Borders bookstores is going out of business. In fact, in most places it has already shut its doors. This is not news.
The one near my home was not shut down and emptied immediately - it is still selling off its inventory and fixtures. As a result, it really hadn't occurred to me that this was not the case everywhere. I was in the Seattle area PAX weekend (but not at PAX - I had a great visit with my in-laws) and saw two Borders locations that were shut down and emptied as fast as they could be. I'm assuming this is due to high rents - one was in a mid-to-high end shopping center and the other was in SEA-TAC (the Seattle Tacoma airport - I can't fault them as I'm from a city whose airports are Hobby and Bush).
So what does this have to do with anything? Not much. I have fond memories of that location as I would go there to write, sitting up in the coffee bar area, which has a good view. We bought some books there just after the closure was announced and chatted with the manager, who was part of our book club. She was willing to help regular customers as much as she could, but really didn't like the "piranhas" - people who had never been in the store before, didn't know where things were, were looking for "great deals" on high end popular books, and were rude about it when it was explained to them that the store had not received new inventory in two weeks and the inventory computers had been removed immediately by the corporate office. The local Borders is now selling things 60-80% off and my wife and I could not resist going in on our way to the grocery store.
It was kind of spooky. The upstairs is 60-70% empty, with huge swaths of shelves now empty. The kids section was closed off (along with the restrooms - quite wisely I believe). It being a holiday weekend, there were a lot of folks there looking around. We picked up seven things for about $7 each. I picked up a Penguin Classics version of Livy's Rome and the Mediterranean, the Stackpole Military History Series book Poland Betrayed (I'm a bit of a sucker for WWII books), the movie The Forbidden Kingdom (starring Jet Li and Jackie Chan), and the 2 CD Brian Setzer Orchestra The Ultimate Collection. My wife picked up two books of her own and the NCIS 2 CD set of the TV soundtrack, which also has some interesting music on it.
Both sets of CDs are going on my iPod Nano for regular listening to. The Forbidden Kingdom is giving me an idea for my next One Day Movie Fest. I'm thinking Hong Kong action stars: one movie from "back in the day" followed by a "Hollywood" movie. I'd like to showcase Chow Yun Fat, Jet Li, Jackie Chan, and Michelle Yeoh, which would give a basis of eight movies and about 12 hours of screen time. Suggestions are welcome.
As to the books, I feel a need to read more Livy. In college, I studied ancient Greece and ancient Rome as part of my degree plan, but did not spend enough time reading around (spent WAY too much time playing RPGs). I've spent the last 15 years working to fix that, getting more diligent as time goes on. The military history book is part of a hobby within a hobby for me. WWII has tons of story and gaming possibilities and is just plain interesting to read about. That's the writer and gamer in me talking. I'm expecting to take away some insight on how belligerent governments go after their weaker neighbors. This will be handy for some tabletop miniatures gaming I want to set up.
That's it for right now. Tomorrow, I should have my first adventure log for my Fragments campaign (Traveller using the Hero System).
Monday, September 5, 2011
Thursday, September 1, 2011
The Aldelle Group – Session 42 – Into the Mountains and Split
Session 42 happened Tuesday, August 23, 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)
Brek'nok (male dwarf druid)
Luna (female elf sorcerer)
Frankie Hu, Master of the Distracting Fist (male dwarf monk)
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 Suntouched (female Ifrit oracle, cohort of Aziz)
Midnight (female half-elf witch, cohort of Frankie Hu)
Gil Gamesh (male uffik artificer*, cohort of Midnight)
Short John Copper (male halfling expert, hireling)
Brand and Zephir (mated pair of pseudo-dragons tagging along for the fun of it)
The Red Keffiyehs (human warriors, followers of Harkaitz)
Evening, July 18, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, in whose light we march.
This morning, before we broke camp, Brek'nok cast scry to spy upon Lucien, the vampire. Brek'nok observed Lucien in a small boat, rowing across a dark body of water. Just as the effect of the scry ended (and as we were discussing what Brek'nok was relaying to the rest of us), Lucien reached a rocky shore, more of a ledge, confirming our suspicion that he was on an underground body of water. We are not certain where, but suspect it is somewhere under the Ridgeback Mountains.
We spent the day hiking up into the mountains, following an obvious trail to Orzimar. When we arrived, I was not initially impressed. The trail ends at a relatively small cave mouth in the side of a cliff, guarded by two dwarves. I was expecting something more impressive.
Brek'nok and Frankie went up and chatted with the two guards in the dwarven language, which I do not speak. After a short conversation and some looks at the rest of us, we were granted entrance. Once past the cave mouth, there is a small cave. This cave suddenly opens up after a bit into an immense cavern that steps down with four huge terraces, one set on each side of the cavern and sides separate from each other. The city is on the same scale as the two elven cities we have seen, and that is just the parts we can see – the structures might extend back into the mountain.
Brek'nok led us to a structure named The Broken Mug, where we secured rooms. I am not certain if this is an inn with an attached brewery and tavern or a brewery and tavern with rooms for let. It may be both.
After a quick meal, Brek'nok and I will go talk to the local constable and ask about location on the map indicating the location of the gate.
Morning, July 19, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, who illuminates even our dreams.
Ra sent prophetic dreams to me last night. In my first dream, I saw a small band of firely lights moving on a map from Orzimar to the location of the Mountain Gate. The Mountain Gate turned a bright white, indicating that it was liberated, but then all of the Uskar desert fell into blackness. In my second dream, I saw the same band of lights leave Orzimar and head into the desert. There the Uskar Gar was freed, but all the lands north of the desert fell into darkness.
I consulted with Sarisvati as to what the dreams meant. She told me that Ra warned that if we went after either gate, the other gate would let through great evil and swallow half the world. The solution was to secure both gates at the same time. I think this makes our meeting with the constable more fortuitous than I originally thought.
Brek'nok and I met with Constable Morgrim last night. Along the way, I commented to Brek'nok that there seemed to be a large number of dwarves openly carrying weapons and in uniform and asked if this was common. He told me that it was common for soldiers to be about, but not this number of them. Our conversation with the constable confirmed this.
When we talked with the constable and explained our mission and destination in the mountains, he explained that the orcs had recently started attacking more often and were based in the same area as the gate. As a result of a new war against the orcs starting, he could not provide any troops to get us there, but he knew of some folks in town who might be what we need. He offered to arrange a meeting the next day at Noon so we could hire a guide familiar with the area. He also asked that we keep an eye out for dwarven prisoners of the orcs, particularly a dwarf named Dolgrim, and to free as many as we could. Additionally, there is an axe the orcs took in battle that belonged to the last king and the dwarves would pay a good reward for its return.
Today we will meet with the people the constable suggests, but instead of recruiting one to be our guide, we will likely recruit them all and split into two groups. I am not certain how we will divide up, but it is clear that Aziz and I will go south to secure the Uskar Gate and save our homes from the darkness.
Late Morning, July 19, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, who inspires even from the shadows.
Wednesday made a brilliant suggestion, all the more brilliant for its obviousness – we should try and sell the golden sarcophagus lid here in Orzimar. I actually slapped my forehead when she suggested this. We have been porting that lid for months, looking for a buyer and here, in a town where we are most likely to find one, we completely forget about it until Wednesday reminds us. [Wednesday’s player texted the DM to see how the game was going and then asked if we had sold the lid to the dwarves, something we had completely forgotten about. Good thinking Emmy!]
We located a potential buyer and have left the lid (and Aziz) there to have the lid assessed while we go to meet with the constable and our potential new recruits. Later we will return and see if the dwarves will buy the lid. They were very impressed with the quality of the work and the amount of gold in it.
