripped the first ones he encountered immediately, alerting the wizard. The wizard fired two magic missiles at Gil for his troubles. Gil panicked and immediately used his obscuring mist gizmo to provide himself cover. This just made it difficult for Artemis and Arthus to get in position.
Luckily, the wizard got cocky and came out to fight again, thinking he had our number. He realized something was up when he laid eyes on Artemis for the first time, realizing there were now four of us. Then I started peppering him with my crossbow while Arthus attacked with his sword. The last straw for the wizard was Gil’s new grease/burning hands combination device. Gil used it to cover the wizard in grease and then set him on fire. The wizard tried to turn invisible and flee, but the smoke coming off him nullified that and Arthus, Artemis, and I (after a styling acrobatic slide down the pile of debris) were able to surround him and put him down. His corpse eventually became visible again, which was not an improvement.
After that, we looted the hut of 17 books, a nice rug, two potions, and some other stuff that looked good. Gil identified the potions as cure light wounds and stoneskin, which was good as I guessed wrong and the hidden chest they were in was trapped and Artemis triggered it. My fault entirely. Sadly, the ballista was an illusion. Richard probably would have given us good money for a real one. We also cut down the two adventurers from the gibbet and packed them away in the chest on the pack horse. Oddly, they didn’t stink. We then headed to the cemetery, as it was the safest place for us to camp and recuperate spells. Along the way we had to avoid a group of wights, which would have been bad news if we had had to fight them.
After a refreshing (and undisturbed) night, Gil started identifying what loot was magical and what wasn’t. One of the cloaks was a cloak of resistance [+1], which we gave to Artemis. A polished rock we pulled from the trapped chest turned out to be an elemental gem – you crush it and a large fire elemental is summoned. Gil assures us the elemental will be controlled by the person who crushed the stone. The rest of us are dubious. The rope we found turned out to be a rope of climbing, which should be handy to have.
Three of the books radiated magic. Two of the books were trapped with magical symbols, but the third was a comprehensive list of beginning spells. Gil says that that book will be very useful for him. Well, he said it after waking up from the symbol of sleep the second book hit him with.
Once Gil was awake again, we decided to go down into the mausoleum and finish clearing the rooms. Things were like we left them, which was a good sign. The room with the gold coffin also had a magical field protecting the coffin, something we had not noticed before. Not wanting to do anything we couldn’t take back, we decided to check the other crypts before messing with the magical field here.
The next crypt over was the one containing the stone coffin and a partially collapsed wall (and the spear trap I failed to notice until I tripped it, which Gil and Arthus were only to glad to tell Artemis about). We investigated the wall and discovered another room behind the first one. We cleared out more of the debris and entered the room. Chained to the far wall was a woman with a wooden stake clearly sticking out of her chest. To one side was a magical wooden box that had water continually running through it. On the ground near the woman was a stone tablet with “Oh how I loved her” written in Celestial on it. This room spooked us and we decided to leave everything as we found it.
The last room was where the ghouls attacked us. The room was exactly as we left it and there was nothing of interest in the room, so we returned to the room with the gold coffin. We discovered the field cutting off the back of the room had a round gap in it and we thought to try the “Creation’s Key” gold cylinder we found a couple weeks back. It worked and the field went down. The runes on the cylinder changed to read “Creation's most radiant treasure”. Inside we found a mummy holding a wooden box. I carefully retrieved the wooden box and opened it. Inside were four scrolls – one sealed with wax, the other three not. The unsealed scrolls allow the casting of hallow with daylight attached to it. We took all four scrolls and replaced the wooden box in the coffin. After closing the coffin and moving away, the magical field reappeared. Interesting.
We left the Mausoleum and checked our map of the area. According to our map, the nearest waystation was within a day’s travel, so we decided to go check it out. Better to know what to look for now than desperately trying to find it later when we might be running from something. Along the way we had to hide from a red dragon that was slowly flying towards the west. Those things are huge!
When we arrived at the place where the waystation was supposed to be located, a small building appeared out of thin air. Richard had told us that the guild tokens would allow us to see the waystation, but having it actually happen was something else. Inside we discovered that the waystation is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. It also contained a sitting area (with chimney and fire), four sleeping rooms (with large comfy beds), a fully stocked larder, and (best of all) hot baths! After refreshing ourselves, we discussed what we had found in the mausoleum and concluded that someone was torturing a vampire there and we wanted nothing to do with it. We kept watches through the night, but nothing bothered us.
After breakfast the next morning, Gil identified several of the magic items we had found but had not identified yet. We marched east to connect with the trail to Vestige. Along the way we had to hide from the red dragon again, this time flying east. If that dragon starts being a frequent occurrence, we’re going to have to take precautions.
We also found another pit trap. Artemis noticed it but, and I can’t prove this, she nudged me into it. I think it was a bit of payback over the trapped chest in the wizard’s hut. Personally, I’m just happy there were no spikes in the pit. I did find a magical light crossbow [+1] (which I appropriated immediately), a coin pouch with 100 gold marks in it, and a quiver of bolts, which I stuck in the bag of holding. After marching a few more hours we arrived at the head of the trail and camped.
That night we had to scramble to a new camp when a purple worm decided to burrow past. This turned out to be fortuitous as Gil and I both spotted a coin pouch at the new camp which contained a clear, unflawed gem and 20 gold marks.
In the morning Gil finally got around to using identify on the sealed scroll. It turned out to be a magical map that showed the area around the holder. It also seems to want to lead us to something in the north northeast, but we were more interested in returning to Vestige right now. The day was uneventful and we arrived at Vestige as the sun was setting.
We stopped at the guild house first and turned over the bodies and the wizard’s head to Richard, who paid us the 500 gold mark bounty. We also chatted about what we found in the Mausoleum and Richard opined that it sounded like someone was saving the vampiress for something. Neither Arthus nor I like the sound of that.
Later, over at the Gnome Hill Inn, we shared our adventure with those there. While talking with Jonathan, it suddenly occurred to me that the vampiress might be his employer’s wife. I decided to keep this insight to myself for the time being – I have no way of knowing how Jonathan would react to that observation. I find I’m still suspicious of his lack of memory about what happened to him down there.
*End Session*
Adventuring Group:
Artemis (half-elf rogue)
Arthus (half-elf paladin)
Book (elf rogue)
Gilgamesh (uffnik artificer)
Before setting out to collect the bounty on the orc wizard, Arthus, Gilgamesh, and I collected up Artemis at the Gnome Hill Inn. We decided to pool our monies and purchase a group membership in ICE from Richard, the paladin leader of the organization. After doing so, he invited us into the guild house for the first time. It is plush and comfortable, completely different from the more ramshackle look on the outside.
Richard provided us with guild membership tokens that indicate we are members and also grants access to the waystations. Where are the waystations? Clearly marked out on wall-mounted map of the area. We spent a few minutes updating our map to match the Wall Map, then purchased some healing potions and a tanglefoot bag – items only available to guild members.
After stocking up, we headed out towards the wizard’s hut, taking the trail north and then cutting west to the hut. Along the way, Artemis kept me from stepping into a pit trap she noticed. Good elven eyes on that woman! We lowered her into the pit to look for loot and she found a bit of gold, some minor gems, and a bear trap. Hunh. I re-hid the trap (doing an excellent job if I may say so) and arranged some stones to remind us of its location. Never know when something like that could be useful.
We got far enough the first day that we could have made it to the hut, but only if we exhausted ourselves. Not wanting to be winded when we faced the wizard, we camped early. Gil was working on a new gadget of some sort and as a result, everyone woke up with a bad case of leaves. Not like leaves were dropped on us from a tree, we were actually sprouting leaves. We all insisted that if he is going to take apart items like that, he do so at a distance from the rest of us. Artificers are more trouble than they are worth sometimes.
The following morning, after haranguing Gil about the leaves again, we made our way to the wizard’s hut. We noticed a few things different from our last time here: the strip of grass had been mowed, the naked body of the guy previously in half-plate was strung up again, and the wizard now owned a ballista. It was parked right next to his hut. Big thing too.
