Tim's Outlanders: Mansion of Illusions, Session 2 - March 27 to April 2, 18 IC

[This session took place June 24, 2000.]

Player Characters

Dangar Stonekleaver - male dwarf from the Northern Dwarven Kingdom
Max Lucas - human male ranger from the Bayern District
Arturo of the Brambles - male human monk of the Order of the Brambles

Tarquin the Mad - male human fighter, traveling companion to Rory

NPCs

Monteflurio the Sage - male human sage from Freegate
Rory the Red - Wizard and graduate of Outlands University, traveling companion to Tarquin

Session Begins, March 27, 18 IC

On March 27th of 18 IC, the group headed west from Freegate once again.  On the route, they met and talked with a merchant caravan heading east from the High North Trade Route.  The merchant had run across the site of the fight with the orc raiders and found that it had been scavenged fairly thoroughly.  His men had moved the tree so it no longer blocked the road.  He also told the adventurers that he had heard rumors that the 8th Legion now guarded the entire High North Trade Route and the 4th Legion’s Citadel was almost completely empty.  The players told him about their fight with the orcs and that Freegate was currently very short on quality beer.  This was good news for the merchant who was shipping a modest stock of Orpheon Gold.  [A high end beer from Port Orpheon, on the other side of the Worldspine Mountains.]  He now knew to raise his prices when he got to Freegate.  He offered to sell the adventurers some Orpheon Gold on the cheap for the information and Dangar bought a small keg of it.

March 29, 18 IC

Two days later, the adventurers returned to the site of their fight with the orcs.  After warily checking out the site, they found it to be as the merchant described it.  From there they headed south, into the mountains of the Spur.  The air in the mountains was colder than on the plains and the adventurers were very glad for the winter gear they had packed.

March 31, 18 IC

Late in the day the adventurers spotted a low-flying bat patrol as it crested a mountain ridge.  They decided, due to their experiences with the Sting-Tails, to set up a false camp as well as a cold regular camp.

Third Watch

During the final watch that night, Dangar observed what appeared to be orcs setting up a tent in a meadow across the valley.  Rather than wake his comrades, he decided to go “take care of” these orcs, believing he could get there and back before his friends awoke.

Sneaking across the valley, Dangar was able to use the tall grasses in the meadow to sneak right up to the tent and attack.  Catching the guards by surprise, Dangar was able to kill two of the four guards before the orcs were aware he was there.  The orc shaman there subsequently subdued Dangar with magic.  The noise from this conflict woke the rest of the adventurers across the valley.

Rapidly discerning what had happened, Tarquin and Max headed across the valley to save Dangar from himself.  Arturo, Rory, and Monteflurio broke down camp and prepared for a hasty retreat if needed.  

After spending 30 minutes quickly working their way across the valley, Tarquin and Max arrived at the edge of the meadow.  Max stayed hidden in the brush with his bow at the ready while Tarquin openly approached the tent.  The tent flaps were down on all sides and the tent was ringed with orc spearmen, spears pointing out.  When Tarquin got within 30 feet, the leader of the spearmen hailed him and ordered him to stop.  The leader of the spearmen then leaned into the tent and informed Go-Tok of Tarquin’s arrival.

Tarquin (who knew some orcish) and Go-Tok, the leader of the Snake-Bites, negotiated the return of Dangar and unhindered passage around the lands of the Snake-Bites.  This cost the 30 gold Royals Dangar had on him and the half-cask of Orpheon Gold Dangar had not yet drunk.  As Dangar was unconscious, Tarquin felt Dangar could not complain about the use of his money and ale to pay his own ransom.  He readily agreed to the terms.

For being a good sport about the whole thing, Go-Tok drew a map in the dirt of the valley and warned Tarquin about the owlbears currently there.  Go-Tok also warned Tarquin not to drink the water of the river in the valley as goblins were using it as a dumping area upstream.  Tarquin thanked Go-Tok for the information, threw the unconscious Dangar over his shoulder, and headed back out of the meadow.  

When Tarquin got to the edge of the meadow, Max asked if he had gotten Dangar’s axe as well as Dangar.  Tarquin hadn’t, so he set Dangar down and went back for the axe.  Go-Tok had left the meadow but some of his spearmen were still there and formed up a defensive ring when they saw Tarquin was returning.  

After taking a few minutes to explain how upset Dangar would be to find his axe missing and describing what he would likely do to get it back, the orcs returned the axe, deciding it would cause too much trouble to have Dangar repeatedly trying to get his axe back.  When Tarquin returned with Dangar’s axe, Max asked about Dangar’s helmet.  “He can get along without it,” was Tarquin’s only response.  They tied Dangar wrists and ankles to a pole and carried him back to the camp.

Once back at the camp, Dangar was revived while still tied up.  When it became apparent he would not go running off after the orcs, Dangar was cut free.  When Dangar asked about his missing ale and money, Tarquin said that the orcs had stolen it.  Dangar did not entirely believe this and suspected that Tarquin drank his ale, not the orcs.  He was not certain what happened with his money.