Evening, July 19, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, whose light stays bright, even when divided.
We met with the constable and the people who were interested in our mission. We explained the situation and worked out the two teams. We were lucky that one of the new recruits was an accomplished lock and trap person. She is Elspeth, a half-elven woman, and will be joining the group heading into the desert. Wednesday and Brek’nok will take the rest against the orcs to secure the Mountain Gate. [The other roles still need the characters created, so I’m not naming them here, but I may edit them in later once that group gets started.]
We returned to the mortician interested in the sarcophagus lid and he agreed to buy it for a good price – 175,000 gold marks! After receiving payment, I split the coinage into shares and distributed them amongst the original members of the group. We also split the group fund in two to cover each team’s expenses.
We are going to delay leaving for a day so Tre-ba can craft some wands of endure elements. Elspeth is also searching the city for a ring of sustenance at Tre-ba’s suggestion. So in two morning’s time, the Aldelle Group will split into two teams to save the world. May Ra shine on us both!
*End of Session*
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)
Luna (female elf sorcerer)
Frankie Hu, Master of the Distracting Fist (male dwarf monk)
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 Suntouched (female Ifrit oracle, cohort of Aziz)
Midnight (female half-elf witch, cohort of Frankie Hu)
Gil Gamesh (male uffik artificer*, cohort of Midnight)
Short John Copper (male halfling expert, hireling)
Brand and Zephir (mated pair of pseudo-dragons tagging along for the fun of it)
The Red Keffiyehs (human warriors, followers of Harkaitz)
Evening, July 18, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, in whose light we march.
This morning, before we broke camp, Brek'nok cast scry to spy upon Lucien, the vampire. Brek'nok observed Lucien in a small boat, rowing across a dark body of water. Just as the effect of the scry ended (and as we were discussing what Brek'nok was relaying to the rest of us), Lucien reached a rocky shore, more of a ledge, confirming our suspicion that he was on an underground body of water. We are not certain where, but suspect it is somewhere under the Ridgeback Mountains.
We spent the day hiking up into the mountains, following an obvious trail to Orzimar. When we arrived, I was not initially impressed. The trail ends at a relatively small cave mouth in the side of a cliff, guarded by two dwarves. I was expecting something more impressive.
Brek'nok and Frankie went up and chatted with the two guards in the dwarven language, which I do not speak. After a short conversation and some looks at the rest of us, we were granted entrance. Once past the cave mouth, there is a small cave. This cave suddenly opens up after a bit into an immense cavern that steps down with four huge terraces, one set on each side of the cavern and sides separate from each other. The city is on the same scale as the two elven cities we have seen, and that is just the parts we can see – the structures might extend back into the mountain.
Brek'nok led us to a structure named The Broken Mug, where we secured rooms. I am not certain if this is an inn with an attached brewery and tavern or a brewery and tavern with rooms for let. It may be both.
After a quick meal, Brek'nok and I will go talk to the local constable and ask about location on the map indicating the location of the gate.
Morning, July 19, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, who illuminates even our dreams.
Ra sent prophetic dreams to me last night. In my first dream, I saw a small band of firely lights moving on a map from Orzimar to the location of the Mountain Gate. The Mountain Gate turned a bright white, indicating that it was liberated, but then all of the Uskar desert fell into blackness. In my second dream, I saw the same band of lights leave Orzimar and head into the desert. There the Uskar Gar was freed, but all the lands north of the desert fell into darkness.
I consulted with Sarisvati as to what the dreams meant. She told me that Ra warned that if we went after either gate, the other gate would let through great evil and swallow half the world. The solution was to secure both gates at the same time. I think this makes our meeting with the constable more fortuitous than I originally thought.
Brek'nok and I met with Constable Morgrim last night. Along the way, I commented to Brek'nok that there seemed to be a large number of dwarves openly carrying weapons and in uniform and asked if this was common. He told me that it was common for soldiers to be about, but not this number of them. Our conversation with the constable confirmed this.
When we talked with the constable and explained our mission and destination in the mountains, he explained that the orcs had recently started attacking more often and were based in the same area as the gate. As a result of a new war against the orcs starting, he could not provide any troops to get us there, but he knew of some folks in town who might be what we need. He offered to arrange a meeting the next day at Noon so we could hire a guide familiar with the area. He also asked that we keep an eye out for dwarven prisoners of the orcs, particularly a dwarf named Dolgrim, and to free as many as we could. Additionally, there is an axe the orcs took in battle that belonged to the last king and the dwarves would pay a good reward for its return.
Today we will meet with the people the constable suggests, but instead of recruiting one to be our guide, we will likely recruit them all and split into two groups. I am not certain how we will divide up, but it is clear that Aziz and I will go south to secure the Uskar Gate and save our homes from the darkness.
Late Morning, July 19, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, who inspires even from the shadows.
Wednesday made a brilliant suggestion, all the more brilliant for its obviousness – we should try and sell the golden sarcophagus lid here in Orzimar. I actually slapped my forehead when she suggested this. We have been porting that lid for months, looking for a buyer and here, in a town where we are most likely to find one, we completely forget about it until Wednesday reminds us. [Wednesday’s player texted the DM to see how the game was going and then asked if we had sold the lid to the dwarves, something we had completely forgotten about. Good thinking Emmy!]
We located a potential buyer and have left the lid (and Aziz) there to have the lid assessed while we go to meet with the constable and our potential new recruits. Later we will return and see if the dwarves will buy the lid. They were very impressed with the quality of the work and the amount of gold in it.
Evening, July 19, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, whose light stays bright, even when divided.
We met with the constable and the people who were interested in our mission. We explained the situation and worked out the two teams. We were lucky that one of the new recruits was an accomplished lock and trap person. She is Elspeth, a half-elven woman, and will be joining the group heading into the desert. Wednesday and Brek’nok will take the rest against the orcs to secure the Mountain Gate. [The other roles still need the characters created, so I’m not naming them here, but I may edit them in later once that group gets started.]
We returned to the mortician interested in the sarcophagus lid and he agreed to buy it for a good price – 175,000 gold marks! After receiving payment, I split the coinage into shares and distributed them amongst the original members of the group. We also split the group fund in two to cover each team’s expenses.
We are going to delay leaving for a day so Tre-ba can craft some wands of endure elements. Elspeth is also searching the city for a ring of sustenance at Tre-ba’s suggestion. So in two morning’s time, the Aldelle Group will split into two teams to save the world. May Ra shine on us both!
*End of Session*
The Aldelle Group - Session 42 - Delayed due to vacation
Spent all day yesterday travelling, getting back from vacation. Had a great time. The latest Aldelle Group update will be posted after lunch today. I may get the first posting for Fragments, my Hero Traveller game, up tomorrow morning, but don't hold your breath. It will more likely be the Tuesday post next week.
Thank you for your interest!
Thank you for your interest!
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
The Aldelle Group – Session 41 – R-and-R in the Forest of Angry Elves
Session 41 happened Tuesday, August 16, 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)
Wednesday (female 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 Suntouched (female Ifrit oracle, cohort of Aziz)
Midnight (female half-elf witch, cohort of Frankie Hu)
Gil Gamesh (male uffik artificer*, cohort of Midnight)
Short John Copper (male halfling expert, hireling)
Brand and Zephir (mated pair of pseudo-dragons tagging along for the fun of it)
The Red Keffiyehs (human warriors, followers of Harkaitz)
Evening, July 2, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, who watches over us from on high.
The next ten days are going to be busy. I spent the afternoon today selling off the treasure we acquired since we last left Ttaeladra and then paid out shares. Midnight and I then went and purchased the necessary materials for her to craft an item for me. That item will take ten days to craft, which sets the limit of time we will stay here before continuing our quest.