After formulating something like a battle plan, I hustled around to the back of the hill of war debris backing the hut and started climbing it. The entire hill was lousy with bells on wires as alarm systems. That might have stopped some, but not me. I got into position above and slightly behind the hut with the wizard noe-the-wiser and signaled to Gil. Gil hopped the fence and attempted to use detect magic to spot the hidden mines all over the wizard’s “yard”, but tripped the first ones he encountered immediately, alerting the wizard. The wizard fired two magic missiles at Gil for his troubles. Gil panicked and immediately used his obscuring mist gizmo to provide himself cover. This just made it difficult for Artemis and Arthus to get in position.
Luckily, the wizard got cocky and came out to fight again, thinking he had our number. He realized something was up when he laid eyes on Artemis for the first time, realizing there were now four of us. Then I started peppering him with my crossbow while Arthus attacked with his sword. The last straw for the wizard was Gil’s new grease/burning hands combination device. Gil used it to cover the wizard in grease and then set him on fire. The wizard tried to turn invisible and flee, but the smoke coming off him nullified that and Arthus, Artemis, and I (after a styling acrobatic slide down the pile of debris) were able to surround him and put him down. His corpse eventually became visible again, which was not an improvement.
After that, we looted the hut of 17 books, a nice rug, two potions, and some other stuff that looked good. Gil identified the potions as cure light wounds and stoneskin, which was good as I guessed wrong and the hidden chest they were in was trapped and Artemis triggered it. My fault entirely. Sadly, the ballista was an illusion. Richard probably would have given us good money for a real one. We also cut down the two adventurers from the gibbet and packed them away in the chest on the pack horse. Oddly, they didn’t stink. We then headed to the cemetery, as it was the safest place for us to camp and recuperate spells. Along the way we had to avoid a group of wights, which would have been bad news if we had had to fight them.
After a refreshing (and undisturbed) night, Gil started identifying what loot was magical and what wasn’t. One of the cloaks was a cloak of resistance [+1], which we gave to Artemis. A polished rock we pulled from the trapped chest turned out to be an elemental gem – you crush it and a large fire elemental is summoned. Gil assures us the elemental will be controlled by the person who crushed the stone. The rest of us are dubious. The rope we found turned out to be a rope of climbing, which should be handy to have.
Three of the books radiated magic. Two of the books were trapped with magical symbols, but the third was a comprehensive list of beginning spells. Gil says that that book will be very useful for him. Well, he said it after waking up from the symbol of sleep the second book hit him with.
Once Gil was awake again, we decided to go down into the mausoleum and finish clearing the rooms. Things were like we left them, which was a good sign. The room with the gold coffin also had a magical field protecting the coffin, something we had not noticed before. Not wanting to do anything we couldn’t take back, we decided to check the other crypts before messing with the magical field here.
The next crypt over was the one containing the stone coffin and a partially collapsed wall (and the spear trap I failed to notice until I tripped it, which Gil and Arthus were only to glad to tell Artemis about). We investigated the wall and discovered another room behind the first one. We cleared out more of the debris and entered the room. Chained to the far wall was a woman with a wooden stake clearly sticking out of her chest. To one side was a magical wooden box that had water continually running through it. On the ground near the woman was a stone tablet with “Oh how I loved her” written in Celestial on it. This room spooked us and we decided to leave everything as we found it.
The last room was where the ghouls attacked us. The room was exactly as we left it and there was nothing of interest in the room, so we returned to the room with the gold coffin. We discovered the field cutting off the back of the room had a round gap in it and we thought to try the “Creation’s Key” gold cylinder we found a couple weeks back. It worked and the field went down. The runes on the cylinder changed to read “Creation's most radiant treasure”. Inside we found a mummy holding a wooden box. I carefully retrieved the wooden box and opened it. Inside were four scrolls – one sealed with wax, the other three not. The unsealed scrolls allow the casting of hallow with daylight attached to it. We took all four scrolls and replaced the wooden box in the coffin. After closing the coffin and moving away, the magical field reappeared. Interesting.
We left the Mausoleum and checked our map of the area. According to our map, the nearest waystation was within a day’s travel, so we decided to go check it out. Better to know what to look for now than desperately trying to find it later when we might be running from something. Along the way we had to hide from a red dragon that was slowly flying towards the west. Those things are huge!
When we arrived at the place where the waystation was supposed to be located, a small building appeared out of thin air. Richard had told us that the guild tokens would allow us to see the waystation, but having it actually happen was something else. Inside we discovered that the waystation is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. It also contained a sitting area (with chimney and fire), four sleeping rooms (with large comfy beds), a fully stocked larder, and (best of all) hot baths! After refreshing ourselves, we discussed what we had found in the mausoleum and concluded that someone was torturing a vampire there and we wanted nothing to do with it. We kept watches through the night, but nothing bothered us.
After breakfast the next morning, Gil identified several of the magic items we had found but had not identified yet. We marched east to connect with the trail to Vestige. Along the way we had to hide from the red dragon again, this time flying east. If that dragon starts being a frequent occurrence, we’re going to have to take precautions.
We also found another pit trap. Artemis noticed it but, and I can’t prove this, she nudged me into it. I think it was a bit of payback over the trapped chest in the wizard’s hut. Personally, I’m just happy there were no spikes in the pit. I did find a magical light crossbow [+1] (which I appropriated immediately), a coin pouch with 100 gold marks in it, and a quiver of bolts, which I stuck in the bag of holding. After marching a few more hours we arrived at the head of the trail and camped.
That night we had to scramble to a new camp when a purple worm decided to burrow past. This turned out to be fortuitous as Gil and I both spotted a coin pouch at the new camp which contained a clear, unflawed gem and 20 gold marks.
In the morning Gil finally got around to using identify on the sealed scroll. It turned out to be a magical map that showed the area around the holder. It also seems to want to lead us to something in the north northeast, but we were more interested in returning to Vestige right now. The day was uneventful and we arrived at Vestige as the sun was setting.
We stopped at the guild house first and turned over the bodies and the wizard’s head to Richard, who paid us the 500 gold mark bounty. We also chatted about what we found in the Mausoleum and Richard opined that it sounded like someone was saving the vampiress for something. Neither Arthus nor I like the sound of that.
Later, over at the Gnome Hill Inn, we shared our adventure with those there. While talking with Jonathan, it suddenly occurred to me that the vampiress might be his employer’s wife. I decided to keep this insight to myself for the time being – I have no way of knowing how Jonathan would react to that observation. I find I’m still suspicious of his lack of memory about what happened to him down there.
*End Session*
Friday, September 10, 2010
Verden: Poking the Wizard with a Stick
This session happened Wednesday, August 18, 2010.
Adventuring Group:
Arthus (half-elf paladin)
Book (elf rogue)
Gilgamesh (uffnik artificer)
Despite agreeing that the hut should be left alone, Arthus and that walking carpet Gilgamesh decided they couldn’t let it go. Artemis and I were content with staying at the Gnome Hill Inn and refused to go with them, thinking that they would wise up and not go.
They went anyway.
After some time went by, Artemis and I got to talking about it and we decided that the two of them were likely to get themselves killed, leaving us without access to healing magic for the next two and a half months. Plus, Arthus is an easy mark in Three Dragon Ante. So we played a quick game of rock-paper-scissors to see who had to go after them and who got to stay at the inn. I lost.
It took me most of a day to catch up with the two and when I finally did, they were at the hut. They had also provoked whoever was inside already. I could tell this from the handful of blast marks on the ground inside the fenced area and on Gilgamesh. The marks on Gilgamesh were from magic missiles cast by someone inside the hut – I saw the last pair of missiles hit as I came around a final pile of war-debris. As the two idiots were just standing there in the open, trying to decide what to do, I dragged them off to one side, using the hillocks of debris that flanked the hut as cover.
They then brought me up to speed on what they’d done so far. I was stunned. Gilgamesh had decided that the warning sign’s message to “those who can read” meant if he couldn’t read, he’d be safe. So he blindfolded himself and stepped into the fenced off area…directly onto a series of explosive magical mines. He then cast animate rope to untie one of the two bodies hanging on the gibbet in front of the hut (the one in leather armor with several swords on its belt), which is when magic missile spells had started flying from the hut. He stepped out of the fenced area to discuss what to do next with Arthus and got hit again by magic missiles, which is when I showed up.