April 1, 18 IC

The group traveled west until they entered the valley that lead around the Snake-Bites’ lands.  There, they traveled south a few hours until the early dusk of the mountains made it hazardous to travel any further.  They made a cold camp around a clearing in the woods near the river.  

That Night

Max and Rory heard the cries of what could have been owlbears during their watches, but it sounded like the owlbears were at the far end of the valley.  On the third watch, Tarquin heard the sounds of several “somethings” moving through the underbrush at high speed towards the camp.  He woke the rest of the group so that they would be ready for whatever happened.  At this point Dangar realized that he had also lost his nightvision goggles along with his helmet.

After a small eternity, during which the adventurers could hear the hunting cries of the owlbears getting closer and closer, a small group of deer ran through the clearing.  Max shot one of the deer, hoping to use its carcass as a distraction for the owlbears.  Seconds later, an owlbear crashed into the clearing, its huge shaggy body a mass of shadows in the darkness.  It moved to feast upon the deer, which was spasming slightly. While it was distracted, the group attacked it en mass.  

After a short and violent fight, the owlbear went down.  Dangar and Max moved in to remove its claws and beak as battle trophies.  When they were almost done doing this (and covered with owlbear blood), two more owlbears attacked.  This battle was less organized and more frantic as the party was unprepared for it.  Dangar and Max were heavily wounded in the fighting and the party was only able to drive off the owlbears, not kill them.

As the sun came up, it was early the morning of April 2nd.

End of Session.

Happening Off-Stage

The wounded owlbears are moving off to regenerate the damage they have taken.  Once that is done, they will return to hunt the adventurers.

This session ends the night of April 1st/2nd.  Dangar’s birthday is April 2nd and some birthday gifts have arrived for him at the University since the group left Freegate.  These will be waiting for him at the University Guards building until he returns.

DM Discussion

[Another player joined the group at this point.  Rather than try and introduce a new character mid-adventure, I gave him the option of playing either Rory or Tarquin.  He was new to the HERO System, so chose Tarquin as fighters are easier to learn than spellcasters, who need to know how the powers the magic spells are made of work.]

Tim's Outlanders Landing Page

Mansion Of Illusions

Session 1

Session 3 [Not yet typed up]

Tim's Outlanders: Mansion of Illusions, Session 1 - March 18 to 26, 18 IC

[UPDATE: The session notes for this session actually listed the date it happened: May 20, 2000.  We were playing Champions 4th Edition with the 2nd Edition Fantasy Hero supplement.]

Player Characters

Dangar Stonekleaver - male dwarf from the Northern Dwarven Kingdom
Max Lucas - human male ranger from the Bayern District

Arturo of the Brambles - male human monk of the Order of the Brambles

NPCs

Monteflurio the Sage - male human sage

Rory the Red - Wizard and graduate of Outlands University, traveling companion to Tarquin

Tarquin the Mad - male human fighter, traveling companion to Rory

Session Begins, March 18, 18 IC

Monteflurio, a local sage specializing in ancient history, received word from another set of hired adventurers [Rory and Tarquin] that they had located a site he was interested in.  He sent word to Tim that he was putting together a follow-up expedition and wished to hire the group now know as Tim's Outlanders.  Not all members of the group were available for the follow-up expedition and had to decline.  Tim was involved with the HET Department moving to new quarters at the University Annex, out on the Western Rim on land razed by the Goblinoid Horde last fall.  Aureme was extremely reluctant to go underground and had a number of female students she was teaching fencing at the University.  Monteflurio accepted their need to decline.

Using his contacts, Monteflurio was able to secure the services of a member of the Order of the Brambles, a sub-sect within the Brotherhood of the Rose.  While this helped offset the loss of combat skills somewhat, Aureme would be sorely missed.

March 20, 18 IC

Montiflurio and his hired adventurers met at the White Horseshoe Stables on the West Bank, newly repaired from the Siege.  Monteflurio had a cart loaded with all the supplies and two horses to pull it.  The group consisted of the following people: Dangar Stonekleaver, Max Lucas, Monteflurio the Sage, Rory the Red, Tarquin the Mad, and Arturo of the Brambles.  Monteflurio and Rory rode in the front of the cart with Arturo sitting in the back.  Dangar, Max, and Tarquin rode their mounts and Rory’s horse was tied to the cart.

March 22, 18 IC

After traveling west on the trade road, the group was ambushed as the road wound through some trees.  Max noticed some of the birdcalls the attackers were using for communication were inappropriate for the daytime and barely had time to warn the group before the ambush was sprung.  The attackers were orcs using non-lethal weapons.  They netted Monteflurio and Rory immediately and lassoed most of the horses.

