Tim's Outlanders: Against the Horde, Session 1 - July 30 to August 8, 17 IC

[This begins the next story arc, wherein the adventuring party attempted to scout out the arrival of the invading Goblinoid Horde.  Things will quickly get out of hand.]

Player Characters

Tim, a Wizard - male human from the Free City of Freegate, student at Outlands University
Dangar Stonekleaver - male dwarf from the Northern Dwarven Kingdom
Mikal Torvaldsson - human male, of the Uplander Clans
Darian Kyle - human male, formerly of the Imperial 7th Legion [deserter]

Aureme Anginsan - human female, formerly an Imperial Navy sailor (retired)

NPCs

Casvia - elven female from the Free City of Freegate, student at Outlands University

Session 1 Begins, July 30 IC

The newly formed unit, Tim's Outlanders, left the city of Freegate and headed south to scout out the approach of the Goblinoid Horde, believed to be heading towards the city.

The Outlanders rode south for over a week, following the Greater Tabor River.  Leaving the lands claimed by Freegate, they entered the lands of the Bayern District, the next principality to the south.  There they saw abandoned villages and farmsteads.

Once in the proximity of the Horde the Outlanders were spotted by a unit of goblin batriders [goblins riding giant bats].  The batrider patrol attacked, strafing the Outlanders using magic wands that fired bolts of force.  During the fight, Mikal was able to catch onto the riding harness of one of bats as it flew by on a strafing run and climbed aboard.  He then climbed up onto the bat despite the goblin trying to fling him off by having the bat do acrobatic flying.  Once on top of the bat, Mikal easily overwhelmed the goblin and flung him off the bat to his death.  Mikal spent the rest of the fight attempting to gain control of the bat and tame it to be his mount.  The rest of the Outlanders killed the remaining goblins and drove off the surviving bats.

Several hours later Mikal finished taming the captured bat and named it Meep.  He had Meep fly back to where the Outlanders were waiting for him.

The team decided they needed a base of operations, preferably one not on the direct path of the oncoming Horde.  They left the river and set up camp in a farmhouse about a mile away. Mikal and Meep scouted ahead but they were spotted after a couple hours by a second patrol of batriders. Mikal fled the patrol, which pursued him [they wanted to reclaim the obviously stolen bat].  Mikal led them back to the farmhouse where the party was camped. The Outlanders attacked and killed all but three of the goblins, unaware of the survivors who fled south.

During night, Tim and Casvia used equipment and supplies found in the farmhouse, notably a still and a hidden supply of moonshine, to develop a batch of magically distilled and magically infused alcohol.  Tim expected the group would be facing masses of goblins and orcs and wanted something that would explode "with some extra oomph" when lit and thrown at a target.  He wasn't entirely certain how successful he and Casvia had been but was hopeful.  [Tim's player rolled a critical success on his skill check, forcing me to decide how much more oomph this meant.  I decided on "a ludicrous amount of oomph" but did not tell the players.  They had to discover this by trial and error.]

August 8, 17 IC

In the morning a large ground patrol of goblins riding giant, ferocious-looking lizards moved into the area started to surround the farmhouse the Outlanders occupied.  Tim loaded up Mikal and Meep with multiple bottles of his "double-distilled" liquid explosives so they could attack the patrol from above.

In his hurry to get into the air, Mikal forgot to bring a source of flame to light the wicks in the bottles before throwing them, so he was forced to throw unlit bottles.  The first bottle thrown detonated with such force that Mikal and Meep were knocked tumbling through the air and into some trees.  Luckily, none of the other bottles detonated.  [Mikal had bought some dice of Luck and they came into play here.]  The cluster of goblin lizardriders where knocked around on the ground like billiard balls, killing the goblins in the blast radius and sending the wounded lizards fleeing.  The Outlanders quickly killed the goblins in the patrol but the riding lizards were of sterner stuff and they fled, only wounded.

Once Mikal and Meep were located and healed, the Outlanders discussed their next steps.  The double-distilled alcohol was significantly more explosive than anticipated.  Used correctly, they could switch from scouts to attackers.  The Outlanders sent Casvia to Freegate via her transportation spell for the following supplies:

• Quarrels for Dengar’s crossbow [he was now running low]
• A request for guerilla orders to go after the Horde’s supply train
• Materials for explosives: containers with fins and certain raw materials
• Something to stop Mikal from falling
• Reports from other groups in the field

As the transport spell was one use per day, Mikal, riding Meep, flew ahead to reconnoiter the city of Ingolstadt, capital of the Bayern District. He arranged to meet up with the rest of the team at an old campsite they agreed upon.  The rest of the party settled in to await Casvia's return.