Seeing as they had already provoked the hut’s occupant, there was no longer a reason to not press on and I strategized with Arthus and Gilgamesh as to our next plan of attack. Gilgamesh wanted to cobble together a new device that would combine grease and burning hands and use that to set the hut on fire. He was a bit fuzzy (no pun intended) with the details on how he’d get close enough to safely use the thing, but it would take eight hours to assemble, so we let him get started on it.
To build another device, Gilgamesh had to take apart one of his current devices. I didn’t realize it at the time, but this always invokes a side effect of some sort. This time is caused grass to rapidly grow five feet tall, fifteen feet wide, and in a long straight line in the direction Gil was facing. He happened to be facing the front door to the hut, so there was now a swath of five-foot tall grass going over the hillock and all the way up to the front door of the hut. Perfect cover.
Barely hesitating long enough to tell Arthus and Gil to stay put, I quickly stepped around the edge of the hillock, hopped the fence, and advanced on the front door of the hut using the five-foot tall grass as cover. I set off three of the mines on my way, but was able to avoid the effects of two of them completely. I then ran part way up the side of the gibbet and slashed the rope suspending the body in half-plate armor. And I looked smooth doing it.
I immediately dragged the amazingly heavy corpse back through the grass, just avoiding the effects of a burning hands spell cast from inside the hut. The grass in front of the hut caught fire and started burning, blocking the door with flames. Idiot wizard.
Gil and Arthus helped me get the body back over the fence and into our impromptu camp, where I discovered why the body was so heavy – the back pack was full of rocks! I was livid. That SOB wizard dangles bodies and issues a challenge like that and then has the nerve to fill the backpacks with rocks! Oh, if I could catch sight of that arrogant wizard, I’d show him what for.
“Luckily”, he decided to come out and yell at us. I was so angry I picked up and threw a rock at him immediately. Not my most diplomatic move. The orc wizard responded by casting spells at us. Not the wisest move on his part. Arthus charged him and whacked the wizard good with his magical longsword while I pulled my light crossbow and started peppering the area around the wizard with bolts. These attacks (mostly Arthus, really, as I never hit him) convinced the wizard to turn invisible and retreat back towards his hut (which was now catching fire, by the way).
After a couple of ineffectual attacks, we were no closer to hurting the wizard, but we could tell he was trying to flee back inside his home. I did an end run around him, setting off a couple more of the mines in the process. Those things don’t do a lot of damage individually, but they really add up. While we had the wizard flanked, the reality was I was not certain how I was going to get out of the fenced area with my life.
Luckily, the wizard was thinking the same thing about himself and decided to parley. He had levitated, which lifted him out of the fighting, but he could not move otherwise and he realized when the invisibility ran out, I’d be able to pin-cushion him with my crossbow. So we tersely talked and agreed to part ways. He cleared a path through the mine field for us and we left, taking the half-plate and sword the body we liberated had on it but leaving the body. We marched an hour away and then camped.
Honestly, I’m glad he decided to talk. Arthus and Gil used up all of their healing magic in the fight and we were still pretty beat up.
The next morning Arthus and Gil used up almost all of their healing again to bring us close to whole again. We decided to march to the cemetery and hole up for the day. We really could not afford to run into anything dangerous without any healing back-up and the cemetery was only two hours away. We marched there as quickly and as cautiously as we could.
When we arrived, we discovered that the markings above the door of the mausoleum had changed. Gilgamesh used his read languages/create water gizmo to read it (plus refill all of our waterskins). It now said "For shame! The peace is ruined! He shall never be allowed to enter again!" Ominous. We decided to not mess with the mausoleum. Arthus spent part of the day doing maintenance on his “new” armor and getting it properly fitted. After that we played Three Dragon Ante to kill time. All in all, it was a pleasant afternoon.
That night, while I was on watch, I heard scraping and moaning noises from inside the mausoleum. I immediately woke up Arthus, thinking his ability to beat down undead might be necessary, and then opened the door to the mausoleum. Collapsed inside was an unconscious human in armor, wearing the crest of Sarenrae (honest sun guys, big on redemption from what I remember). We hauled him out and closed the mausoleum door (locking it) and pulled him over to our fire. He was obviously injured, but still living. Arthus used the last of his healing on the guy (which mostly closed his wounds) and we made him comfortable.
In the morning he woke up and was a bit skittish. We talked with him and learned that his name is Jonathan and he is a cleric in the service of Sarenrae. He had followed his employer out here into the wastes a while back after his employer’s wife had been kidnapped (although he specifically said “stolen”). They had been following leads and entered the mausoleum. His employer had disturbed a coffin and things got hazy after that. Jonathan appears to be missing some time. Could be trauma, could be something else. I’m going to have to watch this guy, follower of Sarenrae or not.
After some discussion, we all decided to head down into the mausoleum to see if we could find Jonathan's employer (or at least that's what Gil and I told Arthus). I reopened the door to the mausoleum and we filed down a flight of stairs into the ground. At the end of the stairs was a room with a stone sarcophagus in the center. The walls were a huge mural, showing the history of the Necromancer Wars, from start to finish. Part of the mural was actually on a tapestry. I checked behind the tapestry and found an open door leading to a room with four coffins. The walls here were bare and two of the coffins were open and empty – the lids of the opened coffins showing deep scratch marks on the inside. Jonathan vaguely remembered this room, but not very well. He thinks this is where his employer started messing with things.
There were stairs out of this room, heading further down, but not as far as the first flight of stairs. These stairs ended in a chamber with three other exits (one on each wall) and a short (three foot) pillar in the center with a domed top. Sitting on the pillar, perfectly balanced, was a gold bowl. I was first in, so I also was the first to notice the two zombies animate and move to attack. I fell back to the rear while Arthus and Jonathan took out the zombies.
Jonathan can read Celestial and the pillar had writing that said something to the effect that anything poured into the bowl would become holy. We tested that with a full waterskin. Seems blessing the water also depleted the magic balancing the round bowl on the round top of the pillar. We flipped the bowl upside down and left it on the pillar in case the magic came back.
We explored the three short corridors leading out of this room. Two were trapped, one by a spear trap I found the hard way and the other with a stone slab dropping from the ceiling, which Arthus found the hard way (after I tripped it – I'm so embarrassed). There were rooms at the end of each corridor, but we avoided messing with the contents, except the third room which contained two ghouls. Those attacked us and we (eventually) put them down. Arthus was paralyzed early in the fight and I took a lot of damage before Jonathan put them down. Handy guy to have around it turns out.
After that, we decided to leave and head back to Vestige. I did take the golden bowl, seeing as it was no longer working. On the way back, Gil finally identified the last of the magic items we found earlier (a pair of eyes of the eagle, which we agreed Artemis would be able to put to best use).
When we got back to Vestige we sold the gold bowl and the sword from the corpse at the hut. Richard paid us REALLY good money for the sword, much more than it was worth. He showed us a sunburst symbol on the sword, identifying it as belonging to a member of I.C.E. and he was really wound up about the orc wizard stringing up I.C.E. members. Richard offered us a 500 gold mark bounty to bring back the other body for burial and the wizard's head. Yes, the paladin leader of I.C.E. put out a hit on the wizard.
We decided we were good with that.
*End Session*
Adventuring Group:
Arthus (half-elf paladin)
Book (elf rogue)
Gilgamesh (uffnik artificer)
Despite agreeing that the hut should be left alone, Arthus and that walking carpet Gilgamesh decided they couldn’t let it go. Artemis and I were content with staying at the Gnome Hill Inn and refused to go with them, thinking that they would wise up and not go.
They went anyway.
After some time went by, Artemis and I got to talking about it and we decided that the two of them were likely to get themselves killed, leaving us without access to healing magic for the next two and a half months. Plus, Arthus is an easy mark in Three Dragon Ante. So we played a quick game of rock-paper-scissors to see who had to go after them and who got to stay at the inn. I lost.
It took me most of a day to catch up with the two and when I finally did, they were at the hut. They had also provoked whoever was inside already. I could tell this from the handful of blast marks on the ground inside the fenced area and on Gilgamesh. The marks on Gilgamesh were from magic missiles cast by someone inside the hut – I saw the last pair of missiles hit as I came around a final pile of war-debris. As the two idiots were just standing there in the open, trying to decide what to do, I dragged them off to one side, using the hillocks of debris that flanked the hut as cover.
