[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
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.]
Against the Horde
The Siege and Investiture of Freegate - Official Report