Game Session Ends

Happening Off-Stage

The Horde is besieging Ingolstadt at this point.

The University Farseers have been trying to spy on the Horde but are unable to spy anywhere the Horde actually is, one of the reasons teams like the Outlanders have been sent to scout the area physically.  This level of magic use by the goblinoid shamans is starting to cause concern.  What else might the shamans be capable of?

DM Discussion

[So the notes for this session were minimal to say the least.  I remembered enough to double the size of the posting, but not much else.  Somewhere here Tim and Dangar decided that a good psy-op would be to strew the battle field with the entrails and heads of the dead goblins.  Aureme, a PC, was OK with it but Casvia was horrified when she returned.  I'll include that in the next session notes.]

Tim's Outlanders Landing Page

Clouds Gather

Session 5

Against the Horde

Session 2 [Not Yet Posted]

Tim's Outlanders: Session 5, July 28/29, 17 IC

Player Characters

Tim, a Wizard - male human from the Free City of Freegate, student at Outlands University
Dangar Stonekleaver - male dwarf from the Northern Dwarven Kingdom
Mikal Torvaldsson - human male, of the Uplander Clans
Darian Kyle - human male, formerly of the Imperial 7th Legion [deserter]

Begins July 28, 17 IC

The adventurers dispersed for the evening.  

Late that night, pounding on his door awoke Tim in his apartment in the Student's Quarter.  It was a squad of the University Guard!  The Arch‑Chancellor of the University has sent for Tim for immediate questioning.  

When Tim arrived on campus he was escorted to the History building.  The South Wing was on fire and in the process of being put out.  The entire third and fourth floors were destroyed by whatever happened.  The Arch‑Chancellor explained to Tim that the University had attempted to verify Tim's report through the use of a Farseer.  Some sort of defensive spell was triggered and a massive feedback of elemental fire exploded from the Farseer and set the upper floors on fire.

The Arch-Chancellor, with several other members of the Faculty, proceeded to question Tim about the Vault in detail.  The remaining adventurers were either called in or were brought in when they showed up at the University Gates looking for Tim the next morning.

July 29, 17 IC

The questioning session lasted until near Noon (with a break for a catered breakfast and then a smoke, because wizards).  During the questioning, Dangar related a dream-vision he received that night from Lord Gamrin, Dwarven God of Protection.

Dangar's Vision

Dangar slowly become aware of the sound of metal pounding on metal with metallic clicking between the crashes.  With a resounding CRASH, he fully awoke.  He turned over to see what was pounding and saw a giant of a dwarf.  He was six feet tall, powerfully built, and covered with the blood of his enemies.  His clothing was once fine, but was now rags.  He wore the shattered remains of chains and shackles and was carrying a tremendous war hammer.  The metallic clicking was caused by bits of the shattered chains flying out of the darkness and reforming the chains around the dwarf.

The dwarf saw Dangar and turned and spoke to Dangar in a voice of rolling thunder:

“DO NOT LET THEM SHACKLE OUR PEOPLE AGAIN!  STOP THEM BEFORE WE ARE ONCE AGAIN THEIR SLAVES!  FIND THIS PART OF THE TRUE KEY AND DESTROY IT!”  

An image of a blue and red sphere appeared in front of Dangar.  It looked very familiar.  He turns and smashed several of the chain links that have formed around him with a massive crash of his war hammer.  He turns back to Dangar and said, “HURRY, BEFORE ALL IS LOST!”  He raised his hammer and Brought it down one last time onto the sphere and causing a deafening crash that woke Dangar up, covered with sweat, Dangar's sheets wrapped around him like shackles.

Dangar and Tim realized the orb from the dream-vision was one of the items they brought back from El Djem.  The Arch-Chancellor created the Orb Commission on the spot to start an investigation into the orb and how to destroy it.  He was worried because the University was supposed to be shielded from the kind of attack that killed the Farseer and heavily damaged the History building.

Noon

Town criers across the city read out the War Proclamation (see below), warning the citizens of Freegate that a goblinoid horde was heading towards the city.  The adventurers quickly angled for a position working for Outlands University to avoid being drafted into the City Militia.  They and all the other adventurers that were associated with the University were sent to a oratorium to be assembled into teams.