They then brought me up to speed on what they’d done so far. I was stunned. Gilgamesh had decided that the warning sign’s message to “those who can read” meant if he couldn’t read, he’d be safe. So he blindfolded himself and stepped into the fenced off area…directly onto a series of explosive magical mines. He then cast animate rope to untie one of the two bodies hanging on the gibbet in front of the hut (the one in leather armor with several swords on its belt), which is when magic missile spells had started flying from the hut. He stepped out of the fenced area to discuss what to do next with Arthus and got hit again by magic missiles, which is when I showed up.
Seeing as they had already provoked the hut’s occupant, there was no longer a reason to not press on and I strategized with Arthus and Gilgamesh as to our next plan of attack. Gilgamesh wanted to cobble together a new device that would combine grease and burning hands and use that to set the hut on fire. He was a bit fuzzy (no pun intended) with the details on how he’d get close enough to safely use the thing, but it would take eight hours to assemble, so we let him get started on it.
To build another device, Gilgamesh had to take apart one of his current devices. I didn’t realize it at the time, but this always invokes a side effect of some sort. This time is caused grass to rapidly grow five feet tall, fifteen feet wide, and in a long straight line in the direction Gil was facing. He happened to be facing the front door to the hut, so there was now a swath of five-foot tall grass going over the hillock and all the way up to the front door of the hut. Perfect cover.
Barely hesitating long enough to tell Arthus and Gil to stay put, I quickly stepped around the edge of the hillock, hopped the fence, and advanced on the front door of the hut using the five-foot tall grass as cover. I set off three of the mines on my way, but was able to avoid the effects of two of them completely. I then ran part way up the side of the gibbet and slashed the rope suspending the body in half-plate armor. And I looked smooth doing it.
I immediately dragged the amazingly heavy corpse back through the grass, just avoiding the effects of a burning hands spell cast from inside the hut. The grass in front of the hut caught fire and started burning, blocking the door with flames. Idiot wizard.
Gil and Arthus helped me get the body back over the fence and into our impromptu camp, where I discovered why the body was so heavy – the back pack was full of rocks! I was livid. That SOB wizard dangles bodies and issues a challenge like that and then has the nerve to fill the backpacks with rocks! Oh, if I could catch sight of that arrogant wizard, I’d show him what for.
“Luckily”, he decided to come out and yell at us. I was so angry I picked up and threw a rock at him immediately. Not my most diplomatic move. The orc wizard responded by casting spells at us. Not the wisest move on his part. Arthus charged him and whacked the wizard good with his magical longsword while I pulled my light crossbow and started peppering the area around the wizard with bolts. These attacks (mostly Arthus, really, as I never hit him) convinced the wizard to turn invisible and retreat back towards his hut (which was now catching fire, by the way).
After a couple of ineffectual attacks, we were no closer to hurting the wizard, but we could tell he was trying to flee back inside his home. I did an end run around him, setting off a couple more of the mines in the process. Those things don’t do a lot of damage individually, but they really add up. While we had the wizard flanked, the reality was I was not certain how I was going to get out of the fenced area with my life.
Luckily, the wizard was thinking the same thing about himself and decided to parley. He had levitated, which lifted him out of the fighting, but he could not move otherwise and he realized when the invisibility ran out, I’d be able to pin-cushion him with my crossbow. So we tersely talked and agreed to part ways. He cleared a path through the mine field for us and we left, taking the half-plate and sword the body we liberated had on it but leaving the body. We marched an hour away and then camped.
Honestly, I’m glad he decided to talk. Arthus and Gil used up all of their healing magic in the fight and we were still pretty beat up.
The next morning Arthus and Gil used up almost all of their healing again to bring us close to whole again. We decided to march to the cemetery and hole up for the day. We really could not afford to run into anything dangerous without any healing back-up and the cemetery was only two hours away. We marched there as quickly and as cautiously as we could.
When we arrived, we discovered that the markings above the door of the mausoleum had changed. Gilgamesh used his read languages/create water gizmo to read it (plus refill all of our waterskins). It now said "For shame! The peace is ruined! He shall never be allowed to enter again!" Ominous. We decided to not mess with the mausoleum. Arthus spent part of the day doing maintenance on his “new” armor and getting it properly fitted. After that we played Three Dragon Ante to kill time. All in all, it was a pleasant afternoon.
That night, while I was on watch, I heard scraping and moaning noises from inside the mausoleum. I immediately woke up Arthus, thinking his ability to beat down undead might be necessary, and then opened the door to the mausoleum. Collapsed inside was an unconscious human in armor, wearing the crest of Sarenrae (honest sun guys, big on redemption from what I remember). We hauled him out and closed the mausoleum door (locking it) and pulled him over to our fire. He was obviously injured, but still living. Arthus used the last of his healing on the guy (which mostly closed his wounds) and we made him comfortable.
In the morning he woke up and was a bit skittish. We talked with him and learned that his name is Jonathan and he is a cleric in the service of Sarenrae. He had followed his employer out here into the wastes a while back after his employer’s wife had been kidnapped (although he specifically said “stolen”). They had been following leads and entered the mausoleum. His employer had disturbed a coffin and things got hazy after that. Jonathan appears to be missing some time. Could be trauma, could be something else. I’m going to have to watch this guy, follower of Sarenrae or not.
After some discussion, we all decided to head down into the mausoleum to see if we could find Jonathan's employer (or at least that's what Gil and I told Arthus). I reopened the door to the mausoleum and we filed down a flight of stairs into the ground. At the end of the stairs was a room with a stone sarcophagus in the center. The walls were a huge mural, showing the history of the Necromancer Wars, from start to finish. Part of the mural was actually on a tapestry. I checked behind the tapestry and found an open door leading to a room with four coffins. The walls here were bare and two of the coffins were open and empty – the lids of the opened coffins showing deep scratch marks on the inside. Jonathan vaguely remembered this room, but not very well. He thinks this is where his employer started messing with things.
There were stairs out of this room, heading further down, but not as far as the first flight of stairs. These stairs ended in a chamber with three other exits (one on each wall) and a short (three foot) pillar in the center with a domed top. Sitting on the pillar, perfectly balanced, was a gold bowl. I was first in, so I also was the first to notice the two zombies animate and move to attack. I fell back to the rear while Arthus and Jonathan took out the zombies.
Jonathan can read Celestial and the pillar had writing that said something to the effect that anything poured into the bowl would become holy. We tested that with a full waterskin. Seems blessing the water also depleted the magic balancing the round bowl on the round top of the pillar. We flipped the bowl upside down and left it on the pillar in case the magic came back.
We explored the three short corridors leading out of this room. Two were trapped, one by a spear trap I found the hard way and the other with a stone slab dropping from the ceiling, which Arthus found the hard way (after I tripped it – I'm so embarrassed). There were rooms at the end of each corridor, but we avoided messing with the contents, except the third room which contained two ghouls. Those attacked us and we (eventually) put them down. Arthus was paralyzed early in the fight and I took a lot of damage before Jonathan put them down. Handy guy to have around it turns out.
After that, we decided to leave and head back to Vestige. I did take the golden bowl, seeing as it was no longer working. On the way back, Gil finally identified the last of the magic items we found earlier (a pair of eyes of the eagle, which we agreed Artemis would be able to put to best use).
When we got back to Vestige we sold the gold bowl and the sword from the corpse at the hut. Richard paid us REALLY good money for the sword, much more than it was worth. He showed us a sunburst symbol on the sword, identifying it as belonging to a member of I.C.E. and he was really wound up about the orc wizard stringing up I.C.E. members. Richard offered us a 500 gold mark bounty to bring back the other body for burial and the wizard's head. Yes, the paladin leader of I.C.E. put out a hit on the wizard.
We decided we were good with that.
*End Session*
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Verden: Goblin Patrol – Bust!
This session happened Wednesday, August 11, 2010.
Adventuring Group:
Artemis (half-elf rogue)
Arthus (half-elf paladin)
Book (elf rogue)
Gilgamesh (uffnik artificer)
Gilgamesh and Arthus heard from Samuel that there has been goblin activity to the northwest. Richard opined that Samuel has “goblin on the brain” and that there might not actually be any goblins. We decided to go investigate anyways as it gave us an area to explore, even if no goblins were actually around.