The fight that followed was intense and the orcs were forced to quickly draw real weapons out of self-defense.  Dangar was caught in a net and two lassos and was hoisted into the air.  The orcs were starting to get an upper hand when Max pulled out the Outlanders’ lightning wand and started blasting trees into toothpicks.  One of the trees fell onto the cart, destroying it.  The orcs decided to grab as many horses as they could and ran.  The adventurers were left with one captive, a smashed cart, and short several horses.  To top it all off, the two kegs of alcohol in the supplies were also smashed.  [Dangar and Rory both lamented this.]

The adventurers interrogated their single captive.  This was greatly eased when the captive recognized the Outlanders in the group - the orcs now greatly fear "Boom-Bottle" and know he led the adventurers that attacked the Horde.  From him they learned that the group that ambushed them are known as “Sting Tails”, not “Snake-Bites” like Go-Tok, and so their banner of passage was no good.  [Off screen, Rory and Tarquin had negotiated safe passage with the Snake-Bites, an orc tribe recently moved into the local mountains.  This is the first time my session notes directly mention it.]  They also learned the point of the attack was to steal the horses. After interrogating the captive (and putting the heads of the dead orcs on pikes), the adventurers released him with a warning and a demand that the orcs deliver replacement horses to Freegate or “Boom-Bottle” will come looking for them.

Deciding they could not go on without more horses, the party turned around and walked back to Freegate to resupply.

March 26, 18 IC

It took them longer to get back to Freegate as they were now walking, but they did so safely.

End of Session.

Happening Off-Stage

The Sting-Tails decide to lay low for a while.  While they are concerned about Boom-Bottle, they are not so concerned as to give the horses back.  They are very confident that Boom-Bottle will not find their village.  They will not return to the site of that ambush for a minimum of a year and a day.

DM Discussion

[Aureme's player finished her extended vacation from the US Coast Guard and had to return to station in Puerto Rico, so Aureme needed to be written out.  We discussed what she'd be up to and teaching weapons use at the University, particularly to female students, seemed a good fit.]

[Tim's player wanted to try out a different style of character for a while, so he and I discussed what Tim might be up to since his new found fame as "Savior of the City".  With land recently razed by the Horde on both rims, the University purchased the rights to some out on the Western Rim and moved the High Energy Thaumaturgy department there so experimentation with Tim's Double Distilled could continue without the threat of accidentally blowing up parts of the University proper.  The University Annex has VERY thick walls to contain explosions, hopefully venting them harmlessly up and not out.]

Tim's Outlanders Landing Page

The Investiture and Siege of Freegate - A Summation

Mansion Of Illusions

Session 2

The Investiture and Siege of Freegate - A Summation

So at this point in the campaign, I had written myself into a corner.  The next stage of the arc would be the Horde arriving at Freegate and besieging it.  I had no idea what this would look like nor how to run something like that.

So I punted.

I spoke with the players and explained I needed to skip over the Siege and narrate the key events because I really had no idea how to run something that large with the Fantasy Hero system.  Thankfully they were amenable to this.  So here is roughly what I told them.  It is only a rough approximation as none of my notes on it seem to have survived, at least nothing in electronic format.  I might have some hand-written notes buried somewhere and there might still be something in my pile of rescued but unnamed files from the hard drive crash I suffered in 2014, but right now all I have is my memory.

The Investiture of Freegate

The Goblinoid Horde North [named to separate it from a second Horde besieging the City of Riverbight and rampaging in the lands surrounding it in the southern part of the Crendian Empire] split in two when it reached the southern end of the chasm in which Freegate sat.  Both halves numbered over 20,000 warriors, with the eastern half being the slightly larger of the two.  Each half marched up its side of the chasm for three days until both reached the points where the two adamantine bridges connected the city on the mesa in the center with the opposing rims.  There they arranged themselves to besiege the city, cutting off its escape.

So why did none of the Horde march up inside the chasm or anyone in Freegate escape that way?  The bottom of the chasm is over a half mile deep and filled with a dense jungle that appears to be warmer and more humid than the surrounding plains.  Unusual roars and cries are occasionally heard from the jungle and large reptilian flying beasts, known as "clakkers" glide in the air above the jungle.  The people of Freegate occasionally feed the clakkers, who have learned not to attack people on the bridges.  The jungle is extremely dangerous and no one entering the jungle has ever returned.  The Horde seemed to be aware of this and avoided the area.

The Siege

Once in place, the Horde attacked the relatively weak Rim Defenses, easily smashing through the fortifications there.  [Those were there mostly as access control to the bridges and not defenses strong enough to stop what they were facing.]  Then a series of attacks were initiated, with groups of warriors marching the length of the bridges to start attacking the actual city gates.

This is where the Wizards of Outlands University shone.  Combined attacks by units of wizards either killed the attacking warriors or pushed them off the bridges and let gravity do the dirty work.  This heavily bolstered the morale of the city.  Unfortunately, the Wizards knew this was unsustainable - eventually they would run out of reagents for their magics and then the Horde would have the numbers to break one or both sets of gates.