Tonight we will have a good meal as a group and then spend our visit here separately.
Evening, July 3, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, who lights our path.
This morning Wednesday requested I forge a ring of maniacal devices for her. We started work on it today and it will keep the two of us occupied over the next three days working on it. This may be for the best, if what Tre-ba says is true about Wednesday's last extended stay in Ttaeladra.
Evening, July 6, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, who illuminates the workings of the world.
The ring is forged.
Tre-ba is eating with us this evening. She has been searching out spell formulae to purchase to improve her selection of elixirs and potions. Tomorrow I will be hosting a feast with the Red Shirts and the Red Keffiyehs, thanking both groups for their staunch support of our work and introducing the groups to each other.
Morning, July 8, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, whose morning light shows us the world anew.
The feast was a great success, with everyone trading stories and getting along greatly. In fact, it was such a good party, it did not end until just an hour ago. Time for me to sleep.
Evening, July 11, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, in whom we trust.
Tomorrow is likely our last day here, so we met to discuss and plan where we would go next. We have several options: the gate in the Ridgeback Mountain, the gate in the Uskar Desert, and the lights on the edge of the swamp. After some discussion, we decided that the Mountain Gate is probably the highest priority now and should be our next target.
It was also decided that we would stay in Ttaeladra one extra day to celebrate my day of birth. I had not thought to make a large issue of it, but Tre-ba insists. She said she would plan a "proper birthday" for me. I am somewhat…dubious about what that means.
Noon, July 14, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, who has seen me through another year of life.
Today is my day of birth and the day we leave Ttaeladra. The celebration Tre-ba threw yesterday grew quite raucous near the end. I find that my memories about the later part of the evening are a bit fuzzy and I awoke with a young elven woman (Velaasiel is her name) in my bed with me. Well, young for an elven woman – she is probably four to five times older than I am.
Suffice to say it was a good party and a pleasant morning. At least for Velaasiel and I.
Evening, July 16, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, who gives our enemies no place to hide.
It took us two days to get to the edge of the forest and today we were skirting the edge of an arm of the forest before making directly for the Ridgeback Mountains when we espied a nabasu fly out of the trees and attack us. It stayed airborne for the entire flight, but that availed it not. I struck it with several spells and it cast enervation upon me as a result. The effects are most unsettling and I nearly fell to my knees as a result.
Sarisvati called upon the mysteries she is privy to and sprouted wings of flame. She flew up to engage it, attempting to lodge a tanglefoot bag in its wings. While she never grounded it, she did hit it and slowed it down. Gil provided Aziz with flying (and some other effects) and Aziz took the battle to the sky. Near the end of the fight, the nabasu cast hold person, which caught Aziz – until Sarisvati immediately followed up with remove paralysis. Aziz returned the favor on the nabasu by striking it three times in quick succession, killing it.
We have moved off and camped. We are uncertain if the nabasu was another courier (it was carrying a messenger ioun stone) or specifically hunting us. Once we crack the seal on the message in the ioun stone we may find out.
Short John is cooking a meal that seems to be a mix of dishes he learned from the elves and the lizardfolk. He has been worth every copper piece we pay him and is a pleasant traveling companion besides.
Evening, July 17, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, whose light shines upon all the world.
Today was quiet. We've entered Kurnmorn Valley, the traditional entry point to the dwarven territories in the Ridgeback Mountains. We are at a camp site at the back of the valley, a place caravans regularly stop. Tomorrow we will climb up into the mountains, heading to the dwarven city of Orzimar and should reach it by the end of the day.
*End of Session*
[* Uffik are a race from a third-party supplement. Imagine Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street and you are envisioning an uffik. Artificers are also from a third-party supplement. They are arcane magic workers that build devices that contain magic effects, but it takes time and effort to switch effects. Gil himself is from this campaign's antecedent campaign and has been reintroduced here. He was picked up in Ttaeladra and it took a bit before Harkaitz was certain Gil was not some sort of familiar of Midnight's.]
[This is also the last regular game with all the players. Wednesday's player is going away to college for her bachelor's degree (she just finished her associate's at a local community college). She will be far enough away that she can only make it down on weekends to play, but I and my wife cannot make weekend games due to full schedules. To keep things going and all the players playing, our DM has decided to run two games, both in the same world at the same time. The party will split into two groups, one group going after the Mountain Gate and the other going after the Uskar gate. More on that at the end of the next adventure log.]
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)
Wednesday (female 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 Suntouched (female Ifrit oracle, cohort of Aziz)
Midnight (female half-elf witch, cohort of Frankie Hu)
Gil Gamesh (male uffik artificer*, cohort of Midnight)
Short John Copper (male halfling expert, hireling)
Brand and Zephir (mated pair of pseudo-dragons tagging along for the fun of it)
The Red Keffiyehs (human warriors, followers of Harkaitz)
Evening, July 2, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, who watches over us from on high.
The next ten days are going to be busy. I spent the afternoon today selling off the treasure we acquired since we last left Ttaeladra and then paid out shares. Midnight and I then went and purchased the necessary materials for her to craft an item for me. That item will take ten days to craft, which sets the limit of time we will stay here before continuing our quest.
Tonight we will have a good meal as a group and then spend our visit here separately.
Evening, July 3, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, who lights our path.
This morning Wednesday requested I forge a ring of maniacal devices for her. We started work on it today and it will keep the two of us occupied over the next three days working on it. This may be for the best, if what Tre-ba says is true about Wednesday's last extended stay in Ttaeladra.
Evening, July 6, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, who illuminates the workings of the world.
The ring is forged.
Tre-ba is eating with us this evening. She has been searching out spell formulae to purchase to improve her selection of elixirs and potions. Tomorrow I will be hosting a feast with the Red Shirts and the Red Keffiyehs, thanking both groups for their staunch support of our work and introducing the groups to each other.
Morning, July 8, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, whose morning light shows us the world anew.
The feast was a great success, with everyone trading stories and getting along greatly. In fact, it was such a good party, it did not end until just an hour ago. Time for me to sleep.
Evening, July 11, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, in whom we trust.
Tomorrow is likely our last day here, so we met to discuss and plan where we would go next. We have several options: the gate in the Ridgeback Mountain, the gate in the Uskar Desert, and the lights on the edge of the swamp. After some discussion, we decided that the Mountain Gate is probably the highest priority now and should be our next target.
It was also decided that we would stay in Ttaeladra one extra day to celebrate my day of birth. I had not thought to make a large issue of it, but Tre-ba insists. She said she would plan a "proper birthday" for me. I am somewhat…dubious about what that means.
Noon, July 14, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, who has seen me through another year of life.
Today is my day of birth and the day we leave Ttaeladra. The celebration Tre-ba threw yesterday grew quite raucous near the end. I find that my memories about the later part of the evening are a bit fuzzy and I awoke with a young elven woman (Velaasiel is her name) in my bed with me. Well, young for an elven woman – she is probably four to five times older than I am.
Suffice to say it was a good party and a pleasant morning. At least for Velaasiel and I.
Evening, July 16, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, who gives our enemies no place to hide.
It took us two days to get to the edge of the forest and today we were skirting the edge of an arm of the forest before making directly for the Ridgeback Mountains when we espied a nabasu fly out of the trees and attack us. It stayed airborne for the entire flight, but that availed it not. I struck it with several spells and it cast enervation upon me as a result. The effects are most unsettling and I nearly fell to my knees as a result.
