The Aldelle Group – Session 50 – Wave of Undead

Session 50 happened Wednesday, October 26, 2011.  Play was delayed because the DM was scheduled to work every night this week, despite asking for Mondays off.  We almost didn’t play at all, but he was able to get Wednesday night off.

This campaign used the Dyson’s Delve dungeon pages on A Character for Every Game as a starting point, but has now moved on to new material from the DM-in-training.  I heartily recommend Dyson's Delve as a beginning adventure.

Adventuring Group:
Tre-ba Bel a sheer (female elf alchemist)
Elspeth (female half-elf rogue)
Frankie Hu, Master of the Distracting Fist (male dwarf monk)
Harkaitz of the Red Soul (male human cleric of Ra)

NPCs:
Aziz of the Light (male human paladin, cohort of Harkaitz)
Sarisvati the Sun-touched (female Ifrit oracle, cohort of Aziz)
Midnight (female half-elf witch, cohort of Frankie Hu)
Macha (female human fighter, cohort of Elspeth)
Estrela (female Aasimar druid, cohort of Tre-Ba)
Short John Copper (male halfling expert, hireling)
The Red Keffiyehs (human warriors, followers of Harkaitz)
Carnish (male gnoll spellcaster of some sort)
Professor Walsh (male human expert)


Later in the Afternoon, August 4, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, whose power smites the undead.

After some quick discussion, I sent the following reply to Brek’nok’s sending:

Go after phylactery soonest. Disguise Wednesday seriously before going down to drow city. Don’t get caught! Entering Throne of Ra now. ~Harkaitz

We made a deal with Nionel to “never see each other again” after killing the drow matriarch and sealing the Drow Gate, meaning they would not invade the surface anymore and we of the surface would not invade them again.  I feel bad about breaking that promise and if there was a way to destroy the phylactery without breaking the promise I’d take it.  I may have to do something to make up for it to Nionel after we save the world.  Maybe Wednesday and her group can do the job without killing anyone or getting caught.

Probably not.

We discussed using nap stack before entering the pyramid, but decided that there was not enough benefit from doing so.  Coming around a corner of the pyramid, we found three skeletons (skeletal champions as it turned out) guarding the entrance to the pyramid interior.  We took them out fairly quickly, but it made us wonder if they indicated the lich and Lucien are here.  Either way, we were committed to the attack at this point and entered the pyramid.

The first chamber we entered was 40 ft square with the ceiling supported by four columns equally spaced around a 20 ft quare in the center.  The walls were decorated with scenes of priests fighting the undead.  Elspeth searched the room and found a lever on one of the pillars.  It was a trap, rigged to drop the ceiling on anyone in the chamber.  She disabled it and then then pulled the lever.  This caused sections of the walls to slide down into the ground, exposing two doors each on the back and side walls.

After Elspeth cleared the doors as safe, Frankie opened the left-most door.  Beyond was a long room full of evenly spaced stone coffins and no other exits.  Contemplating this, we decided to open all of the doors first, and then decide which way to go.  The doors on the right and left walls each opened into a long room with many stone coffins.  The back two doors opened onto corridors, one leading left and one right.

While we were deciding which way to go, a patch of mist moved into the room from the left door on the back wall.  Aziz, suspecting what this was, detected evil on it and confirmed the mist was evil.  He warned us that it was a vampire and we stood ready as it formed into a corporeal body.  It was a vampire.  It was also a woman, not Lucien like we were expecting.  She was somewhat expecting us, claiming "the master" said we would eventually arrive.  After the usual threats she gave us “one last chance to leave”.  At this point there was an awkward silence because this is usually when our opponents attacked, thinking they would surprise us.  After a couple of moments of nothing happening, she turned to mist and left – just as several stone coffins in each of the side rooms opened, expelling undead.

Each room contained a different type of undead, with four or five in each room.  From left to right there were burning skeletons, regular skeletons, fast zombies, and bloody skeletons.  We quickly shouted out a plan to block the doors so we would not have to fight them all at once.  We were partially successful as we blocked two of the four doors before one of the burning skeletons and one of the bloody skeletons stepped just outside of their rooms.

I took a position in the center of the chamber and activated my nimbus of light, which slowly damaged all of the undead while I sent out multiple pulses of positive energy to further damage them.  Macha was enlarged and used her enlarged tower shield to completely block off the room with normal skeletons in it.  Frankie destroyed the bloody skeleton at that door and, after being enlarged by Midnight, blocked the door to that room and the fast zombie room at the same time.

This combat was long and a bit touch and go at points, but because we controlled the access points to the room, the undead could not swarm us.  We cleared the burning skeleton room first.  They explode in flames when destroyed, which was an unpleasant surprise.  Luckily, Sarisvati was able to provide fire resistance to those fighting them (mostly Aziz and Macha), which kept the burning to a minimum.

After the burning skeletons we destroyed the bloody skeletons.  They heal rapidly if left alone, so we piled damage on them until they were destroyed.  After that, Frankie finished off the fast zombies with assistance from Tre-ba and Asmo.  We then did some healing before Macha let the regular skeletons out of their room and we pummeled them to dust.

At this point we were out of most of our undead fighting capabilities.  With the sun still high in the afternoon sky and having access to nap stack, we decided to pull back and camp for two hours to recuperate.  Now it is time to sleep for a bit and then take on the vampire minion.  The sun should keep us safe, but we will still have a watch and Estrela will cast hide camp to cover us.

I miss having a good meal cooked by Short John at camp.

*End of Session*

The Aldelle Group – Session 49 – Temple to Throne

Session 49 happened Monday, October 17, 2011.

This campaign used the Dyson’s Delve dungeon pages on A Character for Every Game as a starting point, but has now moved on to new material from the DM-in-training.  I heartily recommend Dyson's Delve as a beginning adventure.

Adventuring Group:
Tre-ba Bel a sheer (female elf alchemist)
Elspeth (female half-elf rogue)
Frankie Hu, Master of the Distracting Fist (male dwarf monk)
Harkaitz of the Red Soul (male human cleric of Ra)

NPCs:
Aziz of the Light (male human paladin, cohort of Harkaitz)
Sarisvati the Sun-touched (female Ifrit oracle, cohort of Aziz)
Midnight (female half-elf witch, cohort of Frankie Hu)
Macha (female human fighter, cohort of Elspeth)
Estrela (female Aasimar druid, cohort of Tre-Ba)
Short John Copper (male halfling expert, hireling)
The Red Keffiyehs (human warriors, followers of Harkaitz)
Carnish (male gnoll spellcaster of some sort)
Professor Walsh (male human expert)


Evening, August 3, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, who moves the winds.