This gave rise to a plan of desperation - the Arch Chancellor of the University authorized the mass distillation of Tim's Double Distilled.  This consumed all of the alcohol inside the city [at least all that could be found].  The mass of Double Distilled was used to fill as many glass or ceramic bottles and jugs as the University could procure.  While this happened, scrolls of extended telekinesis were mass produced as delivery systems.

The Flight of the Bottles

Four days later, in the early morning before the daily assault along the bridges by the Horde, while their warriors gathered near the entrance to the eastern bridge, tens of Wizards along the eastern walls of the city cast the extended telekinesis spell from the scrolls and as one, each lifted and sent bottles of Tim's Double Distilled across the gap between the city and the rim until the bottle floated over the massed goblinoids.  Then one Wizard launched a fireball at the massed bottles, triggering a chain-reaction detonation of all the bottles over the eastern half of the Horde.

The resulting airburst was devastating.

Hundreds if not thousands of goblinoid warriors were killed outright [plus an unfortunate number of the enslaved population of the Bayern District and other places south].  Squadrons of batriders were swatted out of the sky.  Many of the immense rolling buildings the Horde had brought all the way from the Great Swamp were damaged or destroyed.  The stone fortifications on the rim were heavily damaged, portions blown over into the chasm below.  Eastern-facing windows in the city [over a mile away] were damaged or destroyed.  Few of the defenders along the wall were injured because they had been warned to hide.  [But of course some didn't heed the warning because they thought they knew better than wizards and self-selected themselves out of the gene pool.]  Fire, smoke, and dust rose over the eastern rim of the chasm.

An hour later, from the western walls of Freegate, another flight of bottles rose and started its way across the chasm, towards the besiegers on the western rim.  Many of the warlords on that side took one look at the approaching bottles and said, "Nope."

Ignoring [and occasionally killing] the shaman leadership of the Horde trying to get them to stay, the warlords turned their troops west and fled the area at best speed.  Nearly 50% of the Horde on this side of the chasm broke and ran, heading for the mountains to the west-southwest of the city [an extension of the Worldspine Mountains known as The Spur].  The remainder, barely held together by the religious leadership, flooded onto the bridge, hoping to close with the city and escape the deadly explosion that was immanent.

Seeing this, the Wizard in charge of the attack cast his fire spell early, detonating the bottles before they were all over the rim.  This airburst killed thousands of warriors and gouged a huge chunk out of the rim wall itself.  Those goblinoids on the bridge were blasted clean off, their bodies falling  down into the chasm below, where the things down there ate well.

This second attack broke the morale of the warlords of the Horde.  Those on the eastern rim organized their troops and headed northwest, towards the next target on their Grand Quest, the city of Crendia, capital of the Crendian Empire.  Any shaman that objected to the Horde leaving Freegate suddenly found themselves on the wrong end of multiple spears or pincushioned by many arrows.  The smart ones kept silent, accepting the defeat.  They could regain control over the Horde later.  Those goblinoids on the western rim still loyal to the Grand Quest [a significantly reduced number] packed up and headed north to march around the northern end of the chasm and eventually meet up with the eastern half of the Horde.  The rest fled to the mountains.

The Wizards breathed a sigh of relief.  They could not have done a third wave, having used up 90% of the alcohol in the city in these two attacks and virtually all the bottles available. The resulting celebrations in the city consumed the remaining 10% of alcohol [very well hidden away until then] until more could be brewed or distilled.

Tim's Outlanders Landing Page

Against the Horde

Session 5

Mansion of Illusions

Session 1 [Not Yet Posted]

Tim's Outlanders: Against the Horde, Session 5 - August 25, 17 IC

[And we are back to my notes not tracking the date played again.  That said, this session likely happened in September of 1999 as we played once a month.  As it turned out, Mikal's player was able to join us for one last session and Mikal nearly achieved a glorious death.  Twice.]

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

Session Begins, August 25, 17 IC

After Dusk

Deciding that the bats would spot them [see end of Session 4], the Outlanders decided to attempt to escape detection and make it to the river.  Tim levitated a bottle of his Double Distilled, first away from the PCs, then up towards a bat-rider patrol.  He then detonated it amongst them, hoping to distract them long enough for the adventurers to escape.  While this successfully distracted the bat-riders, Tim and Aureme’s horses both panicked.  The panicked horses bolted and ran uncontrolled for 15 minutes, until they were too tired to run farther.  [This was due to neither Tim nor Aureme having the Riding skill.  The Fantasy Hero rules assume anyone can ride a horse in calm situations, but must have the Riding skill for anything outside that, like when your horses panic after a tremendous, nearby, explosion.]  The adventurers eventually regrouped and headed as fast as they dared to the river, following a hedgerow for cover.

Some 300 yards from the river, the hedgerow, and the road, ended.  At first the PCs thought they were in a freshly turned field.  When they looked closer, they realized this was where the Horde had marched past, flattening anything in its path and churning the soil.  Then the adventurers noticed that the batriders were regrouping in numbers and preparing to resume their search, this time knowing there were hostiles in the area.