Time, Dangar, Mikal, and Darian became Unit #173, Tim's Outlanders, one of 200 units in the Outlands University Militia.  To supplement their skills an elven woman named Casvia (whose name means "Herald of Good Fortune") and a human woman named Aureme Anginsan were assigned to the group.  Casvia was a wizard and was assigned to handle communication between the University and Unit 173.  Aureme was an ex-sailor from the Imperial Navy and good with the scimitar and the harpoon, augmenting the group's melee capabilities.  Unit #173 was assigned to scout out the Horde and return with information about it.

The newly christened Tim's Outlanders purchased some additional riding animals (one pony and one mule, 330sp) and saddles (two poor saddles, 30sp) and left Freegate, heading south.

Game Session Ends

War Proclamation

Official Pronouncement

Due to the approaching Jebli Horde, the Faceless Five are declaring an official State of Emergency.  On this day, the 29th of July, in the 17th year of the Imperial Calendar, the following proclamation is made:

By Order of the Faceless Five:

All able bodied citizens of a mature age, as determined by the Faceless Five, are to immediately report to the City Building of their home Quarter and register for the City Militia.  Failure to register by sun up tomorrow will result in immediate assignment to a Militia Penal Unit.  All “Adventurers” are requested to identify themselves for special assignment.

Tomorrow, July 30th, at Noon, the Faceless Five will post Militia Assignments throughout the City.  Militia members will have until Midnight to report in at their unit Headquarters.  All non-combatants will be organized into Support Details.

For the week of July 30 through August 5, any individuals caught Thieving will be put to Death.

Any Merchants found to be increasing the cost of their wares by more than twice during the Period of Crisis will be subject to the following Penalties:

1. Confiscation of all Goods,
2. Fines of no less than 5,000 Gold Crowns, and
3. Immediate enrollment into a Militia Penal Unit.

The cost for exemption from the Militia is 500,000 Gold Crowns, payable in cash to the Faceless Five.

The following people are automatically exempt from the Militia service but may be asked to participate in Support Details.

• Priests and Priestesses of any established Temple
• Faculty of Outlands University
• Children
• City Government Officials
• City Guard

Any able bodied individual not a citizen of this City and who does not wish to participate in the defense of the City is requested to register as such tomorrow morning before Noon.  You will be escorted outside the City boundaries and asked not to return.

Happening Off-Stage
The University officials decide to designate the El Djem Collection “hazardous” due to the various problems that have developed since Tim brought it back.  Therefore, only Senior Wizards are allowed to work directly with the Collection until each item is cleared.

The orb from the El Djem Collection proved remarkably resistant to being damaged.  The Arch-Chancellor assigned a small group to investigate the problem and determine what is needed to destroy the orb.  The Orb Group starts work on researching a ritual to accomplish this task.

A wizard stole the Book of Ymer from the El Djem Collection before the collection was locked down.  They started forming a cult in the plains east of the Great Nef, past the northeastern lands claimed by Freegate.  Calling themselves the Crystal Brotherhood they gained control of a small village.  Their leader uses the approaching Horde as a means to gain sway in other villages nearby.

Tarquin the Mad and Rary the Red are finding it more difficult to locate all of the locations Montiflurio has asked them to find.  When they finally are ready to return to Freegate, they will be cut off from returning to the city by the goblinoid horde.

The Vault, after the University tries to look into it, went into full lock down.  None of the amulets and Words Those Who Watch have will work any more.  Those Who Watch now need to reassemble the True Key.  It is three triangles and two spheres that magically link and will allow the bearer access to the Vault and command of the defenses.  The orb the adventurers have is one of the pieces.

DM Discussion
The use of the term "Jebli" is of course borrowed from the original Greyhawk campaign where orcs, goblins, hobgoblins, and kobolds had different names than what appear in the Monster Manual.  I liked this better than saying "goblinoids" as all of my players had a long history of playing AD&D and had no fear of goblinoids.  I hind sight, I should have created different names instead of lifting them as Jebli sounded funny to the players and did not strike any uncertainty into them.

