[D&D 3.5] Campaign Journal: Uncovering the Lost World (Low-Magic World, Player's PoV) [Archive]

Eldariel

2009-05-02, 06:42 PM

Session 2

The trip to the Outpost:
The opening hassle is shorter this time as we've got the dice, the characters are ready and all that.

We start where we left off. We've slain the bandits, stolen their goods and torched their bodies for good measure. In short, the bandits are as gone as they'll ever be. After that, Peter patched up whatever wounds we had taken and we were good to go. We aren't just done with this little sidetrack though.

Peter is a proficient tracker. Therefore, with some "tipse, tipse, nudge, nudge" from the DM, we're backtracking the bandits to their hideout (taking our horses along, obviously). Surprisingly enough, this goes as planned and soon enough we find ourselves looking at some manner of a natural-seeming cavern.

Again, we tie up our horses. Nightshade stays back to guard them while Peter and Edmund enter the cave. Edmund sneaks ahead while Peter lights up a Sunrod and the search is on. Turns out the cavern contains exactly one intersection with two "rooms" at the ends. It also seems like the three bandits form the whole of the local bandit population as we don't run across any more of their kind.

We take the right turn first and see that the bunch has been surprisingly successful considering how poorly they fared in the combat. There are some rugs worth quite a bit hung around the place to go with valuables, coin and things of that nature. We also find three bedrolls which we consider a pretty good confirmation that we won't be running to any more of their friends any time soon. Since this was pretty boring, we had to do something dumb to keep things interesting so we complied: Once we're done collecting the valuables, for whatever reason, Edmund decided to torch their bedrolls and all the flammable items not worth enough to bother with!

I suppose the rationale was something along the lines of "stopping future bandits from making themselves at home" or something of that nature - unfortunately we somehow managed to skimp over the "rational thinking" part. Best of all, we somehow managed to forget that there was the other area in the cavern we hadn't yet even explored! The aftermath of this was that we rigged some kind of a rug to partially cover the entrance to the treasury so as to avoid having to breathe smoke for the rest of our stay there, ran to the other room (which turned out to have been used as a kitchen area of sorts), took whatever worth carrying we could pick up and ran before we suffocated. All in all, we made our stay all too exciting for some really, really twisted up logic. Nightshade was a bit startled by the smoke at first, but got a good laugh at us once we told him the major points of the story.

Anyhow, after the Stupidity Exhibition™, we resumed our course towards the northern road. After covering some ground, we (or more accurately, Peter) set up a camp for the night. We had 4-hour watches each but surprisingly enough, nothing happened overnight! Miracle in and of itself, but I guess there was nobody on our tales.

Day 2
Day two, we managed to reach the road. Well, a road in name at any rate - without many travelers or upkeep, the "road" had mostly disappeared. Luckily what remained of the road was ridable anyways, so we set off. The second day was fairly uneventful save for some howling of some wild beasts - we didn't meet a soul all day, helpful or otherwise. The day's ride got us to the edge of a small forest where we (read: Peter) set up a camp again. We set up watches and go to sleep.

This night, on Edmund's watch, he hears a voice calling "Edmund..." from the forest. As this happens and he ensures neither of us are awake and fooling with him, he wakes me up to investigate - Nightshade stays back to guard the camp while we're gone. We follow the voice and end up at the edges of a river where we see something which appears to be a naked woman. We hear the calls so we decide that I stay back hiding in the treeline while Edmund goes to see what this is all about. As soon as Edmund approaches her, she turns and it seems like he falls under some kind of trance. I roll Knowledge and roll poorly - I draw my bow regardless and rustle a bit in the bushes and realizing they aren't alone, she makes the swiftest departure I've ever seen, moving far quicker than a Human ever could - we have no chance of catching her so we just decide to push the disturbing events past us.

When we get back to the camp and ask Nightshade and realize our mistake as he feeds us a mouthful of cryptic mumbo-jumbo again. Apparently there are reports of people disappearing in these parts, and those...creatures are apparently to blame. Combined with what I got out of my Knowledge-check, we piece together that those things lure males to breed with and after...well, sufficient to say, the said males are never seen again.

Day 3
Nothing else of interest happens over the rest of the night and we depart glad to put some distance between us and the river as soon as possible. The third day's ride is also rather uneventful. Like the second day, we don't meet a soul and only catch glimpses of some creatures in the edge of the forest area. We take the opportunity to discuss random stuff regarding our job, magic, creatures of the wilds, yesterday's events, elves and so on. Basically, it turns out Peter believes everything, Edmund believes nothing and Nightshade says nothing.

After we've stopped for the night though, just as Peter is starting to put the camp together, we hear rustle in the bushes. We draw our weapons. A friggin' Dire Wolf jumps at us. Roll for initiative - range: around 30'.

As the fight starts, we all open with salvos on it and mostly ineffectually bounce off it or deal minor damage. My Knowledge-check lets us know everything about it; not that there were much to know beyond it using Trip-attack like all Wolves. I decide not to use the drow poison simply because the Wolf is more like to resist it than not. When it moves in to attack, it manages to hit and trip Nightshade and things aren't looking good for him. At this point though, Peter moves in drawing his Greatsword in the process. He realizes the damn thing needs to die right now and Power Attacking for full, initiates Rabid Wolf Strike. Roll - Critical! Roll - 7; that just confirms! Just as the wolf trips Nightshade, Peter moves in from behind and brings his sword down in a mighty arc decapitating the beast in one hit! (24 damage straight to wound points tends to be lethal; we accidentially doubled it up here for 40 points [Rabid extra dice aren't multiplied] as we forgot the WP crit non-confirmation but it didn't end up mattering)

After that, no other distractions bother the group and as the camp is made, the rest of the night flies smoothly. We each take to our nightly activities on our turn - Peter fletches arrows, Nightshade parks the Wolf-skin, Edmund does Emund-stuff. Funny how we trust Nightshade with our lives every night, we still know nothing of him. I guess we're gullible fools when it comes to gold.

But then again, if he wanted us dead, he's had plenty of chances so we have no reason to distrust him, especially since he still needs our help with this task.

Day 4
Over the fourth day of travel, minor things of a country formerly inhabited by Elves begin to show - the woods is more lively, the forests fare better and all in all, it becomes apparent that some have spent a great deal of energy caring for this place. We still meet no humanoids beyond each other, but the wildlife is more varied and numerous around here. While we aren't here to marvel the scenery, we notice quite a few animals of various kinds here and there.

We were running out of interesting topics to discuss beyond the new ones brought up by yesterday, such as the taste of Dire Wolf meat, what to do with the skin, etc. Mostly we just rode silently as we were nearing our destination.

The fourth night had Peter finally employ Edmund in the creation of the camp too. Or more appropriately, Edmund was to trap the area surrounding the camp - that Dire Wolf attack last night and the knowledge that other groups after the same Chalice as us (and that we're getting close to the place where we all are pretty much bound to be bunched up) has us decide that the likelihood of an attack is large enough to warrant protecting our camp a bit better than usual. We dig some small pitfalls (ones you can actually dig without spending the whole night at it) and place some caltrops and snares
around the campsite and ensure we're aware of their general location with some markers (near the tent-line - ones you can easily see looking from the fire, but are more difficult to notice looking from the outside).

Our efforts aren't wasted - the night sees us alarmed by Nightshade. We're being attacked by animals. More appropriately, we're being attacked by friggin' Bears! Roll for initiative.

Two rabid black bears charge our camp as if driven by the devil. One of them steps into a pitfall and tumbles over, but the other manages to avoid our trappings entirely. As we climb out of our tents, we're armed with ranged weapons to utilize the traps to our advantage but after one volley, we're really too near to get any meaningful edge out of them so to take down the one bear, Peter switches to Greatsword and Edmund wields his Rapier/Hand Crossbow combo. As ever, Nightshade wields his trusty Guisarme.

Due to the one bear being out for a round or two due to the pitfall, we are able to gang up on the other bear, taking it out relatively easily before the other one is able to join it. As a free bonus, the other bear manages to jump straight on a snare once it's managed to get up! We swiftly finish it off with bows and Nightshade's Guisarme. We begin to guess why bears would attack us like this - Peter's blaming magic, Edmund's blaming a poison, Nightshade is shutting up. The rest of the night goes fine with each of us returning to our usual activities and no calamity befalls us 'ere dawn. We're really close to the Outpost now.

Day 5
As we set off for the day, we're soothed by the knowledge that we're almost there. However, we're unsettled by the knowledge that there are very likely people out there who are, among others, responsible for that bear attack. I'm especially worried as I believe it's about magic and I have great respect for the ancient powers I've never witnessed first-hand and thus I'm both, excited at the prospect and fearful of what will happen.

As we reach the base of the hill atop which the Outpost (or what's left of it) still stands, we call it a day.

Next time: The Elven Outpost, the Golden Chalice and The Rabid Bears!

Notes:
- Edmund did nothing annoying this session. Probably mostly because we didn't face any Humanoids save for that maneater, which Edmund was in no position to do anything disgusting about.
- Long days of riding are kind of dull. Luckily we have this "Fast Forward" button for them, and a lot of stuff to discuss about.
- It's amazing how more happens over nights than during the day. Then again, mounted, moving people are harder to bother than resting, still ones.
- Seriously, every night had something. And exactly one event. Sucks to be the unlucky guard.
- Peter & Edmund are idiots. Seriously. Must be that Wis 8 - even though they have Int 14, they obviously lack any semblance of common sense. Also, Nightshade is probably laughing to his beard whenever they argue 'cause he always shuts up.

Eldariel

2009-05-04, 05:02 PM

Session 3

Ah yes, the Outpost:
So, standing on the bottom of the Outpost Hill, our course of action is obvious - try to hide the horses to some not-so-damn-obvious place (we'd rather not walk away), climb up the hill and get busy. And that's exactly what we do. After we're rid of the not-so-useful-now mounts (some small hollow in the side of the hill), we set off to scale the hill. Thanks to our skill system revamp, we actually do have enough points in Climb (and everyone's got a Climber's Kit) to scale the hill with little effort. Better yet, we don't even run into Any Generic Us-Killers on our trip up so we get there unscathed.

So, we enter the Elven Outpost! Ancient structure and quite the marvel, at least in its heyday - as it stood, the entrance hall had collapsed and the stairs leading up to the second floor had suffered a similar fate (along with most of the second floor). Quick scan through the first floor revealed little else other than some hidden door and stairs leading down in the area that seems to have been a kitchen of sorts. Well, actually, we found a trapped door, and behind that the stairs. The door was rigged to collapse the roof upon entering, but apparently the maker of the trap hadn't really put his mind to it as anything short of a drunken Orc could see it with his bare eyes. That could also explain why nobody had triggered it over the years - it's too easy to bypass to bother. We still made the effort just in case we need to leave quick.

So, enter the dungeon. Now, since we know there are others out here after the same thing, we decide that Peter stays back at the doorway keeping a watch while Edmund & Nightshade scout the basement and try to find and acquire the chalice with Edmund sneaking in shadows while Nightshade holds a torch. In the meanwhile, Peter leaves the door slightly ajar and hides in the shadows of the stairs leading downstairs.

First, the basement. A corridor maybe 30' long leads to a rather large room with bars in the middle. Obviously, the chalice we're after is on the other side. There's a door in the bars, but it's obviously locked. After a quick search, it becomes obvious that it's also trapped. Be it superstition, the obscurity of the Outpost's location or whatever else that has kept it safe all these years, it doesn't seem like anyone has been in the basement yet. Hell, may be our employer has arranged for the chalice to be placed there as a test. At any rate, Edmund quickly gets to work and starts disarming the trap. The first attempt goes awry and he almost manages set it off, but escapes with his life. Second one goes more smoothly and he manages to disable the trigger. Next up is the lock which he quickly disarms and then lightly treads to the chalice, grabs it and gets out of there before he sets off any other obvious traps.

In the meanwhile, Peter's seemingly useless vigil proves rather useful after all as he hears footsteps closing in on his location (those of someone trying to remain hidden, no less). Soon he sees the figure of a man in white robes "sneaking" in. Someone should have told him white isn't the color for that. And what's up with all these damn robes? Anyways, Peter figures the only other people who could possibly happen on this location are the competing groups and thus doesn't waste time asking questions. Surprise round, a poisoned (Drow Poison) arrow flies and strikes true (Destiny Shot reducing 3 points of damage for accuracy), but the man fails to collapse. Roll for initiative! Range: Point Blank.

The man goes first and uses some kind of a Blowpipe to fire a dart. Turns out the dart is also poisoned; Poisoners' Duel! Peter rolls and just barely makes the save. He's still standing with something unpleasant up his veins. How swell! Anyways, Peter takes a second shot and this time the poison has the desired effect; the man falls unconscious and the party now has someone to question on these "other parties". Of course, as a macho, Peter refuses to drink an antidote or even treat his poison and decides to just let his immune system deal with whatever he's got flowing inside.

Peter maintains his position, but no other surprises show up and soon the group is reunited with the Chalice, a prisoner and a long trip ahead. There's little else of interest in the Outpost save for some silvers (which Edmund promptly picks up; apparently he's got kleptomania or something) so soon the group is climbing down the hill back to their horses. Of course, this man wouldn't be dumb enough to come all the way alone. Cue ambush!

As the trio (plus the white-robed man squarely on Nightshade's shoulders; must suck while climbing, eh?) descends and reaches ground, they're greeted by a hail of arrows! So much for bargaining through the prisoner, eh? Roll for initiative. Range: Undetermined.

After receiving the the initial hail of arrows, Peter & Edmund quickly reach the ground and count 2 archers firing upon them. Solution? Return fire! After some skirmishing in the woods, tactical hiding & trading of shots, the two ambushers are pincushioned, one to death, the other to unconsciousness. At this point, Nightshade sees fit to finally get down. About the damn time, man. So, this makes for two prisoners; Peter fixes up the pincushioned, living one so he doesn't bleed out. We decide to wait until one of them comes to so we can question them.
Interrogations and the trip back:
Surprisingly enough, the two wake up at about the same time. We give them an incentive to answer honestly (Nightshade can be very scary when he chooses to), and get quite a bit out of them. First of all, the poisoner had indeed drugged the two Bears that hit us last night. So much for Peter's "magic"-theory. Also, as suspected, they're from another group hunting for the Chalice. They've also been well provisioned for the trip; they offer us to show us their most recent campsite and give us their possessions in exchange for their lives. Unfortunately, they didn't seem to know their employer - apparently, there had been some middle-hand involved in getting them on this gig. We agree and they lead us on. Surprisingly enough, they don't even lead us to an ambush! I was almost disappointed at this point, but I guess Nightshade had made his point. And there were no more of them, which might also affect it.

Imagine our surprise when we find friggin' platinum pieces in their possession! Now, if you skimped over the economy renovation, one platinum piece is worth the equivalent of 10000 old goldpieces! That means that one of the platinums is worth more than our entire gear! The kicker? They've got 5 of them. Apparently they had sacked some rather wealthy place to fund their job. At any rate, we don't mind. At this point, Edmund starts talking about killing them. Peter wants to let them go. Nightshade shuts up. The final compromise is that we let them go, but unarmed with little more than their clothes. Peter protests that that's just as good as killing them with all wild beasts around, but Edmund states that if Peter gives them weapons, he kills them. So that's that.

At this point, with the whole hassle behind us, we set off to ride back, first to the inn and then the city of Waterdawn (named after how morning sun glistens on the waters of the river by the city there), where the person whose mission this was in the first place resides. So, we set off. And camp. End day 5. After an uneventful night, we wake up to continue the ride.

Day 6
The ride is completely uneventful. Nothing happens all day and we start to hope we'd have gotten rid of most of the competition by now (or that they would've just killed each other). The fact that we've got the chalice makes us targets for all the other groups. How quaint. Anyhow, bigger surprise than the uneventful day is the uneventful night; nothing happens again! Considering this is the second night over all our travels this took place, we're wary and surprised. But as the sun shines, we're still all alive, to our surprise. Apparently we didn't fail Your Generic Awareness Check after all.

Day 7
The ride remains completely uneventful! It rains somewhere along the line. Meh, sucks to ride wet, but what can we do? The night seems unexciting, except...on Edmund's watch, he goes nudge Peter. Apparently, he's seen a wolf at the edge of the campfire. Peter being a Ranger and all, Edmund figured he'd have a way with wild animals other than the oft-touted swordplomacy.

Of course, as Peter wakes up and looks around, the wolf is gone. Peter accuses Edmund of waking him up for nothing and the two get into something of a quarrel. In the morning though, Peter checks the campsite and finds the wolf's footprints and is thus pissed that he, the friggin' woodsman, was the one to miss it. Can't win 'em all.

Day 8
The ride is precisely as interesting as Day 7. Night sees the same wolf showing up, but on Nightshade's watch. Of course he wakes up Peter and of course the damn wolf is gone again. Peter's getting progressively more agitated by the thing.

Day 9
Still no daylight sign of the wolf. Still nothing else of interest in daylight. In the night, the wolf again appears on Edmund's watch and he can confirm that it at least looks like the same. Again, Peter is woken up and again the wolf is gone. Peter is about to rip his shorts. Fcking stalker wolves. It's the topic of all our traveling discussions too.

Day 10-11
As the party decided to take the roads this time, the ride takes a whole longer than the ride to the Outpost. As we're running short on time with the play session, we just fast forward to the city. The wolf fails to appear on the following nights and nothing else of interest happens before we reach the city. Of course, we can't get there too easily: Cue the ambush!

So, as we're riding to the city - last day of riding too - we're greeted by arrows. ****ing "Nightshade", him being somewhat famous is constantly about to get us killed (of course, it may just be some people ordered to ambush anyone coming from the north or some such, but it's still damn annoying to get greeted by arrows, not words, constantly). We count three archers as we roll for the initiative.

As none of us are all that good in mounted combat, we decide to take the time to dismount and hope our horses (we've all got Warhorses though, so they should be ok) don't just run off. We get off our horses, draw our melee weapons and approach. Bandits retreat and shoot one more volley before switching to swords themselves. We close up and the fight is on. We fare very well otherwise (taking only minute VP hits), but as we've taken the first bandit down, one of them confirms a critical on Nightshade (sword through armor)! He's quickly down (though not out) and not looking too well. Luckily the bandits are more interested in staying alive than killing so they don't go coup de grace him. The two of us clean up, leaving none alive, and Peter patches up Nightshade as well as he can. After the fight is over, we call it a day here and end the game.

Observations:
- Recurring Anything can be really, really confusing especially if it doesn't have an obvious reason to be there. The wolf was so WTF specifically because it was completely random and didn't seem to be doing anything, and yet showed up 3 nights in a row.
- Score 1 for science; drugs, not magic, were used to drive the bears mad.
- First WP damage to the party. Surprising it's taken this long, but then again, we haven't been fighting all that much. It'll take us quite a while to get Nightshade back in full strength again. Getting into the city should help us though.
- After this task, we'll actually be able to interact with Mr. Boss ourselves! Yey!
- The adventure should get more varied from now on. Although we've been having fun thus far, it hasn't exactly been the most interesting story to write.

- Planning our advancements here, Peter might be looking at Pious Templar of Ehlonna-route (obviously without spells); he's quite devout even if it hasn't been in the forefront here.

Edmund might look at Combat Trapsmith, which could be a really interesting twist to the way combat works here. Obviously we'd need to homebrew a bunch of traps that aren't just "spell by a different name" as the class isn't that well supported, but yeah...

No idea about Nightshade as I don't even know his class.

Eldariel

2009-05-07, 04:02 AM

Session 4

And now, for something different... First, entering the city:
So, at the start of this session, our heroes stand at the gates of Waterdawn. First things first: We've got a wounded man and we need to enter the city. After Edmund does a little talking (and some Diplomacy-rolls) and the guardsman is convinced that we aren't carrying anything too explosive, we get in just fine. Having a wounded man does lend some credibility to our claims of "needing to get in fast". The guards were satisfied with a mention of "bandits"; luckily they didn't go into specifics as none of us are too good at bluffing and we don't want the whole damn town to know we've got an ancient artifact in our possession.

Soon enough, we're en route on the city streets and looking for a place to stay. Tending to the wounds is hardly an issue for us, but a clean, safe place would certainly help. As we arrive at the central town square, we run into some gathering with some weird speaker in the center. Apparently he's preaching peasant rights or some nonsense like that. The kicker? The whole mob is actually pretty fanatical! We knock the shoulders of some folks in the edge who still seem somewhat sane and get directions to the best inn in town and the speaker's name. Apparently, the man is named "Decor". We'd be hearing more of him later. Right now though, we've got other matters to attend to.

So, first order of business, we make our way to the Blue Dragon Inn in the high-class district. We put our horses to the stables, buy a room, remind the innkeeper - a man named Hector - to give us the damn key and leave Nightshade here to lick his wounds. He gives us the instructions to the manor of our employer, a man named Prego Domor, and the password to enter. With that, we set off to return the chalice and to collect our reward.

Of course, we can't go anywhere without at least one ambush. After turning to a smaller alley (we need to go through to get to the manor), cue Spot-check. Edmund rolls well and the aftermath is that he notices our chalice being stolen, yells at me and draws a weapon trying to hit the thief. He misses: That's with the surprise, roll for initiative! Range: 0'!

The battle is a really, really quick affair. Basically, nobody rolls over 5 for initiative resulting in Edmund - Peter - Thieves. Edmund misses, but Peter moves up drawing his Greatsword in the process and knocks one bandit unconscious in one hit! The other one makes a run for it, but Peter catches him (while Edmund stays back to relieve the unconscious one of the chalice and his wallet) in short order and seeing how his friend ended up, surrenders.

We tie up the two, tend to the unconscious one's wounds and discuss what to do with them. First we intend on taking them to the local police force, but seeing that we really have no proof of the theft, we decide that's a bad idea. Instead, we play the "Pretend to be their wronged friends willing to forgive"-act to dig some info out of them. In short, we try to ensure them that they'd be really much better off on our good side and that we're willing to give them a second chance. With die showing 20 for Edmund's Diplomacy, the two are extremely agreeable giving us, among others, the name of their employer (someone named Draxor - apparently an acquaintance of Nightshade's), their task, the fact that there are eyes at the gate who saw Nightshade enter the city in our company and thus triggered this attack, and so on.

Then it's revealed that they know the true name of Nightshade, but apparently they fear him even more than us so they refuse to tell us. Peter suggests a discrete solution, Edmund leans towards Shotgun Diplomacy. More precisely, he takes his Hand Crossbow, places it on top of the healthy guy's leg and asks for the name. They refuse to tell, so he shoots the leg and reloads the Crossbow. This is repeated for every one of the poor man's limbs and then his friend, at which point Peter stops him asking if they haven't suffered enough already.

Now we can't let them go 'cause then we would have the whole police force of the city after us and we can't really leave them like this either. Peter suggests burning the bodies, but Edmund reminds him that effectively the whole city is wooden. In the end, the two just decide on execution, and placing the bodies in some junkpiles (the city has no sewers so they are plentiful in the back alleys). Edmund suggests slicing up the bodies into multiple parts to make them harder to identify or something, Peter stops him mid-sentence and there's no more discussion on that. What a messy affair - at this point, Peter is really, really frustrated by how messy Edmund makes everything, and the completely unnecessary pain inflicted upon others.

The best part is that the duo is very smelly (after the junkdiving) and has stained, blooded clothes. They quickly make their way back to the in, toss an extra coin to the innkeeper to avoid questions, wash their clothes and themselves and switch to other outfits. So much for that easy evening relaxing. Luckily Nightshade shuts up as he's usually wont to.

Anyways, after this little excursion is done with, the two set off towards Mr. Domor's house again. No more surprises bother the two anymore and they reach Domor's Manor quickly enough. A servant opens the frontgate as they state their business and the password, and the two find themselves inside a vast building, one of the few stone buildings in the whole city. They're shown to the second floor and mr. Domor's door, cataloguing the value of the place all the way. Behind a heavily decorated door, they find a room that looks like a library, with an elderly man sitting in front of a fire. 1+1=2 and the man is Mr. Domor.

P&E walk up to Mr. Domor and wait for him to raise his eyes from the parchment he's presently reading. Sure enough, the man spares them a glance soon enough and as they state their business and being associates of "Nightshade", Mr. Domor asks them to follow him to another room. This room is laden with maps of all kinds; apparently the rich have a variety of hobbies. At any rate, he first asks for the Chalice, which the two are finally happy to get rid of (less ambushes!). Mr. Domor appraises the item, praising it to be just as magnificent as he expected with all semblances of the fine handiwork of the Fair Folk. With that, he asks: "So, there are two things to do now. You've earned your reward, and I have an additional task for you. Which should we go for first?"

With the unanimous response of "The reward!", Mr. Domor beckons a servant to come in, carrying a pouch of exactly 100 gold pieces. After a short work to ensure their genuinity, the party asks about the next job. A quick description reveals it to involve an old temple, apparently of Cyric, in a northern mountain range. Mr. Domor points out the area and the believed location of the temple off his maps. Apparently there's some item of potentially otherworldly potency there that's somehow mystically warded. The task is to find the item and find out what we can about the wards. If we can return with the item, we'll get a bonus.

The task excites the perennial mysticist, Peter, and the hefty reward easily persuades Edmund to come along so the two quickly accept and agree to leave as soon as Nightshade has recovered from his wound. With that and Mr. Domor's fondest wishes to Nightshade, the two take their leave and head to the center - next up a Gather Information-check for someone with maps of the northern mountain range (of course the damnable Domor couldn't bear to give us his) and we get a name: "Mapper Jack". Quick trip to his place later and after exchanging some coin, we have maps both, for the area between Waterdawn and the mountain range, and for what he'd drawn of the mountain range itself (poor map as few people visit there, but it's something). After this, it's time to return to the inn.

Of course, because journeys cannot occur without randoms butting in, some weird robed figure runs past the duo and throws them with a scroll of some kind. Peter nimbly catches the scroll mid flight, but doesn't give chase to someone who so clearly doesn't want to discuss with us in the open.

The scroll turns out to be an invitation to a tavern named "Mermaid" in the dock, at midnight, to discuss business. The two decide to go, but first decide to return the inn. They give a rather full account of the day's events (save for the questionings they tried to make for Nightshade's real name) to Nightshade save for the tavern meeting and excuse themselves for a "night out".

In the tavern, they taste the worst watered-down beer they've ever had and filthy tables along with two "peasant rights activist" peasants that invite themselves to P&Es' table and start to talk ****, but when Edmund throws them a copper, they roll on the ground fighting over it, freeing up the two chairs. Soon enough, a husky-voiced man, seemingly the same pile of robes they saw on the city, joins them. He introduces himself as "Dengo" (what is it with people and fake names here) and has an interesting proposition for the two, acting as a sort of a spokesman for the city's nobility.

He wants to know how Decor manages to control the masses; apparently just two weeks ago, he was still a nobody, but then suddenly burst into a position of power. The two quickly agree with the promise of some exotic metal as a reward; Peter is as intrigued by the man's capabilities to control masses as the nobility is, and Edmund is intrigued by the reward. The two are briefed on relevant knowledge: they find out about a woman named Shandra who has been accompanying Decor all the way up until yesterday,m and the location of Shandra's house, and the manor Decor moved to recently. Dengo gives the pair a week to find out how Decor is controlling the masses and with that, leaves. The two drink their crap and take their own leave, heading back to the inn for a good night's rest before starting the investigations.
The hunt for Shandra:
Day 12
Well, the most obvious place to start is Decor's house. Edmund & Peter approach the house and are stopped by some guards. The guards ask if they have reserved time and as the answer is "no", they agree to reserve one for the evening (earliest convenience).

With the day to wait, the duo heads towards the house Shandra is supposed to live in. A knock is responded to by an elderly woman much older than what Shandra was described to be, wondering what some strangers are doing at her doorsteps. As they ask for Shandra, she tells them that Shandra hasn't been around for few days and that she'd really appreciate any news from her so the woman asks for Peter & Edmund to look into her disappearance. The two agree as it coincides with their goals, and ask who could know more about her whereabouts. Turns out she has a brother named Ben who lives nearby, so P&E decide to pay him a visit first.

A quick visit at Ben's reveals that Shandra came by her house yesterday, obviously frightened, then she heard some sound that made her run. A Gather Information-check reveals that Decor usually holds his speeches in the central town square at midday; could be useful to go listen to one of those. A second Gather Information check reveals that the street posts know nothing (a roll of 1) and we decide we need a different approach. Knowing that Shandra lives in the harbor, we decide to try the taverns open at this hour to see if we would happen to hear useful gossip.

First tavern we try, we toss the bartender two coppers each for a word and a beer. First one had something to do with some hooker (it was disturbing enough to make us steer clear of those waters in this city) while the second one happened to just concern what we were after: Shandra had been seen going to Decor's house yesterday. A silver and a diplomacy check more bought us the name and the place of a person who...has ways of knowing what happens on the streets. Apparently this man is apparently named Derro (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/derro.htm) in spite of him being perfectly human and we begin to wonder if his mother didn't like him or something.

Apparently mr. Derro sleeps in the upstairs of a tavern over daylight, but sees visitors for business as long as the pay is right. A knock later, the three are discussing business and a silver later, Derro shares a bit of information: Shandra was taken by Decor's men and is being held in the basement of his house as we speka. Wonderfully enough, a second silver buys the information of this whole deal: Decor has just moved to the house and doesn't know of a secret passage that just happens to lead to inside a closet in the basement! Cuts our work in half.

That's enough for P&E to work off. Next up, it's time to arrange a rescue attempt! First order of business: purchasing some disguise kits from the appropriate stores. Second: map the surroundings of Decor's manor. Third: it's long and hard work to disguise as some of Decor's servants (amazing how much following some friggin' peasant rights activist has accumulated, but that works to our advantage here). Unfortunately, Decor's speech is in the middle of this disguise project and thus the two decide that Peter leaves to see what's up there while Edmund finishes his disguise.

The central square is already filled by the time Peter arrives there, so he takes a place at the edge of the crowd. Peter and Edmund also made a deal - Peter leaves about halfway through the speech just to ensure that nothing funny happens. Turns out it was a welcome precaution...

The speech starts: Decor's words feel dull and he certainly doesn't feel like the kind of a speaker who could fire up crowds like this. But of course, all is not as it seems. As a few minutes pass, his words start to feel much, much more drawing: Roll a Will-save! As this was a low-magic campaign, I had not really minded the whole Will-save and this is most unwelcome surprise.

A 6 later, Peter is completely enthralled by Decor's words and decides he's the greatest guy on the planet. Luckily for Peter, he's still made the deal with Edmund and he is a man of his word so he rips himself from the captivating words and returns to Edmund to praise the man they know to be a kidnapper now!

In the meanwhile, Edmund has finished his disguise. As Peter comes back and starts to speak crap about Decor, Edmund & Nightshade (this is in the inn room) decide that he's lost it. Still, they've got business to attend to so Edmund helps Peter make his Disguise and the two are ready for a basement visit.

Nothing major happens during their trip. Turns out people are actually avoiding them dressed up as they are. Interesting, definitely something to remember. As they reach Decor's house, they quickly jump into the bush the secret hatch is supposed to be located in (with appropriate Hide and Move Silently-checks). Edmund makes a brief check for traps and as it turns out negative, it's time to enter the dungeon!

The two leave the hatch open for a moment (it's pretty well covered by the bush so chances of a random happening upon it are slim) to provide them with an inkling of light and sneak through the corridor. As they find the door at the other end, Peter closes the hatch while they first try to listen to see what's going on inside. They only hear the whimper of a woman.

They get out of the closet and find themselves in an empty warehouse room with one other door. There seems to be oil in here; both pick up one can just to seem like they were running errands if someone unwelcome happens to see them. The two sneak on out of the only door that leads out of the room and happen upon a dimly lit room with a woman matching Shandra's description in manacles, apparently a bit beat up but otherwise alright. The two manage to actually sneak in without her noticing and as Peter silences her, Edmund quickly opens up the locks. As she realizes what's going on, Shandra quickly complies to their requests to remain quiet, and they sneak out the way they came in.

