Taking the Next Two Weeks Off

I'm taking the next two weeks off, so no blog posts until the first full week of January 2026.

Enjoy the end of the year and see everyone in the new year!

The Siege and Investiture of Freegate - Official Report

After marching for weeks, the Great Horde arrived at Freegate.  For days the massive dust plume from the Horde marched closer to the city.  Each night the ruddy glow from their massed campfires lit larger and larger portions of the night sky.  The glow of the fires was counter-pointed by the weird glows that occasionally lit the ancient walls of Zentil Keep [a small castle within the walls of Freegate] where the University wizards had painted giant copper glyphs.  The mood in the city see-sawed between confident optimism and sullen stoicism.

The day and night before the Horde came into view, swarms of giant bats could be seen performing aerial reconnaissance along the canyon sides, occasionally being attacked by ranged spellfire from the city.  When the Horde finally came into view on the 12th of September, it became obvious to all that the Horde had split in two and was marching up both sides of the mile-wide canyon Freegate was in the center of.  It took a full day for the Horde to move into position, during which time the last of the refugees entered the city and the University chose to activate the city’s magical defenses.

Two-thirds of all the wizards in the city gathered at Zentil Keep to perform a massive ritual spell that would take six hours to complete.  As the casting began, the glyphs on the Keep started to glow stronger and more vividly.  After three hours of casting, pulses of light started travelling down copper cables strung from the walls of the Keep to the walls of the City.

At this point the Horde launched a massive air assault of bat riders on the city to disrupt the casting.  Those wizards not part of the ritual, including Tim, were on watch for such an attempt and responded with a mass volley of spellfire.  Most of the attacking goblin batriders were killed in the initial volley and those that did not immediately turn and fly away were killed in the follow up volleys.  The townspeople and the Freegate Guard let out a mighty cheer at this first victory over the Horde!  Unnoticed by most of the townspeople, while the goblin batriders took massive casualties, the bats themselves took few losses and returned to their mobile roosts.

While the part of the Horde on the western canyon wall continued to invest the Mountain Gate barbican, the eastern part of the Horde slowed, allowing part of it to race forward and rush the Sun Gate barbican.  The celebrations in Freegate died quickly when this avante garde appeared.  It consisted of hundreds of the lizardriders lead by an apparent dragon!  [At this point in the world dragons had not been seen for several millennia and most considered them long disappeared if not fully extinct.]  The City Guard at the Sun Gate barbican braced for the assault as best they could.  The dragon literally slammed into the barbican, knocking everyone in it to the ground and damaging the fortifications.  It then breathed fire across the battlements, ending any questions about it being a dragon.  After this the lizardriders swarmed over the breaches in the walls, seeking to overwhelming the defenders.

Fearing the eastern approaches would be lost, the Commander of the City Guard authorized the limited use of Tim’s Double Distilled (TDD) in the defense of the barbican.  Due to range limitations, the TDD had to be deployed from on the East Bridge itself.  Members of the High Energy Thaumatics department, supported by Tim’s Outlanders, left the eastern gate of the city and advanced along the East Bridge carrying three bottles of TDD.  Moving from building to building along the East Bridge, the group advanced into range of a telekinetic spell attack.

With the defenders in the barbican being overrun by the goblin lizardriders and the dragon repeatedly slamming into the barbican, Tim himself levitated the first bottle of TDD into the fray.  Attempting to position the bottle near the dragon for remote detonation (one of the other wizards would shoot it with a fireball), Tim was caught unawares when the dragon shifted attack mode and breathed fire on the top of the barbican.  The bottle of TDD was caught in the backwash of the flames and detonated.  The resulting explosion knocked stone off the barbican, deafened everyone in or near the barbican, stunned the dragon, and panicked the lizards the goblins were riding.  Many of the defenders and the goblins were either stunned or knocked unconscious, ending the fighting going on outside the barbican.  Those goblins inside the barbican were quickly overpowered and killed by the defenders who had been shielded from the explosion somewhat by the stone walls.