Tim's Outlanders Landing Page

Clouds Gather

Session 4

Against the Horde
Session 1 [Not Yet Posted]

Tim's Outlanders: Session 4, June 17 to July 28, 17 IC

 Player Characters

Tim, a Wizard - male human from the Free City of Freegate, student at Outlands University
Dangar Stonekleaver - male dwarf from the Northern Dwarven Kingdom
Mikal Torvaldsson - human male, of the Uplander Clans
Darian Kyle - human male, formerly of the Imperial 7th Legion [deserter]

Begins June 17, 17 IC

Beyond the entry way was a long series of wide steps leading down. The walls of the stairs down were covered with frescos showing tall, nearly giant, individuals wearing Assyrian garb in various scenes.  The individuals were shown in a variety of war scenes: leading armies of smaller minions against foes wearing Egyptian-style clothing and wielding bent swords, fighting magical duels with cruel-looking, staff-wielding foes with animal heads, destroying cities by calling down fire from the sky, and many other scenes.  There was also a scene showing an Assyrian causing a mountain to flow like water.  The adventurers noted that the flow was the same color as the dust in the Great Nef.

[To clarify: Use of "Egyptian" and "Assyrian" is shorthand for the style the figures resembled, not actual place or culture names.]

After spending some time looking at the murals, Tim finally realized that the small, evil looking figures were actually Sorcerer‑Kings and the giant, heroic figures were the legendary Enemy.  Further, the armies of the Enemy bore a striking resemblance to dwarves!

After digesting this surprising information, the party proceeded down the wide steps into some sort of underground complex, using torches for light.  The archway directly over the end of the stairs was covered in a mosaic in which a huge eye figured prominently and appeared to look down at anyone standing underneath it. The mosaic extended into the room beyond the end of the stairs.  Dangar was the first to pass the Eye [unknowingly making the way safe for the rest of the party].  Tim passed the Eye with his shield spell running, which seemed to awaken some of the sigils on the ceiling in the main chamber.  [The presence of Sorcerer-style magic brought the Vault to a higher state of alert, energizing the power nexii.]

Glowing stones set in the ceiling mosaic partially lit the entry room.  The ceiling mosaic was full of intricate patterns surrounding arcane sigils of unknown origin.  The floor was highly polished and smooth and made up of extremely intricate mosaics that seem to be focused on twenty equally spaced sections of bare earth.  Inlaid into the floor surface was a large circle that had one, very large, symbol inside it and was ringed with smaller sigils.  The party noticed traces of blood on the floor and interpreted it as the signs of a fight leading out an open door to their left, with some of the losers being dragged away through a different door on the right.

The party decided to investigate the open door first.  They found further signs of combat, including the remains of a camp and several dead ogres.  Following the trail further, they entered a storeroom and discovered that the room was broken into from the outside.  Following a tunnel on the other side of the wall, they found a dying dwarven priest who was talking into his holy symbol. 

In a surprise move, Mikal grabbed the dwarf's axe and then used the healing stone on the dwarf.  This stopped the priest from dying, but just barely.  The dwarven priest  told them he was tracking the ogres to prevent them from entering this complex.  The adventurers decided to accept his story.  [The priest was stringing the adventurers along until he could eliminate them, especially the wizard.]

The group returned to the main room and started investigating one of the doors.  Mikal and Dangar investigated a door in the same corner as the open door while Tim and the priest observed them.  At the same time, Darian investigated the large sigil in the center of the room.  Egged on by Tim, Darian walked out onto it.  This caused light to start crawling across the ceiling and the walls and the sigils to start illuminating on the ceiling.  Slowly, and with great effort, giant humanoid forms started rising from the patches of earth on the floor.

At this point the dwarf priest stabbed Tim in the back, literally, and attempted to keep the adventurers from escaping the room to allow the forming earth elementals time to kill them.  The priest claimed his order would “find the True Word first” and the adventurers would die horrible deaths.  In the ensuing scramble, Mikal staved in the skull of the priest so that he (Mikal) and Tim could escape out the back of the complex while Dangar and Darian ran up the stairs to exit out the front.  With 10 earth elementals chasing each pair, the party made best speed out of the complex.  The party discovered that the elementals would not leave the complex, merely sealing it behind them.  It took the party the next two days to reconnect with each other.

Once the party reconnected, they set up camp at the head of the stairs and reinvestigated the complex.  Over the next two days they discovered that the doors were extremely heavy and trying to open the doors reactivated the elementals.  They also discovered that a dwarf can stand on the sigil in the center of the room without causing the elementals to appear.  On the third day, they discovered that the defenses react hostilely to magic being used inside the main room.  Deciding that they had learned all they could and realizing no one else appeared to be arriving anytime soon, the party chose to head back to Freegate to get more information and warn people.