The Outlanders dismounted and hid as best they could at the end of the hedgerow.  Tim, using his levitation spell, sent a lit bottle of Double Distilled with a long fuse floating along the backside of the hedgerow.  When it was close to both detonating and the bats, he brought it swooping up into the bat swarm, where it detonated.  The resulting explosion killed several of the giant bats, many of the riders, was seen back in Freegate, and spooked the horses again.  Panicked, two of the horses bolted to the river and went over the edge of the embankment.  One of those horses was Tim’s and carried the six remaining bottles of Tim’s Double Distilled.  Tim's horse stumbled and rolled over the bottles, detonating all of them.

Earlier, Back in Freegate

The Freegate City Militia interrupted Mikal’s component-gathering training.  They needed him to gather information on the Horde instead.  The Horde’s magical protection was currently uncrackable and Mikal had the only flying mount in the city that could infiltrate the skies over the Horde.  Seeing no choice, Mikal agreed to scout out the Horde.

At first being cautious on his approach to the Horde, Mikal noticed that all the Horde’s bat-riders were searching an area in the Horde’s rear.  Taking advantage of this and the setting sun, Mikal flew directly over the Horde's camp, low and fast.  He saw several buildings on rollers, some of which appeared to be giant mobile bat roosts.  He also saw several holding pens for unknown creatures and a creature that met the legendary description of a dragon!  It appeared the dragon was wearing a collar of some sort, but Mikal couldn’t tell why.

As Mikal finished his scouting run over the Horde, a tremendous aerial explosion occurred among the bat-riders to the rear of the Horde.  Recognizing the harsh white of the explosion as Tim’s handiwork, Mikal steered Meep towards the area.  When a second explosion happened near the river, Mikal steered Meep lower and over that area and spotted the rest of the Outlanders.  They spotted him as well, but thought he was a an enemy bat-rider!  After a short exchange of crossbow bolts (from Dangar) and words (from Mikal), the Outlanders reunited and moved to find a hiding place from the Horde.

The Outlanders located a small cave in the rocky sides of the riverbank and took shelter within it, along with their mounts.  Tim and Dangar quickly brought Mikal up to date and he told them what he saw in his fly-over on the Horde.  The adventurers then started a lengthy discussion as to what plan of action to take [because Players].  This lead to the development of a plans to drop the Horde, or at least a large portion of it, into the Tabor River.  Many of these grandiose plans involved caves or tunnels and Tim’s Double Distilled in large quantity.  Mikal was given a bottle of T.D.D. for later use against the goblins.  Tim placed a fire spell on the bottle's cap that would trigger when a goblinoid was within 30 feet of the bottle, detonating the bottle.  Both Tim and Mikal believed this would help Mikal when fleeing other bat-riders.

During the debate, Aureme heard scrabbling noises outside on the rocks.  The adventurers prepared their weapons and Mikal hopped on Meep and flew out of the cave.  As Meep exited the cave a man-sized lizard with large, sharp talons leapt at him and missed.  [To be clear, these are hunting lizards the size of a human, not lizardmen.]  Seven others then charged the cave.  In the ensuing ferocious fight at the cave's mouth, the adventurers took a number of serious wounds and Tim was knocked unconscious due to a spell misfire.  At one point in the fight, Mikal leapt from Meep’s back into one of the lizards to finish it off.  [Potentially Heroic death missed, number one.]

After the fight [and using the Healing Rock on several of his companions], Mikal went to find Meep, who had not yet returned.  Darian followed shortly thereafter to help search.  At the top of the riverbank, Mikal found Meep being dog-piled by another pack of the man-sized lizards.  Thinking only of his mount, Mikal leapt into the pile holding out the Healing Rock.  Making contact with Meep, Mikal used the last charge of the Rock for the day to heal Meep.  Meep was then able to shrug off several of the lizards and get airborne.  The lizards then turned on Mikal.  The lizard's goblin handler also closed in.

Just as Darian arrived at the top of the riverbank, the bottle of T.D.D. at Mikal’s waist detonated due to the proximity of the goblin handler.  The resulting explosion killed all the lizards and their handler, knocked Meep out of the sky and killed him, knocked Darian unconscious and blew him 20 meters back into the river, knocked out Aureme (who had just exited the cave and was caught in the fireball), nearly collapsed the cave on Tim and Dangar, but, miraculously, did not instantly kill Mikal.  [Potentially Heroic death missed, number two.  But only just.]

Tim, realizing the source of the explosion, scrambled out of the cave and to the top of the riverbank.  Tim first saw Meep’s charred and broken corpse where it had fallen back to earth, next to the crater that was ground zero for the explosion.  Inside the crater, Tim found the partial body of Mikal, mortally wounded but still alive.  Casting his minor healing spell on Mikal to buy some time, Tim frantically searched the debris for the Healing Rock.  Using his Glow Stone as a magical lodestone, he found and recharged the Healing Rock [a little dramatic license here on my part as it had used up its charges for the day].  He then used up the Healing Rock again on Mikal.  The Healing Rock was able to bring Mikal back from death’s door, but little else.  Between his knees and ribs, Mikal was little more than a skeleton with a flesh covering.