As soon as they get a turn away from the house, the trio makes haste towards the Blue Dragon; quickly enough, they hear a yell somewhere behind, but no chase seems to take place and as the common folk makes it a point to stay out of their way, the way back goes with little trouble. In the party's room, they commence a quick questioning of Shandra: Turns out Decor & Shandra had been searching through some family archives of Decor's when they found an amulet. Apparently the said amulet allows you to influence those weak of will and there's really no defense beyond strength of your own.

Decor is drunk with power and decided that peasants would be the perfect tool to cement his position in the city with; makes sense, I suppose, seeing that it's not like the nobility would just slaughter all the peasants and starve to death. Shandra herself had been along with Decor until she said something Decor didn't like which lead her to...well, where she ended up at. Hearing all this allows Peter to break his enchantment too, and he's back in the books of the sane. Apparently Shandra also has relatives out of town up the river, so the party arranges her a disguise (and gets rid of their own; the innkeeper wonders if he should start charging them extra for all the water they're spending) while Nightshade pulls some strings to arrange a private boat with as little ruckus as possible to get her out of there.

Shortly thereafter, Peter & Edmund see Shandra to the boat and hopefully out of town in one piece. Now it's time for the last order of the day: the meeting with Decor. While they technically found out how Decor controls the masses, they want a confirmation before relaying the information forward. So they cook up a story: They're people from the neighbouring village of Dalsera, interested in what's happening here in Waterdawn. They'd like to know if Decor could help them arrange a similar peasant uprising in Dalsera, in person or just give them help with the "how"s; preferably to lure Decor out of town where he won't be surrounded by quite the army he is now, and hopefully to get him to spill the beans on his secrets, or at least screw up something bad enough to show his true colors.

Having removed their disguises, they just hope nobody associated them with the prisoner's departure. But then again, few would expect people who arranged such an escape to come back to the same place again. Still, the two are prepared for nasty business if it comes down to that; Peter has some Insanity Mist cooked up to let in the are if needing to knock some brutes out along with some doses of Drow Poison, and Edmund has concealed Hand Crossbow & Dagger.

So, the two set off to Decor's house. They've got their time reservation and are thus let in with little more than a nod. As they arrive inside they are escorted to a room where Decor sits behind a desk. On the other chairs, they see a bunch of large men - apparently some kind of a personal guard or something.

And thus, the exchange is on.
"Please sit down", Decor starts as the two introduce themselves and ask:
"We know you, but could you introduce your companions?"
Decor's answer is simple: "Don't worry about them", which pretty much confirms them as thugs of some kind.
So, the two start feeding Decor their story accompanied by some Bluff-checks. Turns out it works: Decor's buying it! First Decor starts to explain ins and outs of finding a charismatic speaker and preparing your speeches (stuff he obviously never bothers with himself) and so on. It seems to stroke his ego to be worshiped like this, but he still refuses to leave stating "You couldn't imagine how much work I still have to do. I'll have to stay here."

However, he does ask the party to follow him to a backroom of sorts. And follow they do. Now would be the perfect time to put him cold, but that's not what they were hired to do, so instead the duo listens to his proposal. Finally, here's the confirmation: Decor tells them about his amulet and how he's been able to sway people to his will ever since acquiring it. He also says he knows how to manufacture them and even has the tools. All he needs is measly 1000gp (remember the way money works? That's 100k old gp right there); something that would immediately get the operation underway in Dalsara.

Now, this is an intriguing prospect. The party already has ~600gp worth of funds (5 of those being the platinum coins that will need to be converted, obviously). In a world like this, there are really no limits to what one could achieve with an item like that. Careful not to blow their cover though, they answer: "We would take you up on your offer had we the money to pay. Sadly, we don't. However, maybe we could see what we could collectively raise in Dalsera; allow us to return and give us a few weeks and we'll come back if we can put together what you want."

Decor agrees! He gives the party 1 month to raise the money. This works perfectly: the party has the time to see about the artifacts in the mountains and return for their reward, which should be enough to purchase one of those. And when they have an amulet of their own, fun can really start. In a magicless world, the one with even an inkling is in a position of power.

This is where we end of the day and where we stand right now.

Observations:
- Lots of roleplaying this time, the way we like it! Combat-light campaign thus far, but it's a-ok.
- Never woulda thought I'd run into a Will-save in a low-magic world. Eww.
- It's hard to translate name-based humor to English. "Nightshade" translated to Finnish is the same word we use for "eggplant", which is what we've taken to calling the NPC as.

There's also certain verse about "homo Peter" which my character is constantly reminded of. Kinda annoying how I can't really share this stuff beyond the "notes"-box.
- It's funny how our characters have the same name as the protagonists in Narnia, even though we named them completely unaware of each other.
- Yes, we mostly use English names even though we otherwise play in Finnish. Makes it easier to keep characters apart from real people and so on.
- "Derro" was DM's brainfart; he didn't know it is a creature in Monster Manual. Hilarity was to be hard.
- Will be interesting to see how we decide to deal with Decor. Just going in there and stabbing him would get us killed, but poison is much more subtle...

Next up: No idea yet. Probably Relic-hunting!

XiaoTie

2009-05-16, 01:02 PM

This seems to be an awesome campaign, and I really liked reading the journal! Keep them comming :elan:

Eldariel

2009-06-20, 11:43 AM

Heh, one person actually read all of this! Wow. I think I'll keep on the diary just for that; unfortunately we've been having trouble scheduling a subsequent game with trips and studies for the whole bunch over the summer messing up the schedule.

I'll be writing more once this continues though.

Pharaoh's Fist

2009-06-20, 11:55 AM

I enjoy your take on gnomes.

Tallis

2009-07-09, 04:34 PM

I take it your DM is a gnome hater? ...And why does everyone in town's name start with a D? Still, sounds like a fun campaign. I might take some ideas from it when I find some players around here.

OverdrivePrime

2009-07-09, 05:17 PM

Sounds like an absolutely splendid campaign! I like the friction between Peter and Edmund (sounds like Edmund is drinking the Chaotic Stupid sauce a bit too heavily) and Nightshade seems like a great NPC.

I'm glad you're detailing the Vitality and Wound Point rules - I really like the concept, but have never seen it implemented!

Looking forward to updates to the campaign journal!

Eldariel

2009-07-12, 11:11 PM

I take it your DM is a gnome hater? ...And why does everyone in town's name start with a D? Still, sounds like a fun campaign. I might take some ideas from it when I find some players around here.

To your first question, none of the 3 remaining players in our group (others have moved even further away) cares very much for Gnomes so we figured, a world where they are considered pests could be interesting (and considering how...insane they can be deciphered as, it's not even farfetched) and so decided to give it a whirl.

Of course, since it's also a very Human-centric world, it may be a while until we get a chance to familiarize ourselves with that half of the world (Humans are giving us plenty of headache already).

As to your second question, our DM has admitted that he's horrible at coming up with names so he just takes the first somewhat rational-sounding combination of letters he comes up with; apparently he's been thinking of "d" a lot when making the names (he has previously told me to name his characters for certain games).

Sounds like an absolutely splendid campaign! I like the friction between Peter and Edmund (sounds like Edmund is drinking the Chaotic Stupid sauce a bit too heavily) and Nightshade seems like a great NPC.

I'm glad you're detailing the Vitality and Wound Point rules - I really like the concept, but have never seen it implemented!

Looking forward to updates to the campaign journal!

Exactly my thoughts on Edmund, but he plays him as he plays him; I'll cope as long as he doesn't get us killed. And yeah, I've been quite enjoying this campaign too.

We've also been tinkering with some further alterations to the VP/WP system (to increase the grittiness), but none have yet been implemented. Glad to hear all that writing wasn't for nothing :)

And yeah, I'll be writing the next chapter...once we play the game. Considering I'll be in Portugal for a week and then at a Convention for a weekend, it's unlikely we'll have the time before end of July, but we'll see after that.

Tallis

2009-07-13, 12:51 AM

Gnomes as pests could be interesting. Personally I don't have a problem with gnomes, but they're portrayed a bit more seriously in my games. No incompetent tinkergnomes and not much in the way of practical jokers.
I've had halflings as a slave race in my world, that went pretty well.

Mushroom Ninja

2009-07-14, 12:06 AM

Cool Campaign -- I'm enjoying this journal a lot! :smallsmile:

Eldariel

2009-10-03, 07:11 PM

First, few things. Lack of updates has been due to computer failure on our "remote player"'s part, and a variety of trips and such over the summer. The game should continue at a faster pace from now on.

Second, we're implementing some additional WP-related rules in near future, though they weren't in use over this session yet. Basically, we'll make ½ VP damage count you as fatigued, full VP damage count you as exhausted and each WP damage have a chance of causing limb injury; tables still on prototype level though.

Session 5

Another Journey:
Day 13
Our heroes have the task of figuring out the whatever artifact is located to the temple in the north. They have also told Decor they would go south to their hometown and put together money to acquire another of those amulets. As such, the party (complete with now healed-up Nightshade) sets off: they leave through the southern gate, travel south for a few miles and circles through the forest on foot with Peter doing what he can to confound and cover their tracks.

The trip passes uneventfully with the party reasonably sure they aren't being followed, they quickly reach the northern road. There are some other travelers en route to Nakmar so the road is surprisingly lively. No meaningful interaction takes place between any outsiders over the first day of travel though until the party's ears catch someone screaming for help. After an extremely swift conference, the party decides to investigate. Well, more precisely, Peter & Edmund decide to investigate and leave Nightshade with the horses since they want to approach stealthily and Nightshade's Fullplate isn't conductive to stealth.

The duo sneaks towards the source of the sound, pretty competently I might add, and manages to reach the scene undetected. Before them opens a view of a wagon with a woman and a child, and in front of them a man grasping a sword with shaking hands. Staring down the man? A Dire Boar. Knowing the man is completely outmatched, Peter and Edmund quickly decide on their course of actions: The bow and the crossbow sing in unison, forming a chorus of arrows that puts a close to the surprise round, and surprisingly enough the entire fight.

Edmund finds the creature's lung with his arrow (in other words, scores a critical) and the beast botches its save vs. being stunned, and is in shock, unable to act. Cue a pair of coup de graces (from Rapier and Greatsword, respectively) and a very dead Boar. Interestingly enough, the flustered man opens up the dialogue by asking "Who are you?" before realizing what just happened and thanking the two for saving his life, and that of his family. He's but a poor man though and has but a silver to offer for the group's trouble. The two graciously accept (while Nightshade has finally arrived at the scene, figuring that stealth would no longer be necessary). At this point, the following exchange takes place, outside the others' ears:
Edmund: "Let's kill them and loot the rest of their money!"
Peter: "But they hardly have anything! Hell, they probably just gave us half their total wealth!"
Edmund: "What, aren't we gonna be bandits?"
Peter: "I think there are better ways to make a living than leaving a trail of bodies behind us."
Edmund: "Then let's burn the Wagon!"
Peter: "..." Along with awkward gazes, chatter about the party's previous pyromancy exploits (see the cave, the bodies and...well, when anything needed to be disposed of) and what exactly "Chaotic Neutral" stands for.

Anyway, the party bids their farewells to the family (involving 0 stabbery/pyromancy/thievery-related moves) and the family hurries to get to the town's safety before nightfall. The party, on the other hand, still has a long way to go and sets off, continuing their journey towards Nakmar (the last real town in the north). No other relevant incidents happen over their trip, and the group sets up a camp by the roadside, with the already routinated tasks of Peter finding the location and setting up the camp for best defensibility, Edmund laying some easily settable traps in the surroundings and Nightshade...being there. Cue night, with the guard order being Peter/Edmund/Nightshade.

Of course, can't have uneventful nights! On Peter's guard about two hours into it, he hears footsteps near the camp. Curiously enough, they sound Human to him. He quickly awakens the other two, but it sounds like the steps turn away. Peter decides to investigate, taking Edmund with him and lighting a Torch due to the darkness of a clouded autumn night in a forest. Of course, this makes any sneak attempts on his part futile, but Edmund stays a bit further back just in case. Nightshade stays to guard the camp. Peter and Edmund never reach the source of the footsteps though as the sound just...vanishes.

Confused, Peter locates the tracks and follows them to a point where the tracks too simply vanish. Even more confused, Peter and Edmund search high and low for any possible signs of where the person might have disappeared, but all they find, even with a dozen minutes burned on taking 20, is a silver coin in a stock. Interestingly enough, this silver coin is not the modern currency; neither P nor E can identify it (after thorough search to ensure that there is nothing more to the coin; all they notice is a small notch in it), followed by Peter deciding the person walking here must have turned into a coin and is thus now his prisoner (promptly putting the coin into his pocket).

After returning to the camp and letting Nightshade take a look at it, he concludes that it's a couple of hundred years old, from the era when the northern mountains were still mined and when the temple was built. Puzzled, the party goes to sleep with Peter still convinced he just captured the unwanted visitor. The rest of the night involves a deer appearing on Edmund's watch and promptly eating a Crossbow bolt in the face, causing it to run away in panic, and not much else. The DM makes an ominous note on how that deer was a test and how taking the shot will be relevant in the future.

Day 14
The second day of the travel involves no surprises as the party reaches a half-way inn named "Galloping Horse". There's also a Hunter's Hut in the same area, along with some woodcutters but there's nothing else making it more of a group of buildings than a hamlet. As soon as the party arrives, a strongly-built hunter approaches the party saying "the bear chases the deer", to which Nightshade immediately answers "the deer chases the bear" and just walks away on the party. Edmund yells "Where are you going?!" and earns a "None of your business." I can't believe they just ditched us like that! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxuG99ncO8g#t=0m59s) A quick conference reveals that the party figures Nightshade won't probably be terribly happy if they follow him, and he's probably more than adequately prepared to cover his back so the party chooses to instead head into the inn.
Peter: "Let's go to the inn and ask around. Maybe we could learn something about Nightshade too."
Edmund: "No. Not asking about Nightshade."
DM: Don't you remember? Good things happen whenever you ask after Nightshade!"
Peter: *flashback of the two guys we had to kill and dispose of in the city after asking after Nightshade* "...you've got a point."

Peter and Edmund settle for local gossip and whatever a beer or two can buy, learning about a tournament in two days in the town of Nakmar to the north. It just so happens that it's right en route to the northern mountains and it's about two days from the inn to Nakmar so the two decide to compete. It also turns out the beer here is excellent compared to what the two have been used to in Waterdawn and they quite thoroughly enjoy this and themselves. The inn itself is a round building, with stairs to the rooms, and door to the kitchen both to the immediate right from the main door and rest of the floor reserved for tables.

Around half an hour into the tavern session, Nightshade shows up from the kitchen door (WTF, right?) and walks over to the party. Edmund asks "Where were you?" and this time, Nightshade is a bit more open. He explains he was asking after news from the north.

Turns out an Ogre has banded together with a couple of Gnomes and is causing all sorts of havoc north of Nakmar; a problem the party will probably have to look into. Turns out Tara Forge is willing to pay gold for its head. Nightshade also tells a bit of his friend, apparently a man named Martin Greaves, and the air is cleared up a bit. The party decides to stay at the inn for the night and thus the whole lot drinks quite a bit. Into the evening, Peter feels like singing and with a mighty "10" out of "Perform: Drunken Singing", manages to even get some applause! Of course, after a singing session on top of a table, he manages to slip and fall down after his singing, but with some acrobatics, manages to avoid pain. Edmund decides to try something he's actually good at and does a tumbling show, rolling a "1" on the die for a total of 11, also getting some applause but ending up on his head after the show. Happy with their accomplishments for the day, the party heads for bed early to set out in the morning.

Day 15
Fresh off their night in an inn, the party heads off towards Nakmar and the tournament they're looking forward to. The ride starts off uneventfully, but couple of hours in, the group sees a slew of corpses. More accurately, there's one dead man, apparently a warrior of some kind judging from his Breastplate and Greatsword, and two dead Wolves. Peter tells the other two to stay back as he searches the ground for clues as to what exactly happened.

Due to some pretty good rolls, he can find the tracks of five-six distinct wolves, and figures the man was alone and not mounted. A quick inspection of his equipment reveals that he had few silvers and the Breastplate is ordinary, but his sword is special. None of the group, not even Nightshade, can identify the metal it's made of and there were strange burn marks on the dead wolves. Edmund gives it a thorough search to find some oil injection or something to explain the marks, but none are forthcoming.

Peter tests it for a swing or two, finding it to be at least as well balanced as his sword and then tries to hit one of the dead wolves, noticing that sparks do indeed fly when the weapon hits, and whatever is being hit gets scorched. It doesn't take long for Peter to figure out that given the warrior no longer has a use for this, he's now got a new sword. Edmund decides he wants the Breastplate along, and thanks to the various interlocking pieces, manages to cram it into his saddlebags. Peter is a bit worried about the ferocity of the wolves (since he wasn't able to find anything abnormal about the tracks), given they attacked and slew a hardened warrior, but at least during the group's trip, the wolves leave them alone.

The rest of the day passes uneventfully and the party camps, cursing how they have to camp in the open. Watches are the same Peter/Edmund/Nightshade, but nothing happens over night so it's quite trivial. Everyone does what they've done thus far with Nightshade parking skin, Peter fletching arrows or brewing poisons and Edmund being Edmund.

Day 16
The last day of the travels passes without incidents. We fastforward to Nakmar to get to business; sufficient to say, the road has others heading towards the same tournament but not much that catches the eye. We stay overnight in Nakmar and prepare for the big day.
Nakmar and the Tournament; A Die God I Am:
Day 17
Edmund and Peter sign up for the tournament, to compete as a team in the combat scenarios and solo in the others. It's 5 coppers per head to enter, so "pathetically cheap" would be quite the understatement. After registrations, we quickly get to the first part of the tournament; man vs. beast.

First Event - Man versus Beast
There are three levels of monsters the warriors get to face. As Peter and Edmund entered as a team, it's 2v2; two monsters, one per man. The arena is much too small for any skirmishing tactics; it's a 30' rectangle with each contestant at an edge of the area. The wolves are pretty quick; Peter wins initiative, Rabid Wolf Strikes and the Wolf dies in spite of a "2" on the To Hit die. The second one attacks Edmund once, and hits for 2 damage but loses the Trip-check, gets clobbered by Edmund and then dies on Peter's turn.

The second round is Worgs. The fight was much the same; the Worgs won initiative and charged the two. They both missed, Peter KOd his with full PA Rabid Wolf Strike (rolling a 6 which was just sufficient) and moved to flank the other one and Edmund critted its brains out.

The last monster was scary: Dire Wolves. Luckily for him, Peter won the initiative and readied an action to Rabid Wolf Strike the wolf once it comes within reach. Edmund sniped his with Hand Crossbow and the Wolves came. They charged, Peter hit his hard with the full PA Rabid Wolf Strike and then the Wolf-attacks came. Peter defended with Wall of Blades; good decision as the Wolf would've hit easily otherwise which might've ended the fight right there. 17 on the die roll though meant, Peter's effective AC of 25 was too much for the Wolf to overcome. Edmund's Wolf missed him.

The second turn, Peter cursed how the Wolves were 10' apart (in spite of Peter & Edmund being right next to each other; they hit the corner squares on both sides) denying him Steel Wind, and he resolved to just do a normal full PA attack on his wolf, dropping it. He moved to flank Edmund's wolf. Edmund hit his for some damage, but it was still standing. The wolf hit Edmund right back, catching him bad dealing some 16 points of damage and tripping Edmund, putting him into a very precarious position.

Luckily, Peter was able to cut the twice Sneak Attacked wolf on his next turn and the fight was over; Wolves hit hard. I daresay, had it not been for the Wall of Blades, the Wolves would've probably won the fight; Peter would've been pretty FUBAR'd after getting tripped and the Wolves would've lunched on us.

Second Event - Archery
Next sport was archery, which was a solo event. I planned on using Destiny Shot to get some damn good hits in, but DM had figured I might and stated the competition would be performed through base die rolls. Of course, Peter proceeded to prove that maneuvers or not, he's Just That Damn Good™ and rolled the following series for his five hits:
16
11
14
20
20

Sufficient to say, he won.

Third Event - Balance
Next was another lighter event, balancing. The DM hadn't thought of much for this, so it was a simple slew of balance checks; kinda dull, but then again, kinda interesting and finally some use out of those obligatory 5 ranks I put into the skill. First was some plank, DC 10 Balance-check. Then a rope, another DC 10 and finally some third DC 10 I forget about. Both of us passed them with flying colors. Then came couple of DC 15s, and Edmund failed the first one. Peter? Well, he proceeded to roll the following:
11
14
Something (didn't remember to write the third up)
19
20
13
13

Sufficient to say, after completing the whole track including the two DC 20s in the end, he won this one too.

Last Event - Team Duel
This was the end; the best-performing teams now fought for the trophy. On one side was the dynamic duo, Peter & Edmund and standing against them was Jack the Slasher and some less memorable name, who will henceforth be called The Nameless Pharaoh (due to his way with luck, among others... Read on). The Nameless Pharaoh had with a Guisarme while Jack had some melee weapon; I never really figured out which one since I didn't understand to ask and he never really got to use it.

Fight starts, Peter wins initiative. Unlike in the previous fights, Peter chose Guisarme as his opening weapon here; there was talk that the fight would be fought dealing non-lethal damage so a tripping weapon seemed more beneficial. Of course, that quickly flew out of the window as nobody else was dealing non-lethal but there you go.

Peter moved next to Edmund to cover him and readied a non-lethal Rabid Wolf Strike for whoever approached first. Edmund took the round 0 Sneak Attack snipe on Jack, hitting him for a lot and removing any hopes of a non-lethal combat. The Nameless Pharaoh approached first, eating the readied attack from Peter that failed to connect due to the nonlethal penalty (and a 6 on the die).

Nameless Pharaoh tried to hit Peter back but likewise missed, and Jack was forced to approach provoking an AoO from Peter which he used to trip Jack successfully. On his next turn, Peter figured he's in perfect position and used Steel Wind, first attempting to trip the Nameless Pharaoh but botching his Trip-result and dropping his Guisarme to avoid countertrip, then taking 5' step and drawing his Greatsword to take the second attack on Jack...which was a hit. Edmund moved to flanking position behind the Nameless Pharaoh and manages a miss on him too.

At this point, the Nameless Pharaoh 5' steps next to Edmund enabling him to reach Peter again and attacks, but Peter manages a 20 on Wall of Blades blocking him; good thing too since the DM shows that the Nameless Pharaoh had rolled a 19 which is, by WP rules, in the crit range for Guisarme. Jack inefficiently fumbles around with his weapon in the ground, too afraid to raise with Peter next to him (in other words, the -4 causes him to miss. Shocker, right?). Peter 5' steps in and tries to again hit Nameless Pharaoh, inefficiently, followed by Edmund being equally inefficient. At this point, the Nameless Pharaoh manages a critical threat. And this time, Peter doesn't have a counter to save his ass. In fact, Nameless Pharaoh just rolled a 20 (DM reveals the result). And 17 on his Critical Confirmation.

So Peter eats a Guisarme to the gut and just barely makes the DC 17 Fortitude-save to not get stunned (12 damage + 5 base difficulty - he rolls 12 and has +5 to Fort-saves), with Nameless Pharaoh rolling Double 4 on his damage dice. Ouch. He's at 2 WP now. He's also at various penalties for having taken Wound Point damage. In the meanwhile, Jack again fumbles around rolling a 15 which isn't enough to hit 'cause he's still at -4 from being prone. Now Peter is pissed. And now it's Peter's turn. Full Power Attack hit on the Nameless Pharaoh. 19. That's a critical threat. 18 on confirmation. That's a confirmed critical. 6, 5, 4 (Fire) on the damage dice, plus 11 damage bonus from Str and PA (counting -2 Str from Fatigue). That's a dead man, gentlemen. No, he did not roll 20 on his Fort-save. Well, technically dying; of course we had no intention of killing anyone here. Then, Peter deals "non-lethal" to Jack, manages to accidentally roll a critical and the fight is over; Edmund took one more miss in the meanwhile.

So, Peter and Edmund win the tournament. The people come to cheer for them. Even Nightshade offers them a gruff "Well, I never thought you were quite that good warriors" from the mass. Peter wouldn't mind a chance to fix up his gut, but that's denied for him right now. Then the victorious duo is called before the tournament organizers, to receive their prize. It is, indeed, a very real Mithril Chain Shirt. A brief discussion of who wears it occurs; Peter figures he should receive it by rights of deeds. Edmund's player, OOC, wonders if he should shoot Peter in the head now that he's not prepared and is quite hurt. IC, Peter decides to let Edmund wear it for the time being, due to having just gotten his new sword himself to balance it out

Afterwards, Peter manages to get enough breathing room for himself to bandage his own "skin punctures" and the party gets to the celebration as the heroes of the day. Free room in the finest (only) inn in town, lots of free food, congratulating people and awesome time was to be had by all. In the evening, Peter withdraws to his room and summons a healer. Edmund and Nightshade hit their respective beds and the day is over.

Days 18-19
Nightshade and Edmund enjoy the festivities while Peter enjoys bedrest; with the healer and full bedrest, the wounds are healed in a couple of days. Edmund thinks if he should rob the city and misuse his status as a local hero.

Peter manages talks him out of it and points out how this is but a small town compared to Waterdawn, where robbery would be far more productive. Given that the party does have a schedule to stick to, they'd rather not waste any more time than they have to so Peter just chooses the quickest way to get fixed up.
Onwards to the Gnomes and the Mountains!:
Day 20
With the festivities somewhat subsiding and Peter completely functional again, the party decides to head off. They're greeted by a jolly autumn rain that is both, cold and wet. Things are made a bit better by the masses cheering for them as they ride north, braving the weather under their somewhat protective raincoats from their explorers' suits. There's some forest around again and if it weren't so bloody wet, the trip could be kind of interesting. The first day of travel is rather uneventful, probably thanks to the constant rain.

The party is very happy to set up a camp and get into tents as the tents are quite a bit drier than the outdoors. As a true woodsman, Peter manages to make a fire in spite of the horrible downpour and the night gets underway. Nothing much happens and the party is very thankful to awaken into hearing not a drop of water.

Day 21
Indeed, the rain rained itself out the day before and now all that remains is a heavy mist, effectively limiting vision to 30'. The trip starts off uneventfully, but a bit into the day, the party hears some very heavy footsteps, a loud voice saying "Boris wants medicine", some really highpitched voice answering "but it's not time for Boris's medicine yet" and overall, weird stuff.

Peter and Edmund decide Nightshade best do the talking and quickly flee into the woods on both sides, tying their horses a bit further to hide them in the mist, then staying 30' to both sides of the road just barely maintaining vision, waiting in ambush. Nightshade, in the meanwhile, stands in the middle of the road and as the huge shadow of a humanoid twice the size of a large human shows up, calls out: "Who goes there?"

At first, there's no response, so he calls out again, louder "Who goes there?!" The creature approaches a bit closer and indeed, Peter and his 32 in Knowledge: Nature identifies the creature as an Ogre. It's drawing a wagon with two creatures identified as Gnomes. The Gnomes quickly yell "Kill that man and Boris gets his medicine!" The Ogre's eyes light with wild fury and it charges with the wagon tied to it, causing the gnomes to fly around; cue initiative. Edmund and Nightshade act first followed by the monsters and then Peter.

Nightshade takes a few steps behind an readies an action to hit whoever comes within his reach. Edmund readies an action to shoot whoever he sees first. Ogre charges Nightshade, eats up SA from Edmund's Heavy Crossbow (he has both, a Heavy Crossbow for sniping and a Hand Crossbow for combined Rapier/Hand Crossbow combat) and Nightshade's Guisarme, then hits Nightshade for Massive Damage (seriously, it rolled 8 and 7 for its 2d8! This after Snake Eyes on Nightshade's damage dice).

The Gnomes yell some gibberish nonsense ("AIEEEE!"-type stuff) going wild by the ogre getting beat up so bad and throw some really scary explosive bottles but thanks to Edmund's evasion, he avoids the one thrown at him and the one thrown at Nightshade was aimed really, really poorly. Peter's turn, he Rapid Shots the Ogre 18 points and then it eats up some more hits from Nightshade and Edmund (who snuck into the fog and returned at a different position for a new sneak attack), finally going down to Edmund's sneak attack. The gnomes go absolutely crazy at the Ogre going down, and pick up some other potions and throw them both at Edmund, missing horribly and we hear some actually groundshaking explosions and the sound of a tree falling, being very thankful the Gnomes have a poor aim.

A Rapid Shot from Peter followed by Nightshade's Guisarme and Edmund's new Sneak Attack drop one Gnome, and the second one is looking in a bad way when he drinks a potion, and drops down apparently dead. Peter cuts his head off execution-style to be sure, and indeed, the party proceeds to generate three trophies (and wraps them in one of the Arabian Carpets they got from the bandit cave so long ago, having nothing else to wrap them in); the Ogre's head to collect their reward from Tara and the Gnome-heads for status symbols (and to probably sell to nobility).

An interesting exchange occurs when discussing what to do with the gnome potions. Edmund says he'll just cram them into his saddlebags, to which Peter objects by saying Edmund is free to blow himself up if he so desires, but as long as he rides with Peter, those potions stay right where they are. The next considered option is burning the wagon, until the party finally decides they'll just take the whole damn Wagon along with the Arabian Carpet to dampen any possible explosions. And Edmund's horse is in the middle. The party decides that now that they have a wagon, they hang the trophies from the sides. So now the wagon is decorated by an ogre head and two gnome heads. And the trip continues.

As the party fools around with the wagons, the mist is dissipating and as they set off, the visibility is actually quite good. The trip starts of peacefully until they arrive at a curve, behind which they hear some really weird kind of "explosive" sounds, whistling and all sorts of odd noises. The party decides to utilize the forest and sneak up to the source. Well, more precisely, Edmund and Peter will sneak; Nightshade is too loud for that (at this point, we tell the DM to get Nightshade some ranks in Hide & Move Silently).

We sneak through the short patch of forest with Nightshade staying behind with the horses and the wagon, and spy a weird bearded, short man with some really weird metal concoction making noises and releasing smoke. Peter tells Edmund to go ahead and talk while he stands at a ready with bow just in case. After a quick exchange, we figure that Edmund is the better speaker so yes, he does go. And lo and behold, the man is actually quite amiable (if a bit absent-minded; it takes quite a few yells to get his attention). I wonder whether he'd be a non-Human, but the discussion takes so many turns that I quickly forget about that minor detail.

He quickly explains that he's working on a machine that channels steam to move and believes it might actually be stronger than horses. Then he explains us the basis of his "Steam Locomotive" and the problems he's dealing with, most precisely how to regulate the amounts of steam released. At this point, Edmund's player says "Ever heard of a vent?", I say "OOC knowledge much?" and then we ponder on it a while, until it turns out he's actually got a rank in Knowledge: Architecture & Engineering.

A roll of 15 later, he's explaining vents to the weird bearded dude IC and suddenly the two of them are working out how to make it function while Peter is rolling 4 and 2 on his aid another, so mostly being extremely disruptive and not one bit useful for the conversation, even though he is quite bright (I chalk this up to him being more of a woodsman). Nightshade also shows up and...well, keeps Peter company. Both of them are pretty WTF while Edmund and Ye Olde Bearded Dude discuss the machine.

At this point Mr. Wårf, as his name turns out, invites us (especially Edmund) to his workshop so they can work out the changes in practice and Edmund, knowing good business when he sees one, is quick to accept. The rest of us have not much against it (besides the lost time) and we follow.

They work out how exactly to make the machine work over the rest of the evening and we stay overnight at the workshop.