The party spent four days getting to the McTaggart clan stronghold, where they found the rest of the MacAuley clan.  Once Maclyn told his story of what happened, the party was treated as heroes and a feast was held in their honor.  Tim, Dangar, and Darian got into a drinking competition.  After a point, none of them really remembers what happened or who won.  While this was happening, Mikal made friends with some of the MacAuley women.  The next morning, the party left the MacTaggart clan stronghold and started the trip back to Freegate.

The party arrived at the 4th Legion's Citadel after three days of travel.  They found that their horses and cart were apparently scheduled for auction five days later.  They confronted the stable keeper who was surprised to see them alive and charged them late fees (2sp per day for 9 days plus 5sp to re-shoe the horses and 1sp for axle grease.  The party also spent 8sp on lodgings for the night.

It took the party 27 days to get back to Freegate.  They heard stories about the Imperial 7th Legion pushing south into the Kingdom of Silverloc to stop the rebellion happening there.  They also heard many rumors about a goblinoid horde that came out of the Great Swamp and was marauding through the Plains of Syrak.  The stories ranged from "it’s a scam to keep the commoners down" to "the horde has already been defeated by the Imperial 6th Legion" to "the Horde is fighting the Imperial 6th Legion" to "the horde beat the Imperial Legion".  They could not get any firm information while travelling.

Arriving in Freegate on July 28th, the adventurers spent some time contacting various people.  They spent half the day trying to re-find the dwarven temple.  Once there, they contacted the priest they talked to the previous time and told him what they found.  He arranged a meeting later that night at the Screaming Shrieker.  

Tim then went to the University to report what the party found.  He went to the Department of Antiquities and talked to the Director.  On the way, he noticed that the Antiquities Building had suffered some sort of damage recently and that had just finished being repaired.  He told the Director and the Dean of HET what he found and observed.  Tim was told to return the next day.

Game Session Ends.

Happening Off-Stage

The University has a Farseer attempt to verify the location Tim has reported on, hoping to verify the quantity of power stones he reported.  This will take some time as the Vault is invisible to any Detection spell.  When they fall back to visually checking the location via magic, one of the defensive spells on the Vault is triggered, sending a massive energy discharge back to the source of the magical probe.  The resulting explosion kills the Farseer and destroys all the surrounding rooms, heavily damaging one wing of the Natural Philosophy building.  This suddenly makes everyone at the University a lot more cautious.

The cache was designed using magic of a higher caliber than any practiced in the world now.  Even Those Who Watch only know the basics and treat it as black box technology.

• The Greater Earth Elementals are summoned by an emplaced spell powered by a series of power stones.
• The spells are all triggered and pre-programmed to eliminate intruders and reset.
• A proper badge of authority with the correct code words will allow people to get past.  Having only the badge will not.

Those Who Watch are ransacking their libraries trying to find the True Word to get past the defenses of the Vault.  They start at their hidden temple and gradually expand the search to other temples.  They eventually discover they have no less than eight Words that could be the correct one and only one way of testing them.

Dangar’s armor is finished.

The adventuring duo that Montiflurio hired is Tarkin the Mad and Rary the Red.  They have pinpointed several of the landmarks in the diary.  They are scheduled to return to Freegate in the afternoon one day after the adventurers do (July 29) and report back to Montiflurio.

Tim's Outlanders Landing Page

Session 3

Session 5 [Not Yet Posted]

Health Update - I'm Much Better!

I didn't realize how long it's been since I last posted.  I've posted recently on FB and must have conflated the two. Sorry about that.

So 4 months later and I'm in much better shape.  I was in a rehab hospital for a month, progressing from movable with the bed to movable with a wheelchair to able to move using the wheel chair (if you see the difference) to able to move with a walker (my least favorite piece of equipment), which is where I was once I got out of the rehab hospital.  After that, intensive Physical Therapy got me to moving needing a cane to moving with some assistance from a cane.  This is where I am now.  I can walk around (slowly) without the cane but faster with it.  I still need it for steps, especially stepping down, but that is slowly getting to the point where I won't need it, it will just be nice to have.  I have about 2 months left of physical therapy at one session a week and then my insurance stops paying for it.  Yay American "health care".