At the same time, Dangar looked for Darian, slowly at first, then with increasing urgency.  When Aureme finally became coherent, Dangar learned that she had seen Darrian at the top of the riverbank fighting more of the lizards just before being outlined and engulfed by an incredibly bright light.

Suspecting that Darian had been blown into the river, the group (minus Mikal) spread out along the riverbank looking for him.  After an hour of searching, they finally found his body.  He had landed in the river nearby but was tragically weighed down by his armor and obscured by the mud he had stirred up.  He had never regained consciousness and drowned.

Worried about the Horde following up on the explosions, the group headed down river [away from the Horde] to another cave Dangar had discovered while looking for Darrian.  They carried Mikal and Darrian’s body with them.  Tim used the teleportation scroll to carry Mikal back to Freegate for further medical treatment.  While Tim was there, Dangar prepared the new cave as a proper burial chamber for Darian.  Considering how much they had argued, this was somewhat surprising and touching.

In Freegate, Tim requested serious medical attention for Mikal.  At first people would ask why and Tim would show them Mikal.  As word spread and the custodial staff complained about the mess, people stopped asking why and scrambled to get him medical attention.  Mikal was moved to a private room to await the attention of a priest, preferably for healing and not last rites.

Tim was taken to the Debriefing Officer where he reported everything that had happened and included what Mikal had seen while flying over the Horde.  Tim also requested a replacement team member, preferably one with healing ability.  Tim’s report greatly disturbed the Debriefing Officer, especially the part about the dragon.  Tim was questioned for what details he could provide.

When the four hours of the teleportation spell was nearly up, Tim was taken back to the transport room.  There he was introduced to Max Lucas, a young ranger and the newest member of Tim’s Outlanders.  After a short introduction, both magically returned to the sending circle by the river, where the rest of the Outlanders were waiting.  Max Lucas was given brief introductions to Aureme and Dangar, who was putting the finishing touches to what became Darian’s tomb.

End of Session.

DM Discussions

[OK, this session's notes reminded me how the teleportation scroll worked, so I'm going to discuss it here.  The scroll is a focus for a teleportation ritual that requires a ritual circle be drawn on a flat surface.  When the ritual is complete, anyone inside the circle with the scroll is teleported to a matching circle back in Freegate, specifically in a large room on the campus of Outlands University, a fixed location by the game rules.  The effect only lasts for four hour and sends whomever is holding the scroll back to the original circle.  If the holder is inside the receiving circle when this call-back is triggered, anyone else with them is also transported.  This is why the group had to march back to the city when recalled and did not teleport.  It also only works once per day.  So it can be used to send reports back and deliver additional people or supplies the returning people can carry, but not be used for bulk transportation.]

Tim's Outlanders Landing Page

Against the Horde

Session 4

The Investiture and Siege of Freegate - A Summation

Tim's Outlanders: Against the Horde, Session 4 - August 17 to August 25, 17 IC

[My notes suggest this session took place in August of 1999.  It would have been on a Saturday, but my notes did not say which Saturday.  This is the first time I made any note as to when the game was played.]

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

Session 4 Begins, August 17-20, 17 IC

The group was recalled to Freegate shortly after the beheadings were reported.  The trip took four days and Casvia left the group in disgust once they returned to Freegate.  Mikal also left, accepting a request to secure rare components for a ritual to destroy the orb from Dangar's vision.  His ability to ride Meep made him ideal for this mission.  [Mikal's player was moving to a different state to take a new job and would no longer be available to play as this was long before Discord or Roll20 existed and playing face-to-face was the only option.]

August 21

Rumors about the goblin impaling incident started circulating through the university and then out into the city at this point.  The University officials weren't certain what to do with the Outlanders.  On one hand, they were clearly performing atrocities, but on the other, Tim had discovered a very volatile substance that had great potential in the war against the Horde.  They finally decided to table the decision until after the war.

The militia unit, along with the other  Outland University Militia (OUM) teams, were being boarded in one of the on-campus dormitories.  Tim spent the night of the 21th at the High-Energy Thaumatics building with several of the grad students preparing more of what becomes known as “Tim’s Double Distilled”.

[A side note on the geography of the City of Freegate.  The city is located atop a mesa in the middle of a two-mile wide chasm.  The chasm itself is over 125 miles in length, with the greater Tabor River running through the bottom, nearly a mile down at the point where Freegate stands.  Two adamantine bridges link the city to the canyon rims, where there are minor fortifications and some accumulated out buildings.  Outlands University is on a separate branch of the mesa and connected to the main part of the city by a shorter adamantine bridge.  The city is very old.]  