Sarisvati called upon the mysteries she is privy to and sprouted wings of flame. She flew up to engage it, attempting to lodge a tanglefoot bag in its wings. While she never grounded it, she did hit it and slowed it down. Gil provided Aziz with flying (and some other effects) and Aziz took the battle to the sky. Near the end of the fight, the nabasu cast hold person, which caught Aziz – until Sarisvati immediately followed up with remove paralysis. Aziz returned the favor on the nabasu by striking it three times in quick succession, killing it.
We have moved off and camped. We are uncertain if the nabasu was another courier (it was carrying a messenger ioun stone) or specifically hunting us. Once we crack the seal on the message in the ioun stone we may find out.
Short John is cooking a meal that seems to be a mix of dishes he learned from the elves and the lizardfolk. He has been worth every copper piece we pay him and is a pleasant traveling companion besides.
Evening, July 17, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, whose light shines upon all the world.
Today was quiet. We've entered Kurnmorn Valley, the traditional entry point to the dwarven territories in the Ridgeback Mountains. We are at a camp site at the back of the valley, a place caravans regularly stop. Tomorrow we will climb up into the mountains, heading to the dwarven city of Orzimar and should reach it by the end of the day.
*End of Session*
[* Uffik are a race from a third-party supplement. Imagine Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street and you are envisioning an uffik. Artificers are also from a third-party supplement. They are arcane magic workers that build devices that contain magic effects, but it takes time and effort to switch effects. Gil himself is from this campaign's antecedent campaign and has been reintroduced here. He was picked up in Ttaeladra and it took a bit before Harkaitz was certain Gil was not some sort of familiar of Midnight's.]
[This is also the last regular game with all the players. Wednesday's player is going away to college for her bachelor's degree (she just finished her associate's at a local community college). She will be far enough away that she can only make it down on weekends to play, but I and my wife cannot make weekend games due to full schedules. To keep things going and all the players playing, our DM has decided to run two games, both in the same world at the same time. The party will split into two groups, one group going after the Mountain Gate and the other going after the Uskar gate. More on that at the end of the next adventure log.]
Friday, August 26, 2011
The Aldelle Group – Session 40 – Swamp Revelations
[This posting is a day late as I spent most of Thursday traveling. I'll explain later. ]
Session 40 happened Monday, August 8, 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)
Frankie Hu, Master of the Distracting Fist (male dwarf monk)
Wednesday (female elf rogue)
Brek'nok (male dwarf druid)
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, hireling)
Brand and Zephir (mated pair of pseudo-dragons tagging along for the fun of it)
The Red Keffiyehs (human warriors, followers of Harkaitz)
Evening, June 25, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, who lights our way, even when we must retreat.
We arrived at the corpse of the black dragon. The smell has not improved. At all. We immediately picked up the trail of the zombies heading south and followed it. Just as we were looking for a place to camp, we espied a tarn linnorm. These are frightening creatures. After a quick huddle to share what we knew about linnorms, we bolted until we were out of the immediate area and found a discrete place to camp (read: hide).
There will be NO campfire tonight.
Evening, June 26, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, his heat will burn away the unclean.
After taking some time to reacquire the zombie trail, we followed it to its end – a hillock with a tunnel entrance on the side. Rather than confront unknown amounts of undead underground during the night, we have decided to make a hidden camp nearby and investigate in the morning. Midnight has cast secure shelter and Brek'nok hid it with multiple castings of hide camp. We will still keep our regular watches, but we will be comfortable.
Noon, June 27, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, He shows us things our enemies are blind to.
We entered the tunnel this morning after a quiet night (or at least as quiet as a swamp ever gets). The tunnel descended at a shallow angle into the hillock and branched fairly quickly. Following our standard procedure, we took the left-hand path, a narrow passage that circled back towards the entrance. This ended in a small chamber with about an inch of water on the floor. Having seen one monster too many that could hide in such a thing, we reversed course and followed the right-hand path almost immediately. Plus, the tracks went to the right, something Brek'nok did not mention until later. Much later.
The right-hand path was ten feet wide and smooth from use. As Wednesday and Frankie scouted ahead, they heard a voice holding a conversation, but could not hear the other person. The person seemed to be searching for something but not finding it. Wednesday was able to sneak far enough forward to get a look into the next chamber and see the person talking.
Aziz told Wednesday and Frankie to hold position using hand gestures and then walked forward, knowing that the person would hear him. The person stated that he heard someone approaching and then turned to mist. Aziz arrived in the chamber just in time to see the vampire (for that is what it was) escape through deep cracks in the ceiling.
With the vampire gone, Wednesday searched the entire chamber for traps and hidden passages. She found one in the wall, about fifteen feet away from where the vampire was searching, and one on the floor, across the room. Checking the wall compartment, she found a hidden compartment hidden inside the hidden compartment. (This is starting to become commonplace amongst our enemies and so we regularly check for such things now.) Inside the hidden, hidden compartment we found the second lich key. It fits into the second key hole in the coffer AND combines with the original key we found to create a third key.
I will admit this success got the better of me a bit. After taking the key, I scrawled some taunting graffiti in goblin glyphs. I may have written "Super Rat is best!" inside the hidden, hidden compartment and, after completely closing the compartment, I may have written on the wall "Maybe you should look here" with a large arrow pointing out where the hidden compartment is located. Goblin is particularly suited for taunting.
That taken care of, we next investigated the trap door in the floor. After Wednesday cleared it for traps, Frankie opened it and found destroyed zombie lizardfolk. It appears that the vampire was the one who destroyed them while fighting them, but we are not certain of this. I sprinkled them with holy water and said a blessing upon them to keep them from being animated again.
Brek'nok took this moment to test out a new spell, eagle's eye. He created a sensor 50 ft above himself, which put it well above ground level. Peering around, he spotted the mist form of the vampire moving away in great haste. We immediately moved to give chase, but lost him after two hours of pursuit. We are now taking a short rest as chasing a patch of mist through the swamp is quite tiring. We have decided to discontinue this pursuit and head to Ttaeladra. We need to resupply and have a few items created. Right now, Ra indicates we have time to do this, so we are taking the opportunity.
Time to get out of this swamp for a while. Thank Ra.
Evening, June 27, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, in whose name we serve.
We made it out of the swamp after several hours and are camped on the western shore of the Iscarath River that borders the swamp. This is much better. It is possible to tell the difference between the land and the water here.
Morning, June 28, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, whose light is constant.
Early during last night's watch, Wednesday and Brek'nok observed lights in the sky. After Aziz and I were awoken, my companions and I left the camp to Short John and the Red Keffiyehs and went to investigate the lights. A couple miles north, we hid and observed the light approaching. It was a thunderbird and not a problem we need to deal with. We returned to the camp and went back to sleep.
I may be grouchy today.
Later.
After communing with Ra, I was able to verify the vampire is Lucien, whose library we raided. He is working with the lich and the flashing lights are still an issue. I feel more centered again. Still tired, but not as grouchy. Mostly.
Brek'nok was able to successfully scry on the lich and found him posing as a blue-eyed priest of Ra in the city of Uru! The lich is actively moving against us through our home cities. This is most distressing. On the plus side, he has shown he is not all-knowing. All priests of Ra have green eyes. If they were not born with green eyes, during the ceremony of initiation their eyes change to match the color of the emerald eyes in the sacred statues of Ra. We do not talk about this, but it is not something we hide either. The lich missed this.
I cast sending and informed the High Priest of Uru of the situation and requested they lie to the lich to mis-direct it. Mahdy, the High Priest, is a friend of mine and agreed to lead the lich astray without letting it know it had been found out. This is good as the lich is exceedingly powerful and would destroy much of the city if provoked to fighting.
It is time to press on towards the Forest of Angry Elves and Ttaeladra.
Evening, June 28, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, whose light guides us.