We followed the trail from Vestige north, turning off the trail near where it peters out and entered the debris field. This took most of the day, so we made camp and set up our standard watches. During my watch, I heard the distinct sound of coins jingling in a money pouch. The sound seemed to be approaching. Thinking I had discovered a chance to enrich myself, but not wanting to get in over my head without back-up, I awoke Artemis and quickly explained the situation to her.
With her keeping an eye on camp, I slid out into the debris field to find out who was bringing us some coin. I didn’t get very far before discovering the sound came from two skeletons that were slowly approaching our camp. I called back to Artemis to wake up Arthus (paladins have to be good for something, right?) and took up an ambush position. When the first skeleton got within range I attacked.
Now saying “I attacked” normally implies that the target of the attack gets injured. This did not happen. In fact, I very quickly disarmed myself during the fight and did not damage the skeleton I was fighting until near the end of the fight. By then, Arthus and Artemis had easily taken down the other skeleton and Artemis came over to “help” me with the first skeleton. By “help” I mean do most of the damage with me getting in a feeble hit with a broken club I picked up after cleverly throwing my perfectly good one away. I really hate skeletons.
After taking out the skeletons, Artemis and I checked them for loot. Both had a coin pouch. Mine had 12 gold coins in it, the other was empty but felt like it had something in it. No matter how hard the others tried, they could not pull out whatever was inside. Oddly, it was this "empty" coin purse that jingled. We gave it to Arthus to hold onto and neither Artemis nor I wanted a noisy coin purse on our person.
In the morning we decided to head due west, as that would put us in the area northwest of Vestige, where Samuel had suggested goblin activity was happening. Early in our march, Artemis noticed a complete chest in a pile of debris. We pulled it out and she and I disabled a trap and unlocked the chest. Inside were 4 gems and a small pile of gold. Loot! This expedition was already a good one. After emptying the chest, I noticed the inside was not as deep as it should be and pried up a false bottom. Hidden away was a bag of holding, which I claimed. I transferred most of my gear to the bag which maintained a constant weight of 15 lbs. This helped me greatly – I’m not a big burly guy like Arthus and my gear was weighting me down. We tied the chest to Gilgamesh’s pony to act as bandit bait. The rest of the day was uneventful and we found little worth noting. That night it rained, so other than replenishing our water supply and finding the chest, we spent a day and night to little effect.
Being due northwest of Vestige now, where goblin activity was supposedly happening, we started a sweep pattern back towards Vestige, looking for goblin activity. Instead of goblins, Gilgamesh noticed a leopard stalking us. The fight took some time as the damned thing would not sit still and let us hit it. We did eventually kill it, but only after Arthus had been savaged by it. We bound his wounds and used what little healing magic we had left for the day, but he was still not at full health. We then camped to let Arthus rest and heal some. During the evening, Artemis found a locked coffer while on watch, but set it aside for the morning so she and I could examine it in good lighting. Good eyes on that woman – two treasures in two days. Must be from her elven half.
[The party achieved second level at this point.] After breakfast, Artemis and I examined the coffer and easily disabled an arc trap protecting it. The lock was another matter entirely. It took Artemis, Gil, and I over an hour and a half to work out the inner workings of the lock and defeat them. Inside we found two rings. Gil was able to identify them both as rings of sustenance. After some discussion, the rings went to Gil and Artemis and my ownership of the bag of holding was formalized. During this time, Arthus was able to finish healing himself, but we were left with minimal healing for the rest of the day.
We continued our sweep, looking for goblins and instead finding a cemetery. Now it could be argued that everything for miles was one big cemetery, but within the picket fence of this small area, the ground was still hallowed. There were a half dozen graves along the edges of the cemetery and one mausoleum in the center. Above the door to the mausoleum were words in a script we could not read. Not wanting to explore the mausoleum with almost no healing available, we decide to camp early. In the cemetery. Which seemed to be the safest place we had found so far.
During her watch, Artemis was fiddling with the noisy coin pouch we had given to Arthus and was able to fish out a short golden rod with writing on it. The coin pouch still jingled, but seemed to be empty now. Definitely a cursed item.
By dawn, Gilgamesh had finished cobbling together a new magical gizmo. This one creates water while granting the holder the ability to comprehend languages. Why he chose to combine those two effects I’ll never know. The writing on the golden rod is now readable and says “Creation’s Key”. The writing over the mausoleum door turned out to be a warning to not disturb anything inside. Seemed kind of ominous, so we decided to continue our sweep of the area and come back later.
We spent most of the day getting rained on. The one mobile thing we spotted the entire day was a fire elemental, which seemed to be angry about getting rained upon. We decided to avoid it entirely. Something odd happened while we were camped for the night, but I’m not certain what – I woke up several feet from where I went to sleep. Very strange.
Having been out for four days and finding no goblins nor signs of goblins, we decided to start making our way directly back to Vestige. Well, mostly directly back – we checked out a stretch we haven’t been in before on the way back and found a hut book-ended between two immense hills of war debris. There was a low fence across the front, 60 feet from the hut. At the gate was a sign in multiple languages warning “those who can read” to stay away or be “doomed”. On a dual gibbet next to the hut were hung two adventurers, still in their gear. Naturally, we took this as a challenge. Or a trap. Probably both. After discussing it a bit, we decide to not do anything yet and ask Samuel and Richard about the hut. No sense in angering someone we should be friends with.
As we press east, back towards the trail to Vestige, it starts raining. And by raining I mean someone opened the sky and let an ocean start draining. It rained hard all night and all through the next day. What should have been two hours travel at best took us all day due to the torrential rain. By the time we got back to Vestige and could take advantage of getting out of the rain, the rain stopped. Sigh.
We talked to Samuel and Richard about the hut and they knew nothing about it. That gives us two locales to go back to. I favor the mausoleum – who ever hangs adventurers by his front door is likely more dangerous than we can handle right now. Surely the others will agree.
*End of Session*
Adventuring Group:
Artemis (half-elf rogue)
Arthus (half-elf paladin)
Book (elf rogue)
Gilgamesh (uffnik artificer)
Gilgamesh and Arthus heard from Samuel that there has been goblin activity to the northwest. Richard opined that Samuel has “goblin on the brain” and that there might not actually be any goblins. We decided to go investigate anyways as it gave us an area to explore, even if no goblins were actually around.
We followed the trail from Vestige north, turning off the trail near where it peters out and entered the debris field. This took most of the day, so we made camp and set up our standard watches. During my watch, I heard the distinct sound of coins jingling in a money pouch. The sound seemed to be approaching. Thinking I had discovered a chance to enrich myself, but not wanting to get in over my head without back-up, I awoke Artemis and quickly explained the situation to her.
With her keeping an eye on camp, I slid out into the debris field to find out who was bringing us some coin. I didn’t get very far before discovering the sound came from two skeletons that were slowly approaching our camp. I called back to Artemis to wake up Arthus (paladins have to be good for something, right?) and took up an ambush position. When the first skeleton got within range I attacked.
Now saying “I attacked” normally implies that the target of the attack gets injured. This did not happen. In fact, I very quickly disarmed myself during the fight and did not damage the skeleton I was fighting until near the end of the fight. By then, Arthus and Artemis had easily taken down the other skeleton and Artemis came over to “help” me with the first skeleton. By “help” I mean do most of the damage with me getting in a feeble hit with a broken club I picked up after cleverly throwing my perfectly good one away. I really hate skeletons.
After taking out the skeletons, Artemis and I checked them for loot. Both had a coin pouch. Mine had 12 gold coins in it, the other was empty but felt like it had something in it. No matter how hard the others tried, they could not pull out whatever was inside. Oddly, it was this "empty" coin purse that jingled. We gave it to Arthus to hold onto and neither Artemis nor I wanted a noisy coin purse on our person.
In the morning we decided to head due west, as that would put us in the area northwest of Vestige, where Samuel had suggested goblin activity was happening. Early in our march, Artemis noticed a complete chest in a pile of debris. We pulled it out and she and I disabled a trap and unlocked the chest. Inside were 4 gems and a small pile of gold. Loot! This expedition was already a good one. After emptying the chest, I noticed the inside was not as deep as it should be and pried up a false bottom. Hidden away was a bag of holding, which I claimed. I transferred most of my gear to the bag which maintained a constant weight of 15 lbs. This helped me greatly – I’m not a big burly guy like Arthus and my gear was weighting me down. We tied the chest to Gilgamesh’s pony to act as bandit bait. The rest of the day was uneventful and we found little worth noting. That night it rained, so other than replenishing our water supply and finding the chest, we spent a day and night to little effect.