We are now encamped a short distance away from the temple Sarisvati’s vision led us to.  I spent the last two days using wind walk moving our group from the Green Pyramid to here.  Tomorrow we will enter the temple.

In the meantime, Frankie and Midnight have finished crafting some magic items for Frankie’s use.  Frankie has also suggested we make a ring of truth – a ring that causes the wearer to speak nothing but the truth.  Frankie believes that it will make questioning people faster and easier.  The trick is that to craft a ring of truth, you have to be crafting one of two other rings and fail, as a ring of truth is a cursed item.

I started crafting it this afternoon, but I have paused.  If I am attempting to forge a cursed ring, what will I actually get?  A ring of truth may only be one of the possible outcomes of failure.  Might not failing on purpose lead to some different cursed item?

Also, Short John has informed me we are a little past the halfway point on our foodstuffs and we will need to resupply in a week or so, it depends upon how many more “lost strays” we pick up.


Late Morning, August 4, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, who inspires the best in us.

Early this morning we walked over to the Red Temple of Ra.  It is an immense structure, even if it is not as large as the two pyramids we have explored so far on this quest.  What the Red Temple lacks in size it makes up for in architecture.  The central portion is a 240 ft by 240 ft square with an 80 ft square extension in the center of each wall.  The walls are 50 ft high and the central square is topped by an immense dome, easily another 50 ft higher.  Sprouting from flat portions of the roof of the center square are four towers, each topped by a cone.  There are open archways in the center of each outermost wall.

We approached the nearest archway and discovered that despite being open, no sand or dust from the desert enters the temple.  Once we were inside, we saw that the entire interior of the structure was one immense chamber.  The towers were spaced equally around the large central area and supported the roof.  They had four doors each, two each on opposite sides.  Between each tower was a platform raised 10 ft and topped with an ornate altar to Ra.  The dome appeared to be self-supporting, but I am no architect.  To say the walls were decorated does not do them any justice.  The entire history of the worship of Ra over the last 500 years was depicted on the walls in the form of legends and stories of the faithful.  It was beyond inspirational and I could do little but stare at it agape for several minutes.

My companions, meanwhile, immediately started sweeping the inside for traps and hidden passages.  When I was not quite so overwhelmed by the grandeur of the temple I asked Carnish to cast fly on me and he did so.  I then took the time to fly to exterior top of the dome and landed, then the tops of the four towers.  I did not really believe this would trigger anything like what we were hoping to see happen, but I like to be thorough and I was doing nothing helpful on searching for traps or concealed compartments.

By the time I returned, Elspeth had completed her extensive search of the entire chamber for traps, including the doors to all of the towers.  She found none.  Frankie had search for concealed passages or compartments and found only one unusual feature: the central floor appeared to descend, but he could not locate the trigger mechanism.  Elspeth and Frankie determined that the triggering mechanism was some sort of remote trigger.  Frankie wondered aloud if the temple decorations showed scenes of the interior of the table and so Frankie, Elspeth, and Tre-ba started looking more closely at what was shown.  Elspeth noticed that all the scenes of healing showed the healer laying hands on the person being healed, even in scenes where it was clear that a burst of positive energy was being channeled.

Based on that observation, Aziz went to each altar and used his lay on hands ability.  When that did not cause anything to happen, he did the same to the floor section that should move.  This triggered the movement of a 30-foot square of the floor, which descended 20 ft.  The walls of the exposed area are carved in heavy bas relief, except for a five-foot wide corridor on the north wall.  This passage led to a single room with an altar and a mural on the back showing part of the legend of Sylar, specifically a scene of Sylar healing one of his compatriots.  Taking a cue from the mural, Aziz laid hands on the altar.  This caused another secret door to open in the dropped floor area.  Behind that secret door was a room that mirrored the first and, after Aziz laid hands on the altar in that room, a descending set of stairs was revealed in the floor of the dropped floor area.

Estrela flew into the lower chamber as a bat to scout and reported a raised dais with a single sarcophagus on it.  Elspeth searched the area for traps and reported none (Aziz asked if she was sure before entering).  Based on the decorations on the sarcophagus, this was the sarcophagus of Sylar himself!

Aziz reverently opened the sarcophagus and laid hands on the corpse of the legendary paladin.  While nothing appeared to happen as a result to those inside the chamber, those outside noticed a floating platform appear at the apex of the dome.  I flew up to the platform (Carnish’s fly spell was still active) and found a golden altar.  I prayed at the altar for guidance and received a vision of an area I recognized just as an immense pyramid started rising from the sands, sand pouring off the pyramid like boiling water.  The place was the location of the Uskar Gate, where the storm giants assisted us – this was the Throne of Ra rising above the sands once again!

Knowing where we needed to go next, we exited the Red Temple.  As we left, all the shifted floors, concealed passages, and floating platforms re-concealed themselves.  It was quite impressive.

As we were walking away from the Temple and back to camp, Midnight’s detect scrying spell went off – the lich was attempting to spy upon me.  Thanks to the warning from Midnight’s spell I was able to focus my will and the scrying failed. 

It did start a fierce debate as to what our next course of action was.  We knew where we needed to go, but it was three days march from our current location.  We suspected the lich had a spell of some sort to warn him if the Throne of Ra rose to the surface (he had obviously been accessing it via teleportation) – the timing of the scrying and our raising the Throne seemed too coincidental to be anything other than a response from the lich.

Needing more information as to the lich’s actions, I cast sending and sent the following message to Brek’nok:

Have raised Throne of Ra. Going there to seal gate. Scry the lich – we need to know his location over the next two days. ~Super Rat

The response I received was:

Lich and vampire in stone structure. Skeletal champions on watch outside. Lich studying tome. Close to gate. How goes it on your end? ~Brek’nok

Seeing an opportunity to surprise or get ahead of the lich, I suggested we use wind walk to fly the majority of us directly to the Throne of Ra now and try and take out the gate suddenly instead of over three days from now.  The lich does not seem to know about my ability to cast wind walk yet, so we should be at the Throne two days before he expects us.  The rest of the group agreed to this and we will be flying out shortly.  I will be taking Aziz, Sarisvati, Tre-ba, Frankie, Midnight, Elspeth, Macha, and Asmo.  Estrela will stay in bat form and fly along in a pocket.  Carnish will stay here with Short John and the Red Keffiyeh guarding the camp.  If all goes well, we will return in 2-3 days.  If they do not hear from us in five days, their orders are to report to the temple of the city of Uru and report what has happened.