The other issue I mentioned in my previous post was with my hips, specifically where my femur and pelvis connect.  My body added bone to my pelvis, extending the socket part of the ball-and-socket joint.  This is limiting my ability to move my thigh closer than a 90 degree angle to my body without causing pain or out to the left and right.  I have the same issue on both sides, but only the left side causes pain, which is a win.  The PT for my neck surgery has strengthened my leg muscles and done some work on my hip, so this issue does not require surgery for the foreseeable future.  I'll start some PT specific to that once my neck surgery PT ends.

On top of that, I was diagnosed with Type II Diabetes, with an A1C of 7.3 in the hospital.  So across the line (7.0), but not very far across.  This was not particularly surprising to me - I'm a gamer and work in the tech industry so my not so good diet and lack of exercise kind of made this inevitable.  I'm now on Metformin, extended release, and have reduced sugars and carbs from my diet significantly.  Also, 5 weeks of enforced portion control in the hospital and rehab hospital reset the volume of food I eat to a smaller amount.  As of my last endocrinologist appointment in July, my A1C is down to 6.3 and I've lost 20-25 pounds of weight, which is the first time my weight has gone down in quite a while.  I need to wear one of those attachable glucose meters, but I have not purchased any yet - they are a bit pricey for me and I have a lot of medical bills now that need paying.

The recovery process takes a lot out of one and my endurance for doing things is still much reduced.  I rest often and go to sleep earlier than I used to.  My requirement for mid-day naps has tapered off as my recovery progresses and my attention span has improved.  I've been playing in a 5E D&D game that was being run while I was out and in July resumed running my monthly game, which was as early as I was mentally capable of.  There has been a hiccup in scheduling for the Monday night weekly game as the Other GM and his wife had their second child last week (Congrats Geoff and Emmy!), so I'm running an impromptu game during events the PCs are out of town for in my Sudden Sea campaign.  I'm also thinking about starting another campaign using a published megadungeon, but I'm going slow on that so I don't overcommit myself before I'm capable of running a third campaign.

I think that brings everything back up to current as far as how my health goes.  I'll resume posting my Tim's Outlanders campaign notes next week.  One of the things I'm doing today (after writing this post) is to type that one up.

I Fell, a Lot

 So, I had trouble walking for a while.  Three weeks ago, I fell getting into the tub.  I got up and out. Next day went to chiropractor and got xrays of neck. Looked "ok".  Made appointment for MRI scans of same to verify no hairline fractures and scheduled PT.

A week later, before the MRI, I fell again.  This time I couldn't get back up of the bathroom floor.  We called 911 and EMTs hauled me up onto a chair and I got to standing on my own from there.

5 days later I fell again and hit the back of my head on the shower tile.  Called 911 and they took me go the ER.  They did a CAT Scan on my skull and sent me home with a walker.

5:30 am the next morning I fell while using my walker. We called 911 and they hauled me up and put me in bed.

3 hours later, I had to urinate but could not stand, even with walker.  While rocking back and forth to remove underwear so I could pee into a trashcan, I fell off the bed to the floor.  A 911 call later and EMTs lifted me back to bed.

6 hours later, while friends were over to board game some and help us rearrange some furniture, I felt OK. I got up on my feet, put fresh clothes on, and used the walker to get into the bathroom. There, I fell again.

This time the EMTs said, "You've fallen 4 times in 24 hours. We cannot keep coming out to lift you. You need to go to a hospital."  I didn't want to, but I agreed.  At the hospital I had an mri of my lower back, which seemed to be the culprit. Talked with a neurosurgeon and scheduled surgery for two days later. He also wanted an mri of my neck to verify nothing strange there.  After he left, I remembered I'd just had one and asked my wife to bring the DVD with the copied images. She said it was already there so, long story short, we gave the neurosurgeon the DVD.

He came back a couple hours later and said the lower back surgery was off the table as my neck was in much worse shape.  I suffer from OPLL (look it up) where a ligament turns to bone over time and presses on my spinal cord.  It was doing so in multiple places.  April 14, 2 weeks and a day after the first fall, I had surgery on my neck including c-3, c4, c5, c6, and c7.

This past week I've been in the hospital, for post-op and sort things out.  Turns out a thing with my left leg was not because of OPLL but something else and hid amongst the symptoms. 

Tomorrow is a consultation with Orthopedics to sort that out and treatment. Once that is over, I will go to a rehab facility for intensive PT so I can get up from bed or a chair and so I can walk again. 