Being due northwest of Vestige now, where goblin activity was supposedly happening, we started a sweep pattern back towards Vestige, looking for goblin activity. Instead of goblins, Gilgamesh noticed a leopard stalking us. The fight took some time as the damned thing would not sit still and let us hit it. We did eventually kill it, but only after Arthus had been savaged by it. We bound his wounds and used what little healing magic we had left for the day, but he was still not at full health. We then camped to let Arthus rest and heal some. During the evening, Artemis found a locked coffer while on watch, but set it aside for the morning so she and I could examine it in good lighting. Good eyes on that woman – two treasures in two days. Must be from her elven half.
[The party achieved second level at this point.] After breakfast, Artemis and I examined the coffer and easily disabled an arc trap protecting it. The lock was another matter entirely. It took Artemis, Gil, and I over an hour and a half to work out the inner workings of the lock and defeat them. Inside we found two rings. Gil was able to identify them both as rings of sustenance. After some discussion, the rings went to Gil and Artemis and my ownership of the bag of holding was formalized. During this time, Arthus was able to finish healing himself, but we were left with minimal healing for the rest of the day.
We continued our sweep, looking for goblins and instead finding a cemetery. Now it could be argued that everything for miles was one big cemetery, but within the picket fence of this small area, the ground was still hallowed. There were a half dozen graves along the edges of the cemetery and one mausoleum in the center. Above the door to the mausoleum were words in a script we could not read. Not wanting to explore the mausoleum with almost no healing available, we decide to camp early. In the cemetery. Which seemed to be the safest place we had found so far.
During her watch, Artemis was fiddling with the noisy coin pouch we had given to Arthus and was able to fish out a short golden rod with writing on it. The coin pouch still jingled, but seemed to be empty now. Definitely a cursed item.
By dawn, Gilgamesh had finished cobbling together a new magical gizmo. This one creates water while granting the holder the ability to comprehend languages. Why he chose to combine those two effects I’ll never know. The writing on the golden rod is now readable and says “Creation’s Key”. The writing over the mausoleum door turned out to be a warning to not disturb anything inside. Seemed kind of ominous, so we decided to continue our sweep of the area and come back later.
We spent most of the day getting rained on. The one mobile thing we spotted the entire day was a fire elemental, which seemed to be angry about getting rained upon. We decided to avoid it entirely. Something odd happened while we were camped for the night, but I’m not certain what – I woke up several feet from where I went to sleep. Very strange.
Having been out for four days and finding no goblins nor signs of goblins, we decided to start making our way directly back to Vestige. Well, mostly directly back – we checked out a stretch we haven’t been in before on the way back and found a hut book-ended between two immense hills of war debris. There was a low fence across the front, 60 feet from the hut. At the gate was a sign in multiple languages warning “those who can read” to stay away or be “doomed”. On a dual gibbet next to the hut were hung two adventurers, still in their gear. Naturally, we took this as a challenge. Or a trap. Probably both. After discussing it a bit, we decide to not do anything yet and ask Samuel and Richard about the hut. No sense in angering someone we should be friends with.
As we press east, back towards the trail to Vestige, it starts raining. And by raining I mean someone opened the sky and let an ocean start draining. It rained hard all night and all through the next day. What should have been two hours travel at best took us all day due to the torrential rain. By the time we got back to Vestige and could take advantage of getting out of the rain, the rain stopped. Sigh.
We talked to Samuel and Richard about the hut and they knew nothing about it. That gives us two locales to go back to. I favor the mausoleum – who ever hangs adventurers by his front door is likely more dangerous than we can handle right now. Surely the others will agree.
*End of Session*
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Verden: …and Back Again.
This session happened Wednesday, August 4, 2010. Two players were unable to make, so we just had their characters fade into the background. After this initial expedition, we will always end back in town so it this won't be an issue.
Adventuring Group:
Artemis (half-elf rogue)
Arthus (half-elf paladin)
Book (elf rogue)
Gilgamesh (uffnik artificer)
We started the day spending two hours working out where were actually were. Turns out we had circled back a bit. This was the first time it hit us how difficult navigating our way around out here was going to be. This is worse than going to a part of Verden you’ve never been to. Here there is no one to ask for directions and no signs to follow. We are going to have to take extra time to avoid getting lost beyond all hope of return.
After some discussion, we decided to continue exploring north, taking extra time to avoid getting lost. At one point, Artemis spotted a sword marking a grave. Arthus pulled the sword out of the ground and the blade disappeared. He was holding the grip, but there was no blade now. The blade slowly reappeared. Very weird, but he decided to keep it. Paladins…
Further on that day we discovered a pit trap a goblin had set to catch game. We know it was a goblin that had done it because we caught sight of him too. The goblin bolted, but I ran him down and tackled him. After some discussion with the goblin (with Artemis acting as translator), he agreed that we are "not food" and we let him go. Dangling him over his own pit trap (with spikes no less) seemed to convince him of our sincerity. After the goblin ran off, Artemis spotted something sparkly in the pit and we lowered her in to investigate. She found 9 gold marks, some gems, and boots of stealth (we think). I put the boots on and Artemis decided to hold onto the gold until “later”.
That night it rained during my watch. As my waterskin was getting empty and we had not seen any other source of water, I improvised a funnel and refilled everyone’s waterskins with rain water. This is something else we had not anticipated. It is surprising what I took for granted back in Verden and expected to be available out here.
With a renewed water supply, we continued north, looking for an end to the war-debris. Around mid-day we heard the sound of combat and investigated. We discovered human being attacked by two giant oozes. We moved to assist the human, because…well, the other things were giant oozes. The Hunter (what he goes by – he never told us his name) had vials of the stuff that he threw into the oozes and it caused them to roil and then melt once we got two of the vials in each ooze. The Hunter then scooped up melted ooze into the vials, which we thought was weird. Turns out the best way to fight giant oozes is with the remains of giant oozes – that’s what was in them originally.
During the fight, Arthus was engulfed by one of the oozes. Gilgamesh used his "shank of healing" to heal up Arthus afterwards. (Yes, he stabs us with his healing device.) We talked some more with The Hunter about the area and he gave us some advice. He’s been out here a couple years, so we took him serious. I found a ring (which turned out to be non-magical) in the goo, so it was not a total loss.
Parting ways with The Hunter, we continued north a ways and found some fire beetles. We killed most of them, but Gil captured some and put them in improvised cages. They make OK light sources. We also searched the pile of debris the beetles were in and found a set of magical bracers. Gil put them on, hoping they would help him not get hit.
When we finally camped, we discovered that most of Arthus's stuff was slowly destroyed by contact with the ooze acid. We realized we now only had food for four days left - just enough to make it back to The Wall. Hopefully. During the night we got attacked by 3 ghouls (which eat the fire beetles first). We defeated them, but Artemis contracted ghoul fever. One of the ghouls had picked up a feather token somewhere. Not knowing what it does, we packed it away for later examination.
In the morning we started heading back. It took us all four days of our remaining food to get back to Vestige. We sold what loot we found to Samuel at the Gnome Hill Inn (but not magical stuff). Divided four way, each share came to 192 gold marks, 2 silver squares, and 5 copper pennies. I spent part of my share buying 10 days of rations to resupply and a night at the inn. It was good to sleep in a real bed with some surety that monsters would not wake you up by attacking.
*End Session*
Adventuring Group:
Artemis (half-elf rogue)
Arthus (half-elf paladin)
Book (elf rogue)
Gilgamesh (uffnik artificer)
We started the day spending two hours working out where were actually were. Turns out we had circled back a bit. This was the first time it hit us how difficult navigating our way around out here was going to be. This is worse than going to a part of Verden you’ve never been to. Here there is no one to ask for directions and no signs to follow. We are going to have to take extra time to avoid getting lost beyond all hope of return.