It is time to go.


Midafternoon, August 4, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, who blinds our enemies.

We have arrived at the Throne of Ra, an immense pyramid with deep carvings in each side of the pyramid of Ra sitting on his throne.  The top fifth of the pyramid is carved into the shape of an Eye of Ra, looking to the four cardinal directions.  We have just received a sending from Brek’nok:

Gate secured. Want us to get phylactery? Could also go to Terranor or just help the dwarves. Any preference? Best of luck at Throne of Ra. ~Brek’nok

*End of Session*

The Aldelle Group – Session 47 – Light and Darkness

Session 47 happened Wednesday, October 5, 2011.

This campaign used the Dyson’s Delve dungeon pages on A Character for Every Game as a starting point, but has now moved on to new material from the DM-in-training.  I heartily recommend Dyson's Delve as a beginning adventure.

Adventuring Group:
Tre-ba Bel a sheer (female elf alchemist)
Elspeth (female half-elf rogue)
Frankie Hu, Master of the Distracting Fist (male dwarf monk)
Harkaitz of the Red Soul (male human cleric of Ra)

NPCs:Aziz of the Light (male human paladin, cohort of Harkaitz)
Sarisvati the Sun-touched (female Ifrit oracle, cohort of Aziz)
Midnight (female half-elf witch, cohort of Frankie Hu)
Macha (female human fighter, cohort of Elspeth)
Estrela (female Aasimar druid, cohort of Tre-Ba)
Short John Copper (male halfling expert, hireling)
The Red Keffiyehs (human warriors, followers of Harkaitz)
Carnish (male gnoll spellcaster of some sort)
Professor Walsh (male human expert)


Evening, July 29, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, who guides my path.

So that went about as well as expected.  OK – it was worse than expected, but no one actually died, praise Ra.

So when I placed the stone head, the statue animated, but not as an animated statue.  It animated as a stone golem, which we now know are much worse than animated statues.  But I get ahead of myself.

It looked down at Aziz and I and asked “Who thinks they are worthy?”  This was not entirely unexpected – it is why I volunteered to place the head on the statue.  After it asked its question, I raised my hand and stated “Hail Ra.”  It immediately attacked me with the stone scimitar we had placed in its hands.  And it hit hard.  Twice.  I quickly stepped back, but could not get outside its reach.  [Harkaitz rolled the highest initiative for this combat.  It was the first time ever in nearly a year of regular play.  It threw us off balance the entire combat.]

Aziz and Macha stepped up and blocked for the rest of us while Frankie slid around and started throwing fists harder than stone.  The golem breathed out a cloud of gas that slowed Macha, but Aziz, Frankie, and I were able to avoid the effect.  The fight was slowly turning to favor us (even though Macha required regular healing to stay on her feet) when a bright light filled the room and the entire room reset.  Except our wounds.  While we panted, the golem stood aside and said we could pass.  I'm not certain what changed, but we were not going to pass up the opportunity to NOT fight a stone golem.

We took some time to heal up.  I then stepped past the golem and went to push open the double doors in the back of the room, but everyone wanted Elspeth to check the doors for traps first, so I waited.  Once she cleared the doors, we discussed taking a short break to use nap stack to recover, but decided there was no place secure enough we would feel safe and the pass from the golem might be timed. 

I pushed the doors open.  They opened noiselessly with little effort.  The chamber beyond was octagonal in shape.  The 50-foot tall walls were covered in great murals showing legends from the worship of Ra.  The mural on the left showed Sylar defeating The Nightshade.  The mural on the back wall showed scenes from the First Pilgrimage while the wall on the right told the story of the spread of the worship of Ra across the Uskar.

We tried several things and looked around for a way to proceed.  I eventually cast find the path, which directed me to stand in the center of the room.  Professor Walsh, having read the various inscriptions on the walls, asked if there were any other interpretations of “the Light of Ra”.  I said, “Well, there’s this,” and activated my nimbus of light.  This triggered the opening of the ceiling.  The wedges that made up the ceiling arches slid down into the walls and exposed another area above them with a passage into the back wall.

Fifty feet is a long way to climb up and I do not climb well.  Luckily Carnish knows the fly spell and is willing to share.  I flew up to the top of this chamber and through the entrance into another chamber now exposed.  This chamber held an altar to Ra.  I prayed at the altar and received a vision.

In the vision I flew back out of the pyramid and then across the sands of the Uskar to another pyramid, one not on our map.  The vision settled on the entrance to the pyramid, and then I was back in my body.  [The DM-in-Training swears he's never seen The Mummy 2 and was puzzled about why we might want to make sand sculptures.  Really.]  I then left the altar chamber and flew back down to the octagon room to tell my friends what I had seen.  I will admit that I took a moment to float a small distance above the floor of the altar room before descending just to check that the fly spell was still active.  I was not certain how long the vision had lasted and was nervous about just stepping off into a 50 drop.

After explaining what I had seen, we quickly made our way out of the pyramid and back to our camp.  The Red Keffiyeh were pleased to see us again as most of the day has passed and they had no word from us.  Short John is cooking what smells like a very tasty dinner.  Aziz and I mulled over our options while we assisted in the preparation of the meal.  [Most of the party leveled at this point.  We’d made the XP necessary a couple of sessions earlier, but could not level until we rested back at camp.]


Morning, July 30, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, whose light inspires.

I have had an idea on how to get to the new pyramid quickly.  It will take us four days to march there, but Ra now grants me the ability to cast wind walk twice.  This will allow me to move myself and eight others all the way there in half a day.  Those taken can establish a forward camp and I can return to our current camp.  The following morning, I will move the rest of our party the same way, getting us all there in a day and a half.

I have shared this plan with the others and we have decided to go with it.  This will be new and I look forward to it.


Evening, July 30, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, whose light fills the world.