Day 22
This day is practically entirely spent with me making failed Aid Another-checks (eventually going outside to sulk at my own inadequacy), Edmund and Wårf dealing with the machine and Nightshade pointing out to me that "Did you notice he's not a human?" We conclude that he's a dwarf or a half-dwarf; he tells they're somewhat common around here and often into crazy machines like that. Also quite harmless if a bit...crazy.

Peter starts to wonder if Edmund is one too, seeing how well they get along and how crazy Edmund is. Either way, over the day the changes to the machine reach a finish and it seems workable. A test of pitting 5 horses vs. the machine ends up with the machine trouncing the horses in raw power and Wårf is ecstatic; it's far more powerful than he could have ever imagined!

Edmund truly knows a good business when he sees one and asks if Wårf could make another one for him; Edmund is smart but isn't very good of his hands so making one himself would be near-impossible for him. Wårf gives us about a week for it and we agree; we'll probably take at least a week in the mountains anyways, and we can afford to wait here if we somehow make it back faster. We also agree to pay any raw material costs and such associated; he agrees that the work is payment for Edmund's help with the machine.

Day 23
We set off for the mountains and reach the hamlet of Bandara at the roots of the mountain. It is a remnant of one of the mining villages here, last one that's really inhabited. It mostly functions as a base for people searching for minerals and doing other expeditions at the mountains, which gives some people there just enough income to make a living.

At this point, we call it a day; it's getting late and this feels like a good place to stop at, especially since the DM says he hasn't really planned much further. We got much further than he expected; he expected for us to barely get to Nakmar and maybe do the tournament, but that we actually got beyond? Yeah, that was a surprise to us all. We also leveled up; I'll have to see what I'm picking up for my level 3 maneuver!

Observations:
- Well, the combats in this session really showcased how awesome stealth can be. We basically eliminated a CR appropriate encounter in the boar without a fight thanks to the surprise.
- The combats also showcased just how big luck is in the game. Had Peter not rolled obscenely well for the Wall of Blades, and over 11 for that Fort-save, we would probably have at the very least lost in the tournament. Twice. Also, the horrible rolls made it last much longer than the Man vs. Beast fights. That and the Human AC being much higher.
- We really got to use a lot of "rare" skills. I was rolling Search, Balance, Survival & co. a lot while Edmund actually got use out of his Knowledge: Architecture & Engineering! We also had Perform: Drunken Singing and what-not. It was awesome!
- Skill competitions are really bland as written; just rolling a bunch of dice is not interesting. There have to be better ways to implement them.
- Peter really rocked the luck-based events. 81/100 for 5 die rolls, I mean WTF!
- The WP system is awesome. I'm loving the versatility it provides for describing combat and the variance and the danger of it.
- Edmund is the only WP virgin in the party now; Nightshade and Peter have both tasted the bittersweet taste of critical, though none of us has been hit to 0 VP yet.
- Can't wait to put the new variations on the rules into practice!
- Edmund was acting much more coherently this time; we definitely were more neutral than evil this time around! Success!
- Finally a session! Woohoo!
- I must say, the "Ogre + Gnomes"-encounter vividly made me think of Goblin Alchemist (http://i33.tinypic.com/34g0w2a.jpg) of Warcraft-fame. Partly due to this (and due to other similarities), we now keep mixing the words "Gnome" and "Goblin".

That'll be all for now. Hopefully the next session won't take quite as long.

Pharaoh's Fist

2009-10-03, 08:51 PM

Your party evidently enjoys the more flammable aspects of life.

Eldariel

2009-10-04, 07:05 AM

Your party evidently enjoys the more flammable aspects of life.

Mmm, indeed. We even ended up discussing the matter. We came to the conclusion that we like fire since fire is pure and the world is filthy; fire purifies. Then we realized that that pretty much makes us a 2-man inquisition - cue Monty's the Spanish Inquisition.

jiriku

2010-03-08, 06:26 PM

Have you ever gotten back to playing this game, Eldariel? The journal makes for a good read.

Eldariel

2010-03-08, 06:34 PM

Have you ever gotten back to playing this game, Eldariel? The journal makes for a good read.

Due to scheduling problems, haven't had sessions in a great while. The game is still "live" though.

Yahzi

2010-03-12, 05:23 PM

Eldariel

2010-03-13, 05:14 AM

I don't think your characters are very neutral. Torturing thieves to death because they won't tell you something about one of your own party members seems pretty evil to me.

Edit: Oh, I see you already knew that. Never mind, then. :smallredface:

For what it's worth, Pete doesn't necessarily agree with the moral choices. Those two guys sorta died by accident; it was all very messy and confusing. Edmund tends towards...simplicity. If someone doesn't talk, he'll beat them until he does. When the guys fear whatever they don't talk about more than him...accidents happen. We never intended to kill them.

That said, beating information out of your enemies is pretty par de course; that alone I wouldn't necessary consider a trip down the deep end of the alignment pool.

Oslecamo

2010-03-13, 06:58 AM

Edmund tends towards...simplicity. If someone doesn't talk, he'll beat them until he does. When the guys fear whatever they don't talk about more than him...accidents happen. We never intended to kill them.

Intention means nothing. Your characters still beated up defecenceless people to death. Those are kills that could have been perfectly avoided with some care, and thus evil.

Actualy, with all due respect, your argument here sounds like something taken out of a villain's speech. "We're good people, really, but acidents happens when you're not smart with us. So, you're gonna talk or not? No? Shame. Keep hiting him."

Eldariel

2010-03-13, 07:38 AM

Intention means nothing. Your characters still beated up defecenceless people to death. Those are kills that could have been perfectly avoided with some care, and thus evil.

Actualy, with all due respect, your argument here sounds like something taken out of a villain's speech. "We're good people, really, but acidents happens when you're not smart with us. So, you're gonna talk or not? No? Shame. Keep hiting him."

No claiming anyone being good in here. It's a matter of neutral or evil. And yeah, the deaths coulda been avoided with some care, but there was never a point at which they were intended to be killed until it was really the only option (aside from getting ourselves imprisoned and potentially executed; note that this isn't a happy happy rainbow world and e.g. law enforcement is like to be corrupted). I sorta disagree with your take on alignment to; IMHO it's all about intent. A man isn't evil if he kills a dozen orcs (or men or elves or midget beard angels) to protect others, and he isn't good if he saves the country out of self-interest.

Though ultimately, I don't think it matters. To us, alignment is something to give a rough outline in character creation of what type of behaviour to expect from a character, nothing more. What really matters is internal consistency of the actions.

Oslecamo

2010-03-13, 07:46 AM

I sorta disagree with your take on alignment to; IMHO it's all about intent. A man isn't evil if he kills a dozen orcs (or men or elves or midget beard angels) to protect others, and he isn't good if he saves the country out of self-interest.

Nitpick, but the first example is a case of intent and action. If he's killing the humanoids that are preparing to storm his house, then yes, he's not evil, because he didn't have much of a choice anyway.

Also somewhat off-topic, you never ended up telling me what you tought of my improved monster classes to replace RHD and LA.

groz_nez

2010-04-05, 01:58 PM

Hello I am DM of this campaign journals game

Would like to comment some things about the game.

I have seen that in this thread there has been some discussion about alignment of Peter and Edmund. I would say that it is thin line between chaotic neutral character and evil character (atleast in my books). But I wouldn't want to spend time we could be playing to arguing in which alignment character belongs. Also I will remeber their actions and if they are evil they have consequenses. Like lets say when Edmund tortured and killed those two thieves in the process of learning nightshades true name. I can promise it will have some consequenses maybe not instantly but some day some where :smallamused:.

Also would like to comment that keeping Edmund in check isn't always most fun thing to do as a DM. I have many times thinked that I should let Edmund do what he wants and silence voice of reason (Peter). Maybe knock Peter unconscious :smallbiggrin:. It would be double the fun watch them survive the consiquences of unchecked Edmund.

Lastly I would like to state that I am probably worst person ever to discover names. It is problem for even in games as I can spend hours to think a name which satisfies me. Unfortunatly I don't have such time in the game as mostly I forgot put names in the characters then have to think fast for them. Actually I am suprised that worst mistake is naming somebody Derro :smallredface:. Also that explains why many names begin with same letter as it's easy for some reason to think names for that letter.

Eldariel

2010-04-05, 06:46 PM

So, after about half a year, we finally had another session. Life is hard; we've talked about it so often and yet never seem to be able to make it fall in place. This time though, Edmund's player was actually right here in the south so we just couldn't pass upon the opportunity to organize a live session (normally he's joined us through Skype and a webcam).

Session 6

Pre-Session Session:
First, we start off with OOC stuff; both of us had only partially leveled-up our characters so we needed to finish that before the game. My biggest problem was picking the 3rd level maneuver; I didn't have access to the Falling Star-file at that point so I just looked through ToB before settling on Flesh Ripper that I didn't even end up preparing.

Iron Heart Surge is a lot less impressive in a world devoid (or low) on magic and I don't have White Raven removing the two "obvious" options. I'm probably switching that for next session to something from Falling Star. This was also the first session we played with WP charts; every hit of WP damage has a chance of critically injuring a bodypart. It only came into play few times tho so not much comment on it in-play yet.

Also, Edmund's player figured this world is technologically advanced enough to contain rudimentary explosives and positively jumped when the DM gave him an "Ok"; soon, waves of skillpoints were flying into "Craft: Bombmaking". We'll see how that turns out.
Of Magic, Chalice and a Silver Coin:
Day 24

Our intrepid heroes begin in the hamlet of Bandara. First order of business: Figuring out where exactly we are supposed to be headed. Some quick information gathering leads us to a pair of regular travelers of the mountains. Some roughspoken regards and quick exchanges later, we're pretty convinced they're honest folk as people on the edge of the world tend to be, and willing to sell us info for few silvers; cheap in a world where knowledge is the thing of most value. Edmund haggles the price down a bit, mostly out of principle, and we can confirm what we already know and figure out the general location of the temple northwest.

Peter and Edmund also figure it's cold up there so some cold weather outfits, winter blankets and such are in order. Peter and Edmund also decide that as the Wagon removes most logistic problems (outside carrying the wagon itself), it's a good time to invest in a Toolkit of Mw. quality [crunch-wise smashed-together pile of all the tools in A&EG and PHB at Mw.] and pay a goodly sum of money for whatever tools the village has to offer. Some bartering brings the price down to couple of golds (of this world's currency) and that's that. Both also express desire to acquire adamantine tools for obvious reasons, but that will have to wait as the village lacks such supplies.

Nightshade joins up and the trio begins the last ride towards the temple. The beginning of the trip is fairly uneventful. About two hours in, the first living creature shows itself; a middle-aged man with an impressive beard strides down the hill and does his best to ignore the party. The party sans Edmund returns the favor, while Edmund raises his hand in a gamely "Hi!", which gets likewise ignored. Rather anti-climatic for the first living thing we meet, but there you go. The trip continues and that man remains to be the only one we meet; we reach the snowline and the lack of the living things persists. It's actually raining at this point so traveling is slow and arduous; by nightfall we start looking for a decent place to camp at. Nightshade interrupted our seeking by mentioning that he actually knows a nearby cavern maintained as a cover for traveler use in these parts by the folks of the village. We take a small detour and find the said cavern and spend the night. An extremely uninteresting watch involving everyone using their Crafts each on their turns later, the day came to a close.

Day 25

The temple is only few hours' ride away from the campsite, so we set off in the sunrise seeking to close the distance in a few. Indeed, two hours later we see the temple in the distance. An interesting point of note, there's smoke coming out of the center of the building. We suspect some manner of ritualistic bonfire or something of the sort; wonder where they get the wood from. Anyways, we decide to leave our wagons behind for obvious reasons, with Nightshade watching over them as Peter and Edmund scout around a bit. Two cultists are spotted at the front entrance presumably at a guard duty with a gong between them, presumably for alarm. Peter and Edmund make sure to circle around. Some observations later, it's clear there are no patrols in the area allowing Peter and Edmund a free access to the walls. They search for an alternative entrance and to their surprise, find a hatch partially buried under snow. Apparently it hasn't been in use for a while.

The duo quickly returns to Nightshade and they devise a plan: They'll observe the location from a distance for a while waiting for some manner of ritual service or something of the sort until noon. Once some such happens, or if it appears none is forthcoming, the three of them will circle out from a bit further away and enter through the side entrance they discovered.

Turns out the cultists do indeed have some sort of midday ritual. At exactly midday, some gongs ring and the "heroes" (I do use the term loosely here) put their plan into motion. Some Search and an ungodly Disable Device later (there was some manner of explosive device in the door that would open the door and most likely the person trying to open it as well), the party is inside with a Bulls-eye Lantern showing the way. Edmund wanted to just bypass the trap until it was pointed out that that was our likely exist as well and if a patrol does show up, the tracks in snow would kinda betray us, trap or no. Inside, we hear Ominous Latin Chanting from the upstairs. The entrance is at a corner of the temple; immediately inside, there's a staircase up to the ground floor and two corridors, by the right and the front walls of the temple. We decide to take the path by the right wall first; going under the entrance is unlike to be in our interests, and neither is attending a service for Cyric.

After a bit of walking, we find a door to the left. Unlocked and untrapped, quick scan reveals it to be a dry-food storage. We decide to leave that alone as our plan does not involve leaving a path of dead cultists in our wake. The next door to the left, on the other hand, is a large steel door where we do indeed find a trap, and it appears to be locked too. Edmund rolls for a quick Disable Device and gets the almighty "1" for his troubles; Spear springs from the wall and hits Edmund hard in the back - his Touch AC of 14 is quite inadequate. He does manage to roll with the hit a bit though so he only takes VP damage (it's not critical, that is). Good news is that the trap does not reset; I guess that's one way to clear it. Picking the lock is easy enough, but the door still fails to budge. Some more searching reveals there's a latch on the other side, but Edmund manages to fit a knife in and raises the latch for long enough for us to open the door.

Inside, we see a corridor - search reveals two pressure plates - and a pedestal with some slightly shining item. We assume that's the Chalice we are after. Edmund figures the pressure plates are simply linked to an alarm, and are a bit too large for an ordinary human to jump over (DC 14 or so); luckily we are anything but ordinary. Still, as we aren't crazy about fighting the whole temple, we decide it's not worth risking it to try and disable them; we find some hooks in the ceiling, probably used for bypassing the traps by the cultists themselves. Of course, this makes life easy for us as Edmund has Use Rope and we have plenty of rope. Given Nightshade's heavy armor, he probably couldn't make it over otherwise, but with help from Peter and Edmund it's easy enough.

So, after crossing over the two plates and reaching the pedestal, we make sure it's not trapped. To our surprise, we find exactly 0 traps between the pedestal and the Chalice itself. Also, we find no proof of the rumored barrier around the item. Peter and Nightshade both have nice Knowledge-rolls on the subject, but it falls on Nightshade's area of expertise and he figures it's some "relic from an era of magic" or something of the sort. He kinda figures how it works, but can't say anything beyond that. We decide to try and take it with us, where Edmund steps in. He has some stones along with "I wuz here" written in lipstick on them; he decides to leave one of them here with a Sleight of Hand to exchange the Chalice and the stone even though we specifically figured it's not trapped. I guess it's mostly a matter of style. Either way, when the Chalice was moved, things started happening. Really weird things.

Peter and Edmund were seriously startled when all of the following happened at once: The room turned red and was filled by roar of thunder, Nightshade started chanting in some strange language in a trance and the Chalice itself began to shine light even brighter than the room, and heat. Peter identified the language Nightshade was speaking as some ancient language of magic, Edmund tried slapping Nightshade to get him back to his senses for a quick departure while Peter drew his Longbow. Nightshade didn't seem to notice the slapping and soon was effortlessly levitating couple of feet in air; all the while Eddie was burning his hand holding the Chalice and another with the Crossbow aimed at Nightshade, and Peter was keeping an aim at the door, both seriously freaked out. Then it all, the roar of thunder, the shine, the ominous Latin chanting from the upstairs and Nightshade's levitating ended at once and everything fell silent.

Nightshade appeared tired to death, managing only a nod to Peter's asked "We're gone in -10 seconds, ready yet?" Quick trip back over the plates picking up the rope along the way (good silk rope is expensive!) later, the trio was racing towards the entrance. And just at that moment, two cultists appeared though they didn't even turn to look at us; they went straight towards the side entrance. Scheduled check? The party didn't wait to find out and Peter started things off with a bang: a critical Destiny Shot scoring a hit straight to the head (criticals affecting bodyparts). The cultist went down instantly. Edmund did only slightly worse with a non-critical Sneak Attack on the other guy. Initiative later, Peter's hail of arrows connected fully and the second cultist went about wasting away.

Swift death meant they never had the chance to raise an alarm, so the party took a bit of time to check the bodies. Specifically, Edmund checked for loot while Peter checked what manner of people they actually are. Hoods off revealed something very disturbing, they have scaly horn-like appendages in the forehead and one of them had extra finger. Even more disturbing, they also had black burn-mark the shape of a sphere with horns in their chest. Even more disturbing, Edmund decided we need a copy of the burn-mark to figure out what the heck is going on here, and simply cut the whole mark off one of the guys, figuring Nightshade's expertise in tanning would enable it to be preserved. Yeah, not dwelling too much on that. Eddie also suggested we just set fire to the place; that got shot down relatively quickly. He did, however, pour oil on the two bodies and set those on fire just as we left, with Peter and Nightshade already well on their way out.

A very quick exit and circling to the wagon and the horses, which had thankfully not been met with an accident while unguarded, later, we were quickly on our way out. Interestingly, the front guard seemed to be missing when the party made their way out, but the lot decided not to dwell on that as putting as much distance between them and a pack of very angry cultists as possible felt like a good idea at the time. Soon after, once he has recovered, Nightshade curiously stopped us and said something weird about the Chalice: He said we should fill it with salt, so "It doesn't do that", probably referring to the events at the Temple. While we don't have any idea what the heck is going on, we do have a decent supply of salt with us, mostly for preserving meat. We barely miss out on filling it entirely, but it's close enough to suspend it. Nightshade states we'll need to perform some strange alchemical ritual to truly "calm" it down, but that this will do for now.
And Back Again:
The group quickly departed and decided to ride into the night to reach Bandara without another night near the temple. The initial ride was highly uneventful and no chase was immediately forthcoming. So far so good. Of course, nothing good can last forever. Within sight of Bandara, we run into the same beard guy again and again we ignore him except for Edmund who greets him. He seems to be ignoring us too until right next to Edmund he draws a Longsword very quickly and stabs his horse critically leaving the poor animal with only few WP left and very much caught between bolting and being shocked. Saddle and Ed's Dex made the Ride-check to stay in the saddle easy though.

Initiative was rolled and we were unarmed this time. Edmund dismounted and drew his weapon while circling behind the wagon to "hide". Nightshade likewise dismounted and drew his Guisarme while Peter stayed ahorse, drawing his Longbow and poisoning the arrow, firing a Destiny Shot with penalty of 3, but having it go wide. Identifying the immediate threat, the man tries to hit Nightshade but is deflected by his armor, while Edmund drops underneath the wagon drawing his Heavy Crossbow and, while being unable to Sneak Attack, does manage max damage Heavy Crossbow hit with his Dex and PBS. Nightshade follows that with almost max damage Guisarme strike which drops the man to WP; one failed Fort-save later he was stunned which gave us the opportunity to disarm and tie him for questioning (with Aid Another from both and Silk Rope, the Escape Artist DC wounded up at DC40).

As he came to, we proceed with some rather harsh interrogation that revealed he had the same sign as the cultists and was serving a man named Martin Thompson, a collector of rare items like our employer and also living in Waterdawn, and that he had attacked us because we had something his master wanted. Didn't take much guess-work to figure out what. He didn't agree to disclose his own name, but we didn't really care. He also mentioned the reason for the burn-marks is some greater master his master serves who is going to magically bend the world to his dominion and bring darkness or something of the sort. Peter is greatly alarmed, while Edmund calls hogwash (while still trying to rationalize the events at the temple). We decide to spare this fool (my turn to choose!) and even untie him, though leaving him there. Of course, we did knock him out first. He should be able to make his way back to the village soon enough, but all the same, is in no condition to be a threat to us. As he talked so nicely, it felt more than fair.

The visit in Bandara was basically a mere uneventful overnight stay, though we did buy Edmund a new horse and sold the old one; we didn't have time to wait until it heals.

Day 26-27

We depart as soon as we wake up, bidding our farewells to Bandara and making way for Mr. Wårf to pick up the steam engine. This time we run into no Ancient Egyptian Artifacts or Beard Samurai and safely get to Wårf's workshop. While it's only been 4 days, Wårf has gotten a lot done. As we fully intend to leave with the thing, we help him out for a day to finish it. He asks for 1 gold piece to cover the raw material costs; we decided to pay 3 for his troubles; we've kinda taken to liking the guy. He also teaches Edmund to ride, and at Peter's insistence, him too even though he wasn't initially really interested; he figured best if someone else knows how to operate it too when Edmund finally gets the arrow to the head he's been asking for for so long. It can actually move faster than a horse when burning lots of fuel and works with either wood or coal; a very impressive device. We depart in the afternoon of the second day and make our way towards Nakmar.

The day's ride is uneventful, for a change. It's been shining since we came down from the mountains and overall, there have been few adversities besides, y'know, the whole "Yer horse got stabbed lol!"-part. As the trio departed late, they need to stay in the wilderness for the night before reaching Nakmar. Come nightfall, the camp was prepared as already was the routine; Edmund placed some traps in the surroundings (complete with some of the bombs the Gnomes had used to make sure we are alarmed of whatever hostile presence). Peter had the first watch. Now, remember that silver coin found in the tree trunk Session 5? It was still in his pocket.

Suddenly, in the start of his watch, it started to get hot and as he took it out, shine. It was hot enough that he had to hold it on a piece of wood, which would obviously catch flame any time soon. He checked the Chalice thinking it was some manner of a reaction, but it wasn't doing anything at all. He quickly woke up Nightshade, the quickly-rising occult expert of the group whose eyes widened yelling for Edmund to wake up while reaching for his Guisarme. Seeing this, Peter quickly reacted stowing the coin to his money pouch (hoping that at least the metal wouldn't melt; while it would become unpleasantly hot real quick, at least the matter would maintain its shape for a while) and drawing his Greatsword.

As soon as all that was said and done, four figures just appeared around Peter out of nowhere. Furthermore, they weren't human; their skin wasn't just ebon, it was pitch black and they looked almost more animal than human. They carry a red Greatsword of unknown metal each. Roll for initiative, Peter acts first and demands "Who are you and what is your business with us?" while readying to hit two of them if they attack (Steel Wind). Nightshade likewise readies to hit one on the same condition. Then the creatures act; they let out a bloodcurling howl and move to attack; at this point, Peter's readied action goes off and hits two of them bad. They both make their saves against stun, but Nightshade's attack drops one of them. After that, they attack Peter and in spite of the flank, between his Chain Shirt, dexterity and sword (Wall of Blades), the trio misses.

Edmund wakes up prone, but manages an amazing feat of "getting things done" by standing up while picking up his weapons, 5' stepping to a flanking position from one of them and sticking Rapier into its back critically, easily dropping it after Peter had already hit it. Peter goes all-out on offense with a hard, feral swing (PA for 4 Rabid Wolf Strike) leaving his guard open completely eviscerating second-to-last one of them. Nightshade hits the last one, but it manages a hit on Peter after his defenses had lapsed; roll a Fort-save?! :smalleek: Luckily, 21 passes and Edmund moves to flank the last one, finishing it off.

After the battle, Peter doesn't stop to wonder the hit or the weird bodies of the creature, quickly digs the damn coin out of his pocket and puts it on a stone. Nightshade knows some alchemy that might cool it down, involving mixing and boiling some chemicals (luckily Peter has plenty) and washing the coin in the steam. We decide to use the steam engine for the boiling, so Edmund starts that while Peter gets on with the chemicals and soon enough, the coin is...err...as good as new? Either way, it's no longer shining with eldritch energies or burning holes in pockets so Peter is happy, quickly stowing the coin back to from whence it came and vowing to do some heavy research on it back in Waterdawn.

The second order of business involves the creatures and their swords. Some study reveals that they appear to be like the cultists, except further developed. They display some of the same features, but seems their whole humanity is gone and they're nothing but monsters anymore. Edmund decides to take the head off one to see if we can learn anything of it (again relying on Nightshade's tanning expertise) and also tests the swords; well, one of them anyways. It produces no discernable effects, so we decide we need to find out what it does to the living and yet, are somewhat unwilling to risk killing each other. Solution? Capture something the next day). Yeah, we did animal tests. Sue us.

Day 28

The next day, we (more precisely, Peter being the hunter, etc.) captured a deer, for use with the tests. It was knocked unconscious for ease of testing. It didn't show any effects after the first hit, but few stabs later it seemed to age rapidly. Though aging isn't really the right word; just its...life-force seemed to weaken (in metagame terms, -4 Con). Additional hits slew the creature with no real damage dealt. Peter immediately vowed never to wield one and all four swords were crammed into the wagon. Both, the deer's body and the...wights' (for the lack of better word) bodies were torched to be sure that they are dead for real (at Peter's suggestion, for the first time), and Edmund tried to figure out what chemical does what the swords do to which Peter simply gave a quick, grim reply: "None". Peter was pretty convinced the swords transmitted something like negative energy; of course, Edmund was having none of that and simply decided this was something Peter wasn't familiar with.

Either way, after those incidents, the party made their way to Nakmar, hiding the grim contents of their wagon and being still greeted as the "winners of the tournament" with free lodgings and dinners all over the place.

And on that note, we ended the session.

Observations:
- Yeah, apparently it took just as long at least to get this session done. We've been talking of playing the next Thursday though when Eddie's player is still in town so here's keeping my fingers crossed.
- We didn't kill any humans (not counting the cultists as humans) this session. Hooray?
- Lots happened. Also, things got way weirder. And we have a lot of extra work come Waterdawn.
- Still trying to talk the DM for some extra skill points. At the rate we're picking up new Knowledges and Crafts, we'll barely have any left for the actual skills.
- Did I say things are getting weird yet?
- The bodypart crit-system is interesting. Still takes some fine-tuning though; the only time it really mattered was when Peter shot the one cultist in the downstairs, hitting squarely in the forehead with a hit that might not otherwise have been lethal. We'll keep working on it. Also, we're dreading the first time one of the PCs takes a crit to the face.
- Did I mention no WP damage to the trio this time? Lucky...
- So many encounters avoided in the temple. Overall, this whole "only fight when necessary and then as unfairly as possible"-thing works really well...at least as long as you don't run into Bearded Samurai.
- Actually, we captured multiple deers and only later realized we forgot the rest of them. So we left a bunch of deers immobilized in the forest. Woops?
- Craft: Taxidermy is one of the most-used skills in the party after Hide/Move Silently/Spot/listen :smallconfused:

Mushroom Ninja

2010-04-05, 08:49 PM

It returns! Huzzah!

The body-part crit system sounds cool (though somewhat frightening). How exactly does it work?

Eldariel

2010-04-05, 09:16 PM

It returns! Huzzah!

The body-part crit system sounds cool (though somewhat frightening). How exactly does it work?

Well, the idea is simply that when WP damage occurs (critical or running outta VP), a d20 is rolled with the following effects:
1-2 deals damage to the head
3-6 deals damage to the right arm
7-10 deals damage to the left arm
11-13 deals damage to the right leg
14-16 deals damage to the left leg
17-20 deals damage to the torso

We are still working on ironing out the results, but basically, headshot makes the Fort-save to avoid Stun/Dying harder (and applies penalty to spot/listen rolls), left arm...well, applies a penalty to anything involving the left arm (may just make the arm unusable, haven't worked out the details yet), right arm applies a penalty to anything involving the right arm, hit to either leg hampers mobility and again any effect involving said body parts (mostly skill checks like Jump and such), torso-hit means nothing special happens (aside from the normal Fort-save vs. Stun, Fatigue and so on, that is).

So it's a normal d20 roll with the lower the result, the worse the effect (though legs vs. arms is arguable; it was simply for ease of remembering so it basically scales from the top of the body down). And the harder a body part is to hit, the smaller the hit area for that.

Head has the smallest, obviously (people usually try to defend their heads), arms and torso have the largest (again, obviously; hardest parts to defend due to size or availability) and legs are in-between (harder to hit with conventional weapons, but harder to defend as well).

Of course, that's mostly an abstraction anyways so it doesn't have to match perfectly; just well enough to make some sense (for ease of memory and verisimilitude) and to make things work. We're still rolling around with what size category the penalties should generally be, and whether the amount of damage dealt has any bearing on what exactly happens, and whether it takes only one hit or multiple hits to completely disable a bodypart (one idea was that each bodypart has a portion of the creature's total WP but that idea has the problem that WP pool is so small as a rule that it doesn't work).

This was an experimental run and the hit to the head made the Fort-save pretty much unpassable (DM didn't even bother counting it, he just said "Ok, that's a headshot and he's down to 0 WP, he's pretty dead").

This all carries the issue of non-humanoid foes though, particularly various aberrations and vermin, but I guess you can just quickly whip something up for them; beholder has 10 eyestalks + torso so that's pretty straight-forward, many Amorphous creatures can't be critted at all, Spider has a frigton of legs so maybe just work something from there, etc.

We don't really need to worry about that much though; all the creatures we're running into pretty much fall into the same categories (though for animals, the arms generally just become front legs and have leg-penalties instead) so thus far we can roll with just this.

Cute_Riolu

2010-04-05, 10:59 PM

Wahoo! It's back! :D

I've loved reading your journal, Eldariel. Keep it up!

Eldariel

2010-04-08, 04:45 PM

Glad to hear there are people reading this. Makes writing it feel somewhat more interesting when it's more than just a memory bank.

Session 7

Unfinished Business Vol. 1:
Day 29

Night in Nakmar was good. We were treated like heroes and thus quite enjoyed our stay. No detail necessary, we wake up very refreshed the day after. The next day we take care of the unfinished business here; a woman of some wealth named Tara Forge had offered a reward for ridding the area of the ogre and actually wanted the thing's head, so we saw to that. Amusingly, both Peter and Edmund manage to roll poor-enough Gather Information that we actually fail to figure out where she lives; Edmund was apparently still a bit drunk and mostly muttered gibberish while Peter spent most of his time translating (successful Aid Another-check). Nightshade got us the info though and thus we headed for Tara's house.

Once we got there, we realized "house" is quite a bit of an understatement; it lay at the edge of the town and was very easy to recognize once we got there. Not quite a mansion but pretty close, it's quite possibly the largest private building in Nakmar and while not quite as impressive as the wealthy area of Waterdawn, it definitely stood out from the bunch. Knock on the door was answered by a young woman in a fine dress; once we explain our business, she invites us in and leads us to a first floor room in the back where we meet Tara; she looks like an older version of the person guiding us so we figure they're probably related. Both have very delicate features, blue eyes and raven black hair.

Tara seems to have a strange taste in decorations as numerous Gnome-heads hang from the walls; though given the nature of the creatures in this world, that is sort of understandable. Either way, we get straight down to business; she asks to see the ogre's head and Edmund shows the ugly thing from the sac. Tara's estimate of the creature's looks is less-than-flattering and spot-on; then Edmund and Tara get down to the business of bargaining on the price. They end at 30 gold pieces (remember the currency we use; in standard D&D terms that's 3000 gp) which works fine. Then, when we are just about to leave, Tara asks if we are interested in another task; it's delivering a packet of unknown, but apparently legal and safe, content to a man named Dengo (who happens to be our old acquaintance). We have no reason to turn it down as that's where we are headed to at any rate, and we receive the packet and bid our farewells.