After some discussion, we decided to continue exploring north, taking extra time to avoid getting lost. At one point, Artemis spotted a sword marking a grave. Arthus pulled the sword out of the ground and the blade disappeared. He was holding the grip, but there was no blade now. The blade slowly reappeared. Very weird, but he decided to keep it. Paladins…
Further on that day we discovered a pit trap a goblin had set to catch game. We know it was a goblin that had done it because we caught sight of him too. The goblin bolted, but I ran him down and tackled him. After some discussion with the goblin (with Artemis acting as translator), he agreed that we are "not food" and we let him go. Dangling him over his own pit trap (with spikes no less) seemed to convince him of our sincerity. After the goblin ran off, Artemis spotted something sparkly in the pit and we lowered her in to investigate. She found 9 gold marks, some gems, and boots of stealth (we think). I put the boots on and Artemis decided to hold onto the gold until “later”.
That night it rained during my watch. As my waterskin was getting empty and we had not seen any other source of water, I improvised a funnel and refilled everyone’s waterskins with rain water. This is something else we had not anticipated. It is surprising what I took for granted back in Verden and expected to be available out here.
With a renewed water supply, we continued north, looking for an end to the war-debris. Around mid-day we heard the sound of combat and investigated. We discovered human being attacked by two giant oozes. We moved to assist the human, because…well, the other things were giant oozes. The Hunter (what he goes by – he never told us his name) had vials of the stuff that he threw into the oozes and it caused them to roil and then melt once we got two of the vials in each ooze. The Hunter then scooped up melted ooze into the vials, which we thought was weird. Turns out the best way to fight giant oozes is with the remains of giant oozes – that’s what was in them originally.
During the fight, Arthus was engulfed by one of the oozes. Gilgamesh used his "shank of healing" to heal up Arthus afterwards. (Yes, he stabs us with his healing device.) We talked some more with The Hunter about the area and he gave us some advice. He’s been out here a couple years, so we took him serious. I found a ring (which turned out to be non-magical) in the goo, so it was not a total loss.
Parting ways with The Hunter, we continued north a ways and found some fire beetles. We killed most of them, but Gil captured some and put them in improvised cages. They make OK light sources. We also searched the pile of debris the beetles were in and found a set of magical bracers. Gil put them on, hoping they would help him not get hit.
When we finally camped, we discovered that most of Arthus's stuff was slowly destroyed by contact with the ooze acid. We realized we now only had food for four days left - just enough to make it back to The Wall. Hopefully. During the night we got attacked by 3 ghouls (which eat the fire beetles first). We defeated them, but Artemis contracted ghoul fever. One of the ghouls had picked up a feather token somewhere. Not knowing what it does, we packed it away for later examination.
In the morning we started heading back. It took us all four days of our remaining food to get back to Vestige. We sold what loot we found to Samuel at the Gnome Hill Inn (but not magical stuff). Divided four way, each share came to 192 gold marks, 2 silver squares, and 5 copper pennies. I spent part of my share buying 10 days of rations to resupply and a night at the inn. It was good to sleep in a real bed with some surety that monsters would not wake you up by attacking.
*End Session*
Friday, August 13, 2010
Verden: Through the Gate
This session happened Wednesday, July 28, 2010.
Adventuring Group:
Artemis (half-elf rogue)
Arthus (half-elf paladin)
Book (elf rogue)
Sinn (gnome bard)
Bellwar (dwarf cleric)
Gilgamesh (uffnik artificer)
Since the time of the Necromancer Wars, the Great Wall has separated the city from the howling wilderness to the north. When the King (Emperor, High Poobah? I don't know, never seemed important growing up) cast the spell (or finished the ritual – whatever) he destroyed the necromancers in a blinding flash of light. Apparently people got along with their lives after that, but never went north ever again.
Mostly.
At some point, someone decided that opening the one working gate every three months to let people go north was a good idea. Can't imagine why, but there you go. Every three months they open the thing up for a couple hours and then close it. Most folks have forgotten about it and only notice if they live nearby because the damn hinges are squeaky as all Hades. Assuming Hades is a squeaky place, that is. I wouldn't know other than people "better" than me have told me it's where I'll end up unless I mend my ways.
I haven't.
My name is Book, and for reasons of my own (mostly to do with my breathing and my desire to keep doing so), I decided that a stint north of The Wall would be a good idea. I did a little research on the topic, acquired some gear (some of which I even paid for), and showed up on the appointed day. Surprisingly, there were other folk heading through the gate that same day. In addition to myself, there were two half-elves, a gnome, a dwarf, and something called an uffnik (short furry guy of a race I've never seen before). We exchanged names while we waited and then walked through into a sea of ruins and broken siege weapons as far as we could see. (I didn't ask why the others were heading north, mostly because I didn't want to explain my own reasons. Luckily, no one asked.)
Right outside the gate were two mostly whole buildings, each with a sign. One said "Gnome Hill" and the other said "ICE". Some of the city guard pushed a handcart of boxes and a few barrels over to the building labeled "ICE" and then walked back. Sensing potential profit (or at least very cheap supplies) I moseyed on over to the handcart. The folks walking the gate with me slowly followed.
A tall blonde guy stepped out of the building as I approached and started unloading some of the supplies. We talked. He is a paladin by the name named Richard Pureheart. (Really? Who names their kid that?) "ICE" apparently stands for "Inner Circle of Externals" and is apparently a guild of folks living on this side of the wall. Membership in ICE is 1000 gold marks per adventuring group and allows access to their map of the north and the right to camp at their waystations.
I think I had two coppers in my pocket at the time. Maybe.
After Richard finished unloading his part of the delivery, he asked us to push the cart over to Gnome Hill, the only inn in Vestige, the name of this little area. My companions agreed to do so and I let them. As I'm going to be stuck on this side of The Wall for three months, I saw no reason to acquire to anger anyone by pinching any supplies at this time. Plus, I really didn't need them and maybe someone else did.
The owner of the Gnome Hill Inn was a guy named Samuel. He is also the only employee. Rooms are four silver a night and the beer is cold, so not a waste. After buying a beer, we headed out into the wastes.
We headed north, trying to find the edge of the debris field that seemed to hug the Great Wall. After six hours of following a rough trail (the pointy stuff had been cleared at some time in the past) it was getting dark, so we camped. We hadn't seen anything all day, so we found a spot out of the wind and just camped. In the middle of the night a flood of fire beetles started marching through and we had to quickly relocate to a higher level of debris (an old building of some sort). Watching thousands of those beetles move by, lit by their glow sacks, was like watching a sea of fire slowly flow past. The next morning we could see that they were scavenging – there was nothing remotely organic left in their path and a lot of debris had been shifted. Wonderful.
In the morning we continued north. Things were quiet until some ghouls jumped us. We all had swords, arrows, and knives, which did about nothing to these things. Then I realized that the debris around us was full of things that could be used as clubs, so we put away our good steel weapons and grabbed whatever was at hand and started smashing the damn things. That worked wonderfully. Artemis came down with a mild case of filth fever afterwards, but eventually kicked it.
The rest of the day went quietly, but by the end of the day we were fairly certain we were getting lost. Scratch that: we WERE lost. We spent some time trying to re-orient ourselves, but we were to far away from The Wall. We decided to camp and try again in the morning with fresh minds. The other thing that was bothering us was this: we'd walked nearly 30 MILES from the Great Wall and this debris was still the dominant feature. We started seeing some grass, but no forest or trees for that matter. How far does this stuff go?
A couple hours before dawn we were attacked by a skeleton wearing armor. We still had our improvised clubs and smashed it down pretty quick. We gave its masterwork longsword to Arthus (it was better than his) and packed the breastplate and heavy steel shield on Gilgamesh's pony. I claimed a finger bone from the thing. Not sure why, but it seemed a good idea at the time.
Tomorrow we'll try to work out which way the Wall is. Now it's time for a little more sleep.
*End of Session*
We spent half the session creating characters and getting equipped, so we did not return to "town" at the end of the session like we should have. The DM cut us some slack here, but after this session, getting back to "town" at the end of a session will be a goal.
Adventuring Group:
Artemis (half-elf rogue)
Arthus (half-elf paladin)
Book (elf rogue)
Sinn (gnome bard)
Bellwar (dwarf cleric)
Gilgamesh (uffnik artificer)
Since the time of the Necromancer Wars, the Great Wall has separated the city from the howling wilderness to the north. When the King (Emperor, High Poobah? I don't know, never seemed important growing up) cast the spell (or finished the ritual – whatever) he destroyed the necromancers in a blinding flash of light. Apparently people got along with their lives after that, but never went north ever again.