My insurance covers most of this (after the $5K deductible), but I don't have enough vacation time for all of it.  I will be on Short Term Disability for a couple weeks and that means only 60% of my salary during that time, which is not enough.  If anyone has ideas for donations and how to do that, I'd appreciate the help tremendously. 

Tim's Outlanders: Session 3, May/June, 17 IC

Player Characters

Tim, a Wizard - male human from the Free City of Freegate, student at Outlands University
Dangar Stonekleaver - male dwarf from the Northern Dwarven Kingdom
Mikal Torvaldsson - human male, of the Uplander Clans
Darian Kyle - human male, formerly of the Imperial 7th Legion [deserter]

Begins

The adventurers left the Terminus the following morning.  One night on the Route, they camped with a human merchant and his guards traveling east from the SDK to the Empire via Freegate.  They were shipping metalwork items for sale throughout the entire Empire.  The adventurers swapped stories and rumors with the merchant.

The party learned of strange goings-on on the HNTR—there were reports of attacks on caravans and Clan strongholds by forces unknown.  Further, strange lights have been seen at night, being described as "glowing dark purple clouds".  The merchant had not seen the lights himself, but knew people he trusted who had.  The adventurers also learned that the 7th Legion, Darian's old unit, was making a big push to the south on the rebel Kingdom of Silverloc this campaign season.

The adventurers warned the merchant of bandits operating on the road to Freegate.  Dangar bought a "pony keg" of Orpheon Gold [very high quality beer brewed in Orpheon] from the merchant the next morning before the groups went their separate ways.

A few weeks later, the adventurers arrived at the Citadel of the Fourth Legion, a major way station on the HNTR.  There they paid to stable their horses for two weeks and rented llamas.  They then continued north on the HNTR, further into the Worldspine Mountains, until they reached a point that was closest to the part of the Upper Reaches [the highest area of the already tall Worldspine Mountains] they wanted to search.

At this point, it had been 29 days since the adventurers left Freegate, making it June 8.

The adventurers hiked up into the mountains, heading for the MacAuley clan’s stronghold, which, according to Mikal, should be nearby.  After most of a day, they arrived at the MacAuley stronghold and found it recently attacked.  The party investigated and determined the attackers came in two waves, the first being elemental earth creatures of some sort that breached the walls and killed many clansmen, the second being ogres that finished off the defenders.  While searching the blacksmith’s workshop, Mikal discovered a hidden trap door that lead to an escape route out of the stronghold.  Following the tunnel under it with Dangar, the two of them found the remaining MacAuleys sheltering in a cave.

The surviving MacAuleys told a story about an evil force attacking in the night.  The shock troops were golems that battered down the walls of the clan's stronghold.  An overpowering, evil smell made fighting the golems even more difficult.  Ogres followed up after the golems once most of the clans’ warriors had been killed.  The clan’s elder was killed by some sort of evil magic.

After holding a brief strategy session, the adventurers set off with Maclyn MacAuley, a 16 year old guide, to hunt down the ogres while the rest of the MacAuley clan headed west to the MacTaggert clan stronghold for safety.  The party left their llamas at the MacAuley stronghold and spent a day tracking the ogres back to their camp, finding it shortly after sundown.  The ogre camp was on the next mountain east, on the far side of the ridge.  Maclyn attempted to sneak closer to find out how many ogres there were, but was seen.  A Dwarven spell caster with the ogres cast a flash spell to light up the area and blind Maclyn.  As the ogres closed in to kill Maclyn, the adventurers attacked.  Mikal and Dangar slid down the slope, standing on their shields like sleds, and quickly started killing the ogres.  Tim started a spell casting duel with the Dwarven spell caster and came out on top.  During the fight, Darian Kyle killed an ogre that tried to kill Tim, using only two blows.

After the fight, the adventurers went through the effects in the camp.  Most of the dwarf's possessions were burned due to fireballs cast at him.  The exceptions were a mysterious metal scroll tube and his religious symbol.  The symbol identified him as a member of Those Who Watch.  The Adventurers decided to backtrack the ogres some more, to find out where they came from.  They spent a day and a half retrieving their llamas from the stronghold and then pressed on.

After tracking for two days, the party arrived at the sight of a much bigger ogre camp. The camp had been used about a week previous.  Unfortunately, at this point the tracks became too faint for Maclyn to track any further. The party decided to return back to their original goal.  It took two more days of hard hiking to achieve the area known as the Upper Reaches.  Once there, it took the party a further day to find the arrangement of mountain peaks described on the tablets.