Outside, the dragon shrugged off the effects of the blast while the lizardriders regained control of their mounts.  They then moved to attack the barbican again.  Tim, realizing only one of the wine bottles of TDD was not enough, tied the remaining two together.  He then had a delayed fireball cast on one of the bottles and levitated both bottles at the dragon.  Not being able to get a good line of sight on where he wanted the bottles to go, Tim had one of the other wizards lift him higher so he could see better.  While providing a better vantage point, this also drew attention to Tim who was now a brightly glowing target.  The dragon noticed Tim and chose to breath fire at him just as Tim brought the bottles in front of it and the timer on the delayed fireball ran out.

The explosion from the two bottles detonating flipped the dragon tail-over-snout and nearly destroyed the barbican as well, knocking stones off the upper works.  Fortunately, this also completely panicked the goblins and their mounts, which fled back to the rest of the Horde.  The dragon itself, seeing Tim still floating in the air (but not knowing he was stunned from the explosion) decided to leave as well to recover from the pummeling it had just received.  The wizards lowered Tim and the group moved forward to assist the surviving defenders.  The Commander of the City Guard immediately passed an edict stating that TDD was not to be used within 300 yards of friendly units, ever.

Over the next two hours, survivors from the barbican were pulled out of the rubble.  Members of the University Department of Elemental Magics moved forward and worked on repairing some of the damage to the barbican and stabilizing the rest.  Reinforcements were sent to re-man the barbican and Tim’s Outlanders were stationed there with a small supply of TDD and strict orders on when and where they could use it.  The eastern half of the Horde marched closer to the city, apparently choosing to finish investing the city rather than lose more units in rushed attacks.

As the Horde's siege engines were moved into place, they started firing at the barbican.  At the same time, ground units of the Horde started chanting their battle cries on both sides of the canyon, psyching themselves up for a final attack on the barbicans before the city’s magical defenses were up.  Orders or not, Tim used telekinesis to start sending bottles of TDD at the Horde's siege engines before detonating the bottles at range, beginning a long-range artillery duel.  After 30 minutes of intense bombardments, the Horde's attack was held off until the defense ritual in the city completed and a golden dome of force enclosed the top of the mesa, protecting the city and the University.

Once the magical defenses were in place, the barbican defenders at both rims staged fighting retreats along the bridges, back to the city.

 

[Flight of the Bottles – Every mage with TK levitated containers of TDD to the Western Rim.    Once over the Horde, every mage with a fireball spell fired on the containers, detonating the TDD within.    This broke the moral of the portion of the Horde on the Western Rim and they staged a revolt against the shamans.    Then they fled west into the mountains.]

The Siege

With the rim defenses abandoned, the Horde pressed in on both sides and took control of the smashed fortifications.  The Horde's troops started to advance along the two bridges to the city, only to discover ambush troops hidden in the buildings along the bridges, inflicting heavy losses on the advancing troops and slowing them down.

Over the next several days, as the fighting gradually made its across the bridges, the Wizards of Outlands University stepped up.  Combined attacks by units of wizards either killed the Horde troops on the bridges 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 into the city itself.

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 western bridge, tens of Wizards along the western walls of the city cast the extended telekinesis spell from the scrolls and as one, each lifted and sent clusters of 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 center of the massed bottles, triggering a chain-reaction detonation of all the bottles over the western 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.  All of the immense rolling buildings the Horde had brought all the way from the Great Swamp were destroyed or set on fire.  The stone fortifications on the rim were heavily damaged, portions blown over into the chasm below.  Western-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 western rim of the chasm.

An hour later, 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 new wave of 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 [previously very well hidden away] until more could be brewed or distilled.

DM Discussion

[So this version includes the original writeup of the event I finally found in my pile of unidentified files coupled with the summary I wrote from memory.  My original writeup was detailed about the Horde arriving but only had a short summary of the Flight of the Bottles, which I embroidered on at the actual session.  It also reminded me the Flight of the Bottles happened on the western side, not the eastern side.  I had also forgotten about the magical defenses of the city and that a dragon appeared, breaking a secret about the world - dragons still exist.]

Tim's Outlanders Landing Page

Against the Horde

Session 5

Mansion of Illusions

Session 1

Missing Session Notes

So at this point I've looked through all the files I recovered from my hard drive crash in 2014 and I do not have any further session notes for the Mansion of Illusions adventure.  It is possible I might have more on a CD backup I made with previous computers, but those are even longer odds.