Mostly.
At some point, someone decided that opening the one working gate every three months to let people go north was a good idea. Can't imagine why, but there you go. Every three months they open the thing up for a couple hours and then close it. Most folks have forgotten about it and only notice if they live nearby because the damn hinges are squeaky as all Hades. Assuming Hades is a squeaky place, that is. I wouldn't know other than people "better" than me have told me it's where I'll end up unless I mend my ways.
I haven't.
My name is Book, and for reasons of my own (mostly to do with my breathing and my desire to keep doing so), I decided that a stint north of The Wall would be a good idea. I did a little research on the topic, acquired some gear (some of which I even paid for), and showed up on the appointed day. Surprisingly, there were other folk heading through the gate that same day. In addition to myself, there were two half-elves, a gnome, a dwarf, and something called an uffnik (short furry guy of a race I've never seen before). We exchanged names while we waited and then walked through into a sea of ruins and broken siege weapons as far as we could see. (I didn't ask why the others were heading north, mostly because I didn't want to explain my own reasons. Luckily, no one asked.)
Right outside the gate were two mostly whole buildings, each with a sign. One said "Gnome Hill" and the other said "ICE". Some of the city guard pushed a handcart of boxes and a few barrels over to the building labeled "ICE" and then walked back. Sensing potential profit (or at least very cheap supplies) I moseyed on over to the handcart. The folks walking the gate with me slowly followed.
A tall blonde guy stepped out of the building as I approached and started unloading some of the supplies. We talked. He is a paladin by the name named Richard Pureheart. (Really? Who names their kid that?) "ICE" apparently stands for "Inner Circle of Externals" and is apparently a guild of folks living on this side of the wall. Membership in ICE is 1000 gold marks per adventuring group and allows access to their map of the north and the right to camp at their waystations.
I think I had two coppers in my pocket at the time. Maybe.
After Richard finished unloading his part of the delivery, he asked us to push the cart over to Gnome Hill, the only inn in Vestige, the name of this little area. My companions agreed to do so and I let them. As I'm going to be stuck on this side of The Wall for three months, I saw no reason to acquire to anger anyone by pinching any supplies at this time. Plus, I really didn't need them and maybe someone else did.
The owner of the Gnome Hill Inn was a guy named Samuel. He is also the only employee. Rooms are four silver a night and the beer is cold, so not a waste. After buying a beer, we headed out into the wastes.
We headed north, trying to find the edge of the debris field that seemed to hug the Great Wall. After six hours of following a rough trail (the pointy stuff had been cleared at some time in the past) it was getting dark, so we camped. We hadn't seen anything all day, so we found a spot out of the wind and just camped. In the middle of the night a flood of fire beetles started marching through and we had to quickly relocate to a higher level of debris (an old building of some sort). Watching thousands of those beetles move by, lit by their glow sacks, was like watching a sea of fire slowly flow past. The next morning we could see that they were scavenging – there was nothing remotely organic left in their path and a lot of debris had been shifted. Wonderful.
In the morning we continued north. Things were quiet until some ghouls jumped us. We all had swords, arrows, and knives, which did about nothing to these things. Then I realized that the debris around us was full of things that could be used as clubs, so we put away our good steel weapons and grabbed whatever was at hand and started smashing the damn things. That worked wonderfully. Artemis came down with a mild case of filth fever afterwards, but eventually kicked it.
The rest of the day went quietly, but by the end of the day we were fairly certain we were getting lost. Scratch that: we WERE lost. We spent some time trying to re-orient ourselves, but we were to far away from The Wall. We decided to camp and try again in the morning with fresh minds. The other thing that was bothering us was this: we'd walked nearly 30 MILES from the Great Wall and this debris was still the dominant feature. We started seeing some grass, but no forest or trees for that matter. How far does this stuff go?
A couple hours before dawn we were attacked by a skeleton wearing armor. We still had our improvised clubs and smashed it down pretty quick. We gave its masterwork longsword to Arthus (it was better than his) and packed the breastplate and heavy steel shield on Gilgamesh's pony. I claimed a finger bone from the thing. Not sure why, but it seemed a good idea at the time.
Tomorrow we'll try to work out which way the Wall is. Now it's time for a little more sleep.
*End of Session*
We spent half the session creating characters and getting equipped, so we did not return to "town" at the end of the session like we should have. The DM cut us some slack here, but after this session, getting back to "town" at the end of a session will be a goal.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Verden: Possible New Feature
So my Wednesday night game (and by this I mean the one game where I'm a player and not a DM) seems to have stabilized into a West Marches-style exploration game using Pathfinder. This started out as a 4E D&D Encounters game, switched to Keep on the Shadowlands, switched to a home-brew setting, lost the DM (which is OK), attempted to switch to a different home-brew setting using Pathfinder, and finally switched to yet another home-brew setting, which is what we have played in the last two sessions.
Being a note-taking kind of guy, I'm sort of the campaign chronicler. I say "sort of" because unless your notes are available to others, they're just notes. I gave some thought to starting a different blog to post adventure logs on, but decided that I'd only have one posting a week, which is pretty light to create an entire blog around. Then I thought about the fact that I only post here Monday and Wednesday, which leaves a bit of a gap in the postings.
Now I originally left the gap so I'd have time to create material for my Friday night Southern Reaches game plus my monthly Champions game (The Bold and The Determined) and monthly Pathfinder game (Naze Valley Rangers). Writing an adventure log, however, takes much less time and effort as the action has already happened, I just need to write it all down. So I'm thinking about making Friday the day when I post adventure logs for this other game. If I do this, I'll likely preface the titles with "Verden", the name of the campaign (see the title of this post for an example).
So what's the point? As it turns out, an exploration game is not just an exploration game. In my Southern Reaches game, the PCs are exploring a (mostly) untouched wilderness and return to an actual town. I Verden, we voluntarily went through the gate of a Skull Island-style wall (Peter Jackson version stone walls of a lost civilization) which will not open again for three months. On this side is the debris of an ancient, cataclysmic war (the Necromancer War - fairly descriptive), a single inn, and the union house for an adventuring organization (which might or might not have more than one member at this time). And when I say "debris field" I mean "hills of broken siege machines and skeletal remains that go out over 40 miles from The Wall and along the length of the wall, several hundred miles (yes, it is a big wall).
So it's different, yes?
I think next week will likely be the first installment of the Verden adventure log. That will give me three sessions of notes and time to build up a tiny buffer.
Being a note-taking kind of guy, I'm sort of the campaign chronicler. I say "sort of" because unless your notes are available to others, they're just notes. I gave some thought to starting a different blog to post adventure logs on, but decided that I'd only have one posting a week, which is pretty light to create an entire blog around. Then I thought about the fact that I only post here Monday and Wednesday, which leaves a bit of a gap in the postings.
Now I originally left the gap so I'd have time to create material for my Friday night Southern Reaches game plus my monthly Champions game (The Bold and The Determined) and monthly Pathfinder game (Naze Valley Rangers). Writing an adventure log, however, takes much less time and effort as the action has already happened, I just need to write it all down. So I'm thinking about making Friday the day when I post adventure logs for this other game. If I do this, I'll likely preface the titles with "Verden", the name of the campaign (see the title of this post for an example).
So what's the point? As it turns out, an exploration game is not just an exploration game. In my Southern Reaches game, the PCs are exploring a (mostly) untouched wilderness and return to an actual town. I Verden, we voluntarily went through the gate of a Skull Island-style wall (Peter Jackson version stone walls of a lost civilization) which will not open again for three months. On this side is the debris of an ancient, cataclysmic war (the Necromancer War - fairly descriptive), a single inn, and the union house for an adventuring organization (which might or might not have more than one member at this time). And when I say "debris field" I mean "hills of broken siege machines and skeletal remains that go out over 40 miles from The Wall and along the length of the wall, several hundred miles (yes, it is a big wall).
So it's different, yes?
I think next week will likely be the first installment of the Verden adventure log. That will give me three sessions of notes and time to build up a tiny buffer.
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