On that note, we prepare to leave Nakmar. We do some business, selling some extra horses (now that we have the steam engine, we decide to just pull the wagon with it) and purchase a second wagon with lots of wood to fuel the thing. Other shopping is quite miniscule. With that, we set off for Waterdawn preparing for four days' trip.
Dumbseen Guests (or "My Enemy Is...err, My Friend?"):
Day 30

First day of traveling is an uneventful, sunny trip with us mostly trying to withstand the noise the damn steam engine makes. We manage though and camp for the night. The night starts off calmly, but at the end of my watch, I hear a noise from behind the steam engine. I immediately wake up Edmund and we sneak from the sides of the machine to the back and see a person covered in black clothes. Peter demands "Who goes there?" to which the person jumps up and tries to run away. Edmund yells "Wake up!" to Nightshade & Peter tries to slow down the escape with Achilles' Heel only managing to deal damage though. Not good. Edmund misses and initiative is rolled, where Edmund wins and sneak attacks for lots. The person...disappears?! Yeah, no trace disappearance...again. Peter runs forward and sees him about 90' ahead (we decided that yes, he can run in a sparse forest, but only at 3/4th the maximum speed).

Edmund's Fleet of Foot enables him to catch up with the person, who turns and attacks back, hitting Edmund hard with two Daggers that appeared in the person's hands. Peter takes a Destiny Shot (-5 damage, +5 to hit) with Knockout Poison (Drow Poison without Drow in the name) and lands a solid hit. The person fails this Fort-save and falls unconscious. We tie him up and carry him back to the camp, with Nightshade showing up few seconds later.

As we stop down, turns out "him" is a "her". Our initial questioning (involving first Diplomacy then Intimidate after a friendly slap from Edmund) is met with "screw you" and various profanities. At this point, Edmund wants to torture her, while Peter opposes. This is cut short by a failed Spot-check and her somehow managing to use a strange glass-like spike in her sleeve to sting Peter with a poison, but a natural 20 on Fort-save later, Peter is mostly annoyed. She's knocked unconscious and subjected to Insanity Mist in an attempt to loosen her tongue. We also check her for any additional annoying surprises and find a coin much like the one Peter holds, a second stinger in her other pocket and some daggers along with a parchment, more of the stun poison, some lethal poison and 5 silvers. Edmund tries to Decipher Script the parchment but fails. As she comes to, the new Diplomacy actually succeeds and she explains us she was trying to acquire information on the machine. This is met by a long lecture from us about how she should have just asked.

Apparently she didn't trust us or something and just isn't very good of her mouth what comes to her replies to our immediate Diplomacy-checks, but honestly, how could it possibly be a good idea to sneak into a camp midnight with guard around and run away when challenged on passage? That's like screaming "I'm here with bad intentions". Any other choice of actions outside plain attacking would've involved no combat whatsoever. We ask her why she attacked us, she says "in self-defense", which makes enough sense but since we didn't even try to harm her, only wanted to detain her to figure out if she was sabotaging the machine, this is just a case of everything going badly wrong.

After further questioning, she explains that the coin in her pocket is the key to the disappearance trick she pulled; does it with a command word. She also explains she got the coin and learned the secret from a leader of the "Cult of the Black Flame" in a...well, one-sided discussion (much reminiscent of our interrogations), and that the parchment is joining instructions for the said cult, which provoked us to first ask if the black burnmark with horns is their sign, and the "yes" followed by "Don't join it, it's a bad idea because scales, extra fingers and so on"-speech from us...except she manages a "I'm not wanting to join myself, but I'm looking for my sister who's in it" before we really get going. Pity; we even rolled Craft: Disturbing Mental Image for that (and Edmund rolled really well).

Anyways, after the whole mess is cleared up and she agrees not to run or try to kill us, we untie her. She sticks to her word; shocking. Oh yeah, and she actually tells us her name: Adriana. We buy the coin from her for a couple of gold pieces giving her gear back; Edmund gets on trying it with his machine. We find out it can indeed move even large objects, but that two wagons is too much; one of our wagons is cut in half. Whoops? Anyways, we request her to accompany us to the city to find out more about the coin we own while Edmund can satisfy her thirst for knowledge on the machine. And Peter is interested in trading some trade secrets on the field of poisons. She agrees and we settle in for the night; we try to figure out where she can sleep and she decides she doesn't trust us so she sleeps in Nightshade's tent for the night. Huh? Ooookay. Well, I guess trusting some strangers is easy.

Rest of the night is uneventful and yeah, we wake up in the morning (we obviously stick to us three guarding as we'd rather not trust her blindly just yet).

Day 32

This day is...full of business. First, we do some more testing with the machine and some tree trunks to figure out that the teleportation is limited by mass. Second, we have to fix the wagon that was split in two by the first ill-fated teleportation attempt. So yeah, we don't get any traveling done; this day was spent playing the mechanic. Good thing we invested in that toolkit, eh?

Night is quite uneventful. We don't even wake up with knife in our bellies (of course, we don't have Adriana watch either so there isn't much of a chance for that).

Day 33

We get going. Adriana travels in the steam engine (the cockpit is barely big enough for two people) as Edmund explains basically all about the machine to her. Other than that, it's still noisy and nothing much happens. We get to Galloping Horse and the Hunter's Hut at the end of the day and stay overnight there. We restock on firewood and get to sleep. Nightshade pays for Adriana's room. Nightshade the Slick? :smallconfused:

Day 34

This day is mostly spent with Peter and Adriana chatting about the various poisons she carries; turns out they're sand scorpion's and sand cobra's poisons, respectively, and she got them in a city named "Baigur" in the south. That's where she got the glass spikes from too; some glassblower had uncovered some ancient secrets that enable manufacturing glass the strength of steel. Convenient.

Anyways, other than that, the day is quite uneventful and the night is equally surprise-free. Weird.

Day 35

Well. Midday, Peter's horse steps into some manner of mole hole or something and breaks its leg. Peter bandages it to best of his ability, but that doesn't really help to get it moving so we throw some firewood away and place the whole damn horse in the wagon. We decide the trip is short enough to just carry it there.

And then Adriana rides with Nightshade while Peter sits in the machine. After that, we manage until we arrive in Waterdawn.
Unfinished Business Vol. 2:
We are treated by very freaked-out city guard when we park the steam engine in front of the gates. A Diplomacy-check and promises that it is not harmful and won't wreck the city end up obscenely high. So yeah, we get inside. And in the party Every. Single. Person. epic fails a Spot-check right inside the city.

We start talking about where to park the damn thing when we find ourselves surrounded by tall men in shining plate armor with swords drawn. Uh, damn? This isn't the city guard. This is the equivalent to national guard; the city military. They order Peter and Edmund to stand down and surrender. Looking back, we see a row of men with Alchemist's Fires on the walls. We keep our cool, spend about two seconds thinking of options. Edmund wants to bolt with the machine, Peter wants to just go with them and figure out what's going on. We end up rolling Initiative to figure out who acts faster; Peter comes out on the top and gets out of the machine before Edmund tries to teleport and...fails? Yeah, it doesn't work. He tries again. Still nothing. Well, that's awkward. He ultimately agrees to surrender too. However, we do manage to slip the chalice and the packet to Nightshade so we'll get by with that.

We are also disarmed but a hidden Dagger from Edmund remains unseen; they do find the thieves' tools he has hidden along with the Dagger on Peter's person. We both actually have the classic pile of weapons; both managed a pile of 10+ weapon-like pieces of equipment. At least it was impressive. Most of our equipment is We also get a permission to move the steam engine to some parking slot, but we don't escape; far as Peter is concerned, we cannot be charged with something we cannot deal with. See, here's an interesting thing. Peter is educated (has Education-feat) and Knowledge: Local, mostly for identifying humanoids. However, Knowledge: Local also covers local laws. So it just so happens, Peter is an expert on law. I never knew it before, my character is a lawyer. +12 K: Local means he knows basically everything there is to know. Rolling 16 on the check didn't hurt either.

But we're getting ahead of ourselves. We are detained. We actually skip right through to some high security prison for our detainment; apparently they figure we are pretty dangerous. We also get two guards on our cell door. Then Edmund and Peter are each taken for questioning one at a time. It just so happens though, both know a language that isn't really spoken in these parts so they craft a story. We find out that we are charged with three charges: Two counts of murder in the first degree and smuggling of an artifact suspected to be magical into town. Best of all? Every single one of those carries the penalty of death.

In private questionings, we are asked of the events of the day when we killed the two assailants who were after our Chalice. More precisely, a noble has expressed distress over the disappearance of two of his servants; apparently some charred body parts were found in some trashpiles. I don't even begin to figure how or why they were searched, but there you go. Edmund mostly remembers being incredibly drunk that day, while Peter mentions they returned the Chalice to Prego Domor. Edmund states they didn't know about the law on magical items (true, though Peter probably does, actually) while Peter states they didn't know the item was magical (also true; they aren't even sure magic exists). Well, not until very recently, at any rate. Both deny the mutilation of the bodies, while both admit to killing the two people (the Inn host had apparently been called for questioning which revealed that the two had returned bloody), but claim self-defense (true...in a way). The guard captain asks why they didn't report the fights, which is a question both admit they can't really explain; it was a combination of being drunk, being dumb and not wanting to deal with the whole messy affair they explain.

Either way, Peter begins to return to his mind the laws of the land and the roll of 16 allows him to remember a small passage on magical artifacts; specifically, you're allowed to bring one to city for a noble as long as said noble announces it within a month. It's only been couple of weeks, so that's no problem and it's Prego's responsibility anyways. It's an ancient piece from two hundred years ago, but it'll bail the two out on that charge anyways.

The bigger problem is the two counts of murder. Self-defense is a viable explanation, not to mention true, but what happened to the bodies is a bit harder to explain. We go through various options including sinking some money in the right pockets and blaming somebody the city really wants to get rid of like Decor. Which brings up the problem of how to go about proving we are not related to that. There are "reliable witnesses", which is curious since we didn't see anybody back during the whole affair. But yeah.

Edmund suggests just breaking out, but Peter points out that that would mean being criminal forever here and being unable to go about our business. For now, our plan is to "win" the trial. And with Peter's lawyerism, and some friends in the nobility, that may just be possible.

But since it's late, this seems like a nice cliffhanger to end the game at. So that's what we do.

Observations:
- First mortal danger for the party (well, depending on if you count the gladiator match; it was supposed to be strictly nonlethal but eh, whenever people play with real weapons, there's a chance of very real lethality), and ironically one that won't have anything to do with combat. Heh.
- We never did find out how the girl and Tara are related. And we forgot to even ask her name. Ah well, I guess it's not that important.
- Most surprising benefit of Knowledge (Local) ranks ever.
- First Decipher Script-roll. Whee?
- That whole mess with Adriana was really...a mess. Her actions didn't really scream "innocent". How could it possibly be a good idea to sneak into a camp midnight and twiddle with a machine you want info on instead of just talking in broad daylight? And when the people demand who you are, why the heck would you swear back? I actually edited out a bit; in-game Edmund cut a toe off her trying to dig out information. He just isn't very good at that. And then Peter sewed it back on in the end (successful Heal-check). Yeah. You can probably understand why I cut that out. But my DM would bother me about it for the rest of the game if I didn't mention it 'cause "it shows Edmund's character". So I'm putting it here. In retrospect, Peter shoulda honestly grappled Edmund or something at that point. But we play with pretty strict "No PvP"-rules, so...
- Lots of silly, weird and stupid jokes. Of buried horses & wagons, stuff related to tying, etc. And spilled coffee. Turns out shaky table + full cups isn't a good idea. We honestly spent a roll of paper or something.
- Time to deal with our past actions, eh? If we survive this, chances are we'll have a bit less bloody future. Probably for the best, eh?
- Notice the DM's post couple of posts back. Foreshadowing much?

Yorrin

2010-04-08, 07:46 PM

Good read!

Eldariel

2010-04-13, 06:04 PM

If anyone is wondering about the swift rate of updates, it's 'cause Edmund's player is in town now and we can actually have live sessions.

First, few pointers on changes we did before/during the session:
- We finally got the 2 extra skill points per level. This means we are up to 6/level over normal, which starts to be barely enough. Skills aren't maxed by any means, but we are no longer rolling untrained checks every other minute.
- We decided to apply the new poison rules; basically, every poison takes some amount of successful saves to shrug off (1-4, about, though some subside naturally even without successful saves) and some poisons have ½ effects on successful saves, even. Also, the interval between saves depends on the poison itself. And we mostly rewrite the existing poisons to match. This makes them much more interesting, and much more usable outside combat (also, we now have poisons that are inert alone but activated by ingestion of a companion substance, and some that aren't dangerous except in high quantities over long periods of time). Also, more realistic. Given how much poison is used in this campaign, this was long overdue.
- As an addendum to the above, we wrote up a bunch of new poisons post-session. A substance with effect similar to Charm Person (making mental restraint of speech more difficult), poisons with longterm effects and so on. Basically, used the options we generated above.
- We leveled after the session. Edmund's player is considering Barbarian (for the speed increase, mostly) and Combat Trapsmith (with homebrew mechanical traps) while I'm probably sticking with Sublime Way Ranger and picking up my first Favored Enemy. Probably Animal; Peter isn't much into hunting humans. Although the cultists might make an interesting target too given Peter has some interest in studying them. Either way, level 6. Nice.

Session 8

The Truth Behind The Truth:
Things begin with us all in a cell. We discuss in our code language and our Knowledge: Legal...err, Local reveals our permission to one meeting with a person to attend to our errands before our trial. Of course, we call Nightshade; the idea of calling Prego Domor (our employer) is also rolled around, but ultimately we decide that Nightshade is more reliable, we know him better and he can just pass any messages necessary to Mr. Domor.

So, Nightshade arrives and we begin our discussion, again in the "language of our homeland". Luckily Nightshade knows it too, but the guard does not. So, first, Nightshade has been pulling on some strings and asking contacts about this surprise witness and something very interesting turns up: there is none. It's basically all a bluff to either try and get us confess something, or to just get the judge to hang us. We also find out what manner of judge will be handling our case; a fanatic and difficult-to-buy man who virtually always, given even the slightest reason, beheads the accused. Perfect.

This gives us all the tools we need. Our plan is simple: We killed the two people in self-defense. That's what we've been stating from the beginning. Now, the key part: The noble who rose the accusations that got us captured is Draxor, the same man who employed the dead. We figured he's also paying these guardsmen. Of course, he thinks we have no means to know the men we killed were under his command. He's also a big, and very hostile, competitor of Prego Domor; Mr. Domor would love nothing better than to get rid of him. Some money in the right pockets doesn't hurt, and Prego has plenty of it.

As Draxor doesn't know we're moving against him, he won't have time to react. Our story is thus: We killed the two men in self-defense. After that, we panicked; we had killed two men and feared what the city watch may do if we report the conflict. So, we instead turned to a person with authority to help us: We turned to Draxor. Specifically, we explained him there are some bodies and we have no idea what to do about it, and he promised they would no longer be our trouble. The issue here is the whole "mutilation of bodies"-part. It's convenient if Draxor arranged that. He's the one who charged us with these crimes in the first place; in other words, he's trying to hide his own crimes and thinks we don't have the chance to reveal his crimes. He just didn't count on Nightshade's role as a messenger and Domor's coin and...support.

The plan is also convenient, because we realize that the only way we're getting out of there alive is if we give the judge someone else to hang. Draxor fills that role perfectly. We go through all this with Nightshade and decide to go all-in on this. He'll let Prego in on all this so he'll be ready for...hostile takeover of some of more important investments in Draxor's possession when the time comes. Nightshade also returns the Chalice as a...further motivator for Prego to aid us. So, we keep on our chatter for the rest of the evening and eventually go to sleep as the trial is on the morrow.

Day 36

Day of the trial is upon us. It's held in public and the execution platform was brought there already before the trial. Nice. We are brought to questioning and three charges are laid before us. We plead "Not guilty" on all three counts, and the trial commences. First, the matter of smuggling suspected magical artifacts. The law revealed last session by the Knowledge-check was brought into the matter, and as Prego was in presence, he just declared the Chalice right then and there. That was a small issue overall, and quickly dealt with.

Second, the real point. More precisely, the two "murder & mutilation"-charges. Draxor pleads his case against us. There's lots of rabble-rousing going on and all in all, it feels like one of those show trials. However, he's asked for his witness and he claims the witness was unable to make it. Smooth operator; he'll be fined for that on a later date. Of course, then we get our say. And Edmund rolls beautifully; some Diplomacy, some Bluff, all perfect. We are really nervous before the Bluff-roll, but 11 on the die is more than enough. He tells a heartwrenching story of Draxor's betrayal and our own naivete and fear during the whole chain of events. Suddenly we see Draxor becoming visibly uneasy. But there's guards in presence and the mob demands lynching; he's not going anywhere.

After some more questions and testimonies, the judge announces he will announce the verdict. After some more heartwrenching minutes, we are relieved of the charges and in the light of the "evidence", he orders Draxor's immediate execution. Medieval justice, much? I suppose I did mention this particular judge likes execution. Draxor tries to tell how there's been a terrible mistake and so on, but at this point nobody is listening to him and the sentence is carried out. Draxor wouldn't probably be very happy, but everyone else is quite satisfied with this conclusion. With that, we are returned our possessions and are again free to roam the city as the free men we are. I love this world.
Free Again:
So, we immediately set off to see to the various things we had come here to do in the first place. First, we receive our payment from Prego and exchange thanks on fruitful co-operation. We find he doesn't have any business for us to attend to right now and agree to resume our business co-operation as soon as he needs us for something; he's really liking our delivery rate and speed thus far. We got some 600 gold total (this world's currency; 60k gold in normal) for our troubles and split it three-way. Looking good. 100 of that is put aside for the amulet Decor promised. We later remember it's 1000, but eh, details.

Next, as this had been in the morning, we still had time for our midday meeting with Dengo in "Mermaid". We make our way through the city undisturbed and find the tavern with a cloaked figure in one of the tables; turns out this tavern is used more for exchanging information than actual drinking and thus the drinks are poor and the times it's open are weird. Silly, but apparently it works. We sit in the same table and his eyes shift a bit, checking for anyone suspicious. We order drinks and get down to business. Quick exchange:
D: "I believe you have a packet for me?"
E: "I don't know what you're talking about." *Sleight of Hand to pass the packet unnoticed*
D: "Excellent."
E: "What's in there, by the way?"
D: "Equipment."
E: "For what?"
D: "Building."
E: "Of what?"
DM: "He already walked away."

So, we drink our drinks and depart ourselves. Next order of business, Edmund resumes the possession of his...vehicle and drives it to the edge of the city. We don't want to arouse too much attention with it, and we'd rather not have it somehow malhandled either.

After that, Peter returns to the Blue Dragon (which we resumed as our resident inn in spite of the...events that had transpired during the trial; hopefully the inn-keeper will keep his mouth a bit tighter in the future) where Adriana is presently staying. The two of them meet up in entirely professional terms and decide to go...shopping once the night falls. Both of them use poisons as their primary tools in combat and both of them have some contacts in the city so they have a great deal of common interest in the field. Around these times, Nightshade disappears stating he has "business to attend to". Well, at least he said something this time. That's a first.

Night falls and Adriana and Peter set off to the district of ill repute. Nightshade appears about immediately after the two depart from Blue Dragon; turns out his "business" involved fetching his new Full-Plate. This was made of Mithril. Nice. It was also masterfully made; it was even more nimble than a usual Mithril Plate so he's finally able to participate in our sneak-rallies! Huzzah! We commend him on his looks and even test how well he can hide from Peter. Peter does Spot him, but only barely; so pretty good.

Nightshade decides to accompany the two on their trip to the market. The trio comes to an abandoned-appearing warehouse in the approximate center of the district and Adriana makes a series of code knocks on the door; it is opened. The first room of the warehouse is completely innocous-looking, but the backdoor leads to something of an underground bazaar. Peter and Adriana immediately begin purchasing various poison ingredients while Nightshade asks to see the "backroom merchandise", flashing a platinum.

Peter inquires if Adriana knew of a poison that wouldn't have visible effects on first exposure, but slowly gathers inside the body and in sufficient quantities, is fatal. Specifically, he knows that Decor smokes and thinks this would be a convenient way to dispose of him quietly. Adriana does indeed know of a poison called "Doc Smoke" she had sometimes employed on some assignment. Peter quickly acquires the ingredients.

After that, Peter and Adriana join Nightshade in the backroom shopping. Turns out they don't accept platinum, but with the amounts of gold all of the three have, that's no problem. Peter purchases a Chain Shirt like the one he won at the Nakmar Tournament, intent on giving it to Edmund and getting his own back. He also purchases Ed a particularly sharp Rapier (Keen in game terms; makes sense as a non-magical enhancement) and a new Composite Longbow for himself; one to suit his +4 Str and one that enables shooting arrows further accurately, while at it. Again, just superior craftsmanship; stolen goods contain lots of goodies. Finally, he purchases Ed a Crossbow Sight for his Heavy Crossbow to go with the one on his Hand Crossbow, and fills up his stack of various arrows.

Nightshade and Adriana both buy some stuff and the trio makes a departure after a very beneficial night. They meet up with Ed in the inn and Ed pays for the stuff Peter bought him. Also, the exchange of Mithril Chains is made. Yay stealth! With that, everyone turns in for the (rest of the) night intent on paying Decor a visit and purchasing the amulet.
Beat To The Punch:
Day 37

So, morning sunrise and the counter turns. Things are coming along nicely. We've dealt with everything else we intended to in the city other than the big thing: Decor. First, we decide it may be wise to use the same disguises as the last time; otherwise things might get fubar'd real quick. So, some Disguise-checks and kits later, we're looking exactly the way we were the first time around.

With that, we set off for Decor's place. We had actually discussed already the day before (before the Bazaar-trip to be precise) what to do about him and came to the conclusion that we'll first purchase the Necklace and then arrange poisoned cigars to his regular salesman. The bit about him smoking came from Nightshade. We'd also heard the peasant unrest had been increasing lately on our way back so we figured we'll have to move fast as he's probably about to make his move. Anyways, we have to arrange a meeting with him again, and set off to do just that.

Our trip is uneventful, but at Decor's house we get the feeling that something is wrong. First, we notice that there's someone observing us as we walk near the entrance. Peter specifically manages to pinpoint a house with someone skulking and intently staring down on the entrance of Decor's house, and us on this juncture (26 on Spot). Peter gives Edmund a small nudge to make him aware and the two proceed straight past the front of Decor's house and circle back to get of the house where the observer resides. A natural 20 on Open Lock later, the door is opened with nary a sound and Peter and Edmund use the darkness to skulk in unnoticed.

Peter prepares a Dagger with Stun-poison, but we find some ragged man there and decide not to use it. We take position right behind him and knock him on the shoulders. The man turns around, startled. He initially fails to answer the "What are you doing here?" but a natural 1 on Intimidate later, he still manages to fail the opposed check and spills the beans. He's a city guard in disguise and he's been instructed to keep an eye on Decor's activities. Apparently, of notable activity, five caped men had went in about 2 hours ago and been there for half an hour. After that, it had been silent. We thank him, give him few silvers for this conversation never happening, told him to keep an eye on his back too and disappear into darkness with style (Bluff-check to hide once in concealment due to darkness).

We enter Decor's house. Peter starts sniffing around (Hunter's Sense); there's a strange smell in the air. Closest he can describe it is a wolf-like creature with rabies. There's nobody immediately inside. There's a strange green powder with footprints on the ground. Once we get in, we happen upon a horrible sight. We see one of the men we know guarding Decor's house with his throat bitten off. He smells more strongly of the animal, and there's some hair near him that reminds Peter of Worgs (non-intelligent in this world). Couple of rooms in the upstairs contained more of the dead bodies, all dying in the same way. Edmund takes all the pocket change.

The two head downstairs and the smell gets stronger. Edmund sets up a trap on top of the stairs to ensure we don't get caught pants down here; we aren't crazy about dealing with the animal, though as we haven't heard anything, chances are it's not here anymore. There's some adamantine flakes on the ground at the bottom of the stairs. Peter rolled pretty poorly here though, so may be it's simply misinformation. We head left to Decor's private room and find a man in a cape, dead on the floor. We turn the body and find that it is indeed Decor, with his throat bitten off. Well, that's one item off our to-do list, but it does mean we among others miss out on the amulet; the one around his neck is there no longer and all in all, his person has little of value besides some rings. Curiously, none of the bodies here show any signs of blood from the animal so it almost seems like there was no struggle at all.

With the scent and some search, we manage to locate a hidden safe. We even manage to open it, though Edmund has to take 20 to get it done. Inside, we find some incense inside, along with some art objects and piles of paper. Curiously, some of the papers appear blank (we suspect hidden text), while others contain Decor's plans for inciting a peasant rebellion in a week, and taking over as the city's ruler. Apparently he's met a permanent obstacle.

We pick what we can along, and go check out the hidden passage to the right through which we arrived the first time. We find the same powder we did upstairs, and very large humanoid footprints, or shoeprints to be precise. It seems like someone had passed both ways in there; the dust makes little sense though as does the fact that the guard had observed the caped men and yet it seems like the secret entrance had been used. The secret door itself was slightly ajar.

We are left wondering, but decide to depart through the main door; we figure further investigations would yield little while there's no real need to wait for the city police to show up. We aren't terribly keen on dealing with them right after our trial especially in our disguise anyways. We head upstairs, disarm and pick up the trap and head out, avoiding the powder through various acrobatics. We wave to the observer guard on our way out; seemed like a good idea at the time.

And on that note, we end the session.

Observations
- I can't believe how we've ever lived with less skill points! Man, it's such a bliss not to have to have only one person do anything. Oh yeah, Peter got Diplomacy in class for some real-life Diplomacy, which means he can actually barter for himself (put to good use today) and we were gifted 5 ranks in Knowledge: Nobility & Royalty for our extended involvement with the local Nobility.
- No combat this time. Plenty of die rolling though; skills are awesome.
- Adriana is cool. We got off on the wrong foot, but she fits in on the team nicely. Though I dread daggers in the night.
- Nightshade's new Pimp Armor means he'll no longer be the resident "stay-back guy"; he can actually sneak along!
- Edmund promised not to cut any more body parts off people. Getting some ranks in Intimidate really makes the interrogations easier without, and the new poison Peter has access to further removes complications on that front.
- Lots of fishy stuff going on with Decor, and on the other hand, with the Cult of the Black Flame or whatever. Seems we'll have our hands full, even with no artifacts to retrieve.
- Still gotta find out about Peter's coin, and what it does.
- We did lots of shopping today. We went through various sources for basically all mundane items ever and ended up with cartloads of stuff we could buy now that we finally have money and have 1000 gold less spent than we initially intended.
- Yay Diplomacy!

Mushroom Ninja

2010-04-13, 07:31 PM

Wow, intense trial!

A couple questions:
You said that you got a non-magical keen rapier. Is that the only non-magic version magical enhancement your DM is letting you guys get, or does pretty much anything go? (other than obviously magical enhancements like brilliant energy and frost)

Also, I was wondering what, mechanically, are your plans for Peter? I remember you mentioning Consecrated Harrier, but do you have any more specific plans? I noticed on your MythWeavers sheet that you picked up Standstill at 4th level; are you going to pick up Combat reflexes and go lockdown, or do you have something else in mind?

As always, it's a good read, and I look forward to more.

Eldariel

2010-04-13, 07:53 PM

You said that you got a non-magical keen rapier. Is that the only non-magic version magical enhancement your DM is letting you guys get, or does pretty much anything go? (other than obviously magical enhancements like brilliant energy and frost)

We are reflavoring what we can. Brilliant Energy isn't actually out-of-question; it was specifically brought up as an example of what really great craftsmanship could accomplish. Weapon so sharp it'll just cut straight through any manner of armor.

Though it'd be BE++ and cut straight through natural armor too, making the attacks basically touch attacks. We also discussed that such things are one-of-a-kind and chances of finding such or someone with the skill to craft such are infinitesimal.

But basically, weapon enhancements that make perfect sense as non-magical, such as keen, distance (my bow is Distance) and such are all fair game. Some are available as weapon materials (my Greatsword is "Flaming", for example; that is, the material [unknown metal] generates great amounts of friction as it cuts through the flesh and generates burns and heat), while some are plain unavailable (today, for example, I threw a joke about getting a Seeking bow, for example; that's not happening).

Also, I was wondering what, mechanically, are your plans for Peter? I remember you mentioning Consecrated Harrier, but do you have any more specific plans? I noticed on your MythWeavers sheet that you picked up Standstill at 4th level; are you going to pick up Combat reflexes and go lockdown, or do you have something else in mind?

As always, it's a good read, and I look forward to more.

Well, this became a bit longer than intended, so I'm spoilering it:
The idea behind Standstill is that Peter has Comet Shower Stance as one of his Warblade Stances. It's a 2nd level (yes, second) Falling Star Stance that enables taking AoOs with a bow as if it were a reach weapon. Combining that with Peregrine Riposte, Achilles' Heel and slow poison (I have something of the sort, don't remember for sure which one) along with Edmund's future Combat Trapsmith is going to make approaching us into melee a living hell.

He also has a Guisarme. So no, I'm not going dedicated lockdown, but I'm picking some elements and mixing and matching a bit at whim; due to the nature of the campaign and the party, I'm more interested in a solid well-rounded plan than focus on any individual area. The extra feats, attribute increases and skills actually make this possible. Edmund's player has very much the same idea; we're both going for versatility.

I'm looking at feats like Knowledge Devotion, Martial Study: Moment of Perfect Mind (my Will-save is still atrocious and if we have to deal with more magic, well, let's just say the experience with the necklace may provoke Peter to learn meditation and mental defense), and yeah, might pick up Combat Reflexes too.

By the way, I get two feats now (Sublime Way Ranger gets a bonus feat on 2nd, 6th, 11th & 16th level), so I get to put some more strings together. For future levels, the class I was talking about is actually Pious Templar (naturally spell-free variant, probably advancing my martial adept levels instead), not Consecrated Harrier, mostly as easy means of getting Ranged Weapon Mastery. That feat has obvious appeal to me.

I haven't actually made 100% sure decisions yet though. Many paths lay open to me. All I know is, I will maintain the ability to both, two-hand and use a Longbow at range, at risk of losing some individual efficiency on both sides. In effect, this is very much like the Eternal Blade Archer-build I love so much; all it needs is Power Attack and it's a solid melee character in addition to being a frightening archer.

All this means we get to very much realize the Philosophy of Water in combat; we can skirmish, we can melee, we can use some mix there-of and we can fight indirect combats and we're very competent at all. Nightshade needs a solid ranged weapon, otherwise he's kind of a liability when not "fighting fair", but that's why he's been getting left behind so often in the first place. Now, with his new armor, it should be more possible for him to tactically participate.
Oh, and one more change regarding the Poison-rules we made that I forgot to mention is, we decided that a skilled poisonmaker can make poison more virulent (even without the damn feats which are just stupid feat taxing). That is, for every 5 you increase the Craft: Poisonmaking DCs, the poison's save DC increases by 1.

This should give them some longevity. We also agreed my K: Nature & K: Dungeoneering ranks together give me synergy-bonus as I'm so familiar with all the raw materials and such, which helps. I'll be updating Peter's sheet today or tomorrow. Lots to add due to the extra skill points, extra level and all.

Oh yeah, and our DM expressed desire to do an inventory on all our equipment and figure out how we're carrying even half of it. I dread the day given our inventories are really longer than the rest of our sheets any day. We'd have to decide what's in saddlebags, what's in backpacks, what's in belt pouches and so on. Most of it is obvious, but there's just so much stuff to place that it'd be a pain... Man, those inventory papers really need "Location"-identifier for all the items. Or just sub sections for contents of each container.

Again, glad to hear this isn't an epic fail to read. :smallsmile: Though reading back, I always find typos; I really should get someone proofread it all or something.