Right now I'm torn between continuing on with the next Tim's Outlanders adventure arc or switching back to the more current Sudden Sea campaign.  I'll make the decision tonight as for multiple reasons we are not gaming tonight.

Tim's Outlanders: Mansion of Illusions, Session 6 - April 13 to 16, 18 IC

[This session took place January 2001.  We were playing Champions 4th Edition with the Second 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
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
Pira the Seer - female human seer from Fordsway, accompanied by her apprentice

Session Begins, April 13, 18 IC

After widening the cave-in mouth [see end of previous session], Monteflurio, Dangar, Max, Arturo, Rory, and Tarquin entered the revealed stairwell and traveled downwards into the ruins.  Every flat surface was covered with nearly two inches of dust, suggesting the long abandonment of the ruins.  The group spent several hours investigating what Monteflurio identified as a guest house before finding the tunnel system that lead to the manor house.  

During the investigation, Max opened the front doors of the guest house and nearly flooded the house with anti-magic dust.  Quick action by Tarquin closed the door before that happened, but a layer averaging a foot in depth now covered the entry area, knocking out any magic that contacted it.

It was also while exploring the guest house that Arturo damaged or destroyed three stasis boxes found in a store room in the attic by using anti-magic dust to break the magic locks.  In side the boxes were some ancient faux-alabaster tea cups (with saucers) and some linens.  The expedition returned to camp after running out of torches to provide light.  It was nearly dawn when they reached their campsite.

April 14

Dusk

After taking a "short" nap and restocking their supply of torches, the expedition returned to the tunnels as the sun set behind the mountains.  They made their way down through the guest house to an access tunnel that was below the original floor of the valley.  The tunnel was covered with extensive murals, all having a flame/fire motif.

After walking a while, the expedition found the main passage, which had scenes of war and glory decorating its walls.  They spent several hours exploring the main passage, locating other branching passages, one with an earth motif, one with an animal motif (which lead to an area whose doors they did not open), one with a water motif, and one with an air motif.  Monteflurio’s research indicated that the tunnels with elemental motifs led to other guesthouses and the animal motif to an arena of some sort, so the expedition did not go down those side passages.  

They eventually worked out that they were moving away from the main house and, after some backtracking, the expedition found a set of very ornate stairs leading up, probably into the Mansion itself.  Rather than pushing on, the expedition returned back to camp for food and sleep, having been on the move for close to fifteen hours.  They returned to their campsite and  rested until near dusk the next day.

April 15

Dusk

The same group hiked out to the center of the valley and descended into the Fire House.  It then took them nearly and hour of walking to reach the grand stair up to the main house.

Ascending the stairs, Monteflurio used his notes to lead them through the mansion to the throne room.  There they found the Throne of the Sorcerer-Kings.  It was made of gold with intricate inlays of precious metals and gems.  The arm rests ended in lion heads that appeared to be roaring.  Monteflurio performed a quick search of the room and determined that what he was specifically looking for was not there.  He and Dangar took a different set of stairs up to another level of the mansion, looking for the library.  Rory, Max, Arturo, and Tarquin stayed in the throne room and investigated the throne further.  

Rory sat down on the throne and fiddled with the gemstones on the armrests.  He discovered that some of them activated powers of the chair.  He caused the right lion head to breathe flame (nearly scorching Max) and the left lion head to emit lightning from its eyes.  He also discovered some targeting properties and vision enhancements, but could not get any responses from the rest of the buttons.

Upstairs, Monteflurio and Dangar located the door to  the Sorcerer-King’s private chambers.  The door was made out of an unusual metal and had no obvious means of opening it.  Dangar resorted to brute force, hacking at it with his battleaxe, nearly destroying the axe in the process.

Once inside the Sorcerer-King’s private chambers, Dangar and Monteflurio quickly investigated chambers until they located the personal library.  The room was floor to ceiling books and scrolls, all of them written in a high form of Mage Tongue.  Monteflurio discovered another stasis case, four feet long with a one-foot square cross-section.  Monteflurio was excited as the stasis case might contain the item he was looking for.

Wanting to open the case, but not having the key, Monteflurio had Dangar haul it back downstairs to the throne room, where the other adventurers were waiting.  A discussion about the best way to open the case without damaging anything inside ensued.   The group consensus was that the best way to open it was by using the anti-magic dust to disable the magical portion of the lock.