We should reach the Forest tomorrow. During our march, we spied a erinyes flying north. Suspecting she is a courier, we attempted to stop her. After a running fight (literally), we failed to stop her, but she was forced to teleport to escape us. We need to find a way to stop that from happening.
Evening, June 29, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, who guides our steps.
After morning prayers, I sent Ashias a warning to be on alert around any blue-eyed "priests of Ra" and updated him on our plans. [Note: the sending spell is now the magical equivalent of Twitter in our eyes.]
We are now camping in the shadow of the forest. It will take nearly another three days before we make it to Ttaeladra. We are going to try and reduce that by pushing through as hard as we can.
Noon, July 2, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, whose light guides us.
Spotted Ttaeladra ahead while resting. Should be there in an hour or so. Looking forward to sleeping in a real bed and getting a proper bath. I may have to burn my boots and get new ones, they smell of our travels through the swamp.
*End of Session*
Session 40 happened Monday, August 8, 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)
Frankie Hu, Master of the Distracting Fist (male dwarf monk)
Wednesday (female elf rogue)
Brek'nok (male dwarf druid)
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, hireling)
Brand and Zephir (mated pair of pseudo-dragons tagging along for the fun of it)
The Red Keffiyehs (human warriors, followers of Harkaitz)
Evening, June 25, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, who lights our way, even when we must retreat.
We arrived at the corpse of the black dragon. The smell has not improved. At all. We immediately picked up the trail of the zombies heading south and followed it. Just as we were looking for a place to camp, we espied a tarn linnorm. These are frightening creatures. After a quick huddle to share what we knew about linnorms, we bolted until we were out of the immediate area and found a discrete place to camp (read: hide).
There will be NO campfire tonight.
Evening, June 26, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, his heat will burn away the unclean.
After taking some time to reacquire the zombie trail, we followed it to its end – a hillock with a tunnel entrance on the side. Rather than confront unknown amounts of undead underground during the night, we have decided to make a hidden camp nearby and investigate in the morning. Midnight has cast secure shelter and Brek'nok hid it with multiple castings of hide camp. We will still keep our regular watches, but we will be comfortable.
Noon, June 27, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, He shows us things our enemies are blind to.
We entered the tunnel this morning after a quiet night (or at least as quiet as a swamp ever gets). The tunnel descended at a shallow angle into the hillock and branched fairly quickly. Following our standard procedure, we took the left-hand path, a narrow passage that circled back towards the entrance. This ended in a small chamber with about an inch of water on the floor. Having seen one monster too many that could hide in such a thing, we reversed course and followed the right-hand path almost immediately. Plus, the tracks went to the right, something Brek'nok did not mention until later. Much later.
The right-hand path was ten feet wide and smooth from use. As Wednesday and Frankie scouted ahead, they heard a voice holding a conversation, but could not hear the other person. The person seemed to be searching for something but not finding it. Wednesday was able to sneak far enough forward to get a look into the next chamber and see the person talking.
Aziz told Wednesday and Frankie to hold position using hand gestures and then walked forward, knowing that the person would hear him. The person stated that he heard someone approaching and then turned to mist. Aziz arrived in the chamber just in time to see the vampire (for that is what it was) escape through deep cracks in the ceiling.
With the vampire gone, Wednesday searched the entire chamber for traps and hidden passages. She found one in the wall, about fifteen feet away from where the vampire was searching, and one on the floor, across the room. Checking the wall compartment, she found a hidden compartment hidden inside the hidden compartment. (This is starting to become commonplace amongst our enemies and so we regularly check for such things now.) Inside the hidden, hidden compartment we found the second lich key. It fits into the second key hole in the coffer AND combines with the original key we found to create a third key.
I will admit this success got the better of me a bit. After taking the key, I scrawled some taunting graffiti in goblin glyphs. I may have written "Super Rat is best!" inside the hidden, hidden compartment and, after completely closing the compartment, I may have written on the wall "Maybe you should look here" with a large arrow pointing out where the hidden compartment is located. Goblin is particularly suited for taunting.
That taken care of, we next investigated the trap door in the floor. After Wednesday cleared it for traps, Frankie opened it and found destroyed zombie lizardfolk. It appears that the vampire was the one who destroyed them while fighting them, but we are not certain of this. I sprinkled them with holy water and said a blessing upon them to keep them from being animated again.
Brek'nok took this moment to test out a new spell, eagle's eye. He created a sensor 50 ft above himself, which put it well above ground level. Peering around, he spotted the mist form of the vampire moving away in great haste. We immediately moved to give chase, but lost him after two hours of pursuit. We are now taking a short rest as chasing a patch of mist through the swamp is quite tiring. We have decided to discontinue this pursuit and head to Ttaeladra. We need to resupply and have a few items created. Right now, Ra indicates we have time to do this, so we are taking the opportunity.
Time to get out of this swamp for a while. Thank Ra.
Evening, June 27, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, in whose name we serve.
We made it out of the swamp after several hours and are camped on the western shore of the Iscarath River that borders the swamp. This is much better. It is possible to tell the difference between the land and the water here.
Morning, June 28, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, whose light is constant.
Early during last night's watch, Wednesday and Brek'nok observed lights in the sky. After Aziz and I were awoken, my companions and I left the camp to Short John and the Red Keffiyehs and went to investigate the lights. A couple miles north, we hid and observed the light approaching. It was a thunderbird and not a problem we need to deal with. We returned to the camp and went back to sleep.
I may be grouchy today.
Later.
After communing with Ra, I was able to verify the vampire is Lucien, whose library we raided. He is working with the lich and the flashing lights are still an issue. I feel more centered again. Still tired, but not as grouchy. Mostly.
Brek'nok was able to successfully scry on the lich and found him posing as a blue-eyed priest of Ra in the city of Uru! The lich is actively moving against us through our home cities. This is most distressing. On the plus side, he has shown he is not all-knowing. All priests of Ra have green eyes. If they were not born with green eyes, during the ceremony of initiation their eyes change to match the color of the emerald eyes in the sacred statues of Ra. We do not talk about this, but it is not something we hide either. The lich missed this.
I cast sending and informed the High Priest of Uru of the situation and requested they lie to the lich to mis-direct it. Mahdy, the High Priest, is a friend of mine and agreed to lead the lich astray without letting it know it had been found out. This is good as the lich is exceedingly powerful and would destroy much of the city if provoked to fighting.
It is time to press on towards the Forest of Angry Elves and Ttaeladra.
Evening, June 28, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, whose light guides us.
We should reach the Forest tomorrow. During our march, we spied a erinyes flying north. Suspecting she is a courier, we attempted to stop her. After a running fight (literally), we failed to stop her, but she was forced to teleport to escape us. We need to find a way to stop that from happening.
Evening, June 29, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, who guides our steps.
After morning prayers, I sent Ashias a warning to be on alert around any blue-eyed "priests of Ra" and updated him on our plans. [Note: the sending spell is now the magical equivalent of Twitter in our eyes.]
We are now camping in the shadow of the forest. It will take nearly another three days before we make it to Ttaeladra. We are going to try and reduce that by pushing through as hard as we can.
Noon, July 2, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, whose light guides us.
Spotted Ttaeladra ahead while resting. Should be there in an hour or so. Looking forward to sleeping in a real bed and getting a proper bath. I may have to burn my boots and get new ones, they smell of our travels through the swamp.
*End of Session*
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
The Aldelle Group – Sessions 38 and 39 – The Swamp Gate
Sessions 38 happened Wednesday, July 27, 2011. Sessions 39 happened Tuesday, August 2, 2011. I’m listing both here as there is no point between the two where Harkaitz could have stopped to update his journal.