I’m back at our original camp after moving Aziz, Sarisvati, Tre-ba, Estrela, Frankie, Midnight, Elspeth, and Macha to the new pyramid.  The stone has a slightly green tint to it, so I am going to refer to it as the Green Pyramid, although it is not actually green.


Mid-Afternoon, July 31, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, whose Eye protects us.

This morning I ferried over the rest of the group to the Green Pyramid.  Once the camp was re-established to Short John’s liking, the rest of us moved up to the pyramid.  The stairs up ended at a platform lined with columns, like the first pyramid, but unlike that one, this one had dead bodies wearing the clothes of servants of Ra!  We suspect they were defenders of this site and we moved their bodies aside and I asked the Red Keffiyeh to give them proper burials.

We then turned our attention to the entrance.  After trying several ways to open the door, Elspeth determined it was barred from inside.  Suspecting that whoever killed the others may still be inside, we were eager to enter the pyramid.  Carnish and Midnight can cast dimension door, so we readied two strike teams.  Carnish moved in himself and Aziz, Macha, Elspeth, and Estrela (in bat form), to be followed by Midnight with Frankie, Tre-ba, and myself.  The plan was for the second group to wait to see if the first group would be able to easily open the door.  This was not the case.

I found out later that the first group in was surrounded by scruffy-looking humans.  Aziz asked them to explain themselves and when they declined, Aziz asked them to leave.  They attacked, thinking they had the numbers.  When we heard the sound of fighting, the second group moved in and appeared in the middle of two groups, one group in the front, the other group in the back surrounding Estrela, slicing her with their weapons.  The fight immediately became chaotic.

Carnish evened the odds by mesmerizing two of the bandits and Midnight vomited a swarm of wasps on the group in the back.  This was terrifying to see and I am on her side.  We eventually turned the tide, but Estrela came near to death several times, which sort of explains what happened at the end.

I englobed the last living bandit from the back group in a wall of stone.  Once the rest were down and Frankie had knocked out the final combatant, I called the warriors among us to surround the stone globe so the final bandit would understand the situation.  I then used stone shape to turn the wall to pebbles, which dropped down around him, and demanded he surrender.

I could see him doing the math in his eyes and realizing he had no other choice.  He started to drop his sword and state his surrender when Estrela cast a ball lightning spell and murdered him.  I was aghast.  He was about to surrender and she killed him.  I am still angry and upset about it.  I turned to her and demanded to know why she had done that.  She stared at me blankly with no answer at first.  She eventually said he had nearly killed her and that I had not stated we were taking his surrender.  That was more of an excuse (and a weak one at that) as I had clearly told him to surrender and Macha, Aziz, and Frankie had not attacked the bandit.

I knew I needed time and wanted to walk away, but everyone was still wounded, so I healed everyone.  Including Estrela.  I am still angry with her, but Ra teaches to heal those who need it, not just those we like.

We have returned to the camp with our unconscious prisoner.  Thankfully Frankie knows how NOT to kill our only sources of information here.  I need to pray to Ra for guidance.  I will let Sarisvati question the prisoner in the meantime.

*End of Session*

The Aldelle Group – Session 44 – Hiking to the Pyramid

Session 44 happened Tuesday, September 13, 2011.

This campaign used the Dyson’s Delve dungeon pages on A Character for Every Game as a starting point, but has now moved on to new material from the DM-in-training.  I heartily recommend Dyson's Delve as a beginning adventure.

Adventuring Group:
Tre-ba Bel a sheer (female elf alchemist)
Elspeth (female half-elf rogue)
Luna (female elf sorcerer)
Harkaitz of the Red Soul (male human cleric of Ra)

NPCs:
Aziz of the Light (male human paladin, cohort of Harkaitz)
Sarisvati the Sun-touched (female Ifrit oracle, cohort of Aziz)
Estrela (female Aasimar druid, cohort of Tre-Ba)
Macha (female human fighter, cohort of Elspeth)
Short John Copper (male halfling expert, hireling)
The Red Keffiyehs (human warriors, followers of Harkaitz)


Evening, July 24, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, who guides our path.

We finished the today marching west.  It should be another five days before we get to the pyramid.

[NOTE: I received a reply from Wednesday on my sending, but I didn’t get a chance to write it down.  I’ll add it here when I can get the text from the DM.]


Late Evening, July 25, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, source of inspiration.

While making camp this evening, we spotted a blue dragon land relatively nearby.  Elspeth and Carnish went out to scout it and see what it was up to.  When they returned, they stated it was a female young adult blue dragon and it was digging for something in the sands.

Aziz stated his intent to slay the dragon and started quickly laying out a plan of attack.  We heard the dragon roar and realized it might be leaving soon, so we started moving in its direction.  We came into sight of it just as it was taking flight.  Thinking quickly, Aziz ordered our spell casters to attack it with fire.  Unfortunately, it dodged most of the damage from the volley of fireball spells and easily flew around my obstructing wall of fire.  It quickly outdistanced the range of our spells, heading north, roughly in the direction of the Mountain Gate.

We decided to investigate the pit the dragon dug in the sand.  Near the bottom we found the top of a stone pillar.  Whatever the dragon took, it was sitting on the pillar and had a rectangular cross-section.  The stonework on the pillar identified it as part of a temple to Ra.  This is not a good sign.  I am sending another message to Wednesday to warn her and the others.

“Young female blue dragon dug up something rectangle from buried Temple of Ra.  It is heading north.  Let us know.  It is scorched. –Harkaitz”


Evening, July 26, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra and His dazzling brilliance.

We ran across another patrol of skeletons, this one heading south.  The most significant thing to happen during the fight was Carnish casting enlarge on Macha, but it was mostly overkill at that point.

Shortly before Dawn
A wind storm came up during the night, but died down a few hours past midnight.  While Luna and I were on watch with her, Tre-ba noticed something in the darkness reflecting the light of our fire.  We went out to investigate, leaving the Red Keffiyeh on alert.  We found the partially buried skeletal remains of a paladin wearing magical full plate armor.  The winds must have uncovered the remains sometime during second watch.

We have uncovered the rest of the remains and carried them back to camp.  In the morning I will speak with the spirit of the fallen paladin.


Morning, July 27, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, His light brings humility to us all.

The fallen paladin was of the family Excelor, in Lagaskia, and was traveling there from Uru to visit his family when he fell.  I wrapped up his bones and secured them.  When next we are in Lagaskia, I will deliver them to the descendants of his family so he can be buried with his kin.