Mushroom Ninja

2010-04-13, 08:14 PM

All this means we get to very much realize the Philosophy of Water in combat; we can skirmish, we can melee, we can use some mix there-of and we can fight indirect combats and we're very competent at all. Nightshade needs a solid ranged weapon, otherwise he's kind of a liability when not "fighting fair", but that's why he's been getting left behind so often in the first place. Now, with his new armor, it should be more possible for him to tactically participate.

Good point. Versatility definitely seems like a good idea for a smallish party like yours. Also, the VP/WP variant probably boosts the power of skirmish tactics since landing a crit while avoiding close combat does much more when it goes straight to WP.

In effect, this is very much like the Eternal Blade Archer-build I love so much

Hmm... I don't think I've seen this build before. Just out of curiosity, how does it work?

Eldariel

2010-04-13, 08:26 PM

Hmm... I don't think I've seen this build before. Just out of curiosity, how does it work?

Basic idea:
Take Ranger 2/Fighter 1/Barbarian 1/Warblade 6/Eternal Blade 10 (not necessarily in that order, but first the base classes, then Eternal Blade); Wood Elf & Fire Elf are both fine considerations. Take Dancing Mongoose and Raging Mongoose through items/feats (this is basically an advanced version of the Gatling Gun Archer applying few bits of tech here and there). Pick up:
Power Attack
Weapon Focus -> Ranged Weapon Mastery (and Spec in the middle)
Rapid Shot
Woodland Archer (AC 100 is no problem)
Knowledge Devotion (yoink some Knowledges off your Eternal Blade Eternal Knowledge to get decent bonus to all)

Also, Hit and Run Fighter, Targeteer (gets you Greatbow Prof among others; handy with size increases; also Arrow Storm if it's allowed for 2 extra attacks), Whirling Frenzy, Lion Spirit Totem Barbarian and Ranger ACFs to taste.

Naturally the necessary Force Bow with maybe Phasing Arrows and such (just ensure you can hit anything anywhere). Then, between Time Stands Still, Raging Mongoose and Whirling Frenzy (Extra Raged if one can fit it) + Haste + Rapid Shot + Splitting full attack, you have rather respectable attack run. Combined with Island in Time and Eternal Training, you can do that twice in a row in combat (or once as an Immediate Action if desired; Island in Time), and you have Fanged Mask so you can just full attack and use the natural secondary attack on...well, anything and swift action recoup maneuvers next turn. You could also combine Island+Turn with Belt of Battle and e.g. Moment of Alacrity or White Raven Tactics (the busted interpretation) for few more turns.

Then, in melee, you can just Diamond Nightmare Blade + Power Attack for sick damage and you also have simple Leading the Charge + Bounding Assault + Pounce (plus all the extra attacks plus two-handed Power Attack), Time Stands Still and so on. Eternal Training means you have access to whole Diamond Mind (you could also pick up Devoted Spirit-access, but that'd cost you your Eternal Blade maneuvers and thus make the whole baseline not work). And you of course have swift action movement in Quicksilver Motion & Sudden Leap and a bunch of useful stances (Hearing the Air, Blood in the Water, Leading the Charge as an example).

Basically, the idea is to be strong at range (on all levels) without sacrificing melee potential as necessary (and most importantly, maintaining the ability to deal hundreds in a standard action and some area control capability). The only problem with the build is that it's horribly feat intensive, and that Eternal Blade unfortunately lacks Tiger Claw-access meaning you'll need items or feats for those. But yeah, basically all the feats go to improving ranged combat or both which leads to quite solid ranged ability too; the idea of course was that it's usually quite hard to get an efficient melee character capable of level-appropriate ranged combat too, but this particular combination does enable it. Good news is, you don't really fall behind the curve at any point.

To add some numbers:
You can attack for ~4 full attack actions easily on the first turn of combat.
Your full attack action can involve:
4 Base attacks
1 Rapid Shot
1 Whirling Frenzy
1 Haste
2 Arrow Storm

Total:
9 attacks, doubled by Splitting into 18.
Each arrow has To Hit of:
20 BAB
~13 Dex
1 (or 5 if GMWd) Weapon
1 Haste
3+ Knowledge Devotion
3 Ranged Weapon Mastery + Focus
-2 Rapid Shot
-2 Whirling Frenzy
-5 Arrow Storm

Total:
+33 (+4 if GMW, +up to 2 from Knowledge Devotion + various other bonuses as appropriate)

Each miss gives +4 to hit for the rest of the round.
Damage is around:
2d8 (up to 3d8 with Enlarge) Base
~12 Str (Whirling Frenzy)
1 (or 5 if GMWd) weapon
4 RWM+Spec
3+ Knowledge Devotion

Total:
2d8 + 20 (+4 if GMWd + up to 2 if Knowledge Devotion)
Attacks pierce DR and Wind Walls and Incorporeality and such
You can add your Int to Hit and Damage with Eternal Training if so desired
In melee, you generally have about 3d6+19 base damage with various maneuvers to double and quadruple it, Leading the Charge to add flat ~17 to all damage rolls after charges, etc.
Melee To Hit is also quite decent in around +36 without modifiers (GMWd and such increases it, of course).
Favored Enemies and such of course further add to all this.
Power Attack is quite solid with such To Hits and so many sources of extra.
There are threads on it, but none explain what I so like about the build (and the few tricks like Fanged Mask for recovery outside melee), so I figured might as well write up a quick write-up (heh...).

Cute_Riolu

2010-04-14, 03:58 PM

I'd just like to mention that this journal has inspired me to create my own low magic game.

I am, however, fairly certain that at least one of my players will be interested in use of poison... as such, could you give me a few examples of your reworked poisons? Not all of them, just enough to give me a springboard of my own.

Eldariel

2010-04-14, 04:46 PM

Glad to hear; low-magic D&D truly is craploads of fun and much more so than I'd have expected when we first got started. As I've said repeatedly, I'm still noticing new things that are completely trivial in normal D&D due to magic, magic items and such, but very relevant in low-magic D&D. There's actually quite a bit of attention to detail in D&D which just gets buried under the boatloads of magic normally.

My DM presently has the short list of what poisons we've worked out thus far; I'll post it once I can contact him (that is, most likely tomorrow). We just got around actually implementing these changes last time so we're still in alpha-stage so to speak.

Eldariel

2010-04-17, 03:37 PM

Had a session this Thursday, haven't gotten around writing it yet though. Or I tried the same night and managed to reboot my computer due to Acrobat update, losing all I had written. Try #2! Oh and Riolu, I'll get you a consolidated list of poisons soon enough but basically, what we're doing is taking existing poisons (along with ones that make sense/match the kinds used in real life) and rewriting them to match the new rule set.

So, for example, Drow Poison is 1 min unconscious with 1 min intervals and 1 successful save to shrug it off; it's pretty close to original as it works much as intended. On the other hand, e.g. Viper venom acts much more quickly requiring a save every two rounds and requiring 2 consecutive successful saves to shrug off. The idea being, of course, that using Heal-skill to treat them and having antitoxins is a good idea.

Session 9

Pieces of Puzzles:
We depart from Decor's house, after a quick scan that there's no view from the guardsman's post to the secret entrance. We're guessing there have been two separate parties in there; the people the guardsman spotted and...some others. We decide to look into the events in here, because the bastards stole our Necklace. That will have to wait though as we have other immediate business to attend to before engaging in some private murder investigation.

We return to the Blue Dragon and get rid of our disguises. We decide it's about time to look into the matter of the Cult of the Black Flame. First, we ask Adriana what she knows specifically of this fellow Martin Thompson, the local leader as we heard. She doesn't have terribly much new information: Basically, she tells us what we already know, that Martin lives here in the district of the rich, knows the location of his house and that he's some manner of local leader in the Cult. Nightshade jumps in and mentions that Martin is also into the same artifact business we've gotten involved into. He also somehow seems to always acquire the most valuable artifacts, though Prego has been making headway with our help lately. Initially we had intended to ask other people we know on the streets such as Derro, but we learn that Thompson has quite an exhaustive network of contacts so we stick to only talking to people who have no reason to pass on the message that someone is asking after Thompson.

This piques our interest as it means we can probably acquire more information from Prego. Before that though, we finally turn to the scroll we ended up with when we had our run-in with Adriana. The guidelines are quite curt: "Be at building X [marked on a small map of Waterdawn; at the west edge of the city] on the 20th day of a month. You shall be guided forward." As it's only the 7th day, this isn't immediately interesting, but it shall be something we'll fall back on should we otherwise have little success in our exploits.

Next stop: Domor Mansion. Peter and Edmund are leaving the inn, while Nightshade yells from the counter that he'll join up, with a pint in his hand. Edmund decides he wants one too and we are off. An uneventful trip later, we find ourselves right at Prego's doorsteps. One of his servants answers the door and informs us that Mr. Domor is busy. He agrees to schedule the next available time, two hours from now, for us. Edmund and Nightshade decide to have a few drinks, while Peter decides someone better stay sober for the meeting. Two hours later, Edmund passes out [epic fails few Fort-saves] while Nightshade is still standing, albeit barely. Peter decides to carry Eddie to his room, and Nightshade announces he'd rather stay behind too, in his present guise.

Peter decides to ask Adriana along instead, figuring this might interest her anyways given she's specifically after the Cult for her sister. Adriana gladly agrees and the two set off. Yet another uneventful trip to Prego's mansion later, the two are directed to Prego's private room. This time he does not keep us waiting, instead immediately raising to greet us. Peter introduces Adriana as "an companion with shared goals" and laments how Edmund and Nightshade had urgent issues that prevented their participation. With the formalities out of the way, it's down to business. Prego says that he does indeed "unfortunately" know Mr. Thompson and pretty much repeats what Nightshade already told us.

He also mentions he knows a few less-known things: Apparently Martin buys female slaves [Slavery is illegal in this city, mind] every last day of a month and disappears for the turning of the moon, appearing again before sunrise. Interesting. Adriana chimes in mentioning that she knows the Cult uses those slaves for what's called a "Master"-ritual, which is used to create those deformed humanoids.

Next up, Peter asks Prego to look at the coin. He mentions how he found it at the tree trunk and how it began to shine when the black creatures appeared. Prego picks it up and looks at it, saying: "This is...ancient." With that, he starts speaking the same language Nightshade was using with the Chalice. The coin started to shine, this time bright blue, and some script appeared in the air. Peter copies it, while Prego seems to be reading it. After the whole lightshow, Peter asks Prego what the language was. Apparently it's the language of Elven High Magic from the kingdom that vanished centuries ago. Peter mentions in the passing that Nightshade had used the same language in the Temple, which seems to arouse Prego's interest; he didn't know Nightshade knew the language and indeed, he said the language is known to very few and that finding someone to teach it is very difficult indeed. Maybe there's more to Nightshade than even Prego knows.

The coin itself is a tool used to relay messages; more precisely, it's the same kind of a teleportation coin Adriana had, used to transport the messengers from one place to another. Apparently this coin has been modified though by newer magic; it can be used to teleport to it if you are in a possession of another such coin. That explains the black creatures, at least. He gives us the code word for using the coin to teleport, meaning we may be able to use it in the near future. This does make the question of why the van couldn't teleport inside the city even more interesting though, but we've taken enough of Prego's time so we bid our farewells and agree to continue our profitable business relations.

We return to the inn and wait for Edmund to come to. Information is shared and we decide we need to figure out why the coin failed to work when we needed it. First, we try the obvious; we go outside the city and start teleporting around. No problems. Then, Peter tries to teleport inside our hotel room. Doesn't work. We wonder why this is and figure perusing the local library might help us. After about a day of research, we find out that the day was indeed built on the remains of an ancient Elven city. Old magicks still work. We don't know how to attune the coins to the city wards or if it's even possible so we simply decide not to try to teleport inside the city.
Hunting the Hunters:
So, now we've done all the auxillary work we had left; all that's left is figuring this damn Cult-thing out. We have a long brainstorming involving, among others, having Edmund wear the tanned skin we have of the scorchmark on his chest and getting inside the Cult, but as we have no idea what the Cult does in the city, where they congregate and what or where he should be doing to blend in, we quickly abandon that idea. The other problem is that we have no way of disguising that he's wearing skin if someone actually pays attention to it.

We also consider going back to the Temple, but that would just take too long. Finally, we think of waiting until the initiation day (wearing a whole fake skin), but that, again, would just take too long. We ultimately decide to search for someone who would've left the cult here in the city. Our search turns fruitless, so we decide to instead just track down a cultist and see where and how they act in here. Indeed, we (sans Adriana who is attending to other business) swiftly locate a man who we can verify to be a cult member and follow him to the wealthy Merchant District. We follow him (unnoticed) to a large household, and decide to wait until dark before making a move, for night is the best to conceal all.

In the meanwhile, we find a restaurant of sorts to spend our time in, though Edmund quickly excuses him to browse some jewelry merchants' wares and "as sports" makes few of them disappear. Ugh? Well, the rest of us are unaware of this, though of course educated guesses are made since Edmund was never big on jewelry in the traditional sense. Peter and Nightshade listen for gossip in the restaurant instead and hear something interesting: servants have been vanishing lately. A lot of them.

Either way, night falls and it's time for dark business. Too bad the lot isn't very competent; Edmund decides we should climb up to the roof for whatever reason (using grappling hook and rope) and we do just that, realize we have no reason to be on the roof and climb back down. Then we figure we might want to go to the inner yard and think of climbing back to the roof...and decide we've spent about 5 minutes hopping on the roof so we just go in from the front door. A roll of 20 on Open Lock later, we are in and quite silently I might add.

Nightshade stays guard at the door, while the rest of us go in. We listen the doors figuring where people are sleeping and check out the rest, finding some "valuables" worth of a silver which Edmund thinks of stealing...until we point out they're worth less than they weight. We find nothing of interest downstairs, figuring it's the servants' chambers and head up. We again hide in the darkness and listen to the doors. We check the two empty rooms and this time we actually find something of value in here. Golden ceremonial weapons and such. Peter still restrains Edmund from stealing anything to make a clean getaway. In the other room, we find a safe. Edmund spends few minutes at it (take 20) and opens it up. Lots of interesting documents, but none concerning the cult. However, there is about a 10 of ones written in a language we don't recognize. Edmund quickly transcribes some of the text on one and we decide to disappear, leaving everything as-is.

Now, however, things begin to happen. You see, Peter had failed a Spot-check a bit earlier (note, he has Hunter's Sense, but apparently the man had concealed his scent somehow). He was hiding in the shadows keeping an eye out on the rooms where the people sleep. Edmund comes out, closing the safe and all, and we begin to depart. Edmund, however, doesn't move nearly stealthily enough...and eats a crossbow bolt in the shoulder. Roll a Fort-save :smalleek: Edmund fails. The shot betrays the location of similar-looking black robed man to the one we had tracked here, quite likely the same one. Initiative is rolled and two 20s + identical Dex on our team mean Edmund and Peter figure who acts first on a reroll. Edmund wins. Now DM reveals what the poison does; Edmund is confused! Roll: Babble incoherently! Swell. I'm pretty sure the whole house will be awake in few minutes.

Peter's turn, he decides to end this fast and applies the new stun poison Adriana had taught him. Destiny Shot for 5, easy hit. The man blanks out. Nightshade rushes in wondering what the heck is going on. Edmund attacks Peter, but misses. Peter forces Antitoxin down Edmund's throat, but that won't stop the initial effect. Peter rolls: Flee from caster at maximum speed! Nightshade tries to Grapple Edmund on his way out (Edmund fails the Tumble-check to Tumble at full speed by 1) and manages the Touch but fails the Grapple-check so Edmund simply plows right past him. He disappears into the night.

Nightshade and Peter have mere seconds to decide what happens; they decide that with the Antitoxin in his blood, Edmund should come to soon enough (Peter knows the poison in question; if the effect fails, it will quickly subdue). Peter and Nightshade ultimately decide they can't leave the man in here, and that they need someone to interrogate on the cult anyways; quick chest reveals this man indeed has the burnmarks. Peter picks up the man to carry. They make their way out of the house as fast as possible as they hear people inside waking up, slam the door closed and disappear into the night, heading for the inn avoiding city guards and other similar annoyances. A moment after we exit, we hear a man's voice yelling "You'd better run!" from the general direction of the house.

Meanwhile, Edmund is rolling his Confusion and ends up shooting a homeless man who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, running back and forth ("attack caster" was rolled some time) and babbling incoherently some more. Then he comes to. And realizes the dead man could be a bit of a problem if traced back to him, dislodges the crossbow bolt and disappears to the night, heading back for the inn.

We meet up at the inn and tug the cultist into our room through the window with rope to avoid any unnecessary questions, and give him sufficient dose of the poison to ensure he'll stay still for a while. And on that note, we end the session.

Notes:
- Phew, some action. Short and sweet, but still, this just got exciting.
- Lots of new information; we're able to piece together so much more now. We still need a lot more on the cult though. Peter is cooking up some substances that'll make him sing; hopefully he knows something that avails us. He's also cooking up an amnesia poison of sorts to wipe out some of the man's recent memories, hopefully making him hazy enough on our encounters to let him out alive without causing too much problems.
- We had a fun little happenstance when we started considering our saves: Both of us have horrible Will-saves (though Peter now has Moment of Perfect Mind to see to that), and especially horrible protections against Intimidation so we started considering that maybe we should become Paladins to shore that up. Hilarity was to be had once we started considering how a Paladin would fare in our games...until we remembered The Gamers 2-movie with the immortal quotes: "Ser Osric, there's an evildoer outside!" and "What fascinating rural architecture! I must take a closer look." when various evil entities pointed out how they're safe from torture due to the paladin in the party.
- Overall, tons of hilarity was to be had this session due to the inanity of it all. The whole "visit roof, get down, want to get back to the roof" circle, some memories and various awesome moments while we spent about half an hour level-upping in the beginning. Btw, Edmund ended up taking just Rogue now instead of Combat Trapsmith since he decided covering one 5' square is just too little.
- If the jaunt inside the house seemed a bit haphazard and ill thought-out, that's 'cause it was. We simply decided we had spent too much time not doing anything so we had to get something done, even if it was stupid. And we didn't want to go to Thompson's house unprepared. Turns out the DM had anticipated this and hadn't really fleshed out his character yet so good thing all-around. Gotta try to avoid future murder charges tho. Second trial wouldn't be cool.

EDIT: Oh yeah, and I mostly-kinda-somehow updated Peter's sheet for the 6th level. It may not all be 100% accurate (and the equipment definitely isn't), but as that's all kinda unclear, let that be forgiven. Feats and skills and such should be pretty much on the money, though some synergies are missing.

Mushroom Ninja

2010-04-17, 06:20 PM

Hmmm... The plot thickens. A few thoughts that occurred to me while reading this update:

Have you got any theories yet about who Nightshade really is? He's obviously been a great addition to the so far party, but he's a bit suspicious.

I like what your group is doing with the poison rules. They're much more useful/interesting than in the base 3.5 rules. I also thought the confusion poison was a cool way to bring fun conditions that would normally be created through magic into the low-magic world.

Oh, and there's one point in your narrative which has me a bit lost:

As we were quite a ways ago, a man's voice "You'd better run!" was heard from the door.
Probably just a typo or something, but I'm lost.

I'm looking forward to more updates. Keep 'em coming. :smallsmile:

Eldariel

2010-04-17, 06:57 PM

Hmmm... The plot thickens. A few thoughts that occurred to me while reading this update:

Have you got any theories yet about who Nightshade really is? He's obviously been a great addition to the so far party, but he's a bit suspicious.

Nope, none whatsoever. He has, however, proven quite reliable at least thus far given the assistance he provided us in the whole court case and the fact that all information he has provided us with has been correct.

He's more than a bit suspicious and we've been wondering it all a great deal, but after what happened the last time we asked about him, we've opted to be a bit more careful about it (remember those two thieves that ended up mutilated due to Edmund's "interrogation" and were the cause for the whole murder trial? Yeah, that's when we last asked about him). He's never done anything remotely harmful to us though so we have built a mutual trust between us. I bet we'll eventually find out he's actually the only remaining elven archmage though.

I like what your group is doing with the poison rules. They're much more useful/interesting than in the base 3.5 rules. I also thought the confusion poison was a cool way to bring fun conditions that would normally be created through magic into the low-magic world.

Ah, that's actually an official poison. While we're doing few normally-magical effects with poisons (as long as it makes sense that it would be doable, again; substances that cause short-term amnesia and make someone talk are quite doable if not very precise in their effect), that's (a slightly modified) Cave Terror from Underdark (the original is ingested, that was injury).

Oh, and there's one point in your narrative which has me a bit lost

Typo indeed, my thought trailed off mid-sentence there so I ended up with the "ago" over "away" there. I just rewrote the whole thing to be a bit more accurate (by being a bit less precise) and hopefully it makes sense now. Basically, we heard the guy yell at the door just after we got out of view.

groz_nez

2010-04-18, 10:45 PM

I have found out that my players (Edmund and Peter) have cheated with their carrying capacity limits. I have been very lenient with what they carry in their backpacks and saddlepacks. However I had some free time this night so I decide to check their loadouts. I was kind of surprised to find out that both players exceeded their light load (and probably have been exceeding it for a long time). Edmund has 65 lbs of load but his light load is only 58 lbs and Peter is no better light load at 100 lbs but carrying 112 lbs. Seems like players have forgot that in Low-Magic World there is not any bag of holding type containers, you just carry your stuff and that is it.

Also interesting sidenote found out that neither player had no clothing whatsoever on them:smallbiggrin:. Might have caused some long looks in the city.
Edmund also is missing Waterskin (wonder how he survived all those long travels without it) and Grappling Hook which he aparently used in our last session (althought he could have borrowed Peters).

P. S. Might have to check stuff on their saddlebags next:smalltongue:.

Cute_Riolu

2010-04-18, 11:43 PM

Uh-oh! You're in troooooouble~!

Mushroom Ninja

2010-04-19, 12:01 AM

Also interesting sidenote found out that neither player had no clothing whatsoever on them:smallbiggrin:. Might have caused some long looks in the city.

Heh. I always forget stuff like that. :smallbiggrin:

I suppose that this adds a whole new dimension to some of the party's past dealings. :smallwink:

XiaoTie

2010-04-19, 11:03 AM

An awesome reading now as it was about an year ago!

Keep it up good sir!

And about the "they don't have clothes!", thats just mean, next time "THEY FORGOT TO GO TO THE BATHROOM! THEY BURST INTO A CLOUD OF EXCREMENTS AND URINE!"

Eldariel

2010-04-21, 01:34 PM

Alright. We had another session today (More sessions in a month than we had in the last year. Woot?). Riolu got it in right: We were in trouble. More precisely, we were quite overburdened. Yeah, our carrying capacities were a bit effed up and we spent a good half an hour figuring out our exact loads (the DM had made excel sheets for ease of use): In the end, Peter rid himself of a Tanglefoot Bag and we recalculated some poison weights which put Peter squarely under the 100lb limit.

Edmund had some more trouble, lacking essential items and having a Bear Trap weighting in at 40lb alone, with light load of 58. In the end, he rid himself of the trap and switched around some other stuff to his steam engine for load of exactly 58lb including Waterskin.

By the way, we also statted up that machine of his: 20 mph (90ft) max movement speed when empty, weighs in at 1.5 tonnes and eats wood like crazy. Oh, and we both now have clothes.

Either way, we did actually get to play this session too! So...enjoy:

Session 10

Explosive Lifestyle:
Day 38

We got the cultist to our inn room, I gave him an extra dose of the stun poison to ensure we can keep him out-of-game until the morning. Tied up and gagged for good measure. Of course, life can't be that easy. In the night, Peter succeeds a Listen-check; there's someone at the door.

He pokes Edmund awake and goes to open the door, dagger in the backhand. We see a face and...it's the innkeeper! Edmund quickly kicks his sheets on the prisoner so the tired innkeeper wouldn't notice, and we listen what he has to say.

He stated a bunch of cruel-looking folk in the inn tavern were talking about a 'visit by "them"' to us, in the sunrise; it's about one hour until then - he suggests we make haste and leave. We make a counterproposal: There's no way in hell we make ourselves the chased, so we'll fight. But we'll fight on the outside so as to save the inn damage. He gives us a long look and agrees. We decide to awaken Nightshade and Adriana; things just got interesting.

First, awakening Nightshade though. We decide not to trouble the other inhabitants of the inn and sneak to Nightshade's room...except the door is locked. Edmund lockpicks it. We sneak in and I go to poke Nightshade awake. Two failed Spot-checks later, a rock fall on my head for square 4 damage as I step on a trap and Nightshade wakes up (as does Adriana) with a knife in hand. Peter just says "Enough with this crap, we have incoming." and explains what the innkeeper told us.

We decide to ambush them outside to stay true to our promise, but use our Disguise Kits to fake some kinds of bodies in the beds under the sheets, and mask the prisoner as a pile of clothes. Then, we decide on how we set up a welcoming committee. First, we set some traps in our rooms so we'll be aware if someone walks in there. Then, we set a guard; Peter and Nightshade, as the better melee types, go down to the backdoor and keep an eye out on the alleyways heading both ways while Adriana and Edmund climb up to the roof (with a rope tied on both sides for quick climbing and descending) keep an eye out on the front door and the roofs. Peter or Edmund fires a signal arrow/bolt, depending on who detects potential hostiles first.

With that, we begin our wait invoking all the random quotes we can come up fitting the scenario. We decide on "Twilight falls, and the enemy awaits!" which is not really appropriate, but the only one we could recite a source for off-hand. Aaaanyways, first notable event happens still about 30 minutes before the expected time of arrival. Some random man walks in front of the inn appearing really drunk.

He's dressed like a noble, but Edmund keeps the Crossbow aimed at him anyways, though he believes the man is just honestly drunk. A bit later, two men in fullplates clatter running towards him. Edmund shifts his aim but still does nothing. He listens them scolding the man, apparently a scion of a noble family, for running out without his bodyguards; the man is hardly in any condition to argue back. As Edmund still doesn't pull the trigger, this particular murder charge is averted. The men disappear back to the night.

Next notable event happens just as the first rays of the sun paint the roofs of the city. Peter, in Hunter's Sense-stance as per normal, smells something very familiar. More precisely, the same smell he smelled in Decor's house; the smell he associated to Worgs.

The smell keeps growing stronger and soon enough, he manages to hear the unmistakeable echoes of small, four-legged creatures on stone streets. Peter fires the signal arrow; they're approaching on the alley that leads to the backdoor of the inn, so Edmund and Adriana switch over. Then we wait; this is a weird "They" to deal with, but on the other hand, Decor's house had the robed man with these so maybe they aren't here alone.

Soon enough, turns out Peter was right: three Worgs jump out of the last corner in the alley before the section behind the inn. Two of them appear normal, but one is immense for a Worg (Large-sized) and appears to be Alpha Worg of sorts. Neither side wastes any time and initiative is rolled.

Peter goes first and opens with a Rapid Shot salvo on the Alpha Worg. He manages a critical and one hit (out of 3) thanks to the creature's flat-footedness, hitting it squarely in the torso for very decent damage; he also switches to Comet Shower Stance to take AoOs with the bow. Edmund follows that up with a Heavy Crossbow SA putting the hurt on the Alpha. Nightshade readies an action to hit the first opponent to arrive to a square he threatens, and Adriana likewise opens with a crossbow bolt from her Heavy on the Alpha for some more pain.

Worgs, all still standing despite the hail of arrows they experienced on the first turn, charge. The two smaller ones charge towards Peter, who manages to stop one with Standstill AoO from his bow, but the second one gets through (no Combat Reflexes yet) and bites for 10 points of damage. Ouch! The Alpha Worg approaches Nightshade but eats up an AoO and the readied attack both of which hit making it very seriously wounded; it drops to Wound Points but stays up and manages to bite Nightshade for some pain.

Peter, finding himself almost surrounded by the two Worgs drops his Longbow and draws his Greatsword instead, 5' stepping to enable Steel Wind on both with Power Attack 2 for massive damage. Following that, Edmund jumps down (taking whole 1 point of falling damage on a failed Jump-check) and critically stings the Alpha Worg, but it makes its save and is still standing in spite of the massive amounts of damage it's already sustained; its front paw is cut though. Adriana follows Edmund's example and jumps down hitting the other Worg which does manage to survive. Nightshade tries to finally drop the Alpha, but misses. The two Worgs miss Adriana and Peter massively, and the Alpha Worg fails to bite Nightshade up. Then Peter full attacks against both Worgs, critically dropping one. Edmund finally bring the lumbering beast down. Adriana finishes the last one off.

We wipe sweat off our brows and Peter barely has enough time to recollect his Bow...when the whole top floor of the inn explodes! Wow. These guys mean business. Peter makes his Fort-save to withstand the shockwave and Edmund makes his Tumble-check to land on his feet but Adriana and Nightshade get knocked down. Hail of burning debris rains on us; Edmund's evasion saves him, but the rest of us eat some damage before we manage to drag ourselves out from underneath. Then we see a frightened horde of customers running out of the inn; we decide to stay here and talk to the innkeeper if possible (mostly to explain that we had nothing to do with that).

At about this point, when the horde subsides, footsteps from both sides of the alley approach and quickly enough, 4 blackrobes jump out. Peter demands "Who goes there?!" as the shapes stand still, with strung bow aimed at one. Peter continues: "If you value your lives, I suggest you leave now." and Edmund adds to the chorus, rolling some Intimidation.

One of the blackrobes takes his hood off revealing a burned, scaly humanoid face and says "You have intervened with the Shadowmind's plan for the last time." while Edmund makes the Spot-check of one of the others digging some kind of an object from his pocket. He yells "Watch out!" and Initiative is rolled. Unfortunately, we act too slowly and the two cultists on the side from where the Worgs came act first. The man throws a bomb! Ref for half, 21 damage so we each take 10 except for Edmund and his Evasion. Ouch.

The other one draws a bow and opens fire, critically shooting Edmund who gets hit in a leg, and becomes stunned for a turn. Ouch. Next up is Peter who decides it's a v. good idea to break the formation (all 4 of us are basically back-to-back amidst the cultists), drops the bow and draws his Greatsword while closing the distance. Steel Wind with a critical drops one of the cultists outright and leaves the other in very big pain. Adriana moves up and misses the second cultist, which then proceeds to inconsequentially attacks Peter with Dagger. Nightshade attacks the two on the other side hitting the bombman, but he's still standing and it's the bombman's turn again. He runs at Nightshade yelling "Shadowmind, accept my sacrifice!" and blows up a bomb on their face...and the whole bomb is a dud dealing like 10 damage on failed save. The bowman 5' steps back and keeps on shooting, missing Nightshade. Peter delays until after Adriana and she finishes the second Cultist with poison; he makes the stun-save but poison gets him.

Peter moves up to the bombman and Rabid Wolf Strikes for lots with Power Attack for 4...and misses spectacularly with a 4 on the die! Edmund drops the bombman, while Nightshade moves to hit the bowman and also misses. The other man also moves up intent on blowing us all up; Edmund and Peter take AoO on him, but Edmund misses. Peter hits for massive damage...but the man makes his Fort-save with a natural 20! Then he blows up a bomb for 20-something damage in our face blowing himself into smithereens in the process! Neat. This drops Nightshade to WPs, Peter to 0 VP and Edmund being on WPs already means the whole lot is quite damn hurt. Nightshade is stunned for 3 rounds, but with the battle over, we can wait it out. The cultists are dead, if not all by our hand.

On that note, we depart to Prego's place (as fast as Edmund can move with the arrow in his leg) and ask for the guest mansion for long enough to patch ourselves up. Permission is granted, and Peter begins fixing the various wounds suffered up.