Arturo headed back to the Fire House to get some of the anti-magic dust they had accidentally let in.  Tarquin, Rory, and Dangar waited in the entrance hall of the mansion with the case for Arturo to get back while Monteflurio searched the library further and Max searched the rest of the Sorcerer-King’s private chambers.

Max discovered what he thought was the body of one of the servants in a small bedroom.  He returned to the entrance hall to report this.  Later investigation determined that it was the bodies of two children whose throats had been sliced.  On one hand, the expedition was comforted somewhat by finding the first remains they had seen so far.  On the other hand, whoever or whatever killed the children might still be down here and they immediately started speculating as to who/what killed them and where it might be.

Several hours later, Arturo returned and they opened the case (destroying its stasis properties).  Inside was a giant scroll.  Taking the scroll back to the library to consult with Monteflurio, they discovered he was nowhere to be found.  Concerned that something might have happened to Monteflurio, they immediately searched the private quarters.  They found a partially concealed small spiral staircase down to the first floor, possibly servant stairs.  the stairs led to another study where Monteflurio had found, not what he was looking for, but a stasis box containing a fully stocked wet-bar and food items.  The expedition, suddenly realizing they were extremely hungry, took a break from exploring and raided the food.

After spending some time sating their hunger and thirst on quality food and some excellent and priceless vintages, the group unrolled the giant scroll.  The giant scroll contained several things.  First, it contained an actual map of the gardens, including notes as to where the "current" illusions were.  Next was a schematic of the tunnel system that indicated where a secret lab was located.  Finally there was a section of text that no one could translate, but looked like an ancient variant of Mage Tongue.  The expedition members discussed it and decided to try the Lab as the next most likely place that the Sorcerer-King’s symbol of authority could be.  

It was just after midnight April 16th when they made this decision, although the expedition was unaware of the exact time.

End of Session.

Happening Off-Stage

[No notes listed here, which suggests nothing of significance happed during the nearly 4 days covered by this session.  That or I hadn't written the next bits of the ongoing war yet.  I'm no longer certain which.]

DM Discussion

[So this is where my identified notes end on this adventure.  I know there was at least another session, possibly two, during this adventure because my notes for Session 1 of The Road to Thuringia starts with the Outlanders having been back at Freegate for a while.  I need to locate the rest of the notes for this adventure in my pile of unidentified files, which will take a little time as I still have 140 .docx files and 260 .doc files to look through.]

[In the meantime, I will be switching back to posting session notes for the Sudden Sea campaign, which is currently running and set 36 years later in the same world.  The links here will continue to point to the Tim's Outlanders adventures for later continuity of reading.]

Tim's Outlanders Landing Page

Mansion Of Illusions

Session 5

Session 7 [Still looking for the notes/summary]

Digging through a Pile of Documents

Back in 2014, the hard drive on my laptop crashed.

Luckily I had friends who knew some people and files were recovered from the hard drive - mostly.  I received a USB thumb drive with all the files recovered in a single pile, the file names separated from the file contents.  So I had a bunch of unopenable files that were just the file names and a huge pile for files that had serial numbers with file extensions (.rtf, .pdf, .doc, etc.).  I could open the numbered files (mostly - some were damaged and could not be opened) and then re-save them with names and as they were mostly all my files I knew what they were.

The downside was that I kept older versions of the same file in case I messed something up and needed to revert to an older version.  These were now mixed all together in no discernable order.

Every couple of years, I spend a several hours opening files, working out what they are and maybe which version before saving them in a folder labeled "Identified".  When I started I had close to 10,000 files to sort through and now I'm down below 4000 files.  I made a push this weekend to get through the last 600+ .rtf files in that pile.  Most of them are single pages from the sci-fi novel I wrote but some were game notes from way back in the day.  One was my original writeup of the Siege of Freegate!

In the near future (possibly this weekend) I will use that to relace/correct the blog entry I made on it October 30th.  I'll point out when it happens so folks can go back and read the official version, not the stop-gap version.