August 22

As a result of his all-nighter, Tim was late to a meeting of the surviving OUM groupleaders.  His sleep deprivation caused him to barely remember the details of what he’s supposed to discuss with his team.  Once back with the Outlanders. he told the party two of the options available (guarding the humanoids in Outtown [one of the districts inside the city walls] and checking out the Sewers) but could not remember the remaining options.  He designated Aureme as his deputy, told her to attend the follow-up meeting at 3pm, and then fell into a deep sleep, snoring noisily.

When Aureme arrived at the 3pm meeting, clearly not knowing what was going on, the Militia Commander was angered by this lack of discipline and respect.  He deliberately misheard Aureme volunteer her group for any duty but sewer duty and assigned sewer duty to them as a punishment.  This sparked an unusually violent reaction from Aureme and Darian, who took some of their displeasure with Tim out on Tim.

August 23

The morning of the 23rd, a very unhappy group headed to the main office of the Sewer Workers Guild to report for duty.  While being briefed by the Guild Master, the room they were in was lowered from the street level down to the sewer level [it was essentially an elevator].  When the doors opened back up and Aureme discovered she was far underground, she had a very violent reaction to "being tricked underground" [she apparently was very claustrophobic].  Rather than subdue her, the Guild Master returned the room to the surface and sent the party back to the University for re-assignment.  

The Militia Commander re-assigned them to Ambush duty against the Horde.

August 24

In the morning, Tim's Outlanders, down to 4 members, gathered supplies and headed out of Freegate.  They traveled a full day in a curving arc down stream and then started their approach to the Horde.  They spent the night hiding a half day's ride from the river in a copse of trees.  Careful observation of the Horde's approach allowed the Outlanders to establish the patrol pattern for the bat riders.  

August 25

They spent the morning judging the Hordes movement rate by how fast the bat patrols advanced their patrol patterns.

Shortly after Noon the party started moving towards the river.  Using gaps in the patrol pattern of the bat riders, they moved in behind the Horde.  

About an hour before nightfall, they came across the remains of a farmhouse the Horde had ransacked and stripped.  While investigating this, they spotted a fire elemental that was spreading fires on the Horde’s flank.  Tim used a telekinesis spell to move a bottle of his Double Distilled towards the elemental.  The elemental noticed the bottle once it was within thirty feet and shot a fireball at it.  

The resulting explosion knocked Tim off his feet, 70 yards away, and nearly killed the elemental.  Tim immediately sent a second bottle at the elemental.  The elemental missed it several times before Tim slammed the bottle into the ground at the elemental’s feet.  The explosion, while powerful, was nowhere near as devastating as the first bottle.  Despite this, it was enough to kill the elemental.  

The party immediately rushed out of the vicinity and towards the river before the bat patrols started swarming the area.  They hid among some rocks, hoping the widening search pattern of the bat riders would miss them.

Session Ends.

Happening Off-Stage

Rumors about “Tim’s Outlanders” and their barbarity start spreading in Freegate, mingling with other rumors about Tim himself.  Some are appalled, some approve, but most cannot fully believe the rumors.  The Rare Art Brotherhood (RAB) decides to be a little more cautious about dealing with Tim.

The goggle fragments Dangar sent back from the Bat Meat Incident have been fused into wearable lenses.  Unfortunately, they are still full of fractures and give a penalty to PER when Dangar's head makes rapid movements, like when he is in combat.

Tim's Outlanders Landing Page

Against the Horde

Session 3

Session 5 [Not Yet Posted]

Tim's Outlanders: Against the Horde, Session 3 - August 15 to August 16, 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]
Aureme Anginsan - human female, formerly an Imperial Navy sailor (retired)

NPCs

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

Session 3 Begins, August 15, 17 IC

Casvia returned from Freegate via her teleportation spell and brought back new orders for the group: find out the make up of the Horde and get the information back to Freegate.  Mikal headed out on Meep that night to try and count camp fires.  He saw that the Horde was advancing on both sides of the Greater Tabor River and apparently torching the countryside as it went.  To investigate, he flew Meep low and fast over one of the burning areas and found what appeared to be a fire elemental was the source of the fires.  Before he could see more he was chased away by a goblin batrider patrol.  He returned to the Outlanders after losing the patrol.

Later that night, while the party was camping, they were spotted by a bat patrol.  This patrol attacked fanatically, power diving at Mikal and Meep.  After a mid‑air collision with the leader, Mikal and Meep were driven into the ground and seriously injured.  Only Mikal’s possession of the Healing Rock [a magical healing stone] saved Meep from death.  Dangar spent time looking through the remains of the patrol for their nightvision goggles and secured enough fragments for a pair.  This becomes known as the Bat Meat episode.  [Because players can be "witty".]

Mikal flew out on Meep again that night with Aureme to verify the party’s next campsite was still safe and to track the Horde's movements.  Mikal told the remaining adventurers to meet him at the next campsite if he didn't return to this one in two hours.  The rest of the Outlanders promptly forgot/ignored this plan and send Casvia back to Freegate.