Late Morning, July 29, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, light of the heavens and protector of us all.

The last two days have been quiet, but we have now arrived at the pyramid.  It is immense, even partially buried it is easily the largest structure I have ever seen.  We will make camp nearby and prepare to explore afterwards.

*End of Session*

The Aldelle Group – Session 43 – Across the Desert and a New Companion

Session 43 happened Tuesday, September 6, 2011.

This campaign used the Dyson’s Delve dungeon pages on A Character for Every Game as a starting point, but has now moved on to new material from the DM-no-longer-in-training.  I heartily recommend Dyson's Delve as a beginning adventure.

Adventuring Group:
Tre-ba Bel a sheer (female elf alchemist)
Elspeth (female half-elf rogue)
Harkaitz of the Red Soul (male human cleric of Ra)

NPCs:
Aziz of the Light (male human paladin, cohort of Harkaitz)
Sarisvati the Sun-touched (female Ifrit oracle, cohort of Aziz)
Estrela (female Aasimar druid, cohort of Tre-Ba)
Macha (female human fighter, cohort of Elspeth)
Asmo (male Halfling mystic theurge)
Short John Copper (male halfling expert, hireling)
The Red Keffiyehs (human warriors, followers of Harkaitz)


Morning, July 21, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, who lights all paths.

Our extra day in Ozimar was well spent.  In addition to the wands of endure elements Tre-ba crafted, we have three newer traveling companions.  Tre-ba recruited an unusual druid named Estrela.  While Estrela’s skin is the dark tan of those used to the sun, her hair is pure white, almost luminescent.  While I do not believe as they believe, Brek’nok showed me the value of the followers of the Old Faiths. 

Elspeth found a previous traveling companion of hers while searching for a ring of sustenance, a human fighter named Macha, who is also a refugee from Terranor.  We have been missing a pure devotee of the fighting arts since Sahar left our group, so Macha is a welcome addition.

Finally, Short John recommended a fellow Halfling named Asmo, a sorcerer of some skill and power.  [See my comments at the end about this.]

With our team ready to head out, we are saying our fare-wells and good lucks to our friends going after the Mountain Gate.  For us, the Uskar beckons.


Morning, July 22, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, whose dawn rebirths the world.

Yesterday we made our way south and out of the mountains and resumed setting watches during the night.  It was a quiet night and they turned out to not be needed, but better safe than sorry when the fate of the world is in the balance.

The dawn is spectacular.  We are on some elevated land in the shadow of the eastern Ridgeback Mountains, but the Uskar to the south is in the light of the sun.  The morning light has bathed the sands in coppers shifting to gold.  The occasional rocky outcrops are red in the light, casting long shadows that are slowly shrinking, receeding into the feet of the pillars.

It is good to be back home again.


Evening, July 22, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, whose light gives evil nowhere to hide.

Today we marched to the southeast, looking for the marked trail Luna placed on our last trip to the Uskar Gate.  What we found instead is troubling.

In the late morning we ran across a small group of five animated skeletons.  This is not the first time this has happened and their remains had no identifying marks.  After putting them down, we properly buried the remains so they can sleep peacefully.

Near mid-afternoon, we came across a group of seven robed travellers.  When they got close to us, I hailed them, but received no response.  When they got closer and had still said nothing, I asked Aziz to determine their nature.  He stated they were creatures of evil, to which Asmo responded by casting a fireball upon them.  They then threw back their cloaks and drew their scimitars with their boney hands, exposing themselves as animated skeletons.  They were probably skeletal champions based on their fighting capacities but after another fireball from Asmo, my Nimbus of Light, and expert swordwork by Aziz and Macha, they were destroyed.

Going over the remains, their cloak clasps indicated they were from a nearby village, Kurast.  Kurast is known to me and known to be strong in the faith of Ra.  If the lich is animating this many from that village and sending them across the desert, it worries me that the village may no longer stand.  After we gave the skeletons a proper burial with blessings, we decided to change our course and head to Kurast.

We have made camp after walking further on our new course.  Short John is preparing a warm meal.  We should reach Kurast tomorrow.  I pray that it still stands.


Mid-afternoon, July 23, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, whose light draws together.

We are in Kurast now, preparing to eat an early dinner.  Pleasantly, the village still stands and the faithful of Ra still live here.  This was not the biggest surprise of the morning.

Late in the morning, as we were getting near Kurast, we observed a lone traveller, completely covered against the sun and sand.  Per our standard, I approached and greeted him.  He hailed us back and we started talking.  After Aziz verified he had no evil intent, we made an impromptu camp and sat for an early lunch.  The stranger is a gnoll, one of the hyena-men who occupy the southern fringes of the Uskar Desert.  His name is Carnish and he is a wanderer in semi-exile from his tribe.  Due to the reputation of his people, he finds it difficult to enter human villages to purchase the few things he needs.  Having gotten a feel for Carnish, I agreed to escort him to Kurast and vouch for him to the villagers.  He was very grateful.

We were all relieved when we came into view of Kurast and found things normal.  As we entered town, we gathered worried looks from the villager and it was not long before the local militia arrived to question us.  The leader of the militia is named Tylar and I explained what our mission was and that I would vouch for Carnish’s behavior while in the village.  This seemed to satisfy Tylar and he showed us to the village square, where Carnish could purchase the things he needed.  We took a couple tables as an open air tavern and shared news and information with Tylar.

After we shared news, we questioned Tylar about what he might know about the area we were heading to.  He related a legend that the tomb of a great paladin of Ra, Sylar, was buried somewhere near there.  Sylar fought and defeated the last nightshade to threaten the Uskar.  Sylar’s sword, the Light of Ra, is considered to be a holy relic, useful against undead, and supposedly kept in the shrine Sylar was interred in.  Thinking about the sword that Aziz now carries, one we retrieved from a holy shrine of Ra, I asked Tylar if there was a description of the Light of Ra.  He said there was and described a sword very much like the one in Aziz’s scabbard.

I chose to keep the location of the sword secret for now.  If the lich or its minions come through here, I do not want it to have a reason to harm the villagers.  For the same reason, I did not introduce most of my companions, which is rude.  The amulet I had created in Ttaeladra hides me from the lich’s scrying.  As I am the only one whose name it knows, this should protect us somewhat from its spying.  It is the best I can do at this time.  The lich knows we pursue it, we cannot afford for it to gather more information on us.