In the meantime, I've started typing up the session notes for the Sunken Sea Campaign, starting with Session 22, the last session before my surgery.  I've completed the write-up for Session 23 and will likely type up Session 24 this weekend.  I'm torn between posting the rest of the Tim's Outlanders material (three or four complete arcs) or switch back over to the active campaign once I've finished posting the session notes for The Mansion of Illusion (one more session to go).

Anyone have any opinions?

Tim's Outlanders: Mansion of Illusions, Session 5 - April 6 to 13, 18 IC

[This session took place September 16, 2000.  We were playing Champions 4th Edition with the Second 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
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

Pira the Seer - female human seer from Fordsway, accompanied by her apprentice

Session Begins, April 7, 18 IC

After killing the griffins, the expedition decided to investigate their nest and look for eggs.  They marched to the base of the rock formation and made camp.  Then Tarquin, Rory, and Dangar started climbing the rock formation, taking a half-day's worth of food with them.

By the end of the day they were only part way up the formation having seriously underestimating its height and the difficulty in climbing it.  Rather than return and possibly lose access to baby griffins or griffin eggs, they huddled on a small ledge for the night.

April 8

Tarquin, Rory, and Dangar achieved the summit near the end of the day.  They found live griffin chicks and rescued one of them.  [My notes don't say what happened to the others, but they likely died of starvation.]  They camped in the nest for the night, cold and hungry.

April 9

It took them nearly the full day to climb back down with the griffin hungry chick.  By the time they returned, they and the griffin chick were starving and they spent time eating and feeding the chick.  Max spent time hunting additional food for the griffin chick and then training it not to bite him.

April 12

After three more days of travel through the mountains, the party arrived in the vicinity of the Scooped Mountain.  Rory had them delay entering the valley until the next morning so they could "see an interesting sight."

April 13

The following morning, before dawn, the expedition crossed the ridge into Flat Valley.  The mountain on the far side of the valley had a large void in its side where it appeared part of the mountain had been scooped out.   When the sun came up, the Scooped Mountain acted as a parabolic mirror and created the illusion of the sun hovering inside the scooped area.  This gave things in the valley odd double shadows pointing in opposite directions.  Down on the very flat valley floor, near the center, they saw a small hillock, the only raised part of the valley floor.

A Couple Hours Later

When the expedition reached the valley floor they discovered a small surprise – it radiated an anti-magic field of noticeable strength.  Investigating further, they also discovered that all the animal tracks they could find veered away from the valley floor.  Finally, the wide flat valley floor had no trees – it was covered only by three foot tall grass.

The expedition decided to leave the wagon and the majority of their supplies on the mountain slope outside the anti-magic zone and proceed on foot.  Pira and her apprentice stayed with the wagon and the griffin chick.  Tarquin, Dangar, Max, Arturo, Rory, and Monteflurio hiked the thirty minutes to the hillock out on the valley floor.

Once at the hillock, they discovered a small cave-in on the back side of the hill that provided access to the interior.  Sticking a torch into the hole, they discovered that the cave-in lead to a stairwell.  They spent some time widening the hole with their shovels before entering.

End of Session

Happening Off-Stage

The Northern Horde fended off several attacks from the Imperial 1st Legion cavalry and the Perothian Militia while it marched northeast.

DM Discussion

[I'm really pleased with the unusual nature of this valley.  I know exactly why it looks like this, but the players will not learn why until next session.  I'll go into more detail in the next post.]

[The delay for this post was I needed time to read the notes better.  I thought there was a gap in the notes due to a hard drive crash that happened in 2014.  When I finally had time to sit down and read the notes, I realized there was no gap in the notes, but my time-keeping was flawed.  I've had to adjust the dates to match the time that passes in the notes.  I was off by a day at the end of this session and I'm not certain why.]

Tim's Outlanders Landing Page

Mansion Of Illusions

Session 4

Session 6 [Not yet typed up]

Tim's Outlanders: Mansion of Illusions, Session 4 - April 3 to 6, 18 IC

[This session took place August 26, 2000.  We were playing Champions 4th Edition with the Second 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
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, April 4, 18 IC

The expedition traveled west along the road remnant for three days.  

April 6, 18 IC

When the expedition reached the rock formation known as Ahmotep’s Fist, Rory and Tarquin advised circling the mountain itself as some griffins had taken nest there.  The Outlanders agreed and started moving around the mountain.