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)
Luna (female elf sorcerer)
Wednesday (female elf rogue)
Frankie Hu, Master of the Distracting Fist (male dwarf monk)
Harkaitz of the Red Soul (male human cleric of Ra)
NPCs:
Ashias (male lizardfolk warchief, ally)
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, hireling)
Brand and Zephir (mated pair of pseudo-dragons tagging along for the fun of it)
The Red Keffiyehs (human warriors, followers of Harkaitz)
Morning, June 23, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, whose light blinds our enemies.
We have survived a night in the caves and I have fully healed my companions of the wasting attacks made by the derghodaemon. [Cast restoration three times to heal the CON damage.] During the night, a pair of omox (yet another form of demon in the form of an ooze) entered the room from deeper in the cave complex. They investigated the dead derghodaemon and then split up – one carrying the body back deeper and the other going out to the surface. Brek’nok’s spell and my stone wall seemed to keep them from noticing our camp in the back of the cave. Neither reappeared.
Past the derghodaemon cavern was a hallway leading to a pool of water. While investigating it, Wednesday set off a lightning bolt trap. This is not a good sign as she usually finds such traps with ease. [She rolled a 1, an automatic failure in our game.] I have just healed her and she is disarming the trap now after verifying there are no hidden doors in the hall. After she disarms the trap, we will explore the pool. I suspect it leads to another cavern or set of caverns. We shall see.
Evening, June 23, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, whose flame smites our enemies.
The pool did more than lead us to another cave – it was a cave in itself, completely filled with water. We explored it protected by a life bubble spell from Brek’nok. There was a pool exit at the far end of the right wall. As Wednesday started to swim across the chamber, an omox extruded from the ceiling where it had been waiting and attacked. Wednesday was heavily burned by its acid attacks and the water slowed us down, making the fight slow and dangerous.
Once Aziz lumbered into position below it, he attacked it with his holy scimitar, which was burning with a fire of entanglement spell upon it. This kept the omox from fleeing into the next chamber and allowed Aziz to strike it multiple times for great effect, killing the foul thing.
As we caught our breath, Wednesday scouted up through the pool out of the flooded chamber we were in. (That is a strange thing to write. Brek’nok’s spell repertoire has been most handy since he joined us.) After sticking her head up out of the water, Wednesday returned and reported the next room was the gate room (the gate was the source of the light we could see in the next chamber). She also reported a meladaemon was guarding the gate alone. We prepared to attack.
[This is where Session 38 ended for the night. Session 39 started with us initiating the attack.]
Brek’nok started the fight by summoning an earth elemental beside the meladaemon. Wednesday’s shadow then moved in to attack. Once the daemon was occupied, Midnight used dimension door to jump into the room, bringing Frankie, Aziz, and myself. This is where we regretted Wednesday not being able to scout the room. Midnight appeared directly on a pressure plate that dropped the two side walls of the room, revealing a hydrodaemon behind each wall. I tried to stick with the plan and defensively cast my last holy smite, but failed due to the hydrodaemon adjacent to me. Aziz still struck the meladaemon [using smite evil], but he was off his stride and the wounds were shallow.
Then the meladaemon’s consumptive aura hit us hard and the hydrodaemons attacked.
I was able to mostly wall off one of the hydrodaemons, allowing Aziz, Frankie, and Wednesday’s shadow to concentrate on the meladaemon. This left Brek’nok and Wednesday fighting the second hydrodaemon. That hydrodaemon gutted Wednesday with a series of attacks and she would have died if I did not have the breath of life ready to revive and heal her. As it was, I saved her life but failed to bring her back to her feet. [Wednesday was down to -33 hp from the attacks and Harkaitz brought her back to -2 or so.] At the same time, Aziz struck the killing blows of the meladaemon and Frankie turned and did the same to the free hydrodaemon. This allowed Aziz the respite necessary to channel to power of Ra to heal us all, bringing Wednesday back to consciousness.
At this point we reorganized and turned on the remaining hydrodaemon, which had finally carved up the earth elemental blocking its escape. That hydrodaemon did not last long against our combined might, with Aziz dealing the killing blow.
Exhausted, I then cast summon planar ally to alert the forces of light that we had secured the Swamp Gate. A bralani appeared and, after receiving our report, transported us all (including Short John and the Red Keffiyehs) back to the lizardfolk village.
Now I am exhausted and it is time for me to sleep. Tomorrow I will commune with Ra and determine where our path goes next.
Morning, June 24, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, who shines His light and clears away the fog.
I have communed with Ra and my soul is full of his light and warmth.
We seem to have a choice of paths to follow. The Mountain Gate and the Uskar Gate are of equal priority. We still must deal with the lights in the sky. Lucien is the name of the vampire and the blue dragon of the desert is a danger to our homes. (That last bit applies mostly to Aziz and myself.) On the positive side, the storm giants did return the bones of the pilgrims to Uru, the Mountain Gate can be reached from the surface, and we will have time to return to Ttaeladra to resupply.
Later in the morning, June 24, Year of the Earth Rabbit
We have discussed what we know and where we think we should go. We have decided that tomorrow we will return to the corpse of the black dragon and resume following the zombie trail. We believe this will allow us to resolve the issue with the lights in the sky and make the swamps safe for Ashias’s people. Once we have done that, we will continue on to Ttaeladra for resupply and to have a few items crafted.
Today, we will spend the day with Ashias and his people as they prepare a feast in our honor. Short John is helping in the cooking preparations, “gettin’ some ideas” as he puts it. The lizardfolk use strong spices in their cooking, similar but different to those used back home in Uru, so I am enjoying the tastes. The elves are drinking much water.
Noon, June 25, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, whose blessings shine upon us.
We have set out after to the corpse of the black dragon to follow the zombie trail. Before leaving the lizardfolk camp, Ashias called us aside and offered us a choice of one of the treasures of his people: two helms [one of underwater action and the other of telepathy] or a cloak [of resistance, +3]. We accepted the gift of the cloak and Wednesday now proudly wears it.
Lunch is something called a “gumbo” that Short John learned from the lizardfolk. It is a spicy and tasty soup, similar to a stew. It is quite tasty and quite spicy.
*End of Session*
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)
Luna (female elf sorcerer)
Wednesday (female elf rogue)
Frankie Hu, Master of the Distracting Fist (male dwarf monk)
Harkaitz of the Red Soul (male human cleric of Ra)
NPCs:
Ashias (male lizardfolk warchief, ally)
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, hireling)
Brand and Zephir (mated pair of pseudo-dragons tagging along for the fun of it)
The Red Keffiyehs (human warriors, followers of Harkaitz)
Morning, June 23, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, whose light blinds our enemies.
We have survived a night in the caves and I have fully healed my companions of the wasting attacks made by the derghodaemon. [Cast restoration three times to heal the CON damage.] During the night, a pair of omox (yet another form of demon in the form of an ooze) entered the room from deeper in the cave complex. They investigated the dead derghodaemon and then split up – one carrying the body back deeper and the other going out to the surface. Brek’nok’s spell and my stone wall seemed to keep them from noticing our camp in the back of the cave. Neither reappeared.
Past the derghodaemon cavern was a hallway leading to a pool of water. While investigating it, Wednesday set off a lightning bolt trap. This is not a good sign as she usually finds such traps with ease. [She rolled a 1, an automatic failure in our game.] I have just healed her and she is disarming the trap now after verifying there are no hidden doors in the hall. After she disarms the trap, we will explore the pool. I suspect it leads to another cavern or set of caverns. We shall see.
Evening, June 23, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, whose flame smites our enemies.
