[Deeper into the mountains and making a new "friend".]
[This session took place September 9, 2004. We were playing Champions 5th Edition with the Second Edition Fantasy Hero supplement.]
Player Characters
Tim, a Wizard - male human from the Free City of Freegate, graduate of Outlands University
Dangar Stonekleaver – male dwarf from the Northern Dwarven Kingdom
Mord Worldfist – male dwarf bodyguard [and handler] for Dangar
Wendell Dorshield III – male gnome, Captain and Architect of the Yardbird
Malwyn – male High elf fighter and military expert
Darkfox – female human thief from Freegate, secret ID of socialite Karlyn Gryphshaw
NPCs
Rebecca – female gnome, part of the Gnome security detail for Wendell
Herschal “the Hunter” – also known as “Bearkiller”, male gnome, part of the Gnome security detail for Wendell
Yacov – male gnome, part of the Gnome security detail for Wendell
Horace the Mad – male human, a fur trapper and mountain man operating in the Southern Reaches
Session Begins
April 23, 20 IC
After discussing their options, the Outlanders left the ruins they were at and headed west, pursuing the tracks of their unknown quarry, pushing themselves in order to catch up.
April 25, 20 IC
Evening
After two days of moving quickly, the Outlanders arrived at the last set of ruins on their maps.
Not wanting to approach a potential undead stronghold during the night, the Outlanders used the Rod of Excellent Engineering to reshape a patch of nearby woods into a more defendable bowl shape and made a fireless camp. They then set watches and slept for the night. During the second watch, Darkfox heard the sound of something approaching and she quickly and quietly awoken rest of the Outlanders.
Immediately after getting into positions, the Outlanders saw a number of humanoid forms jerkily and awkwardly moving through the underbrush towards them. As the forms approached them in the light of the waning quarter moon, the Outlanders slowly came to the realization that these walking forms were already dead – they were walking skeletons and zombies! Wendell raised a defensive earthen wall along the side of the camp on which the undead were approaching while Darkfox and Tim fired arrows and magical attacks against their foes.
Once melee ensued, it quickly became apparent that the undead had great resistance to physical harm and most of the weapons the Outlanders had were ineffective. Dangar, Malwyn, and Tim were having some success, but things looked grim until Darkfox remembered the anti-undead cream the Outlanders had purchased in Phaisbourg. After coating an arrow with the cream, suddenly her arrows started causing the undead great harm. She called out to the rest of the Outlanders to coat their weapons and the tide of the battle quickly turned.
After the battle, most of the Outlanders examined the remains of the undead while Darkfox used a perch in a tree to look for other threats. The only thing she could see was a lone bat flying through the night sky. The zombies appeared to be simple peasants wearing the ragged remains of recent clothing. The skeletons on the other hand, were wearing armor of great antiquity that Malwyn recognized as belonging to a period before the Crendian Unification.
April 26, 20 IC
The next morning the Outlanders approached the ruins. The ruins were on a low hill overlooking the confluence of two mountain rivers and appeared to be the ruins of either a small fort or a medium-sized temple. Like the last set of ruins, nothing grew in or on the ruins themselves with trees stopping at the foot of the hill and grasses stopping several feet short of the ruined walls.
The Outlanders spent the day investigating the ruins and their surroundings. They found that while some work had been done on the ruins to clear out a basement or crypt, the ruins were now abandoned. There were multiple sets of tracks, including the tracks of the undead who attacked them the previous night. There were also the tracks the Outlanders had been tracking from the previous set of ruins. Those tracks approached and entered the ruins and then left, heading northwest, now only three days ahead of the Outlanders.
April 27, 20 IC
The Outlanders pursued their quarry northwest. After nearly a day’s travel, the river they were following came to its source and entered into the side of a mountain – one of the landmarks listed in the Copper Scrolls. Later that the day, the Outlanders discovered a way-stone, pointing to an apparent pass in the wall of taller mountains to their north – another landmark in the Scrolls. It occurred to the Outlanders at this point that their quarry was also following the landmarks and might be searching for the ruins of the Temple as well.
They made camp.