Carnish is done with his purchases and has returned to join us for dinner before we leave the village.  I enjoy Short John’s cooking, but food from home has its own appeal.  This will be a pleasant meal.


Noon, July 24, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, whose light illuminates knowledge.

We have found another wayward soul in the desert – Professor Walsh from Terranor!

After we left Kurast, we left a false trail and arranged with Tylar to tell anyone following us that we were headed to a shrine deep in the desert to the northwest.  Once we were out of sight of the village, we detoured around it on the west, covering our tracks, and then resumed or march to the Uskar gate.  We kept a cold camp to avoid drawing any attention.

Mid-morning we regained our original marked trail (Luna’s arcane marks) and resumed following that path.  A short while ago we spotted a weakly moving figure attempting to crawl across the sands.  We rendered assistance immediately, setting up a quick camp so we could tend to the traveler.  After we healed his wounds [and a lesser restoration], he told us he was an archeologist from the University of Terranor.  I asked if he was Professor Walsh and he was!

He was surprised we knew of him and we explained we had been in Terranor waiting for him as we had an artifact we wanted to sell to him but we were unexpectedly sent to the Forest of Angry Elves.  He related that he was returning to Terranor when he ran into refugees from the demon attack.  With nothing to return to, he used what resources he had to come to the Uskar and search for the Throne of Ra, a legendary temple said to be sunken beneath the sands of the Uskar.

We explained what we may have found the Throne of Ra and it was still buried.  I asked what the legends say about it.  He stated that there was very little anymore, but the largest fragment stated that “when the Chosen of Ra stands on the peak, the Throne of Ra will rise to the surface”.

This requires I commune with Ra.

Later
I have communed with Ra and my soul is full of His light.

Ra has confirmed that the peak we need is the pyramid on our map.  More ominously, the lich works for the nightshade and is trying to bring the nightshade back from where it is imprisoned.  Ra also confirmed that the lich’s phylactery is in the Drow City.  This is awkward, as our agreement with Nionel was that we would never intrude on each other’s realm again.  I’ll have to give that some thought.

I am sending a message to Wednesday to update the other team about what we have learned.

“Lich phylactery in Drow City. Found Professor Walsh. Going to pyramid to raise temple under sands. Lich working for Nightshade. How goes mountain gate? Harkaitz.”

*End of Session*

[So, due to our need to split the group into two groups to accommodate Wednesday’s player’s schedule, we needed to bolster our ranks.  We picked up only one new player for the weekday group out of three we tried for, so the DM allowed us to mod Tre-ba and Elspeth retroactively so they had the Leadership feat and their cohorts would fill the missing gaps in our roster.

Also, since Luna’s player cannot make every session and will make either the weekday or weekend session as her schedule allows, the DM added Asmo to fill that gap.  When Luna is available, we have Luna.  When her player is not available, we have Asmo and hand-wave the difference to keep the game going.  To avoid issues in the adventure log, Harkaitz will not comment on this at all.]

The Aldelle Group – Session 34 – Into the Uskar Desert

Sessions 34 happened Tuesday, June 28, 2011.  The adventure log is a bit long.  Let me know if you'd rather there be a cut to hide it behind and I'll do that next time.

This campaign used the Dyson’s Delve dungeon pages on A Character forEvery Game as a starting point, but has now moved on to new material from the DM-in-training. I heartily recommend Dyson's Delve as a beginning adventure.

Adventuring Group:

Tre-ba Bel a sheer (female elf alchemist)

Brek'nok (male dwarf druid)

Frankie Hu, Master of the Distracting Fist (male dwarf monk)

Luna (female elf sorcerer)

Wednesday (female elf rogue)

Harkaitz of the Red Soul (male human cleric of Ra)

NPCs:

Aziz of the Light (male human paladin, cohort of Harkaitz)

Sarisvati the Suntouched (female Ifrit oracle, cohort of Aziz)

Midnight (female half-elf witch, cohort of Frankie Hu)

Short John Copper (male halfling expert)

Evening, June 6, Year of the Earth Rabbit

Praise Ra, whose light will return.

A sandstorm blew up this morning and has continued all day. I created a small stone hut with wall of stone to protect us. It is cramped, but it is keeping the storm from flaying us.

Early afternoon, June 7, Year of the Earth Rabbit

Praise Ra, who banishes the storm.

The storm finally died near Noon. After getting out to stretch, we packed our gear. We are now resuming our march to the Uskar Gate.

Evening, June 7, Year of the Earth Rabbit

Praise Ra, who leads us true.

Late this afternoon we spotted a black scorpion [a gargantuan vermin] and chose to avoid it, even though Tre-ba was making noise about wanting a sample of its poison.

We came upon a funeral structure just before making camp. We are camping on the far side of a very large sand dune for the night. I’ve used wall of stone to create a low arc of stone to provide a roof and keep sand from sliding down on us.

The structure looks like a place of burial. There is a large rectangular building on a raised stone platform. There are six pillars lining a path from stairs at the edge to the stone doors of the structure. I’m curious as to what we will find here.

Morning, June 8, Year of the Earth Rabbit

Praise Ra, whose light cleanses the world.

Slightly after midnight, an immense flock of undead, mostly skeletons, arose from the sands and started milling about the area. Wednesday, Frankie, and Midnight were on watch and woke me up. After looking around, I could see that the undead were milling around the structure and could not sense us on the far side of the sand dune. Only a few were far enough away from the structure to possibly see this side of the dune and the stone arc was hiding us well enough. I asked that they keep an eye on things and wake me if any of the undead actually noticed us.

Near dawn, the third watch observed the undead all enter the structure ahead of the rising sun. We may have to destroy all those undead during our investigation. There were quite a large number of them, but Aziz and I look forward to putting them down and cleansing the desert of them.

Evening, June 8, Year of the Earth Rabbit

Praise Ra, His light reflects in the most unexpected places.

The structure turned out to be dedicated to Ra! The upper level was the burial places of paladins in the service of Ra along with a few priests and was surprising clear of wandering undead. After verifying that there were no undead in the any of the stone coffins, we followed a set of stone stairs down to a lower level. This level was a temple to Ra with side shrines to honor the departed.