The location turned out to be a perfectly circular frozen lake on a high plateau.  In the exact center of the lake was an island.  The party carefully crossed the frozen lake and searched the island for clues.  On the island they found a perfectly circular cave with a set of double doors at the back of it.  The doors had a sigil that crossed both of them (see Figure below).  The party spent a couple of hours partially clearing the ice out from in front of the doors and then attempted to open them.  

Figure: Symbol Across the Doors to the Vault

After several abortive attempts at opening the doors, the party finally figured out that a dwarf had to put his hand on the sigil on the doors, say “open” in Old Dwarvish, and push.  The doors swung partially out until the ice stopped them.  Behind the doors was a 10’ diameter room that was noticeably warmer than the outside air.  The party entered and took stock of the situation.  It was June 17, 17 IC.

Game Session Ends.

[Prepped this last week, expecting the days I work to be busy plus wedding anniversary weekend.  Seemed prudent.]

Tim's Outlanders Landing Page

Session 2

Session 4 [Not Yet Posted]

Tim's Outlanders: Session 2, May, 17 IC

Player Characters

Tim, a Wizard - male human from the Free City of Freegate, student at Outlands University
Dangar Stonekleaver - male dwarf from the Northern Dwarven Kingdom
Mikal Torvaldsson - human male, of the Uplander Clans
Darian Kyle - human male, formerly of the Imperial 7th Legion [deserter]

Begin

The adventurers went to the Dwarven Quarter in Freegate, attempting to get more answers.  There they eventually found their way to the Dwarven temple, situated on a side street.

At the temple, they were silently directed to a priest who would actually talk to them.  The priest told them he knew which Dwarven priestly order the pendant belonged to.  It belonged to The Order of Those Who Watch.  He was tight-lipped about the whole thing but, after hearing their story and seeing the rubbings Tim made of the original tablets, he apparently decided to trust them somewhat.  He hired the group to follow the instructions to the hidden place in the Upper Reaches and retrieve whatever they find there.  He pointed out that whatever was there was important enough that someone was willing to kill a Dwarven priest to keep the secret, so they should be very careful.  He also said that he would speak to the single member of Those Who Watch living in the city and ask about any junior priests who might have recently become dead.  The adventurers returned to the  Screaming Shrieker.

While waiting for information and payment to be sent to them at the Screaming Shrieker, two toughs wielding enchanted swords attacked the adventurers.  Facing incredible bad luck, the toughs went down almost immediately.  The adventurers [minus Mikal who stayed to meet the dwarves] reported this attack to the City Watch.  They were able to find out the name of the person the toughs worked for.  The adventurers next went to the Gymnasium and attempted to talk to this individual.  The individual they wanted to talk to died by rapid aging while the adventurers talked to his bodyguards.  The adventurers were still there when the Watch arrived and the bodyguards reported that the adventurers had killed their boss (which is how it appeared to them).  The adventurers were taken back to the Watch House to be questioned.  The Sergeant gave the adventurers [minus Mikal] until nightfall to get out of the city and stay out for a month.  Slightly banished, the adventurers [with Mikal] left Freegate and headed west to the High North Trade Route.

On the road to Route Terminus East (RTE), eight bandits attacked the adventurers.  During negotiations the adventurers made a surprise attack and first crushed the morale of the bandits, then the bandits themselves.  The bandits’ bodies were left displayed on the road as a warning to other bandits.

After a week of travel, the adventurers arrived at the RTE.  There they paid the taxes assayed against them and received their travel token, authorizing them to travel the High North Trade Route (HNTR), an Imperial trade route that ran the length of the Worldspine Mountains.  As it was late in the day, they decided to stay at the RTE's inn for the night.  The adventurers got rooms, bathed, and ate.  Darian Kyle got into a drinking contest with members of the Imperial Legion stationed there and won.  The adventurers went to sleep for the night and left the RTE the next morning, heading west into the mountains.

Game session ends.

[I'm covering two positions at the DayJob while they look for a replacement for the guy they fired.  On top of this, my knees are giving me grief, which led to me falling in the shower while getting in.  Luckily I hit the far rim with my back/shoulder and not my neck.  Even so, I feel rickety this week and probably for another week or two as I heal and then start some PT.  All of this is a long way of saying that I'm posting what I have available and will resume the Ratpack when time allows.]

Tim's Outlanders Landing Page

Session 1

Session 3 [Not Yet Posted]