April 28, 20 IC
Late Afternoon
Pushing on, the Outlanders arrived at what must be the valley through the Lesser Spines and located another set of ruins. These ruins were more expansive and seemed to have included a set of walls that once stretched the width of the valley. The Outlanders made camp and prepared for possible attack that night.
April 29, 20 IC
Early the next morning, the Outlanders start investigating the ruins, starting above ground and then moving below. The dwarves stayed above ground to watch their camp and prevent the party from being ambushed. Those searching the ruins did not find any signs of rubble being cleared, but did find odd bits of metal artifacts, some of which appeared to be pieces of torture devices. All of them showed signs of being subject to great heat or flame.
Late Afternoon
While searching through one of the underground floors, Wendell realized that Yacov, one of his bodyguards was missing. The Outlanders backtracked their own trails and found where Yacov's prints suddenly veered off down an obscured side passage. Based on the tracks, Yacov apparently met someone in the side passage and then followed that person further down the passage until both sets of tracks disappeared into a wall.
Deducing there was a secret door where the tracks ended and suspecting Yacov was in trouble, Wendell unhesitatingly used the Rod of Excellent Engineering to dig through the wall. Behind the wall was another passage that wound its way further back into the ground. Wanting the dwarves for the rescue and a quicker way to the surface, Wendell then used the Rod to create a hole straight up to the surface. As luck would have it, Dangar was standing directly above the spot where the hole appeared and fell in. Dusting himself off after the fall, Dangar opined that if Wendell had wanted him, he could have just yelled. [It is notoriously difficult to die from falling damage in the HERO System.]
Waiting only for Mord to secure a rope and climb down, the Outlanders continued on down the winding passage in double file, Dangar and Darkfox in the lead. Coming around a corner, Dangar was suddenly shot by a repeating crossbow! Luckily the arrows bounced off Dangar's thick armor, doing minimal damage to Dangar himself. Looking down the passage to the next corner, Dangar and Darkfox spotted the attacker – it was Yacov!
Responding instinctively, Dangar charged forward and activated a pressure plate that dropped an immense stone block onto himself and cut off the passage. Wendell used the Rod of Excellent Engineering to start melting away the stone block to see if Dangar had died and to push forward with Yacov's rescue. Fifteen feet into the block, the Outlanders found Dangar's body and determined that he was alive but dying. They used the Rock [the healing stone they have carried nearly since the beginning of the campaign] to stabilize him and several healing potions to bring him back to a semblance of health. Dangar's armor had to be cut from him and the helmet was destroyed, as were several of the more fragile things Dangar carried upon himself – in fact it was the shattered healing potions he carried that kept him alive at all. Dangar considered losing those potions and his armor a small price to pay to still be alive.
In the meantime, Wendell used the Rod to determine how much more there was to the stone block and then burrowed to the last two feet of the stone. He then activated another power of the Rod to separate the last two feet of the stone block, create view slits at Gnome and human height, and then move the slab forward like a rolling barricade.
The Outlanders soon learned that Yacov had retreated when the block fell and that around the corner was the end of the passage. The passage ended in a set of thick metal double doors. Wendell moved the rolling barricade closer and Darkfox used her telekinesis spell to pick the lock of the doors. Unfortunately she set off a spore trap while doing so. Wendell quickly sealed the barricade and the Outlanders waited for the spores to settle.
After some time had passed, Wendell reopened the view slits. Everything between the doors and the barricade was covered in a light dusting of yellow spores. Darkfox used her telekinesis spell again to disable the trap, unlock the doors, and then push them open. Beyond the doors was a well-lit throne room. Sitting on the throne was a man leaning on one of the arm rests, who appeared to be amused. Standing in front of him was Yacov, who was pointing his automatic crossbow at his own throat. Between Yacov and the Outlanders was a line of five armored skeletons, swords drawn, and in defensive poses.
Surprisingly, the man on the throne started to negotiate with the Outlanders. He claimed he and "the boy" [meaning Yacov] had just been talking and that "the boy" was free to go when the Outlanders left the ruins and went home. Wendell declared he was of the opinion that Yacov should leave with the Outlanders immediately and where the Outlanders went after that was their own business. There was further discussion about who was trustworthy and neither side showed any inclination to back down. Malwyn recognized a Kashubian accent in the man's speech, which implied he was from the northern portions of the Empire, not any of the local provinces. Eventually, Wendell asked for some time to discuss options with the rest of the Outlanders and they moved back down the corridor a few feet to talk, leaving the rolling barricade where it was.