The undead had clearly moved through this area as their tracks greatly disturbed the dust on the floors. There were also the tracks of a lone figure wearing boots. Brek’nok was able to follow the tracks to the main altar where they stopped at the altar. Wednesday cautiously approached the altar and found a hidden compartment. Inside was a blessed scimitar, dedicated to the service of Ra [a +2 holy flaming scimitar to be precise].

We worked out that someone was sending waves of undead into the temple. The compartment the scimitar was in was trapped to disintegrate any evil-aligned entities opening it (Wednesday found the trap itself). After some discussion, we decided to take the scimitar, feeling Ra led us here for a purpose. We swapped it with Aziz's enchanted scimitar, leaving his in the original's scabbard to continue to lure in, and destroy, the undead seeking it.

Finding no gate here nor any further paths to follow, I cast locate object again and found that the temple was on the path to the gate, not the location of the gate itself, more evidence that Ra directed us here for a reason. We left the temple and continued west. Shortly later, we observed a lich walking the crest of a large dune. It also noticed us and, after trading a few verbal barbs, I struck it with a flame strike. The unclean thing responded with a teleportation spell and disappeared. With no immediate counter attack, we could do little else but move on.

Near the end of the duration of the locate object spell, the spell guided me down. There was no entrance visible there or anywhere nearby. We spent the rest of the afternoon looking for an entrance, to no avail.

We are making camp now. Tomorrow I will commune with Ra for guidance. Short John is cooking a stew for the evening's meal. The air was terribly hot when he started, but once the sun went down, the temperature dropped with it. By the time it is done, the warmth will be much appreciated in the cold, cold night. It smells delicious. Hiring Short John as our cook has been well worth the coins.

Morning, June 9, Year of the Earth Rabbit

Praise Ra, who sends us unexpected allies.

During the night, a small group of storm giants moved past the camp and Brek'nok went out to talk with them. They are pleasant folk and agreed to help us once we explained what we were up to. They used their ability to manipulate the weather to create a windstorm, which blew the sands continuously away from the area. Near dawn (as the storm died off) we could see...more sand. Brek'nok wild shaped into an earth elemental at this point and earthglided down into the sands. Deep under the sands he encountered an underground structure. He could not enter the worked stone, but he could follow it around and seek a surface entrance. There was none he could find.

At dawn, I communed with Ra. It was an almost indescribable experience to be directly in communion with Him. He confirmed that there was no surface entrance to the buried location of the gate. He also made known that this gate could wait, the swamp gate needed us urgently.

We are packing up camp now to make our way to Lagaskia, a river town where Aziz was born and where we both spent time training to be paladins. While my path led elsewhere, it will be good to see some of the old masters again.

I have asked the storm giants to carry the remains of the pilgrims back to Uru for burial. They have agreed to do this, both for us and for the souls of the pilgrims. They are good people. I should have asked their names before they left.

Evening, June 11, Year of the Earth Rabbit

Praise Ra, who blinds our enemies to our presence.

Yesterday was mostly quiet as we marched. We saw the ancient blue dragon fly by again, flying from the west and heading east. Brek'nok cast hide camp and the dragon never saw us.  (It says much about my life now that a dragon flying by is almost mundane.)

Today has been an entirely different thing. The morning started with us fleeing another gargantuan black scorpion, followed by a fire elemental crossing our path. Sarisvati conversed with the elemental in its native speech and convinced it to let us pass unharmed. Near the end of the day, the ancient blue dragon was spotted heading near us, but on a course for Lagaskia! Brek'nok hid our camp again and we observed. Aziz and I were ready and willing to attack the dragon if we could stop it from attacking the town, but, as it turned out, we did not have to.

The dragon landed ahead of us a short ways. Wednesday and Frankie scouted ahead to see what it was doing. From what they saw, it appeared to be landed for the night and was “arranging things” to get comfortable. Needless to say, we are having a cold camp tonight to avoid drawing its attention. Tomorrow, we will either attack it or sneak past to warn the town, whichever seems wisest.

Late Evening, June 12, Year of the Earth Rabbit

Praise Ra, who lights our path.

The dragon slept in and so we quietly skirted around it and made best speed for Lagaskia. It was a tiring march and we pushed on at dusk to guarantee we would arrive in one day. When we finally spotted the town, we saw a dragon circling it and thought we were too late!

As it turns out, Lagaskia has a guardian, a bronze dragon named Alatthan. This is new from the last time Aziz and I were here, and we had not expected it. When we realized the difference, we changed our plans again. Aziz took all but Tre-ba and myself in to town. Tre-ba and I went to a rocky outcropping near the town where the dragon landed for the evening. We hailed the dragon and spoke with it in Draconic, which it seemed to appreciate. We warned it the ancient blue dragon was encamped to the southeast of the town. Alatthan seemed to be aware of the situation, but thanked us for the information anyways. He informed us that he had allies nearby (but not going into details) who could keep the blue at bay.

After further pleasantries, Tre-ba and I made our leave and returned to Lagaskia. Alatthan was a very polite host and seems to have the situation in hand. I am suspicious that the blue and the lich are working together, but I have no hard proof, only a suspicion.

Tomorrow we will hire a boat and sail for the Great Swamp. Tonight, Aziz and I are introducing our newest friends to some of our oldest friends. It is a good time to be alive.

*End of Session*

[Half this log was written in Microsoft Word, half in LibreOffice Writer, part of a free office package that comes with Ubuntu 11.04, which I loaded onto a personal laptop. The OS on the laptop was broken and I did not have the CD with the software (its a remaindered laptop from the DayJob), so I'm giving Ubuntu a whirl. Seems OK so far. The interface is a bit more like Apple than Microsoft, so it's taking some getting used to. I'll make more comments as I knock it around and such.]

[UPDATE: 12/22/2019 - I finally fixed the black text on a black background issue.  I had to go into the HTML code and hand-remove the additional text formatting as the Blogger interface failed to touch it in Compose mode.]

The Aldelle Group – Session 33 – Into the Uskar Desert

Sessions 33 happened Tuesday, June 21, 2011.  We have picked up a new player, the DM's brother, who had been helping putting together the bad guys during the drow story arc and now wanted to play.

This campaign used the Dyson’s Delve dungeon pages on A Character for Every Game as a starting point, but has now moved on to new material from the DM-in-training.  I heartily recommend Dyson's Delve as a beginning adventure.