Observations:
- Wow. Those cultists are mean. That's something like 7d6 bombs (DM threw the dice hidden) from the sample we've got. Also, finally we saw a 20 on Saves vs. Dying!
- Lots of crits this time around; Peter in particular was on fire with 3 criticals total on the session, but the rest of the team managed an equivalent number too (I don't exactly which attacks were critical so I only marked the ones I'm sure of; some of the others may have been a crit as well).
- First time we were in a real danger in a combat encounter outside the tournament. The whole team was left really battered; small alley isn't really optimal for elusive tactics.
- I'm sure we'll hear more of the cultists, and probably have to explain the explosions to someone as well. Sigh.
- First time someone took a bodypart hit; it actually mattered since Eddie was unable to flank the cultist due to lacking movement (he has Fleet of Foot though so he's still at 20'), but he managed to drop him anyways.
- Pity; it was a good inn.
- The Shadowwhatnow?

Mushroom Ninja

2010-04-21, 02:07 PM

Cool session. Bombs make any situation more interesting :smallbiggrin:.

I'm sort of curious about that steam engine you guys acquired. What sort of vehicle is it, and what size? You've not really described it much, but I've been imagining it as some sort of like a wagon-sized steam locomotive with treads. I'm not sure if that's accurate at all, though.

Eldariel

2010-04-22, 06:39 AM

We made the vehicle Huge Long or 10'/15'. It's wheeled far as I know (though Eddie's player was thinking of tracks the session before the last; we came to some technology-related steering issues so I'm not sure how that's holding up) and I'm a bit unclear on what exactly it looks like myself.

Eddie's player has expressed desire to use it as some kind of a cover in combat with murder holes in the sides, but it's obviously not entirely sealed; it's no tank or anything of the like.

XiaoTie

2010-04-22, 07:47 AM

Reinforce it with some sort of adamantine and you'd be set :D

But it's good to see that there are (at least for a while) more updates!

Have fun gaming, and then share some of that fun with us through the journal :D

Eldariel

2010-04-22, 07:14 PM

It's time to play the Game!

Session 11

Stabbing our wounds:
Ok, so we're licking our wounds at Prego's guest house. We wonder what to do; Peter decides on brewing some poisons, Adriana and Nightshade do something and Edmund wants his Machine to tune. So, he somehow persuades Peter and Adriana that it's a good idea to go get it from outside the city to Prego's place. Snap, foreshadowing! Well, anyways, in the evening we decide to do just that; it'll take couple of days for the wounds to heal, but VP has been recovered already so we go get the machine for Edmund to get something to do.

So, in the evening, we depart for the city gates and the steam engine. Nightshade stays back due to his wounds, but I persuade Edmund to come along and Adriana expresses desire to join us; she's unwounded so we are fine in that regard. We stride for the gate while Edmund decides he doesn't want to walk with his leg in the condition it is in and orders a sedan chair! Talk about traveling in style. Anyways, near the gate, Peter notices a pair of shadows jumping from roof to roof; Edmund is completely oblivious to any danger so Peter opens the curtain a bit and basically tells him to pay attention. Adriana is aware of the two too, but for now they don't seem to do anything but move and so, the party ignores them.

At the gate, the two still haven't made a move. Peter decides to beckon them as they are walking out of the gate, and turns his back. Two arrows squarely find their marks. So much for that. Initiative is rolled and Peter fires back (I finally remember Favored Enemy and Knowledge Devotion) with a critical to the foot cutting the guy's movement down. Eddie misses and Adriana follows the suite. The two men (pretty certainly cultists) act and the one who ate the flurry retreats, while the other one hits Peter twice more. Peter's really not happy he came along. Karmic justice later, Peter opens with an angry salvo on the remaining cultist, threatening critical twice and applying poison on the first shot. The critical hits the man squarely in the head and he's stunned with the poison. We use our silk rope to climb to the roof, and check the man; dead. Too bad, we were hoping for a new prisoner, but I guess an arrow in the head does that.

Peter decides to hunt down the second one and uses Hunter's Sense to quickly track him; the man goes down to the sewers. Peter follows and hunts the man down; disabled and with an arrow through his foot, he's not in any condition to escape. Peter tries to sneak up to him with stun poison applied to a Dagger, but the man apparently heard him and takes his own life, falling to the stream of **** so typical for sewers. Oh well, so much for the prisoner.

Now, you might wonder where the City Watch was during all this. Well, when the arrows flew, we noticed they just sorta began to drift away and only reappeared after the fight. We kinda wondered this and decided to go chat with one. Some Diplomacy allows us to dig up an interesting piece of information: They have orders from very high up to specifically not intervene if anything happens with us two. We decide this is for one of two reasons: Either the amount of death surrounding us has gotten the City Watch wary, or more likely, some high-up is a part of this cult that is trying to kill us and arrangements have been made to enable it.

We decide it's likely we're on some "kill"-list and that we'll have to see to that a bit later. Peter rides with Edmund so as to rest a bit after the fight. We take the machine and head back to the town, rolling poor Spots in the process. Adriana announces she has "some business to take care of" (where have I heard that before?) and disappears. Peter and Edmund make it to the gate and Edmund diplomacies us into Prego's place with the promise that we won't harm the lawn. In hindsight, this should have set warning bells off in our head; whenever we promise not to destroy something things go haywire.

Unsurprisingly, once we get in to the driveway that leads to the guest house, a bomb explodes. Peter saves for half but drops to WP anyways, Edmund saves for evasion. The machine isn't as lucky and while the engine itself doesn't explode, as the bomb was underneath, the wheels suffer something severe. Yeah...so much for the lawn. Due to all the hassle at the gate, we kinda forgot to check the machine for any tampering even though both of us were thinking of that. The gardener is mighty pissed, but once Prego himself comes out, he's relatively calm just requesting we don't make a habit of this. With that, he excuses himself saying "This will be yet another hassle between nobles due to the place this explosion happened at and I'll have to go clear this up."

We finally search the machine and actually do find a second bomb. Edmund successfully disables it (after rolling 1, thanks to some bonuses) and then we begin to wonder what to do with it. Edmund decides to open it, while Peter heads inside sick and tired of the whole damn machine, the damn bombs and the damn cultists. Edmund jams a screw, but with some help from some tools, he manages to get to the gunpowder and ripples it to the ground, careful to avoid the ignition system. Then wind blows and a cloud of gunpowder takes to the air. Swell. Edmund decides it's an excellent idea to toss a match to the cloud, torching some more lawn alongside the gunpowder. The gardener is not happy. Other than that, the rest goes fine and Edmund manages to figure out how the string ignition system works.

He immediately gets on crafting some, after ordering some workforce for the next day to help him fix the machine (one leader, one smith, lots of brawn, mostly harbor employees and people working with wagons as they have experiences with similar things; harbor employees with heavy objects and wagon fixes with wheeled vehicles), we head to bed for the night, Peter up to his ears with the damn cult, the damn machine and the damn Edmund. Edmund is seething with anger regarding the machine too, and together they decide it's about time to put an end to this. First, though, we trust Prego to protect us while we recuperate.
From Pawn to Player:
Days 39 - 41

Come morning, Adriana has shown up again with an uncharacteristically grim look on her face. When asked "What's wrong?" she shares us some bothersome but unsurprising news: She's been meeting up with her contacts and turns out the three of us (all excluding her) have a fat bounty on our heads. So...we have after us a horde of crazy bombing cultists, every assassin working in the city and the City Watch has been given a categorical order to ignore all of this. Well, last time we were outlaws, now we are just outside the law. Swell.

We wise up and use messengers to attend to our business in the town. Edmund gets on fixing his machine and spends good two-three days commanding the rabble, though mostly he needs the services of the smith to reforge the bent and broken parts. He does ask the men for what words go on the streets and turns out that there's been a lot of bodies recently, and not just our doing. Troubling. We also begin to see the moves our opponent is making and their impact; we decide it's time we elevate ourselves to the player-status and relieve Martin Thompson of his life. Actually, the letter of our agreement is "We'll cram a bomb up his rectum." Yeah, we aren't happy.

Our resolve is further strengthened on the third day, Day 41, when Prego comes to meet us saying "They're taking over the city on many levels now. I'm not sure how much longer I can protect you anymore. If Martin Thompson were to disappear, I may be able to still drive them out of the city, but with his iron grip, the city will soon be theirs for the taking. If you are going to make something happen, it must be soon or I'll have to start "bowing" to our new masters."

Again, bothersome. We were aware of their plans, but that things were already so far and that they'd be able to act so soon? This means we don't have any time to waste. The good news is that we are all finally in good enough condition to act. With that, we immediately set off to map the situation and plan our next move. First, we find that this mansion is, unsurprisingly being watched. A natural 20 on Peter's Spot-check reveals a man on the opposite rooftop trying hard to remain unseen spying on the entrance. First we consider just killing him, but it seems like a futile effort since there are bound to be more and they probably have some sort of a surveillance web.

We have no interest in fighting every cultist in the city. Luckily we have everything we need right here. We decide to set things into motion. With lots of brainstorming, we finally formulate a plan: there's a club/inn named "Silver Moon" which Prego occasionally visits for a beer. It's sickeningly expensive and very much exclusively used by the nobility. The kicker is that Prego does use a sedan chair himself when traveling in the city. It's curtained and everything. This gives us a free ticket out from the mansion without us being noticed. It's large enough for multiple people so we can easily fit inside.

We also need Disguises, as our faces are known to everyone in the law enforcement and the underground due to a variety of factors in motion right now. Mostly the whole "Marked for Death"-thing. Luckily we still have lots of stuff remaining in our Disguise kits so that's no problem. As said before, Edmund now has lots of ranks in Disguise so we do very well in this regard. Next order of business: We need to design Thompson's demise. Well-planned is half-done. First, we need some intelligence, which isn't readily available in our present position and word would get out if we ask our contacts in the underworld or the City Watch.

For this, we do the following: Peter and Edmund disguise themselves as generic high-class citizens from the south. Key thing, as "us" is pretty much the worst guise possible for the task at hands, we disguise ourselves as "non-us". With that, we ask that Prego go to Silver Moon for a night out and takes us along. We agree that he gives us a sign when we are next to an alleyway that lacks a direct line of sight to the opposite roofs.

Plan is we slip off there; the sedan chair will most certainly be watched so we have to slip away until we get to Silver Moon. Come evening, this is precisely what we do. The plan seems to work; we slip off and blend into the crowd quite seamlessly. There's no reason to suspect us anyways given our disguises are quite solid. We head towards Martin Thompson's mansion, slip away there and do some rooftop surveillance ourselves. It's already evening and it's getting closer to winter so it's rather dark in here (we are on the northern hemisphere), making hiding rather easy as long as we make little sideways movement. Interesting how the human eye works. Anyways, we make a list of important observations, which I'll conveniently just list as a list here:
The mansion is about 90' by 140' (the size of the default grid), and a two-story building. At least that much is on the surface, we don't find out if there's anything underground.
Unlike with most mansions, there are two other buildings quite close to Martin's mansion. The roofs are only 15' apart; it's no trick or anything for Peter to jump the distance, for example (his Jump is +11).
There are two-to-three guardsmen on the roof. Easy enough to kill silently provided we can generate a distraction. The third guardsman visits the roof when there's exchange of the guard, the other two seem to act as sentries.
There are two patrols on the ground-level, each three-man, circling the house staying to exact opposite sides maintaining rather full coverage at all times. Chances are there's enough folk inside that any manner of frontal is a fool's errand.
The guard changes every hour (yes, we spent quite some time at our posts).
We spot a room that appears to be a working space in northeastern corner of the building. That should be our first target.
We find sewer access on the street and one block behind one of the buildings we could jump from.
None of the other roofs seem manned; it appears the people in this area still maintain control of their property.

That was all we could figure out without actually entering, but that would turn out to be more than enough. We return and decide we are better off not returning to Prego's mansion in the first place. We decide to enter Silver Moon for the night instead, and send a message for Prego to arrange Nightshade and Adriana away the same way on the morrow, with a sidenote for Nightshade to bring some of the gnome bombs we have lying around; we didn't want them along for surveillance as it's easier to stay unseen in a group of two, and we'll move faster that way, and there was no need for extra firepower.

We have a drink and play some dice with Edmund winning 6 gold (rather significant in this world's currency) and Peter ending up with a 1 gold profit (lost 1 & 2, won 4, lost 10, won 10; 10gp was the max the house was letting us play at the moment). On the morrow, things get in motion. We meet up with the disguised Nightshade and Adriana and fill them in on what we plan to do. We'll go through the sewers come night, and arrive at the roof of the nearby mansion. We have a 15' long plank to enable Nightshade to come over, and it's split in 3 and will be assembled once we're done with the guard. Edmund will arrange a diversion, using the one bomb timer he finished to set a timed bomb to go off on a roof in the other direction, far enough not to cause an immediate alarm but close enough to make them go "WTF" and draw their attention.

Everyone agrees, we place pieces in motion and the game is on.
A Pernicious Deed:
Day 42

We all rest in the Moon playing games and socializing at our convenience; the prices of Silver Moon are so high specifically because they buy complete privacy in addition to fine service. We wait for the night and get started. First, we slip into an alleyway and into the sewers. Confident we managed to slip away unnoticed, we set off towards our destination. Unsurprisingly, even cultists don't agree to watch the sewers and we meet no resistance. The three of us jump off at the earlier sewer exist leading to the block before the roof we enter from.

Edmund continues a bit further and goes to set them up the bomb, main screen turn on. Err, yeah. Anyways, with the deed done, Edmund returns to us, we sneak to an alleyway behind the building we plan on entering from, assemble the plank, and it's time to wait. A long time passes...and then we hear the most welcome sound ever, of the bomb going off! Immediately we throw the grappling hook to the roof with the explosion hiding any sounds and Peter climbs to the roof swiftly. He Moves Silently while running with the plank, but rolls a 20 on his check and thus has no trouble when combined the distance penalties.

With the guards' attention momentarily distracted and them both at the other end of the roof, all of us sneak to the roof, the rest over the plank so as to avoid the need for a running start and the whole -20 Move Silently-part. The roof has a couple of chimneys along with a staircase with metal walls giving us some cover as we approach the guards. One of them begins to turn towards us as we are behind the staircase and as we are only ~50' away, Peter decides it's time to take out the trash.

It's worth mentioning that he had already previously poisoned 4 of his arrows with the Stun-poison to knock these people out fast. Peter acts on the surprise round and hits with Destiny Shot but deals negligible damage and the cultist saves against the poison. Nightshade brought a Bow too and fires at the same guy, much to the same effect. Edmund and Adriana are too far away to act on the surprise round and initiative is rolled. Nightshade and Peter act first with Nightshade shooting the first cultist dropping it to WP but failing to drop it. Peter unloads a Rapid Shot with three more poisoned arrows, dropping the first cultist on the first shot and then stunning the second for Edmund to finish off. Close call, but initiative was on our side this time.

With that, we take out our cultist cloaks (which we had been accumulating over time off the ones we killed; luckily they're black so blood is a relatively minor inconvenience) and put them on, hiding our bigger weapons; Peter is holding onto a Dagger under the cloak with the rest of them holding similarly small weapons.

We enter the second floor and scent confirms the first corridor is clear. The rest of the place is buzzing with cultists, but we manage to fit into the flow and slip away to a room the rest don't go near; the workroom and the only room in the floor the cultists seem to avoid. As we slip away, we wait it's all clear and then listen. Edmund picks the lock even though it seems empty as we want to make sure.

We slip inside with spots all around revealing nothing. We relieve Martin of some of his valuables and pick up some interesting documents off the table trying to leave things mostly intact only taking the less visible objects. Then we search the place...and Edmund rolls 20! We all aid for a total result of 42, which is enough to find, in addition to the valuables and documents, a secret door behind a bookshelf. We search the door taking 20 and Edmund finds a poison multibolt trap. He manages to disarm it on a roll of 19 before actually figuring out what it does (They seem to be coated with the same Death poison Adriana had... Dodged a bullet there.). Peter picks up the bolts happily in a sort of a case, and we enter the dungeon, closing the secret door behind us.

We sneak down as silently as possible and come to an eldritch version of the upstairs workroom; instead of art objects and documents, this one contains skulls, jars with body parts and eldritch literature of various kinds. We figure this is a good place to torch once we are done with it, but first we search the environment and find traps in a chest and the table. The chest one is just a pressure plate dropping nasty stuff on our head; we find a bypass button for it. The table opens a trapdoor to...undefined location. We're not interested in finding out. After disabling that, we search the table. Peter makes it a point to pick up the scrolls written in the language of the Elven High Magic, asking Nightshade to read one which seems to detail the conversion of the magical abilities the transportation coins have. Seems very intriguing. Edmund is, in the meanwhile, scouring up valuables which might just be magical and are certainly very valuable, in fact nigh' unique.

Finally, we check the door and double check it. We find nothing, but it seems awfully suspicious that this were the only operable object not trapped. We end up deciding we just open it with the rope...and nothing special happens. Behind we happen upon a straight sight; four cultists are lined up their backs towards us and on the other side, we see a man who by description appears to be Martin Thompson. They're in the middle of some manner of sermon, which is quite interesting since this isn't the 20th nor the end of the month, in fact nothing near there. So just a random midnight service?

The good news is that they are so absorbed to the whole thing none of them as much as acknowledge our presence. Oh, and there's a chasm which has a very deep bottom in the center. First, we consider Bull Rushing the cultists with or without a rope to the chasm but as the chasm is good 15' from the nearest cultist, we quickly give up that idea. We decide on a brute force approach. And that's precisely what we do; we enter the room with Edmund throwing a gnome bomb between two of the cultists rolling nice 22 on 4d6; maximized bombs FTW! Both fail their saves, one is stunned while the other manages to stay up. I drop one of the undamaged ones with a crit to the leg dealing enough damage to make it save and it fails. It's also stunned but that isn't really that relevant anymore. Nightshade shoots the damaged one but it saves again so Adriana sneak attacks it for massive damage, finally dropping it.

And then we roll for Initiative getting legendary results of 6 total for Peter, 10 total for Edmund and even worse for Nightshade. Adriana acts before the cultists, and moves up to sneak attack the last cultist but misses. Then Martin Thompson acts...and a bolt of dark energy shoots from his hand at Peter! :smalleek: Peter takes 29 points of damage and needs a Fort-save...which turns out natural 1! This means he's stunned for now.

Then Edmund yells at Adriana "FLANK!" and runs around the chasm (we aren't that stringent on the straight-line-rule but apply a bit of common sense; if it's a pattern at which I can run at full speed, these guys can too) behind Martin Thompson. Nightshade moves up to hit the remaining cultist with his guisarme...and misses in an epic fashion. Adriana runs around the chasm much like Edmund, and then Thompson acts. He 5' steps to the side...and turns out he has a Great Scimitar + light shield.

He decides to try and decapitate Edmund, but rolls spectacularly poorly and misses entirely. Then Edmund is up, tumbles around to a new flanking position and...criticals with 20/19! He hit the swordarm, but more importantly he has a critical sneak attack dropping him to 0 WP instantaneously and one poor Fort-save later, it was all over. Peter wakes up and unloads his vengeful fury on the last remaining cultist dropping the Longbow and drawing his Greatsword while moving up; full Power Attack Rabid Wolf Strike on the last, poor cultist standing smacks the man down massively for 42 damage total; the man splattered all over the place. Peter is feeling a lot better.

We make it a point to go through Martin's equipment carefully and find a Mithril Breastplate, a really nicely crafted scimitar and some interesting tomes pushing us all to Medium Loads but yeah. Then Nightshade walks up to him and starts speaking in Ancient Elven again with his hands glowing blue, and there's a red glow on Martin's body that disappears when he's done. When inquired what he did, Nightshade answers "I exorcised the Shadowmind from him". We decide to try what the pit is for and toss a cultist in there...and it sizzles in red flames of sorts with the same red glow on his body before being fully incinerated.

Nightshade asks us not to do that again "to not draw Shadowmind's attention here" and when asked what that chasm is, he says "it's a channel to the Shadowmind". We think we should throw bombs in there but Nightshade says "he's not an enemy you could defeat with those." Spoilsport. Holding to our promise, Edmund decides to pay Martin back in spades and umm...inserts the bomb. We run away, throwing some firebombs as we leave, torching the whole chamber.

We run up and open the secret door again, noticing there's still nobody in the workroom. Outside, we hear a terrible buzz though. We close the secret door so as to avoid the smoke, and then make quick decisions on our escape plan deciding to open the window, jump down and throw a rope to climb over the wall. We run into one of the patrols at that point, with them yelling "Alarm!" and Edmund opens up by giving one a Hand Crossbow bolt in the face. The rest of us draw weapons while Edmund goes to throw the rope over the edge. We epic fail on the initiative for a change. Adriana drops the guy who Edmund hit.

Nightshade moves up to hit the last two, but doesn't kill 'em. The two try to flank Nightshade but that provokes and Nightshade criticals the undamaged one dropping him on the spot. Edmund throws the rope, Peter Rabid Wolf Strikes the last Cultist for ~35 damage, breaking him to thousand shambles, and the party climbs away just as reinforcements start to flow, with Peter dislodging the grappling hook as they leave. Then the trio heads to sewers and returns to Prego's place.

Feeling damn good, we decide to kill the surveillance guy for good measure, climb up with Peter going first, climbing with the bow in one hand but manages the Climb-check to do that. Edmund botched a Use Rope-check earlier so he's alerted of our arrival. The man shoots at Peter, but seems really nervous when three men he knows to be extremely dangerous appear in front of him, and misses. Peter shows him how it's done and Rapid Shots his face, stunning him. Edmund takes the credit and Coup de Graces him to next millennium.

With the deed done, we return to Prego's place Diplomacying the guard into "It's us" and go to the guest house getting rid of our now-smelly disguises. With that, we go to meet Prego and tell him that "Pardons to disturb you so late. We wish to inform you Martin Thompson has suffered an unfortunate accident about ten minutes ago and won't grace us with his presence anymore", to which Prego answers "Don't worry about it; I was just...contemplating things." and adds a sarcastic "How unfortunate." He also tells us "I have put some things in motion as I was kind of expecting this outcome." and we trade "The less we know the better so we don't need to lie." and "We'll find out soon enough." This is convenient for both parties and things should be getting better real soon. The night of the vigilantes indeed; it's still early night so we all decide to get some sleep.

And on this note, the session ends.

Notes:
- We had an insane number of criticals this season, and none towards the party. Seriously, Peter rolled like 4 criticals total and most of them lead to one-hit kills. We're probably increasing the amount of WP slightly so the chances of surviving a critical are a bit better, and maybe decreasing the effectiveness of Sneak Attack, Power Attack and maneuvers as this variant increases their power on criticals tremendously (normally only PA is multiplied on criticals out of those, but this means all of those apply leading to massive damage straight to WP).
- Edmund was rolling very bipolar this session; he had both, the most 1s and the most 20s I've ever seen in one session. On one hand, he was failing Spots and such left and right, but then he scored few really key 20s like the Search, the critical on Martin and so on.
- Martin could've been big trouble; thank god for the insane rolls from Edmund's attacks at that point. If you're wondering, Darkbolt is a Cleric 2 spell and yes, he was a real spellcaster. Not too powerful, but still scary enough given our saves and all (though with Moment of Perfect Mind, Peter actually has decent saves now).
- The whole scenario with the steam engine was very bothersome; we both were thinking of performing full search on it before it, but the fight and then the City Watch chat distracted us so we just forgot about it. And then it blew up on our face as is to be expected. Had Peter failed his saves there, he would've died (after those arrows, unsurprisingly). Close enough there.
- Guess we no longer need the captive cultist. Also, seems like things are getting more and more mystical. Also, we leveled this session. Will have to see what we do.

Mushroom Ninja

2010-04-22, 08:48 PM

Intense session! 2nd level cleric spells are so much more scary when magic isn't supposed to exist. Also, the VP/WP system seems to put everything on edge. Getting shot in the face becomes dangerous rather than annoying.

A few questions:

Are you guys planning on having a nice chat with Nightshade soon? He certainly has been... less than forthcoming with the whole "I-can-do-magic" thing.

Any plans for 7th level yet?

I'm really enjoying these frequent updates. Keep 'em coming, man!

groz_nez

2010-04-23, 07:49 AM

A few questions:

Are you guys planning on having a nice chat with Nightshade soon? He certainly has been... less than forthcoming with the whole "I-can-do-magic" thing.

Any plans for 7th level yet?

Althought you are probably waiting Eldariel to Answer these questions, I also want to comment them.

First of all party can always ask Nighshade about his curious magical behavior. Nighshade will probably answer them at this point, because they have mutual trust relationship.

To answer second question:

I can say that we have been discussing some kind of sublime way rogue class for Edmund. It would be based on swordsage. We would probably add sneak attack progression and trapfinding. Maybe we add something else also? I'm not sure what abilities we would cut off from base class to balance it. Edmund would get access to some nice maneuvers and stances (like Assassin's stance).

Little sidenote about Martin Thompson:

Even though Martin Thompson was spellcaster I had decided that he would not cast spell every turn even if it was possible. I wanted him just do some magic, not to be TPK because of magic. The magic was not however really a problem as we saw:smallwink:. I spent more time to creating his character than my players spent killing him:smallsigh:.

Eldariel

2010-04-23, 04:22 PM

Intense session! 2nd level cleric spells are so much more scary when magic isn't supposed to exist. Also, the VP/WP system seems to put everything on edge. Getting shot in the face becomes dangerous rather than annoying.

That it is; again, we'll have to see if we want things a bit less lethal or some manner of strand of life for important folk, but on the other hand, the lethality is awesome.

Are you guys planning on having a nice chat with Nightshade soon? He certainly has been... less than forthcoming with the whole "I-can-do-magic" thing.

Well, there hasn't exactly been a good time to start questioning him about it lately; since he's been less-than-forthcoming previously, we'll probably wait until things calm down a bit to talk to him about it. Mostly the whole "Once he's ready"-thing.

Any plans for 7th level yet?

Humm, I will probably be just taking more Sublime Way Ranger. I was considering Sublime Way Ranger all the way, but again, DM has tentatively accepted a Martial rewrite of Pious Templar. We'll be looking at that more in the future.

Darkxarth

2010-04-23, 05:35 PM

Just got all caught up on this campaign. I was/am very excited to see a very low-magic game in action, and actually working! I have tried on two separate occasions to run a low-magic game, but it never seems to work out. I have since discovered the VP/WP system. It sounds like your variant is working out pretty well so far. Obviously, if you adjust the lethality let us know what changes were made to do so.

Anyway, thanks for taking the time to type this all out and post it for our benefit. :smallcool:

Eldariel

2010-04-24, 02:33 PM

@Darkxarth: Will do. We didn't apply any changes yet, and kept rolling enough criticals to make things dangerous.

@Ninja: In the end, I took Lightning Recovery for my maneuver on this level (due to us applying ToB to ranged combat too, we agreed that it can be used with bow as well) and ended up using it a ton; replaced Steel Wind with it. Edmund took a level of Swordsage looking at Assassin's Stance next level.

Also, we had a game today.

Session 12

Surprises and Answers:
Day 43

So, we won. Prego was missing in the morning; we were mostly chatting at that point and he showed up in an hour. He had an ear-to-ear smile on his face when he arrived, telling "I have good news. Things are going even better than I expected. It would be an honor if you accompanied me; I have a few surprises you may find pleasant waiting for." Without further word, we leave for what serves as the local palace. There, he offers us some fancy clothes to wear for some manner of ceremony.

We enter a hall with Prego and people cheer and bow; the place is full of nobility of Waterdawn. Prego walks up to the front and the ceremony begins. Apparently, the nobility has decided that it's finally time for things to change and with the various kinds of recent trouble, the throne in the city is empty right now. Lots of fancy speeches are made and the whole ceremony is quite grand, and we get to the point: in front of the nobility, Prego is bestowed the title "Duke of Waterdawn", making him basically the sovereign ruler of the whole city state and a direct subordinate of the King. More fancy speeches and more ceremony follows, until Prego calls for silence. He beckons the four of us forward.

In the most unlikely event ever, he completely flabbergasts the four of us by saying: "For help in saving the city and tireless work in my service, I bestow upon you the title of "Knight"..." going on and on about the rights and the duties of a knight and our position in nobility and so on as the ceremony dictates. So, two thieves/assassins, a common hunter and some...whateverthing are now Knights of Waterdawn. Cool. This also gives us the right to our own estate in Waterdawn and so on.

Needless to say, this was more than a bit surprising and something we'll be playing on a lot, though we'll have to clean up our act a bit. Either way, we each hold grandeur speeches with epic Diplomacy and truly impress the present nobility and convince everyone of our worth for the title and so on. Lots of drinks are had and food is eaten and everyone has a merry time. Come evening, the celebration begins to subside. At this point, Prego comes to chat with us for a while and says he's got some business to discuss with us on the morrow. We agree to meet in the morning and enjoy the party for as long as it lasts. Come evening, we return to the guest house and skip any alcoholic beverages so as to sober up by the morning. We do decide to use the evening usefully though and decide to finally ask Nightshade a bit about himself. To our surprise, he does agree to tell us once inside.

So, who is Nightshade? Well, not the first answer you'd expect: He's a half-elf. And yes, that's not a typo; he's not a 1/100000th elf but a half-elf. His mother is an elf, his father was a human and he's approximately two hundred years old. Apparently elves still exist, just well away from humanity and they still practice magic, just keeping it discrete and most importantly, avoiding the old powers due to the destruction it wrought so long ago. Apparently Nightshade is quite capable of sensing the presence of the artifacts and has received training in sword and spell alike. He also tells us a bit more about the "Shadowmind"; apparently, we're talking about a person who was once a human. He acquired a large number of elven artifacts in his heyday and after their prolonged use, unlocked some forbidden arcana and was corrupted by the magical energies. Now the magic sustains him and he craves more, and his unique magic perverts and alters the ancient force. And then there's the whole world domination thing. Just magnificent. And yeah, elves don't really manufacture items like the artifacts anymore for their potentially corrupting or corrupted effect.

With these new revelations in mind, we ponder things a bit and decide that this concerns us enough for us to actively move against this Shadowmind-guy. On that note, we head to bed for our own exploits in the morrow.
Dark Deeds Call Dark Deeds:
Day 44

We awaken and meet up with Prego as agreed. He tells us that the cult has been driven out of Waterdawn very efficiently and there's a large number of cultists imprisoned waiting for trial and likely execution on treason, with a few having escaped. However, that's only for Waterdawn. The DM draws us a map on the other nearby towns and Prego tells us that the cult is still strong in Marathon and Arcadia, the two larger towns in the surrounding areas. Dalsera seems to have avoided their interest. He requests that we act as his Justice and cut the head of the serpent so to speak.

In other words, we have a license to kill and the Cult must disappear from Marathon and Arcadia. He also gives us names of the local leaders: Arthon Menar seems to be the leading entity in Arcadia and Theilon Max in Marathon. He also gives us a name of a local contact in Arcadia, a man by the name of Marcus Python, who will wait us in the Black Horse Inn every midday. We decide that as Arcadia is the larger of the two towns, it takes priority and that we'll take care of that first. As we are all on the same boat, accepting the job is a mere formality and we depart. We finally manage to locate the adamantine supplier here in Waterdawn and track him down in the docks before leaving. Golden Wind Transports is the name of the merchant group and we manage to locate them without too much trouble. As we enter, the place seems rather ordinary for such a rare material but apparently they simply had gotten lucky in the acquisition.

They have two sizable lumps of adamantine and we decide to purchase both; the initial price is 1 platinum (10k old gold), which Edmund somehow manages to bargain down to 5.5k; nice, much? Either way, we buy one for a shovel while Edmund expresses interest in reinforcing some key parts of the wagon with the other. Of course, all this requires a forge capable of handling adamantine and some Gather Information reveals that we'll need to go to Arcadia for that. How lucky, that's where we're going anyways!

As it's only about midday at this point, we decide to set off immediately, the three of us picking up our horses while Edmund takes the machine. We travel the whole day without any special encounters; the road is lively but nothing especially bothers us though the machine draws more than a few long looks. We ride a bit into the night to reach an inn named "Blue Sky". It looks nice enough and we are admitted inside. Edmund traps his machine and attaches a "DO NOT TOUCH!"-sign to the side. We eat, drink, pay for our rooms and head for bed.