August 16, 17 IC

Just before Noon, after waiting several hours at their campsite [while Casvia was back at Freegate making a gory spectacle of the battle scene and Mikal was at the next campsite wondering where they were], the Outlanders noticed dust trails heading in their direction.  Judging that Casvia would return about the same time the goblin patrol(s) would arrive, Tim, Dangar, and Darian set up a hidden ambush and waited.

When the goblins arrived, they appeared to be a concerted effort to locate what was killing the bat patrols in this area.  The "patrol" was made up of thirty goblin lizardriders and 20-30 batriders.  The batriders spotted the party’s horses, signaled the lizard riders, and then flew high, to watch the battle.

Through the use of explosive spells and arrow fire, the PCs killed the lizard riders with light damage to themselves (except Dangar, who nearly died).  Casvia, returning near the end of the fight saved Darian, who was watching her return point.  At this point the adventurers remembered the back up site.  Dangar and Tim started decapitated the 30 goblins and sticking their heads on pikes as a warning.  [I was recently reminded they also used the goblin entrails to spell out, in goblin, "Go Away" in large letters on the landscape.  These were the war crimes I was remembering previously.]  Casvia was sickened and repulsed by the display.  She and Darian headed to the next campsite where Mikal and Aureme were waiting, wondering what was taking the rest of the team so long.  Once they finished their atrocities, Tim and Dangar cleaned up themselves and went to the next campsite.

Session Ends.

Happening Off-Stage

The Rare Art Brotherhood (RAB), a thieves' guild specializing in high-end luxury goods, is looking for the wizard who supplied them a fake gold ingot [one of the items the player characters kept from the El Djem Collection and sold later].  They learned the wizard's name is "Tim" by torturing Stefan the Red, Tim’s contact who brokered the deal.  The RAB also learned Tim is currently out of the city on University business and decide to wait for him to return.  The guild wants to find out how Tim made magical gold that did not detect as magical until it reverted to lead.  Then they will make an example out of him, wizard or not.  They also want lost revenues from both ingots as they don’t know if the other ingot is real or not.

DM Discussions

[Busy week during the Day Job this week and I did not have any spare time to edit this post and publish it until this weekend.  To make up for it, I am working on the next post now (Session 4) and will have it queued up to publish on Tuesday, October 21.]

Tim's Outlanders Landing Page

Against the Horde

Session 2

Session 4

Tim's Outlanders: Against the Horde, Session 2 - August 10 to August 15, 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]
Aureme Anginsan - human female, formerly an Imperial Navy sailor (retired)

NPCs

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

Session 2 Begins, August 10, 17 IC

After two days of flight, Mikal arrived at Ingolstadt riding Meep.  There he observed the goblinoid horde breaching the walls and storming the city.  He was discovered and turned back by a goblin bat patrol, which then pursued him.  In a long chase, he killed some of the goblins and lost the rest.   After losing the goblins, Mikal returned to the rendezvous campsite to meet up with the rest of the Outlanders.

August 12

The next morning, the group started marching to another abandoned farmhouse three days away.  On the way there, a trio of goblins on riding lizards rounding up lizards running wild [due to earlier actions by the Outlanders] spotted the adventurers.

Tim hid in a tree while the rest of the Outlanders faced-off against the three lizard riders.  The goblins charged.  The Outlanders killed two of the goblin lizardriders and seriously wounded the third [who escaped] in the ensuing fight.  Darian was run down [and stepped on] by one of the lizards but survived.

August 15

At their new base of operations, the team had Casvia teleport back to Freegate to report their findings.

While waiting for Casvia’s return, Darian and Aureme attempted to track down the remaining goblin lizardrider.  They stumbled across the lizard but not the goblin rider.  Darian surprise punched the lizard and knocked it out.  As a side effect, he also knocked over Aureme, who started laughing so hard at the expressions of surprise on Darian's and the lizard's faces that she fell over.

When the two returned and reported what hap happened, the rest of the Outlanders [including Casvia, who had returned] did not believe their story and instead wondered "what really happened".

Session Ends.

Happening Off-Stage

The goblinoid horde spent two days ransacking the city of Ingolstadt before resuming their march toward Freegate.  They have effectively wiped out all leadership for the Bayern District at this point and enslaved the remaining population of Ingolstadt.  

As word spread north of the sack of Ingolstadt, every citizen of Bayern who hadn't already fled started heading towards Freegate as refugees, abandoning anything they couldn't carry or would slow them down.  As the Bayern refugees headed to Freegate, the farmers and townsfolk of Freegate's southern domain joined them.  This will lead to a tripling of the population inside Freegate's city walls once they arrive.  The Faceless Five [Freegate's leaders] worked hard to keep people from panicking.

Tim's Outlanders Landing Page

Against the Horde

Session 1

Session 3

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

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

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]