Adventuring Group:
Tre-ba Bel a sheer (female elf alchemist)
Brek'nok (male dwarf druid)
Frankie Hu, Master of the Distracting Fist (male dwarf monk)
Luna (female elf sorcerer)
Wednesday (female elf rogue)
Harkaitz of the Red Soul (male human cleric of Ra)

NPCs:
Aziz of the Light (male human paladin, cohort of Harkaitz)
Sarisvati the Sun-touched (female Ifrit oracle, cohort of Aziz)
Midnight (female half-elf witch, cohort of Frankie Hu)
Short John Copper (male halfling expert)
Brand and Zephir (male and female, respectively, pseudo-dragons)


Evening, May 27, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, whose light we return to.

We have spent the last 10 days going about our individual businesses here in Ttaeladra plus planning our trip to the Uskar Gate.  [NOTE: Uskar is the name of the great desert that makes up the entire southern third of our map, so "Uskar Gate" refers to the magical gate deep in the desert.]  We estimate that the trip will take nearly two weeks to get to the gate and then another week to get to either the city of Uru, my home, or Lagaskia, Aziz's home village on the Kurrakam River, either a place we could resupply.  As much as I would like to see the walls of Uru again, Lagaskia is a better route to the Mountain Gate.  I should be able to get to the Great Temple of Ra in Warka before we swing up into the mountains.

Tomorrow we will head out.  I procured a new bag of holding [Type 2] for Short John to use as a larder for our supplies.  One of the other bags has been filled with full water skins and one empty barrel as the blessings of Ra allow me to create water.  I feel more confident using actual supplies rather than relying upon summoned victuals.  Plus, Short John can do amazing things with the supplies we purchased.


Evening, May 31, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, who shows us new allies in the wilderness.

We exited the southern edge of the Forest of Angry Elves this morning and made good time across the strip of plains separating the forest from the fringes of the Uskar.  I am not certain if it has been named.  We were moving close by the eastern tip of the mountains when Tre-ba and Wednesday noticed a dwarf waiting in our path.  I was sent to parlay with the dwarf.

His name is Brek'nok (which is as close as I can transliterate it from the dwarven tongue) and he is, of all things, a druid.  I have no problems with the Old Faith (as it is called) as they also revere Ra, just not exclusively.  I explained we were on our way into the Uskar on a mission to save the world.  He stated he, too, was interested in saving the world and would like to join us in our quest.  The rest of the group was fine with this, although Frankie, of all people, was disgruntled with Brek'nok being a druid.  Dwarven monks must practice at being grumpy.  Perhaps they only accept those who don't like people in general to begin with.


Evening, June 1, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, who reminds us to not become prideful.

This afternoon an ancient blue dragon flew by us.  It was heading south, apparently having left the mountains (this is a guess on my part).  We spotted it in time to hide Aziz, who was willing to fight the dragon.  If the dragon had seen Aziz and his blue dragonhide banded mail, it certainly would have stopped to offer battle and likely killed us all.  I used wall of stone to create a hut reminiscent of those used in my home city and we had Aziz enter it before the dragon got too close.  Midnight, Sarisvati, and Short John also entered the hut as they are not primary combatants like the rest of us.

The dragon flew by, close enough for us to get a good look at it and for it to get a good look at us.  It apparently was busy enough on its errand (and we offered no offense) that it continued flying by without stopping.  It is possible the two pseudo-dragons with us or the obviously dragon-blooded Luna helped.  We were happy for it to pass without stopping (even Aziz, once he saw that it was an ancient wyrm and not a younger dragon).

Brek'nok has been using a druidic spell to fend off the worst effects of the desert, allowing us to travel easier and without injury from the heat.  This has helped greatly.



Evening, June 2, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, who presents us with challenges to better ourselves.

This morning we found the skeletal remains of four humans wearing the colors of Ra.  They appeared to be pilgrims who had been attacked with weapons of some sort, probably swords.  Who would ambush pilgrims?  This demands attention, but we are on a mission from Ra and cannot wait a day for me to learn speak with dead.  As I tried to divine the right path, Tre-ba showed it to me – bundle up the skeletons and take them with us.  After we question them, we can give them proper burial.  Tre-ba has good insight.

Later, in the afternoon, we were attacked by a remorhaz.  The beast radiated even more heat than the sands and the holy sun, making attacking it tricky.  Luckily, the sharp eyes of Wednesday spotted its approach, so we were ready to immediately attack when it surfaced from the sands.  Tre-ba made the killing attack with an acid bomb going directly down its throat before exploding.


Morning, June 3, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, who guides us and informs us.

I have spoken with the dead.

The leader of the group was Adrent, a priest from Uru, my home.  He and his fellow pilgrims came upon many skeletons lying in the sands and approached.  The skeletons animated and attacked them, killing them all.  Adrent requested (when asked) that their remains be returned to Uru for proper burial.

I conferred with my companions and we have agreed to go to Uru after freeing the Uskar Gate.  We have been speculating on the skeletal assailants.  I suspect there is a necromancer out here that will need attending to.  Aziz agrees.


Morning, June 5, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, whose light lays bare our enemies.

We discovered a large group of skeletons laying in the sands along our path.  When we got close enough, Aziz was able to feel the evil intent roiling off of them.  Luna dropped a fireball on them and I released a nimbus of light as bright as the sun, praise be to Ra.  Midnight then used dimension door to more her and I to the center of the skeletons where the nimbus blasted them with holy light, cracking their bones even as they rose to attack us.  I then released a wave of positive energy, shattering them all.  [It is entirely possible Harkaitz was a bit smug at this.]

There is definitely a necromancer walking the sands.

I took one of the more complete skulls and inscribed on its dome (in goblin) "Super Rat not amused" and "Ha Ha Ha" around the back of the skull.  I then placed it on a (mostly) complete femur that I stuck in the sands.  Our challenge has been made.  The next move is the necromancer's.

Brek'nok looked askance at this as he can read goblin.  I explained that Super Rat is our calling card to our foes.  He seemed to understand.

*End of Session*

[The ten day gap between sessions was to allow folks to do things in Ttaeladra between sessions and not take up game time with it.  Frankie did some bounty hunting work and Wednesday "danced" (read: picked pockets) in several taverns in the city.]

[Sorry for the delayed post - I started feeling ill last night and did not get any writing done.  I'm feeling better now.  Seems to be either weather related (first all day thunderstorms in months) or a slight case of bad food.]