While circling around the mountain, the expedition was attacked by the griffins, who had expanded their hunting area due to the hatching of their young.  After a heavy fight, the adventurers killed the griffins and secured trophies and meat.  

End of Session.

Happening Off-Stage

The Sting-Tails continue raiding camped caravans for horses.  Besides the horses, they only take targets of opportunity when it comes to valuables.  They are more concerned with getting the horses than any treasure or trade goods.  As a side-effect, this means that the merchants are not calling for the Legions or Militia yet, but are hiring caravan guards and buying extra horses.

The Northern Horde has moved through Lundania and is moving into the Grand Duchy of Perothia. The Horde is making for the old 7th Legion Citadel.  The Lundanian Militia took an entirely defensive position and only fought for the towns.  The Grand Duke of Perothia has had more time to raise his Militia and they are ready for a more aggressive stance.  Units of the Perothian Militia have been performing hit and run attacks against the Horde.  They have also taken to setting wild fires to deflect the attack path of the Horde and reduce what the Horde can scavenge.  The hit and run attacks have not been as successful due to the bat-rider scouts while the wild fires have worked much better.  The Horde has started setting fires themselves, burning areas they will not be moving into.

DM Discussion

[This session produced very few notes as the fight with the griffins took up most of the session.  Also, Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate!]

Tim's Outlanders Landing Page

Mansion Of Illusions

Session 3

Session 5

Tim's Outlanders: Mansion of Illusions, Session 3 - April 2 to 3, 18 IC

[This session took place July 22, 2000.  We were playing Champions 4th Edition with the Second 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
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, April 2, 18 IC

The members of the adventuring party tried to track the remaining owlbears before the sun rose.  During the long winding hunt, they realized that the owlbears were healing somehow, if not actually regenerating.  When the trail lead into the swiftly flowing river in the center of the valley, the hunters decided to call off the hunt and return to camp.  The slim remainder of the night slowly passed without any additional incidences.

April 3, 18 IC

This day the expedition traveled through the valley as quickly as possible to avoid the owlbears.  When they reached the far end of the valley, they reconnoitered to get their orientation and then headed towards the ancient road remnant Rory and Tarquin had located on their scouting mission the previous year.  After a half-day of travel they found two things: the road remnant and two humans waiting for them on it.  

The woman waiting for them was named Pira and she was from Fordsway [a trade city-state to the south that competes with Freegate].   She and her apprentice escaped Fordsway just before an orc horde over-ran the city.  She used her ability to command spirits to determine if the city was still occupied.  As of that morning it still was.  

The short conversation that followed lead the expedition to the realization that there was another orc horde, one separate from the one that attacked Freegate, and it was undefeated by the Imperial Legions.  This was important news but there seemed to be little they could do about it.  Deciding that there was in fact nothing they could do about it at this point (Dangar requiring some heavy persuading), they continued on their mission.  

End of Session.

Happening Off-Stage

Raiding by the Sting-Tails resumes on the road to the HNTR Terminus.  The Sting-Tails, after the incident with the Outlanders, have changed tactics.  They are now raiding camped wagons and stealing any horses they can get away with.  They find that this is allowing them to increase the size of their herd faster.

The Goblins of “Kerr Keep”, after fending off Dangar the first time, have decided to avoid him this time.  They are watching the expedition move through their territory, but will not interfere with them.

The Lizardman Horde is preparing for their attack on the Empire.  Their shamans have been shielding the gathering point in the Great Moors from scrying.  They will attack on the longest day of the year (June 21), symbolizing that their enemies have reached their zenith and now are in decline.  They consider the orcs to be lesser beings but allies.  They will not work with the Black Dwarves.

DM Discussion

[What goblins you ask?  The ones Go-Tok mentioned were dumping their trash and sewage into the river, polluting it.  They are alchemists and magical bioengineers, so that pollution has a bite.  What lizardmen you ask?  The horde all the way across the continent from where the campaign is taking place.  They are one of three hordes attacking the Empire this year and are actually the dangerous ones.  More about them later.]

Tim's Outlanders Landing Page

Mansion Of Illusions

Session 2

Session 4

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

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 Siege and Investiture of Freegate - Official Report

Mansion Of Illusions

Session 2

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 Siege and Investiture of Freegate - Official Report

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