The pool did more than lead us to another cave – it was a cave in itself, completely filled with water. We explored it protected by a life bubble spell from Brek’nok. There was a pool exit at the far end of the right wall. As Wednesday started to swim across the chamber, an omox extruded from the ceiling where it had been waiting and attacked. Wednesday was heavily burned by its acid attacks and the water slowed us down, making the fight slow and dangerous.
Once Aziz lumbered into position below it, he attacked it with his holy scimitar, which was burning with a fire of entanglement spell upon it. This kept the omox from fleeing into the next chamber and allowed Aziz to strike it multiple times for great effect, killing the foul thing.
As we caught our breath, Wednesday scouted up through the pool out of the flooded chamber we were in. (That is a strange thing to write. Brek’nok’s spell repertoire has been most handy since he joined us.) After sticking her head up out of the water, Wednesday returned and reported the next room was the gate room (the gate was the source of the light we could see in the next chamber). She also reported a meladaemon was guarding the gate alone. We prepared to attack.
[This is where Session 38 ended for the night. Session 39 started with us initiating the attack.]
Brek’nok started the fight by summoning an earth elemental beside the meladaemon. Wednesday’s shadow then moved in to attack. Once the daemon was occupied, Midnight used dimension door to jump into the room, bringing Frankie, Aziz, and myself. This is where we regretted Wednesday not being able to scout the room. Midnight appeared directly on a pressure plate that dropped the two side walls of the room, revealing a hydrodaemon behind each wall. I tried to stick with the plan and defensively cast my last holy smite, but failed due to the hydrodaemon adjacent to me. Aziz still struck the meladaemon [using smite evil], but he was off his stride and the wounds were shallow.
Then the meladaemon’s consumptive aura hit us hard and the hydrodaemons attacked.
I was able to mostly wall off one of the hydrodaemons, allowing Aziz, Frankie, and Wednesday’s shadow to concentrate on the meladaemon. This left Brek’nok and Wednesday fighting the second hydrodaemon. That hydrodaemon gutted Wednesday with a series of attacks and she would have died if I did not have the breath of life ready to revive and heal her. As it was, I saved her life but failed to bring her back to her feet. [Wednesday was down to -33 hp from the attacks and Harkaitz brought her back to -2 or so.] At the same time, Aziz struck the killing blows of the meladaemon and Frankie turned and did the same to the free hydrodaemon. This allowed Aziz the respite necessary to channel to power of Ra to heal us all, bringing Wednesday back to consciousness.
At this point we reorganized and turned on the remaining hydrodaemon, which had finally carved up the earth elemental blocking its escape. That hydrodaemon did not last long against our combined might, with Aziz dealing the killing blow.
Exhausted, I then cast summon planar ally to alert the forces of light that we had secured the Swamp Gate. A bralani appeared and, after receiving our report, transported us all (including Short John and the Red Keffiyehs) back to the lizardfolk village.
Now I am exhausted and it is time for me to sleep. Tomorrow I will commune with Ra and determine where our path goes next.
Morning, June 24, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, who shines His light and clears away the fog.
I have communed with Ra and my soul is full of his light and warmth.
We seem to have a choice of paths to follow. The Mountain Gate and the Uskar Gate are of equal priority. We still must deal with the lights in the sky. Lucien is the name of the vampire and the blue dragon of the desert is a danger to our homes. (That last bit applies mostly to Aziz and myself.) On the positive side, the storm giants did return the bones of the pilgrims to Uru, the Mountain Gate can be reached from the surface, and we will have time to return to Ttaeladra to resupply.
Later in the morning, June 24, Year of the Earth Rabbit
We have discussed what we know and where we think we should go. We have decided that tomorrow we will return to the corpse of the black dragon and resume following the zombie trail. We believe this will allow us to resolve the issue with the lights in the sky and make the swamps safe for Ashias’s people. Once we have done that, we will continue on to Ttaeladra for resupply and to have a few items crafted.
Today, we will spend the day with Ashias and his people as they prepare a feast in our honor. Short John is helping in the cooking preparations, “gettin’ some ideas” as he puts it. The lizardfolk use strong spices in their cooking, similar but different to those used back home in Uru, so I am enjoying the tastes. The elves are drinking much water.
Noon, June 25, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, whose blessings shine upon us.
We have set out after to the corpse of the black dragon to follow the zombie trail. Before leaving the lizardfolk camp, Ashias called us aside and offered us a choice of one of the treasures of his people: two helms [one of underwater action and the other of telepathy] or a cloak [of resistance, +3]. We accepted the gift of the cloak and Wednesday now proudly wears it.
Lunch is something called a “gumbo” that Short John learned from the lizardfolk. It is a spicy and tasty soup, similar to a stew. It is quite tasty and quite spicy.
*End of Session*
Thursday, August 18, 2011
The Aldelle Group – Session 37 – Tracking through the Swamp
Session 37 happened Tuesday, July 19, 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:
Harkaitz of the Red Soul (male human cleric of Ra)
Wednesday (female elf rogue)
Tre-ba Bel a sheer (female elf alchemist)
Luna (female elf sorcerer)
Frankie Hu, Master of the Distracting Fist (male dwarf monk)
Brek'nok (male dwarf druid)
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, hireling)
The Red Keffiyehs (human warriors, followers of Harkaitz)
Evening, June 19, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, whose light gives life, even strange life.
This morning we followed the trail of the zombie pack. When I say “we”, I mean Brek’nok who has amazing tracking skills. Late morning we saw a lightning bolt go INTO the sky of the tracks we were following and we decided to investigate.
What we found was a dead black dragon. Brek’nok read the tracks and it appears that a small group fought and killed the dragon, using steel and magic. There are several scorch marks on the dragon’s body, indicating either a large number of lightning bolts or a chain lightning spell, possibly both.
I cast commune again to discern which path we should follow – the zombies or the dragonslayers. Based on the answers given by Ra, we are on a tighter timetable to secure the swamp gate than we thought. I also learned that the lich is not Lucien, the owner of the manor house library, but we should start blocking his scrying. I have some thoughts on doing that, but we will need to go to Ttaeladra to get that taken care of. But first, the swamp gate.
Aziz, Tre-ba, and Brek’nok are currently skinning the corpse of the dragon with an eye towards making more armor or at least selling it. Luna is not keen on this at all. I’m not certain
Something’s coming.
Oh really now. This swamp is home to many strange beasts. While I was writing and the others skinning the dragon, a giant mobile flytrap wandered up, looking for a meal. Luna and I dropped fireballs on it and then Aziz and the others closed in on it and killed it. Well, the others minus Tre-ba who decided to use the dragon carcass as cover but still managed to hit Aziz and Wednesday’s shadow with one of her bombs. [Critical miss on the player’s part.] Rather than repeat this incident, we are moving away from the carcass a bit before camping for the night. The smell is getting fearsome.
Late Afternoon, June 20, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, His constant light reminding us to be patient.
The tracks of the dragonslayers headed west from the dragon corpse, eventually leading to and through the village of the lizardfolk. When asked who came through, none of the lizardfolk saw anyone else, so we suspect the use of invisibility. Ashias has recommended we stay and wait upon the return of the scouts he sent to investigate the gate area. We wouldn’t get much further today anyways, so we have agreed.
Short John is chatting with the lizardfolk who cook about herbs and whatnot. I am curious as to what he will come up with as a result.
Noon, June 21, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, in whose name we act.
The scouts returned a little while ago and reported that they found an underwater entrance to some caves in the correct area. We are packing up to go now. We should reach the area by sundown if we step quickly.
Morning, June 22, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, whose reveals even the darkest secrets.
Since we acquired it, our morning ritual has included Brek’nok casting dispel magic on the sealed coffer from the manor house, trying to remove the magical seal on it. This morning it worked! We then let Wednesday perform her mastery and remove several traps off the interior of the coffer, including a maximized disintegrate trap (which she kept for later use “just in case”).