Come morning, Edmund and Peter wake up to hearing a scream from the machine. We run out and there's a decent crowd looking at a bloodied body of a stable boy next to the machine. Apparently the "DO NOT TOUCH!"-sign was too inviting or something. Edmund was extremely mad that someone had touched the machine and dirtied it, while Peter was mostly facepalming really hard on how stupid people can be. Then the innkeeper, equally mad, comes to speak to us demanding some reparations. Edmund basically tells him to go screw himself, flashes his fancy new title in front of the man and the innkeeper shortly backs away, just as unpleased as in the beginning and still without his money and stable boy. Off-screen, Nightshade tosses him some silvers and possibly appeases the man; IC we know none of that and decide to depart fast before someone else gets himself killed.

The second day is somewhat more eventful and in the afternoon, we are attacked. More precisely, two huge wolf-like creatures appear from the bushes and completely malhandle our initiative (except for Edmund who rolled a 20 on his check matching their 25 and beating them in Dex...and missing with his Crossbow), biting into Adriana and Nightshade somewhat painfully. We fight back...poorly with Nightshade missing the first creature and Adriana the second, while Peter managed to hit after Lightning Recovery on a 3, actually rolling critical but getting mighty rolls of 1-1-1-1-2 on a Rabid Wolf Strike (we've all also dismounted at this point). The creature still takes serious damage, it being a critical and all, but makes its save effortlessly.

Edmund criticals the first creature with a Wolf Fang Strike to the back of the head and while it survives, Eddie manages to stun it. The second one bites into Peter for a change, going Bite/Claw/Claw, but Bite gets Wall of Bladed. The Claws deal some damage. Nightshade crits the creature for some more but it still makes its save, while Peter slices into its Vitality Points for a change. Adriana Coup de Graces the first creature while Eddie joins on the beatdown of the first and finishes it with yet another Sneak Attack to the face for lots.

Later on we find out, the creatures were basically statted as Greater Barghests without spell-likes or DR. Not too tough of an encounter, but it's always amazing how much the risk of one crit KO makes battles more exciting.

We continue after the little incident with no trouble and night falls. We have to make a camp this time, given we have no inns and all, and on the first watch I smell people; Hunter's Sense, remember? Yeah, they're approaching and I wake up Eddie making an active Spot-check, hailing "Who goes there?!" as has become the habit. The group identifies themselves as merchants looking for the way to Waterdawn...slightly suspicious given this road leads to only one place that place being Waterdawn. We give them the directions and they ask to sleep at our fire for the night. We give them permission, but Edmund distrusts the bunch and their wagon.

Come Edmund's watch, he tries to sneak to the Wagon and...probably steal something, but fails his Hide/Move Silently epicly and claims he was going to throw a whiz instead...and does just that a bit further away to prove his point. Edmund rolls very poorly for Spot and Listen, and Peter's Listen-through-sleep fails and we wake up in the morning bidding our farewells to the bunch.

Day 45

About an hour in on our travel, the party notices that much of their money is missing, along with the adamantine and better part of the valuables. We ride back figuring the bandits can't move too fast with the wagon and find the wagon burning on the roadside. Adriana agrees to stay back to guard the horses, while the rest of us enter the forest, where the bandits' tracks lead. It appears they had taken their horses with them, but as they can't exactly efficiently ride in the woods, that shouldn't help them at all, and might actually slow them down and definitely makes them easy as hell to track.

Long story short, Peter in Hunter's Sense has absolutely no trouble tracking them down and with Woodland Stride, manages to match their speed and about another couple of hours later, we hear them discussing how easy we were to fool around a fire. We discuss various practical jokes we could play on them but decide to just kill them instead. We circle around the camp, Peter takes one, Edmund takes one and Nightshade takes one of them in the aim and we let loose a volley of arrows and bolts. Nobody misses but none of them drops either.

We slaughter their initiative and after the first round of combat, we've each slaughtered our "chosen target" and Peter manages to save two shots for a secondary target after critically hitting his own, slaughtering that one in the process. Edmund says "Surrender if you value your life" to the last one after the gruesome death of his comrades and the man doesn't take long. We question him about why the heck he decided it'd be a good idea to steal from us, and turns out hiding our Mithril Shirts under our clothes has its downsides. Then we decide to execute some Hammurabi justice, relieve him of his thieving arm so as that arm may never steal again, bind his wounds and send him off after relieving him of our fortune as well. Then we torched the remaining bandits' bodies, tents and everything else we couldn't steal.

We return to the roadside where Adriana scolds us for taking way too long and we set off back on our tracks towards Arcadia. With the delay, it's already nightfall before we reach the city and the guards stop us at the closed gates, inquiring our names, business and the reason for our late arrival. We simply state our titles as Knights of Waterdawn and call our business our own, stating "slight delay in our journey" as the reason for our late arrival. Seeing the proofs of our knighthood, they quickly let us in and tell it's rather difficult to find an inn right now due to Harvest Festivities. Luckily Edmund has good Gather Information and we find an inn named Sunrise rather close to the gate that's just in a bit obscure location and thus still has room to spare and we eat and buy lodgings for the night after ensuring it's a safe locale. Come morning, nothing out of the ordinary has happened.

Day 46

We try to locate the smith we'd need for adamantine, mr. Uolevi, and fail 'cause we suck at gathering information. We have breakfast and then we decide it is about time to go meet Mr. Python in the Black Horse for information. And since it's about midday, we do just that. After exchanging the code phrases "Sunrise was warm today" for "Evening comes fast", we figure we've got the right guy and order beers, retreating to a corner of the room for business. He asks if we are the agents sent by Prego to attend to the issues here and we answer "Affirmative". Then we get down to business.

He fills us in on the local business of the cult and mentions that to truly cut the head off the serpent, we'll need to not only slay Arthon Menas, but his two lieutenants, Arthur Mander and Joe Xander as well. They've got a meeting on 20th, which is most convenient as we can all slay them all at once. Apparently the cult isn't able to act openly here either and they lack a real control of the city at least as of yet, so e.g. the City Watch is still reliable...or well, as reliable as it can be in a world like this. It's mostly composed of nobles and their resources are much more limited here than in Waterdawn. Most notably, the number of the "soldiers" - that is, mutated cultists - is much smaller. We get an assortment of other important information like the locations of the leaders' houses, and various small pieces here and there, and agree that he'll be here midday on all coming days too should we need a contact.

On this note, we end the session.

Notes:
- I apparently need a lawyer to discuss with my DM; we have had a lot of unclarities regarding...well, just about anything. For example, all the way up until I was writing this journal I was in the understanding that our pockets had been emptied but he decided to inform me it was merely our saddlebags instead. And this is not a singular case.
- I was forced to reroll a Spot-check of 18 'cause apparently it was "unclear" or something due to having collided an eraser and being slightly obliquely or something. Edmund's player and the DM formed a "consensus" on this matter. I rolled a 1, which I had called beforehand ("If you make me reroll this, I will take 1).
- Drinking coffee without spilling it all over the table just isn't the same.
- I informed our DM that instead of taking stats from some random bigger canines and removing the SLAs, he could just advance Dire Wolves. I dread the first Huge one we meet.
- We figured Regeneration is something of a problem in WP/VP system; being able to convert all damage to WP damage with Fort-saves is just :smalleek:-worthy.
- No alterations to lethality just yet. Things keep falling fast. We are including 20/20/20 insta-death rule just to add to the theme. Still waiting for the first PC death.
- The DM managed to make our XP (which had contained 1s and 10s) an even hundred-base without looking at our character sheets. That's quite the achievement, I must admit. Last session was a slaughterfest too so we got quite a bit of it.
- Yay.

Mushroom Ninja

2010-04-24, 09:41 PM

I like the update. It's nice to get to know a little more about Nightshade. Did he happen to mention his real name?

So Peter and Edmund are knights? Well, I suppose I've heard of stranger things. I guess it could serve as motivation for Edmund to become a little less... Edmund-like.

Also, how many in-game days are there till this meeting between Arthon and his lieutenants?

I'm really enjoying this Campaign Journal. It makes me want to finally work up the low-magic campaign setting I've been fiddling around with.

Eldariel

2010-04-25, 07:18 AM

I like the update. It's nice to get to know a little more about Nightshade. Did he happen to mention his real name?

We...kinda forgot to ask. The name "Nightshade" has kinda grown onto it all.

So Peter and Edmund are knights? Well, I suppose I've heard of stranger things. I guess it could serve as motivation for Edmund to become a little less... Edmund-like.

Yeah, or as an excuse to get away with everything. And while weirder things have happened that was...unexpected to say the least.

Also, how many in-game days are there till this meeting between Arthon and his lieutenants?

We have 30-day months so 4 days left. This is, incidentally, why I'm tracking days in the journal. We started at the beginning of the month so this allows us to keep a track of the turning of the month and the year.

I'm really enjoying this Campaign Journal. It makes me want to finally work up the low-magic campaign setting I've been fiddling around with.

Yay! :smallbiggrin: Purpose accomplished.

Darkxarth

2010-04-25, 01:48 PM

Congrats on Knighthood. Try not to abuse it too much, though I notice it has already solved several problems. :smallbiggrin:

groz_nez

2010-04-27, 02:14 PM

Hilarious session this evening:smallcool:. We were already in the mood for first of May. But let's not spoil Eldariels update. One more thing, ask Eldariel for "alternative" ways to give people fluids (something that came up in this session).:smallbiggrin:

Eldariel

2010-04-27, 06:27 PM

Well, when DM types a post like that, you know what that means: All aboard the failboat!

First, we altered few rules this time. All bonus dice deal 1 damage per bonus die to WP on criticals (until VP falter anyways) to reduce the chances of one-shotting, and made most generic sources like Power Attack deal straight VP damage by default. We also added 1 WP per level to characters...which was something of a salvation in retrospect.

Also, when getting to the DM's place where we play, my car refused to start. Somehow, in city trips, it had run out of battery as it had never had the time to properly start charging it (no, I did not forget the lights on or anything of the sort). In retrospect, this should have been the red flag on today's session. Alas, I failed to read that into it. So...if you want a story of utter failure, read on:

Session 13

Uolevi the Smith:
Something I forgot to mention last session, when we failed at gathering information on Uolevi, Adriana set off to locate the man through her contacts. In the meanwhile, we decide to take a first look on our target. As it's midday, we stride towards the nobility area and make a pass-by on the mansion; the area seems eerily quiet but some people still walk around so we decide it won't be too suspicious if we make a quick walk-by.

Some random noble walks the same alleyway as we do, so we slip into another alley and come back when he's gone (for whatever reason), and then wonder a while on how exactly we should observe the place, and decide that climbing roofs in the midday is about 10 times more suspicious than anything else we could do. We opt to just walk there, and as there are two cultists guarding the gate, we just turn and walk away the other way. We do get a decent look at the place; it's a one-story building the size of Thompson's mansion, but with a smaller yard. A wall with barbed wire on it circles the entire area and overall, entering doesn't look easy. No other guards besides the two are noticed though.

Back in the room, we get to brainstorming. Everything from crashing in with the wagon to digging a tunnel with the adamantine shovel is considered and found extremely troublesome, stupid and overall, we get a pile of ****ty ideas large enough to warm our room with. Eventually, we end up testing if the coins work here. I try to transport into Nightshade's room...and it works! So...yeah, no ancient elven wards here! Yay! This'll make our entrance quite a bit easier.

At this point, Adriana shows up and tells us she knows where to find Uolevi. We decide to pay him a visit immediately, and Adriana guides us to a small alley. Turns out this particular smith is so good he doesn't even want to be found; he doesn't do normal smithy stuff anymore. He only cares for special orders that pay really well. Luckily we've got one for him.

So, quick introductions later, we show him the adamantine and make an order for: one drill, one shovel and reinforcements in the buffer of the steam engine. He says it's enough for the three and we get down to bargaining the money, with him starting at 100gp (10000gp in normal game terms) and we bargain it down to 90gp. He says the drill will be done in a day, the shovel in two and a week for the machine. We pay half up-front and half when we retrieve the last item. Eddie shows him the steam engine, Uolevi makes his K: Engineering check to understand the explanations and all is good. We depart.
Let The Dice Fall:
Adriana excuses herself, saying she'll need to see to her other contacts and we head back for our inn. If you wonder where Nightshade is, well, we never really asked him along so he's getting drunk in the bar. We wonder if he's actually a half-dwarf half-elf; that would explain his alcoholic tendencies. His attitude towards Wårf further supports this viewpoint.

Regardless, we roll Spot. Somebody is tailing us. A man dressed in black, but not a black cape. So not a cultist. We decide to go down an alleyway to deal with this in private. The man follows. We turn again, and he still follows. Then we turn around to face him and say:
"If you have business with us, speak fast." He inquires if our names happen to be Peter and Edmund and we ask "Who are you?". Since he insists we answer, Edmund states "No, I have no idea who you are talking about". He still insists he has some business to tend to with us, and we demand him his name and reason for being here. We fail a Spot-check, while he doesn't answer. We all end up drawing weapons; this was pretty much seen coming a mile away.

Initiative is rolled and he wins; we manage 10 and 9 for our rolls so it wasn't much of a contest. He opens up with some nasty strike on Peter for some sick 30 points of damage (for perspective, my total VP is 49), and a Fort-save which he Nat 20s. He's actually like 1-2 off crit. Ouch :smalleek: Edmund delays and Peter fails Crit Confirmation on 25, but still smacks the man for 36 points right back on Rabid Wolf Strike, while Eddie whiffs on his. The man takes his turn hitting Edmund, hitting him for 31 points. At this point, we find out what that whole Spot-check was about; some reinforcements show up. Four more on roofs, to be precise.

We decide we need to bail, but that we need to take this man down first so we unload on him, with Peter full attacking and hitting on both for 44 damage, and Edmund Flashing Sunning for double crit dealing obscene damage to him already on WP, dropping the man as his second Fort-save is only 18.

Then the new combatants all jump down (Sudden Leap) and full attack us. Peter blocks the first hit with Island of Blades but eats two hits from the iteratives and the second hits, dropping way to WP and failing the Stun-check with a roll of 5. 3-round Stun: perfect! Then Edmund manages to drop the one of the three that failed his Tumble-check with a critical, but another one hits him for enough to send him 5 points to WP; he needs a 6 on his Fort-save and rolls a 5. Damnit. At least the body part rolls only hit torso so we're fine in that regard.

We wake up a couple of seconds later in some hasty binds we find ourselves unable to break. Then we're dragged to the sewers. Edmund tries a Diplomacy-check which does precisely naught as, it later turns out, we just killed their leader and they aren't happy (but we are wanted alive, apparently). We're dragged in the **** in the sewers with our heads hitting the stones and overall, we feel pretty miserable but manage to stay aware and keep a track of where we are going.

Then we get thrown to a room smelly, gagged and bound some more with some rudimentary search revealing the dagger hidden on Peter's person but missing the one on Edmund. Then they sit there and watch us. And Edmund manages to Sleight of Hand the dagger to his hand and starts sawing off the ropes while Peter waits for the fatigue to subside before striving to burst the ropes (it's within his capabilities when at full strength). They haven't taken our coin, so our plan is to escape with the artifact; we'd do it just now if I had the means to move my hands, but alas. So...Edmund escapes his ropes, but tries to sneak to me when their attention isn't entirely focused. They easily make their Listen-check as he rolls an awesome 5 though so it's time for Initiative...on which he throws 1. Grand.

So, he has the Dagger in hand but opts not to fight back as there are three men with weapons in hands and he's down to WP already...and then we get injected with stun poison, Peter manages to resist and tries to act as if he passed out...rolling 1! Yay! Then he gets injected with another dose for his trouble and passes out. Then we get injected with another poison for good measure and fail our saves. And then we fail some more saves and are out for a long, long time with various nasty substances in our system.

Day X

We wake up in a completely different room, nauseated (one of the Fort-saves) and woozy. We're tied upside down...above one of those pits we saw in Thompson's place. Turns out the bounty note had reached Arcadia. Just perfect. I smell a dozen or so cultists and my own vomit with my Hunter's Sense. Oh, and I don't feel too well. And Edmund isn't much better off. A bit later, we see from description the three leaders we were sent to kill show up and say something about thanking whatever lords they worship for finally granting the chance to eliminate these thorns in their side...or something.

My plan is to try and burst the ropes anyways (totally a move action) while Edmund tries to escape 'em (totally a move action) and then touch the coin (totally a move action) in the freefall or die trying. Yeah, we were pretty desperate. They have some ridiculous worship for about an hour so we have some time to think it through even with our...stomach distress. We start rolling checks for Escape Artist and Burst, respectively. Then, a wall blows up. And yes, by that, I mean actually blows up.

Turns out Nightshade and Adriana got curious of our disappearance, and pulled some strings. It's the two and the cultists are running away in disarray; these aren't the same bombs we've been seeing before. The three leaders escaped in the very start. Nightshade has a merry good time blowing up a bunch of cultists that aren't fast enough of their feet, while Adriana climbs up to us and takes Ed's hand while using the coin in my pocket to teleport the three of us outside. Our interaction is rather brief given the state of our stomaches, but there are horses nearby (we're way outside the town) and no explanations are really necessary. We trust Nightshade joins up a bit later and ride off on our horses. In the city, we don't even talk to the City Guard and just teleport inside the inn. It's apparently night and this is the second day since our disappearance. So the day is Day 48.

Then, Adriana goes out to find some antidotes to the various goodies flowing through our veins while we're mostly bedridden and rest for the night, and Nightshade shows up a bit later. Then Adriana also rolls some Heal-checks to speed up our recovery and umm, we sleep. She also treats us by cupping to at least cut to the amount poison in our blood which should hopefully cut the durations at least. And come morning, the nausea at least is gone.

Day 49

Peter still isn't feeling too well (he's at ½ his WP), but Edmund is up and running already. He describes his present feeling as "a bad hangover", which ultimately isn't probably so far off. He goes out to the town to pick up our Adamantine Drill and more importantly, purchase us some new weapons (luckily enough, our Mithril Shirts were never removed for whatever reason as they're worn under our clothes and apparently they just didn't either care or notice).

His trip goes mostly without trouble while Peter performs the tiresome activity that is bed rest. Adriana stays back on the Heal-duty while Eddie sees to various stuff around the town; he gets some contact info from Adriana and goes to talk about...things to some of the local people-in-the-know. He finds out that the meeting hasn't been rescheduled, that the bounty on our heads has been paid and that it'd be "really stupid for someone to reinstitute it as that would suggest the guys who paid the bounty screwed up". He also gets blueprints for the mansion that is our target and so on. He also talks with Nightshades about the bombs used and turns out they were arranged through some local contacts of Adriana, but that the supplies are all-but-out due to the amount needed for that particular trip, so we cannot use them to blow up the cultist convention.

And this is where we end for the day.

Stuff:
- Epic fails on our parts. Particularly the string of 6 5s-or-lowers that ended up with us captured. Any one of those rolls at about 7+ would've saved us. Let the dice fall, I guess.
- Only alive by DM's grace. How grand. Ah well, I guess it sort of makes sense; cultists like sacrificing people and all. But still, just eww.
- Lots of inappropriate jokes of all kinds on all the circumstances, including one the DM alluded to about how exactly we remained hydrated while nauseated and unconscious for days.
- Lots of inappropriate jokes regarding Adriana too, though I guess that was kinda coming all along. Sigh. I guess we were just kinda unfocused.
- We spent about as much time laughing as we spent playing. I guess epic failing does that.
- The new rules worked out just fine. Not one crit one-shot anyone, and now critting someone already on WP has some benefits.
- Let me re-emphasize that the dice fall as they fall. Seems our luck ran out.

groz_nez

2010-04-27, 07:28 PM

Now that Eldariel has posted his journal update, I can comment somethings:

As some of you may have noticed, I had good opportunity to kill my players characters. If any of you have the attitude DM versus Players, you might disagree with my decision to let them walk away. Personally however I think that it is not DM job to intentionally kill players. Althought players might die if they make big mistake (Like try to kill the king in plain sight) or their luck run out in combat (meaning killing blow lands). It's also much bigger thing to die in low-magic world than in normal D&D world as in here we don't have resurrection spells. Although this time it would have been TPK.

I like players characters and it would be very ******* like just to kill their characters that have doubled their starting level. Also rolling new character would be big hassle. Also they would lose all great things in the current campaing like steam engine, Nightshade and so on.

Lastly I want to mention something ironic. Eldariel said in session before previous one that next time it's his turn behind DM screen his going to give party nasty supprise. DM says: "You wake up, actually you don't wake up you are dead". Party would very much appreciate this kind of thing.

Mushroom Ninja

2010-04-27, 08:24 PM

Well, I suppose the party has had more successful exploits in the past, but at least you're still alive. This just goes to show that Lady Luck truly is as treacherous as she is alluring.

You need to wear this (http://www.thinkgeek.com/images/products/zoom/dicearetryingtokillme.jpg) shirt to the next session. :smallbiggrin:

Darkxarth

2010-04-27, 09:16 PM

Bad luck there. Thank goodness you have trusty NPC friends who could come to your rescue.

Eldariel

2010-04-27, 11:39 PM

I first read your post as "Thank the Goddess", Xarth. Seemed kinda ironic with my berating of Lady Luck there. Then I bought glasses.

Btw, Cute_Riolu, remember the poison-list I promised thee? Well, here you go (this is Peter's present toolbox):
{table=Head]Poison|Price|Save DC|Primary effect|Interval & Effect|Saves Required|Secondary effect|Craft DC
Hellebore Juice|500gp|22 (Ingested)|1 Hour Charm Person|N/A|N/A|N/A|25
Sand Scorpion Poison|150gp|20 (Injury)|10 Minute Stun|10 Minutes, deals secondary, no repeat|N/A|2d4 Hours Stun|20
Unremembrance|175gp|15 (Ingested)|10 Minute Memory Loss|1 Minute, deals secondary, no repeat|N/A|2d6 Days Memory Loss|25
Drow Poison|75gp|13 (Injury)|1 Minute Unconscious|5 Rounds, repeat|3|N/A|15
Goodbye Kiss|350gp|15 (Ingested/Injury)|1 Hour Exhaustion|1 Minute, repeat|2|N/A|15
Medium Spider Venom|50gp|12 (Injury)|1d4 Strength Damage|1 Round, repeat|2|N/A|15
Insanity Mist|600gp|15 (Inhale)|1d4*X Wis Damage (X = interval)|3 Rounds, repeat (with +1d4 damage)|3|N/A|20
Slow Taint|300gp|15 (Contact)|5ft. Speed Loss|2 Rounds, repeat|4|N/A|18
Doc Smoke|150gp|16 (Inhale)|After 5 exposures, 2d6 Con|1 Hour, repeat|5 (1 to avoid exposure)|N/A|22[/table]

Prices are all in "old" GPs (that is, normal D&D GPs, not our altered currency), N/A for intervals means it ends regardless of success on saves, "deals secondary, no repeat" is pretty much how old poisons work, and Doc Smoke does nothing until 5 successful exposures.

EDIT: @Ninja: Yeah. I want one of those. Now.

EDIT#2: I finally realized my first Crit on the Assassin Boss would've actually hit. Eh, damnit? I had forgotten to account for my increased BAB from the last level; my To Hit was marked at +11 even though it's 7 BAB + 4 Str + 1 Mw. or +12. I got 25 for my crit confirmation roll (11+4 Rabid Wolf Strike+2 Knowledge Devotion+2 Flank-5 PA), his AC was 26. Eww.

XiaoTie

2010-04-28, 07:16 AM

EDIT#2: I finally realized my first Crit on the Assassin Boss would've actually hit. Eh, damnit? I had forgotten to account for my increased BAB from the last level; my To Hit was marked at +11 even though it's 7 BAB + 4 Str + 1 Mw. or +12. I got 25 for my crit confirmation roll (11+4 Rabid Wolf Strike+2 Knowledge Devotion+2 Flank-5 PA), his AC was 26. Eww.

For some reason, I now picture your character a bit shorter (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0034.html).

Darkxarth

2010-04-28, 08:31 AM

I first read your post as "Thank the Goddess", Xarth. Seemed kinda ironic with my berating of Lady Luck there. Then I bought glasses.
:smallbiggrin: Maybe it would've been funnier if I had said that.

Btw, Cute_Riolu, remember the poison-list I promised thee? Well, here you go (this is Peter's present toolbox):
{table=Head]Poison|Price|Save DC|Primary effect|Interval & Effect|Saves Required|Secondary effect|Craft DC
Hellebore Juice|500gp|22 (Ingested)|1 Hour Charm Person|N/A|N/A|N/A|25
Sand Scorpion Poison|150gp|20 (Injury)|10 Minute Stun|10 Minutes, deals secondary, no repeat|N/A|2d4 Hours Stun|20
Unremembrance|175gp|15 (Ingested)|10 Minute Memory Loss|1 Minute, deals secondary, no repeat|N/A|2d6 Days Memory Loss|25
Drow Poison|75gp|13 (Injury)|1 Minute Unconscious|5 Rounds, repeat|3|N/A|15
Goodbye Kiss|350gp|15 (Ingested/Injury)|1 Hour Exhaustion|1 Minute, repeat|2|N/A|15
Medium Spider Venom|50gp|12 (Injury)|1d4 Strength Damage|1 Round, repeat|2|N/A|15
Insanity Mist|600gp|15 (Inhale)|1d4*X Wis Damage (X = interval)|3 Rounds, repeat (with +1d4 damage)|3|N/A|20
Slow Taint|300gp|15 (Contact)|5ft. Speed Loss|2 Rounds, repeat|4|N/A|18
Doc Smoke|150gp|16 (Inhale)|After 5 exposures, 2d6 Con|1 Hour, repeat|5 (1 to avoid exposure)|N/A|22[/table]

Prices are all in "old" GPs (that is, normal D&D GPs, not our altered currency), N/A for intervals means it ends regardless of success on saves, "deals secondary, no repeat" is pretty much how old poisons work, and Doc Smoke does nothing until 5 successful exposures.

Those are some pretty powerful poisons, especially Sand Scorpion Poison, particularly considering its price. Of course, price is meaningless if it is unavailable, so I guess Groz_Nez can control the amount of poison available to your characters.

Still, I would not want to run into any Sand Scorpions, they seem like they would be pretty tough, given their poison.

EDIT#2: I finally realized my first Crit on the Assassin Boss would've actually hit. Eh, damnit? I had forgotten to account for my increased BAB from the last level; my To Hit was marked at +11 even though it's 7 BAB + 4 Str + 1 Mw. or +12. I got 25 for my crit confirmation roll (11+4 Rabid Wolf Strike+2 Knowledge Devotion+2 Flank-5 PA), his AC was 26. Eww.

Bummer...

Eldariel

2010-04-28, 03:36 PM

Those are some pretty powerful poisons, especially Sand Scorpion Poison, particularly considering its price. Of course, price is meaningless if it is unavailable, so I guess Groz_Nez can control the amount of poison available to your characters.

Still, I would not want to run into any Sand Scorpions, they seem like they would be pretty tough, given their poison.

It may just be a moniker for a manufactured poison; animal poisons generally deal ability damage. Though of course, some animals do like their prey alive and just use poison that knocks unconscious, but yeah. We haven't discussed the actual origins of the stuff yet; it is, however, the poison Peter primarily uses in combat nowadays (for obvious reasons).

And yeah, I had apparently fallen behind in updating the sheet due to the rapid pace of leveling recently; it never occurred to me that some of the numbers could be wrong as I simply don't waste the time to check those midgame. So...meh.

For some reason, I now picture your character a bit shorter (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0034.html).

It's particularly ironic since I'm the mathematician and the rules-savvy player in the playgroup; it's very rare I make mistakes with regards to my attack rolls and forget some general rules (though my own class features I've forgotten aplenty; I have too many! Only recently did I start to use my Knowledge Devotion and Favored Enemy, for example.).

Eldariel

2010-05-04, 06:11 PM

Yeeah, I'm posting so it's session-time!

Session 14

Shouldn't Have Let Him Out Of My Sight:
We begin by thinking what to do about the whole cultist thing. Peter enjoys a healthy bedrest while Edmund and Nightshade are drinking their skulls out. Adriana is on the long-term care duty still. Anyways, we go through our options and decide it's a senseless risk to attack before Peter is fully healed. As such, we're going to have to skip their meeting and just take them all out one-by-one.

Then we get a crazy idea: Let's hire the assassins! After a quick discussion over whether they've got what it takes and if we should kill them afterwards too, but decide to worry about that later. We, of course, have a score to settle with them from...well, you know. Either way, we decide on that plan: Assassins will kill one of the lieutenants while we'll kill the other and before the word gets out, we'll go finish off the leader. All silently, if possible. And "we", of course, means our heroic quartet.

Either way, when the decisions are made, Edmund and Nightshade get back to their compulsive drinking and make few Fort-saves, but manage to hold their booze all evening. Come nightfall, Edmund gets the great idea of going out to kill a cultist. The two of them slip outta the inn and start stalking the streets, seeking for blackrobed people. And Nightshade spies one in distance and once they close in, Edmund sees him too. They make sure the coast is clear, and Edmund fires a Crossbow bolt in his back (with hefty penalties from being drunk), and finishes the man with a Dagger. Then he goes to check...not a cultist. Crap. They decide to put the man's money in his eyes and mouth to give him the coin to pay for River Styx and toss him to sewers. I recall his head got dislodged somewhere along the way. The whole deal is very messy, but they figure the Assassins would clean up for the silvers on the body. Lesson of the evening: Never let Edmund out drunk without moral supervision. Edmund decide to share all this in graphic details with Peter while completely wasted and Peter mostly figures he's hallucinating it all, and tells him to get to bed.

Day 50

Another day of bedrest for Peter with Adriana again in the Heal-duty and Edmund and Nightshade passing time. This is the day of the meeting, but as stated, we decided not to attend. Edmund decides to gather some information, on his own this time and manages to figure out that a noble returning from some negotiations between two noble houses had mysteriously vanished yesterday and now the house he belonged to is blaming the other for killing the ambassador. Wops.

Also in news, the cult is being laughed at in the underworld for letting two prisoners escape after paying a hefty sum for their capture alive. Oh, and there had been a guild war in Marathon between the Thieves' Guild and the Assassins' Guild. Something interesting happens in the afternoon: A message comes to us in the inn. We are cordially invited to the bloody Cultist Meeting?! Yeah, if that isn't a trap I ain't met one.

Edmund is plain outraged by the nerve they've got for taking us for such idiots as to take that invitation. He immediately asks the innkeeper who brought that message, and it was a blackrobed guy a while ago; he hadn't had time to pass it forward immediately. Edmund immediately sets out while scribing a note "God damnit! ****! You can't be so ****ing stupid as to think we'd actually walk into the most obvious goddamn trap on the planet!" Thanks to his speed, he manages to catch the guy easily, sneaks up to him in the crowd and Sleight of Hands the message to the man's hand. The man manages his Spot against the Sleight but fails to notice Edmund and so is left wondering about how the hell that note ended up in his hands. Hilarity is to be had.

Day 51

We finally strive to get something done. Peter is almost fully recovered and is more-than-tired-enough of the damn bed to just jump off and get something done. With that, Peter and Edmund decide to finally go make the deal with the Assassins' Guild. Some K: Local and Gather Information reveals a contact that handles the Assassins' contracts.

We head out to the building we figure is used for that and some old man opens a doorhatch and asks for our business. We state we are interested in hiring some death and he asks if we've got recommendations. We state "None", flash some cash and are let in (with about a dozen locks opened). Inside, another man receives us and inquires the nature of our task. We state the names and titles of the targets and it is agreed. We then barter cash and the man requests 70 gold for both; Edmund points out that we'll be working together in the assault on Arthon Menas and manages to cut the price down to 50. Half up-front and half after the grizzly deed. Some money exchanges ownership and we depart.