Not surprisingly, the options discussed were attack plans and how to keep Yacov from shooting himself. This took some more time, which the man on the throne did not seem to begrudge them. Finally, Wendell returned to the barricade, asking if the man would not reconsider releasing Yacov immediately.
When the man declined, Darkfox used her darkness spell on the throne. At the same time, Tim used his telekinesis spell to keep Yacov's crossbow from firing and Wendell used the Rod to create a stone globe around Yacov. Wendell then created a stone tube connecting the barricade and the globe, which Rebecca immediately moved through to get the crossbow away from Yacov. Darkfox observed the man on the throne turn to gas and move up to the ceiling, where he moved out of her line of view. From the tube there was heard a crack and then a thump, shortly followed by Rebecca dragging an unconscious Yacov back to the barricade.
Wendell sealed the entrance to the throne room using the Rod and the Outlanders fell back to the surface via the shaft Wendell created earlier. Once back on the surface, they discovered that the sun had set and night was upon them. They made camp again, outside of the ruins, and kept tense watches.
April 30, 20 IC
In the morning, Wendell used the Rod to trace the location of the throne room on the surface. At noon he used the Rod to quickly excavate the earth over the throne room, exposing the entire room to the sun. He was highly confident that he had killed what was probably a vampire.
Once that task was complete, the Outlanders headed north, into the valley through the Lesser Spines and closer to the Temple.
Session Ends.
NPCs Met
Ossip Pogopol – lesser vampire and minion to Apostol the Burning Wizard. He was originally from Tusmit and has a Kashubian (Russian) accent to his Common. He was one of the townsfolk of Biers Hollow that Apostol slaughtered upon awakening. The Outlanders don't like him and he doesn't like being a minion. He will try to manipulate the Outlanders into killing Apostol so he can gain his own freedom.
Happening Off-Stage
Locally
[Ossip's goal in the negotiations was to keep the Outlanders talking until the sun set and he was able to transform and escape. He was successful in doing so and used hidden airways to escape into the night. He then turned into a bat and flew after his master to report. He caught up to Apostol at the Temple at dawn on May 2 and reported what he had learned.]
[Apostol the Burning Wizard, the master vampire, and his entourage have arrived at the Temple of the Watching Twilight and are now searching for a way in. Once Ossip reported what he had learned, Apostol will know that he is being followed (not pursued) and has some idea of what the group is capable of, especially since Ossip had time to question Yacov.]
[Apostol will have Ossip and Woldemar Biermann, his other lieutenant, observe the adventurers and harass them. He very much wants Wendell’s earth moving magic to be stolen or depleted. He will have the zombies try to obscure their tracks in the vicinity of the Temple as much as they can (this will give a –2 to any Tracking roll) while he searches for a way into the Temple. He will be rebuffed by the Sacred Earth Ritual and realize that he must await the Outlanders to arrive and unseal the catacombs.]
[It will take the Outlanders a minimum of 3 days to reach the entrance of Harbeth Pass. This is where Ossip and Woldemar will attempt to ambush them. Ossip still has Yacov dominated and will use that to his advantage.]
In Freegate
[The Silverloc Royal Emissary, Yasha of Piriatin, continues meeting with representatives of the NDK and the Gnome Consortium in Freegate to negotiate for airships for the Kingdom of Silverloc. Negotiations are going favorably so far.]
DM Discussion
[Yeah, having Ossip dominate Yacov really lit the fires of hatred in the players for the vampire.]
[So I’m missing my notes for Sessions 7 and 8, which covered the rest of the trip to the Temple of the Watching Twilight. The next session posted will be Session 9, which is the last session I have notes for as the notes for Sessions 10 and 11 are also missing. Luckily, Session 9 is the climax of the adventure with Sessions 10 and 11 being the Outlanders traveling back out of the mountains to Haus Senke and then on to Freegate.]
Cultists, Cultists, Cultists
Previous session: Session 5
Next Session: Session 9 (Sessions 7 and 8 are lost) [not yet edited]
No comments:
Post a Comment