Inside we found a journal in the hand of the lich. More importantly, it covers the period during which he turned! While I would very much like to start reading this now, we have more pressing matters at hand. Brek’nok is about to cast life bubble on the group so we can swim down to the flooded cave entrance. In the case of Aziz and myself, this will be more like controlled sinking due to our armor, but the life bubble will last a couple hours, so this should be OK.
Afternoon, June 22, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, whose gives us hope, even in the darkest of places.
I was correct about the swimming being more controlled sinking for Aziz and I, but with Ashias’s help, we made it into the correct underwater cave entrance. We surfaced in a cave with no light. Rather than alert our enemies by lighting a sunrod, Tre-ba used one of the wands of darkvision we made in Ttaeladra to grant that spell to those of us without it naturally. Luna used prestidigitation to dry us off, which was much appreciated by all. It also kept us from dripping or making squelch noises as we moved into the caves.
While the rest of us waited in the entry cave, Wednesday and Frankie scouted ahead. Tre-ba and I were in discussion as to what we might be facing at the gate when something alerted the rest of our group that a fight was taking place. [Tre-ba and Harkaitz both rolled a 1 on their Perception to notice when Wednesday and Frankie were attacked.] The first I knew of it was Luna charging down the tunnel and then lobbing a fireball into the next chamber.
A derghodaemon, a kind of shadow daemon, had been lurking in the next cave, guarding it. It surprised Wednesday and Frankie and made multiple attacks against them before the rest of us could respond. The creatures multiple limbs allowed it to hit and rend Aziz multiple times [doing 6 points of CON damage total]. After a hard fight, Aziz finally put the beast down with a killing blow.
[From this point on actually happened in the next session, but I’m putting it here for story flow purposes.]
The derghodaemon’s wounds will take a great deal of time to heal without magic, so we are taking an emergency tactic – we are camping in the caves. Wednesday has thoroughly searched the large cavern the derghodaemon was guarding and pronounced it safe and void of any secret passages. I have cast wall of stone to block off part of the back of the cavern and Brek’nok has cast hide camp multiple times to obscure our changes. This is a gamble for us, but we are in no shape to push on without some rest and a change in blessings from Ra. Now we must remain silent and wait, hoping any enemies that pass through do not notice us.
*End of Session*
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:
Harkaitz of the Red Soul (male human cleric of Ra)
Wednesday (female elf rogue)
Tre-ba Bel a sheer (female elf alchemist)
Luna (female elf sorcerer)
Frankie Hu, Master of the Distracting Fist (male dwarf monk)
Brek'nok (male dwarf druid)
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, hireling)
The Red Keffiyehs (human warriors, followers of Harkaitz)
Evening, June 19, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, whose light gives life, even strange life.
This morning we followed the trail of the zombie pack. When I say “we”, I mean Brek’nok who has amazing tracking skills. Late morning we saw a lightning bolt go INTO the sky of the tracks we were following and we decided to investigate.
What we found was a dead black dragon. Brek’nok read the tracks and it appears that a small group fought and killed the dragon, using steel and magic. There are several scorch marks on the dragon’s body, indicating either a large number of lightning bolts or a chain lightning spell, possibly both.
I cast commune again to discern which path we should follow – the zombies or the dragonslayers. Based on the answers given by Ra, we are on a tighter timetable to secure the swamp gate than we thought. I also learned that the lich is not Lucien, the owner of the manor house library, but we should start blocking his scrying. I have some thoughts on doing that, but we will need to go to Ttaeladra to get that taken care of. But first, the swamp gate.
Aziz, Tre-ba, and Brek’nok are currently skinning the corpse of the dragon with an eye towards making more armor or at least selling it. Luna is not keen on this at all. I’m not certain
Something’s coming.
Oh really now. This swamp is home to many strange beasts. While I was writing and the others skinning the dragon, a giant mobile flytrap wandered up, looking for a meal. Luna and I dropped fireballs on it and then Aziz and the others closed in on it and killed it. Well, the others minus Tre-ba who decided to use the dragon carcass as cover but still managed to hit Aziz and Wednesday’s shadow with one of her bombs. [Critical miss on the player’s part.] Rather than repeat this incident, we are moving away from the carcass a bit before camping for the night. The smell is getting fearsome.
Late Afternoon, June 20, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, His constant light reminding us to be patient.
The tracks of the dragonslayers headed west from the dragon corpse, eventually leading to and through the village of the lizardfolk. When asked who came through, none of the lizardfolk saw anyone else, so we suspect the use of invisibility. Ashias has recommended we stay and wait upon the return of the scouts he sent to investigate the gate area. We wouldn’t get much further today anyways, so we have agreed.
Short John is chatting with the lizardfolk who cook about herbs and whatnot. I am curious as to what he will come up with as a result.
Noon, June 21, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, in whose name we act.
The scouts returned a little while ago and reported that they found an underwater entrance to some caves in the correct area. We are packing up to go now. We should reach the area by sundown if we step quickly.
Morning, June 22, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, whose reveals even the darkest secrets.
Since we acquired it, our morning ritual has included Brek’nok casting dispel magic on the sealed coffer from the manor house, trying to remove the magical seal on it. This morning it worked! We then let Wednesday perform her mastery and remove several traps off the interior of the coffer, including a maximized disintegrate trap (which she kept for later use “just in case”).
Inside we found a journal in the hand of the lich. More importantly, it covers the period during which he turned! While I would very much like to start reading this now, we have more pressing matters at hand. Brek’nok is about to cast life bubble on the group so we can swim down to the flooded cave entrance. In the case of Aziz and myself, this will be more like controlled sinking due to our armor, but the life bubble will last a couple hours, so this should be OK.
Afternoon, June 22, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, whose gives us hope, even in the darkest of places.
I was correct about the swimming being more controlled sinking for Aziz and I, but with Ashias’s help, we made it into the correct underwater cave entrance. We surfaced in a cave with no light. Rather than alert our enemies by lighting a sunrod, Tre-ba used one of the wands of darkvision we made in Ttaeladra to grant that spell to those of us without it naturally. Luna used prestidigitation to dry us off, which was much appreciated by all. It also kept us from dripping or making squelch noises as we moved into the caves.
While the rest of us waited in the entry cave, Wednesday and Frankie scouted ahead. Tre-ba and I were in discussion as to what we might be facing at the gate when something alerted the rest of our group that a fight was taking place. [Tre-ba and Harkaitz both rolled a 1 on their Perception to notice when Wednesday and Frankie were attacked.] The first I knew of it was Luna charging down the tunnel and then lobbing a fireball into the next chamber.
A derghodaemon, a kind of shadow daemon, had been lurking in the next cave, guarding it. It surprised Wednesday and Frankie and made multiple attacks against them before the rest of us could respond. The creatures multiple limbs allowed it to hit and rend Aziz multiple times [doing 6 points of CON damage total]. After a hard fight, Aziz finally put the beast down with a killing blow.
[From this point on actually happened in the next session, but I’m putting it here for story flow purposes.]
The derghodaemon’s wounds will take a great deal of time to heal without magic, so we are taking an emergency tactic – we are camping in the caves. Wednesday has thoroughly searched the large cavern the derghodaemon was guarding and pronounced it safe and void of any secret passages. I have cast wall of stone to block off part of the back of the cavern and Brek’nok has cast hide camp multiple times to obscure our changes. This is a gamble for us, but we are in no shape to push on without some rest and a change in blessings from Ra. Now we must remain silent and wait, hoping any enemies that pass through do not notice us.
*End of Session*
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