"News" (from Gather Information in the underworld) today includes that the cult seems to have quieted down a lot after the meeting and seems to be withdrawing. We ensure that our targets are still in the vicinity though and that is indeed the case. It is, and we withdraw for the night.
The Fated Hour...or Day Anyways:
Day 52

So, it's time to make our move. With Peter fully healed, we decide to act. Our acting involves sleeping a lot until night falls, as again, darkness tends to be convenient when killing things. First, we gather the news for the day and turns out lots of nobles have indeed been leaving the cult as a consequence of Nightshade's little bomb-happiness. The leadership is still intact though so our plan stands.

Of course, we need a little something to get going and we get that in form of our inn window crashing. I immediately begin to yell "I run out of the room!" but we're forced to roll for initiative and I'm too slow; boom boom! Edmund evades while Peter saves to take 7 damage. Then we try to go to the window to shoot the guy, but we're reminded that it's combat and we're acting in Initiative...of course that was a surprise round and we lose initiative too so we receive another bomb for our trouble. Edmund manages to Nat 1 his save and most of his equipment blows up in the 20-point explosion! Yay.

Then Edmund delays while Peter, extremely pissed, jumps out of the window and Rabid Wolf Strikes the man hitting in spite of rolling 4 thanks to Knowledge Devotion, Rabid Wolf Strike and BAB combined. Then Edmund jumps down, Wolf Fang Strikes with some weapons he still has lying around after the explosion, sinking a Sneak Attack and the man collapses. We find 5 more of the bombs...and the inn is on fire. Perfect. The Town Guard shows up asking "What the hell is going on?", and we pretty much tell them to open up their eyes and smell the smoke while running for the well.

And we put out the fire and then the goddamn innkeeper has the nerve to ask us for reparations. We explain to him that we had nothing to do with the explosions and that we are only responsible for stopping the madman, but he insists that the man was here after us or something. Peter tosses him one gold to shut him up and we Diplomacy for a new room. Edmund goes out to city and buys himself new weapons. Then we finally get some peace and quiet and the night falls.

Swift stride through the city, we don't meet with any problems and pass time by discussing ninja assassins. Or rather, whether the assassins are ninjas and whether ninjas are assassins and inverse ninja law (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ConservationOfNinjutsu?from=Main.ConservationOfNin jitsu) and so on.

...anyways, our target is Joe Xander. His house is much like a smaller version of Arthon Menas's mansion; we do quick surveillance and decide to just teleport in. And do just that. There's a room without lights where we teleport, with our Cultist Disguise™ on. The room turns out to be a bed chamber of sorts, but nobody is there. We leave and avoid undue attention, checking the second door.

It's a working room and it's empty; we scan the environment and find a well-hidden safe protected by a trap Edmund manages to barely avoid triggering. It's disarmed and we find 50 gold. Nothing much of note in the room otherwise; we relieve the cult of their cash and go check the last room in the floor. There are two cultists with books in there and we pretty much close the room as fast as we open it since Joe doesn't seem to be there. Luckily they didn't really pay us any attention.

We slip downstairs and there are two lit rooms and one unlit; of course we go there first. It's locked. Edmund tries to open it while the rest of us cunningly disguise ourselves as a hedge. (http://jyte.com/static/1/553/00013553/claim-F27170.png) Botches. Again. Botches. This repeats for a few times and one cultist walking past us asks "What are you doing?" Edmund slyly answers "We are cleaning" when it's clear we have no cleaning equipment or whatever, but rolls so well (and the cultist fellow rolled horribly) that he actually manages to get it through. He just tells us "Alright, just be at the ceremony." Edmund asks "How long until then? I've kinda lost track of time" and gets a "half an hour" as an answer. Interesting. Well, once he's gone we continue and Edmund finally gets the lock open. It's a storage. Hurray! We pick up...mops. And few Mw. Daggers we could easily carry along, for selling.

Then we go to one of the lit rooms, the one all the cultists weren't going to...and it's locked?! The hell? Well, this time Edmund manages on his second try and we see a man in a Breastplate "Looking something like Joe Xander". Apparently he's so into his books he didn't hear the botched lockpick attempt. We shoot him. He goes down before getting to act. Actually, everyone hits exactly one with Edmund being the only one to miss, and winning Initiative. We check; he isn't Joe. Peter somehow recognizes the man as Marcus Marlyn, an accountant for the cult. We find some papers on the finances of the cult; they paid 1 platinum for us :smallbiggrin: Well, that's heartwarming to hear, that we are at least worth something.

Either way, that only leaves us with one room. As we know there are multiple cultists inside, we decide to abandon this guise and blow them all up; each of us takes one of the bomber's bombs and we walk to the door. We open it and in the surprise round, toss 4 bombs to the circle getting all but one of the cultists including Joe. Every single one of them blows up (Joe blows two saves; each bomb is 5d6 and we rolled P 20, E 21, N 15 and A 16 for damage), with one having all his equipment incinerated (two nat 1s on saves). The last cultist drinks a poison and dies. We ensure the body is indeed Joe, Edmund scribes his "I wuz here" on these corpses and...session ends.

Observations:
- Session started a bit late and we spent too much time laughing so we didn't get all that much done. It happens, I guess.
- Not one real fight; some of the cultists acted daft to say the least, but I guess these guys aren't soldiers by nature. They didn't appear to be scalykind cultists (what I've taken to calling the deformed ones) so that might explain something.
- The coin is pretty busted in a world without magic, but not working in Waterdawn cuts down its utility a great deal.
- What's up with these idiots blowing up every inn we sleep in?!
- So yeah, lots of pretty generic ninja-jokes. Apparently we were a bit tired since we found it all so ridiculously funny, combined with some recurring jokes.
- Next time, we'll hopefully get this particular job done.

Darkxarth

2010-05-04, 07:00 PM

Sounds pretty crazy. It also seems that, judging from their not-at-all-subtle attempt to lure you into a trap and then blow you all up, you were becoming a debilitating thorn in their side. Thankfully you got them before they tried to get you. Again.

Now you just have to hope that the Assassins managed to do their job. Hopefully you can finish these guys off and won't suffer too many consequences for not destroying them before their meeting.

Eldariel

2010-05-05, 03:19 AM

I'm pretty confused by what was going on there. I almost wanted to go just to find out. Maybe they had some big ceremonial magic-thing prepared for us. That could've been interesting. Ah well.

I ended up not worrying about the assassins' competence; five of them participated and five were enough to bring us two down. If we have no trouble killing the cultist leaders and they're at least as professional, and probably way more discrete, I'm pretty confident they'll be at the rendezvous point outside Arthon's mansion when we begin the final phase of the operation.

@Ninja: Yeah, I need one of those shirts. Our solution this time though was to just not make for very many relevant d20 rolls :smallbiggrin:

Mushroom Ninja

2010-05-06, 08:57 PM

Either way, when the decisions are made, Edmund and Nightshade get back to their compulsive drinking and make few Fort-saves, but manage to hold their booze all evening. Come nightfall, Edmund gets the great idea of going out to kill a cultist. The two of them slip outta the inn and start stalking the streets, seeking for blackrobed people. And Nightshade spies one in distance and once they close in, Edmund sees him too. They make sure the coast is clear, and Edmund fires a Crossbow bolt in his back (with hefty penalties from being drunk), and finishes the man with a Dagger. Then he goes to check...not a cultist. Crap. They decide to put the man's money in his eyes and mouth to give him the coin to pay for River Styx and toss him to sewers. I recall his head got dislodged somewhere along the way. The whole deal is very messy, but they figure the Assassins would clean up for the silvers on the body. Lesson of the evening: Never let Edmund out drunk without moral supervision. Edmund decide to share all this in graphic details with Peter while completely wasted and Peter mostly figures he's hallucinating it all, and tells him to get to bed.

See this is why you can't let Peter get hurt. There's nobody to keep an eye on Edmund when he's recovering. :smallbiggrin:

Also, I think your party makes a great set of janitors. Gotta love a ridiculously successful bluff. :smalltongue:

Eldariel

2010-05-12, 07:06 AM

Alright, session-time!

Session 15

Killings:
Our story begins over the "I wuz here"d body of Joe Xander and his randoms. We quickly take whatever we find on the bodies, and decide to use the coin and teleport outside. We try to sneak away, but somebody spots us and the chase is on. We fail to lose our assailants, so we take a turn to an alleyway and turn to fight. Instead of cultists though, a bomb flies in front of us. Uh, k; use coin to transport us to a roof! These bombs seem to be really nasty stuff; one wall of the building collapses in the explosion.

We try to sneak up from the roof and shoot the assailants in the back...and the dice decide natural 1s are cool so they spot us. Initiative is rolled and we all, except for Adriana, fail in an epic fashion. Adriana takes a shot at the man holding another bomb in his hand, but the man doesn't drop. Then they act. The bombman blasts our entire party for 27 points of damage, with Edmund punting his Reflex. Also, the wall collapses and we fall to the street level, though Tumble at least lets us avoid damage. And then the other two act, with one cultist hitting Peter twice with a Longsword for 21 points of damage, and the other one hitting Addie. In the meanwhile, Edmund savages the cultist next to him with Flashing Sun landing all three hits, Nightshade hits the bombman and Peter hits the other cultist with a mighty 40-point swing followed by Addie slicing it into oblivion.

The bombman, however, survives and lights himself on fire with Alchemist's Fire; Peter manages to whiff his AoO with a mighty 2 and the man is lit on fire...and explodes with the remaining bombs on his person. Peter rolls a 15 Reflex, which is "not enough" and one blows up right in his face for 20 points tossing him way into WP. He does manage his save-vs.-stun though and gets the hell away from the body before any more explosions occur. The team looks at the alleyway and particularly the beat-up building and decides a discrete exit is in order. So, to recap, three dead cultists, whole team banged up a bit by some explosions, and Peter in a rather bad way. As the schedule is rather tight, the team decides that Peter will sit this gig out. He opts to go to the surrounding woods for safety; our experiences of the local inns suggest that things go boom boom and he isn't at all in mood for boom boom right now.

The remaining team makes it to the rendezvous point with the assassins, who seem to have lost two of their ranks. Apparently the resistance has been more fierce than expected, or these assassins aren't as competent as we first assumed.
Arthon's Demise:
Small interlude here: As Peter won't be doing anything for a while, I ask the DM to let me play one of the NPCs in the team and I get one of the assassins. I name him Bob. Then we name the others Steve and Steve-Bob, though I oppose that last name wanting to name him Charlie, and the rest Charlie's Angels. The DM ultimately goes with Steve-Bob though.

So, after that little incident, the remaining team makes their way to Arthon's mansion...and it's completely unguarded! Not only that, but none of the windows show anything inside. The door...is open? That's strange. Team Redshirt enters first and the first floor is quickly scoured. And it's empty. And I don't just mean devoid of people: There's nothing but the walls there. There is a staircase up and down. Team Redshirt goes up while the rest go down. Upstairs pretty much exactly matches the first floor, but there's light coming from behind a large door in the downstairs so the Assassins join the rest of the team in an attack. The plan is for the assassins to take out Arthon Menas while the rest take out any support he may have.

Kick-door later, they do indeed find Arthon, though mutated like some of the cultists. With him, there are two of those...black things with red swords. Thwap, thwap, thwap: Surprise round later, one black thing is badly beat up while Arthon and the other black thing take some damage. The assassins apparently fight with Light Crossbow and Dagger. Yeah. Either way, they prove quite inefficient, averaging ~10 damage per turn, while the rest are slightly more functional. Due to movement distances, the assassins (who act first) can only hit the remaining black thing and do so, while Edmund, Adriana and Nightshade drop the second black thing, and swing at Arthon with Island of Blades-flank. The black thing makes a nasty wound in one of the assassins, draining some constitution, while Arthon decides to break Edmund's weapons, though fails to take out the Hand Crossbow. Then he repositions himself, eating an AoO from Adriana (but non-Sneak Attack since without Rapier, Edmund cannot threaten).

Assassins again flank Arthon and hit him for some points, while Edmund, slightly frustrated it seems, draws out a Dagger and and goes pummel on Arthon as well. The remaining gang joins in the beatdown, but Arthon takes it like a man. Then Arthon breaks Edmund's dagger and Hand Crossbow, leaving him again unarmed and slightly more frustrated. And then Arthon, this time tumbling away, bails again. Assassins reload and shoot their Crossbows dealing amazing 9 and 6 damage off naked PBS 1d8s, while Adriana and Edmund go beat down on him and Nightshade finishes him off. They find nothing but his weapons on him. Yay. At this point, Edmund remarks how lucky he was that the Assassins had taken his real weapons and these were "only" masterworks. Assassins collect their payment and fade into the night. The party takes their leave and Peter meets up with the rest in the morning in an inn as agreed.
I'm Gonna Get My Gun Back:
Day 53

So, we are almost done with the city. We go visit the smith and pick up our adamantine shovel and the van. He cordially invites us to visit again should we ever get something equally fascinating to work on, while we take our due. We also go meet our informant and ask if he knows anything about this whole "empty house"-crap and such. He simply tells us the cult was moving away from the city and that we've apparently accomplished our mission. We suspect something else, but keep to ourselves for now. Marathon is next.

But in the meanwhile, Peter is taking bedrest for a change, with Addie playing the nurse...for a change! Apparently Peter has a tendency to get blown up quite a bit. The rest of the day Edmund and Nightshade mostly drink. We decide it's time we go collect our due from the assassins.

Day 54

We decide to head into the Assassins' "office" already in the morning. And find the place empty. We teleport inside from an alley. Peter can deduct with a combination of Scent and Track that there has been nobody there since our last visit. We find nothing of note except for a hatch leading to the sewers inside; we decide it's as good a guess as any. It's trapped with some strange copper wire going...somewhere, but Edmund disables the trap. Then he tries to open the lock...and taking 20 isn't enough. Great. Well, we remember we have adamantine tools for this. We fool around with the drill for a while and just dislodge the entire lock and enter.

We light our bullseye lantern and follow random intuition in few turns the corridor takes. Eventually, we recognize some of the forms from our last...err, trip here. And at about that point, some six arrows fly from the darkness! Thanks to bullseye lantern, they don't actually see us any more than we see them. Three shoot at the wrong square, one misses due to 50% concealment, but two hit. And one rolls double 20. Oh joy. Oh, and maximum damage. Peter is knocked out for 3 turns by a 12-point shot. Oh, and it hits him in the leg. And the lantern crashes, being snuffed out. Just perfect.

The remaining trio does a crazy plan; Nightshade uses the coin to teleport them amidst the assassins, while Edmund lights a Sunrod. And moving 70' forward, the teleport is dead-on! That is to say, they appear right in the middle of 6 assassins. Now, there's one flaw in this plan: If they lose initiative, they're all dead. However, Lady Luck favors the bold/stupid and they own the initiative. Nightshade Power Attacks for a bit and slices one into tiny, little pieces. Adriana slices another one up and Edmund Flashing Suns a third one into oblivion. Not bad for the first turn. The remaining assassins do some half-hearted attacks, missing or dealing negligible damage, and come second round, some really savvy Island of Blades-use kills all the remaining ones in the following 6-second split.

And that's it! It could've been a disaster, but a bullet was dodged. With that, Peter comes to and the party scouts the surroundings (generating a makeshift Bullseye Lantern with Guisarme + Sunrod + what remains of the Lantern), finding a trapped door to a room that reminds us of the place we spent some hours in before crammed full of poisons. This room then contains another door, which is trapped. After the trap is disarmed, we find that the lock is as good as the one we met in the hatch and fail to open it. So we remove the lock, the hinges and smash the door in, but it's also reinforced against opening from the inside. At this point, we just smash the damn thing to bits taking our time with the adamantine shovel. Apparently it really wasn't meant to be opened from this direction. Ah well.

Inside, we find lots of nice stuff; lots of gold, our old weapons, a Warhammer made from a strange metal Peter recognizes as Oerthblood (K: Dungeoneering FTW!), some random art objects and so on. We help ourselves to the stuff, and after that, leave the sewers through the nearest exit we find. Peter purchases a new Lantern as this one is too full of **** to be of use.

We decide we'll probably want to go visit Uolevi regarding this Warhammer and melting it, crafting something useful given the chance...but decide to end the session here.

Notes:
- We screwed up Bullseye Lantern's range; I remembered it granted shadowy illumination to 60', not 120'. Wops?
- Henceforth we'll always carry our Lanterns at the ends of Guisarmes or 10' poles to avoid opponents getting our location right that easily.
- Blind crit for max damage? I mean, really?!
- Yeah, there was some dice-killitude in the beginning of the session. It got slightly better as things went on...for everybody except Peter anyways who was eating WP damage left and right.
- Edmund rolled another 6 on his HD for level 8. He's about 10 points over the average by now.
- Yeah, we leveled. Took Mithril Tornado for my maneuver with all the hordes we are facing; seems good with Power Attack.
- Something about scaling bombs. Those things keep getting nastier.
- Strange what happened with the cult in this city before we actually made our attack. Now I'm almost interested in what the hell happened at the ceremony.
- Marathon next. After that, we are done with this little excursion.

Nick_mi

2010-09-09, 03:52 PM

So whatever happened to this journal :(

Eldariel

2010-09-09, 03:54 PM

So whatever happened to this journal :(

Summer vacation meant (contrary to what you'd think) that we haven't had sessions in a long while. We actually tried for two weeks ago but it took me a while to find my sheet and then we had tons more trouble finding Edmund's sheet and the DM ate and then we ended up with only an hour before we had to quit so we just played Guitar Hero instead. So...yeah, the campaign is still going but the next session is yet to be scheduled.

Nick_mi

2010-09-09, 03:57 PM

Well lets hop to it, you got fans to please after all :P

Eldariel

2011-05-25, 10:57 AM

So, we just tied some loose ends together and finished ; should have more time get something done. Still, I guess I'm compelled to log our misadventures from this session, for consistency's sake.

Session 16

Finishing Up:
After our little raid in the assassins' hideout, we were left with our weapons, a bunch of valuables and that one particularly impressive Warhammer made of a strange metal we identified as "Oerthblood". We did the obvious follow-up: heading to Uolevi the smith and ask if he'd be able to smelt the Warhammer and make something we can use out of it.

After long bartering, we agree to pay him completely outrrrrageous sums of money for a Rapier, 150 arrowheads and 100 bolts. In total, we paid 24 gold coins for each 50 of the arrowheads and bolts, and 60 gold coins for the Rapier (made particularly sharp to enable dealing critically injury more easily). This is a somewhat steep blow to our wallets totaling about a fourth of our wealth, but on the counterbalance we are getting some really impressive toys for our continued efforts to make life interesting for everybody. Well, in two days anyways since that's when he says he'll be done with this project.

After a long, profitable, extravagant day we decide we have accomplished enough and head for our inn, reserve rooms for two more days and get some needed rest.
So Bored (Never A Good Sign):
Day 55

We wake up, and have two days to kill. All we've had to do in this town is more or less done but we still have to wait for the weapons we ordered from Uolevi before we take our leave. So what's a man to do with two days to spare? Well, a joy ride of course! With a beer barrel, for good measure. Long story short, Edmund purchases our beer barrel and all four saddle up or jump in the steam engine and we head nowhere in particular, leaving the city by its eastern gate.

We decide to head to somewhere we haven't been to yet; we just leave the road and head southeast of the city. The day is a bit cloudy but the clouds don't appear to promise rain, at least as of yet. Our little joy ride involves driving over a bunch of fields with a bunch of curious farmers wondering what we're doing; or at least, that's what we gather as we can't hear a thing over the noise the engine makes. We don't really pay them any heed and end up at the edge of a forest that happens to be too thick for the machine to navigate. Then we turn east for no reason in particular, find some path wide enough for us to drive and end up at a somewhat more impressive-looking stone house (not quite a mansion) apparently inhabited by a man named Wilhelm who oversees the farming of these lands under the ruler of Arcadia, Alfred von Halt. As we have no real interest to cause any more trouble and we're doing nothing in particular, we just 180 back to the town.

Our ride killed some time accomplishing absolutely nothing so we decide to kill the rest of the day finishing off our barrel. Edmund and Adriana have a few more than they can stomach and Peter and Nightshade escort them to the rooms. Everyone turns in for the night. Something is amiss (that is, "we failed a Listen-check").

Day 56

Wonderful morning, it's raining outside and Peter feels great while Edmund feels less so. Peter, likewise, feels less so when we find out that we've been robbed (*gasp*)! Some really peculiar thief decided to relieve us of all our arrows and bolts, waterskins, oil and pants. Edmund goes ballistic (hangover, headache & no pants makes him go something-something), picking up the adamantine shovel and smashing the lock to neighboring rooms (almost getting skewered by Nightshade in the process, who thought someone was attacking or something) yelling for his pants. When people came out of the rooms asking what manner of a maniac he was, he took out his Hand Crossbow and made some very convincing threats that had the people silently slip back into their rooms (apparently still quite upset though).

Meanwhile, Peter, notably less hungover and much more competent at this sort of thing, seeks the room for various smells and tracks and startlingly only finds recent tracks from himself, Edmund, Adriana and Nightshade. As soon as he realizes this, he puts one and one together and then realizes what Edmund is doing and rushes to restrain him. Peter grapples Edmund down, disarms him of the shovel and tells Edmund to calm down. This is when Edmund has successfully smashed the locks of five of the rooms and is on his way towards the sixth. Edmund does snap out of it, realizing smashing doors probably isn't going to help him find his pants. At about this point, the innkeeper comes in with the captain of the guard wondering what the heck is going on. Peter leaves Edmund to sputter something about hunting thieves at the guards (Edmund actually does it very convincingly, enough so that the guard lets him go with just reparations for the damage; then Edmund actually haggles on the fines and succeeds; in the end he only has to pay 3 silvers for the whole mess) and heads over to Nightshade.

Peter asks Nightshade if he'd happen to know anything about the pants (and the other stuff, but pants are something of a priority right now) and Nightshade chuckles to his beard, inviting Peter to look out of the window of his room. Peter does so and sees the pants and the waterskin shot to the wall of the opposite house with arrows and bolts. Further scrutiny reveals them dripping some oil to the ground in the rain. Peter sighs, heads back to Nightshade's place and asks "What the hell?" Nightshade chuckles and says he got a message from Prego in the night saying he has some new information about the situation in Marathon and asking us to return ASAP. This was apparently his idea of a fun prank before leaving. Peter knocks him to the ground with a "Very funny; go get me new pants", with Adriana giving Peter a sympathetic pat to the back while walking by. Nightshade shows no intention of moving anywhere so Peter instead bribes Edmund, who is finally rid of the city guard, to get him new pants too while he gets ones for himself (mind you, he's doing this in his underwear). And then Edmund decides to buy a new beer keg for good measure. When Peter asks Nightshade about the owner of the house he used as target practice, Nightshade tells Peter to not to worry; apparently he knows the fellow and "He'll understand".

Rest of the day, Edmund and Peter spend filling out their supplies and not causing any more trouble. All four decide to just spend a quiet evening doing nothing much. The beer keg is mostly disposed of by the end of the day and everyone heads to bed with Edmund muttering under his breath something about sneak attacking Nightshade's beard.

Day 57

Without any further escapades, we collect our orders from Uolevi and set off to Waterdawn. And on that note, the session ends.

Notes:
- Most of the session was spent updating Edmund's character sheet (again). Also, Edmund had to reread his maneuvers and all that good stuff. And then we had to actually arrange enough room for us to play.
- Will be interesting to see what Edmund does with regards to Nightshade. Peter is quite quick to forgive and forget but Edmund is a whole different animal.
- We had a lot of fun reminiscing our old games and with various out-of-character stuff in the start of this game. Guess that also negatively influenced the time we had to play.
- Driving Under The Influence probably isn't illegal in this world.

So, definitely not dead. As said, there should be a game tomorrow. Until then, farewell.

Eldariel

2011-05-27, 06:04 PM

And as promised, we had our next session yesterday. This one was a doozy; for the readers, prepare for a long account.

Session 17

Much Information, Too:
The session begins with our heroes on their way back to Waterdawn. To our surprise, there's actually quite a bit of traffic on the road north. Inquiring some of the passerbys, apparently the Duke of Waterdawn (that would be Mr. Domor) is arranging large celebrations for the north being safe once again. There's some talk about the end of some dangerous cult. This throws us off somewhat, given we still haven't been to Marathon and there's supposed to be a base of operations for the cult there. Then again, Prego did invite us back to Waterdawn since he had some news on the events in Marathon so obviously something else has happened making our presence there less necessary.

The weather is still rainy which of course doesn't make for a terribly cheerful day trip, but weathered wayfarers make do. The celebration would start in four days so we have one day of extra time provided we make it for Waterdawn without further delays; the trip is approximately three days long. Come nightfall, we seek some group of travelers camping in the roadside and join them; when it turns out we are competent warriors, we are welcomed and we make our own camp near theirs. Guard shifts are Edmund - Peter - Nightshade - Adriana.

Edmund's shift goes by without any incidents; the biggest event is his epic discovery "wind has begun to blow". He wakes up Peter. Bit into Peter's shift, he hears footsteps. Curiously, whoever is approaching isn't trying to move silently though he is light of foot. He is approaching us directly. Peter keeps his bow in one hand but doesn't make any further preparations. Soon, he sees a woman approaching from the approximate direction of the woodline. The woman has an unearthly look to her; it's almost as she radiated some invisible light amplified by her wearing pure white clothes. She's quite slender with delicate features and carries herself with a certain aura of majesty and power. Oh, and her clothes are dry in spite of the rain. Peter makes the cunning deduction that the person in question is not a human.

As she approaches, Peter calls out a greeting and the woman responds in kind. Peter asks "What would you have of us?" and the woman asks if she could approach. Peter, judging by her speech that she does not intend to stab him with 10 knives, invites her to the luxurious camp with its wood-for-benches and fire to keep the rain-that-is-not-bothering-her-at-all away. She explains she has something to discuss with all four of us, and indeed as was abundantly clear, she was specifically looking for us. Peter ponders whether to wake up Edmund or not but in the end wakes everybody up. Edmund is not too happy and states "If she starts shining, I'm shooting her." As soon as Nightshade awakens, he rushes to her and hugs her and they exchange some words in some language the rest do not recognize. All they can deduct is that the language reminds the language of Elven magic Nightshade had used when dealing with the various artifacts.

After a few moments, Nightshade apologizes for not introducing anybody and introduces the woman as Amy; or rather, that's the name she uses when dealing with Common-speakers since her full name is quite long and hard to pronounce. Then he introduces our raggy crew, all in turn. And then we get an information overload. First of all, in spite of her appearance, Amy is apparently the last dragon, not an elf as one might think. Or well, ex-dragon; apparently she had to assume the form of an elf and give up most of her powers in the process when she remained. And the reason she stayed behind was to salvage the knowledge of the old world, so it would not all be lost into myth over time. She chose the form of an elf over that of a human because a human living a couple of thousand years might raise more eyebrows.

Apparently, long ago there was a cataclysm. She does not tell us of the nature of said cataclysm, but it lead the Elves into undoing their magic. However, they could not locate all their artifacts so some where left behind, such as the coins in our possession. Apparently, Nightshade hunts these artifacts to dispel them before he hands them over to Domor, who in turn is not aware of this side of things but serves as a valuable ally due to his extensive knowledge on where these relics might be found. Apparently Elven magic corrupts the human mind in extended exposure, which is why Nightshade is so invested in this project. And the whole "prank" pulled by Nightshade yesterday was to apparently throw off scrying that was being used to track us; Nightshade had contacted Amy already earlier to arrange this meeting. When Peter asks why Nightshade waited so long to tell us that, he mentions that the scrying would last until we left the location so the scryer would've heard the explanation too.

At this point, Amy asks us to hand all our items involved in Elven magic to her. Edmund is adamant about not revealing about the coin in the machine in spite of everyone in the party knowing about it. Peter shrugs and hands over the coin in his possession. After that, Amy chanted a word and the coin in the machine, the coin in her hands, our deflective rings and Peter's fiery greatsword all begin shining blue. This was not good due to Edmund's earlier promise; Edmund shoots at Amy with his Hand Crossbow. Said shot misses and Amy chants some words that prevent Peter from moving but Edmund somehow manages to throw the enhancement off through sheer strength of will (or sheer dumb luck; he rolled 20). Nightshade then attacks Edmund with two hidden Daggers while Adriana looks at the whole debacle extremely confused. Both Daggers connect and Edmund goes limb on the second hit. At this point, Peter realizes the enchantment does not restrict his ability to speak and apologizes for Edmund's idiocy and asks if he could move again. Amy undoes the enchantment.

After this debacle, Amy dispels all the items of Elven magic; the rings and the sword lose their enhancements while the coins lose their markings and become more or less discs of metal. Amy mentions that it appears Peter and Edmund have actually come dangerously close to the corruption point. When Peter inquires Nightshade about why he didn't mention about this, Nightshade explains that he didn't know of the Sword nor of the Rings being of Elven magic and thus hadn't spoken of the corruption effect since it would take years for Peter, Edmund or Adriana to use the Coins enough for any real danger, assuming the magic wasn't being used exceptionally often. Peter lets out a sigh of relief while Edmund's body shows signs that he'll be out for a long time.

The conscious people present then turn the discussion to the task at hands; the whole Cult-nonsense. Amy asks to see the papers we had gotten while dealing with Decor and Thompson, and asks Peter for some chemicals; being a walking apothecary, Peter has no trouble providing the requested components. Amy makes some kind of a liquid out of the ingredients and sinks the papers in it; text appears on them. We gain quite a bit of information out of this whole deal. First of all, apparently the cult had some contingency for if they fail to gain a foothold in the north. However, the death of Martin Thompson threw a wrench in these plans. Further, his death in the middle of the ritual apparently left Shadowmind vulnerable some time in the next two months.

Regarding the Shadowmind, apparently he is cursed with awesome and is not vulnerable to mundane weapons. However, Amy mentions that the next mission Prego is going to send us on will involve retrieving an ancient sword that could hurt him. Apparently the sword, while magical, is not of Elf magic so the corruption isn't a threat, making it a suitable weapon for the job. Rather astonished by Amy being able to tell what Prego is like to ask us do next, Peter flatly asks Amy "Are you a seer?" to which she chuckles a bit and answers "No. But being here for few millenia has its perks." When further inquired about why she doesn't just collect the artifacts and disable them herself, Amy answers she considers it the job of the Elves and tries to avoid unnecessary meddling in the matters of the world.

With that, Amy offers a few parting words and wants to talk a bit in private with Nightshade before taking her leave; at this point Adriana returns to sleep while Peter keeps on his watch. The party figures Edmund will probably be out until the morning anyways so it's almost as good as him sleeping through the night. After Amy is gone, Peter asks Nightshade what the poison he used on Edmund was. Nightshade states it's some natural compound from some creatures' and some plants' poisons that's very potent for knocking out people, but he's not at a liberty to share the recipe.
Grudgings:
Day 58

Edmund wakes up at approximately the same time the rest of the party is ready to leave, with a throbbing headache. First thing he does is point his Hand Crossbow squarely in Nightshade's temple and asks "You have four seconds to tell me what did you do to me! Or well, a couple more if you need it to tell me." to which Nightshade responds "You have three seconds to take your Crossbow off me. And I poisoned you", seemingly exceedingly unconcerned with having a weapon at his face. Edmund further pushes "Where's that slut?! I'm going to kill her!" to which Nightshade answers "I don't know" and even Edmund comes to believe him being honest. Edmund is building up quite the grudge here.

The weather has taken a turn for the better, at least, and Edmund's mood isn't made further sourer by more rain. The road is still quite crowded but that doesn't intervene with our trip and we make good headway. About halfway through the day, at a point where there are no travelers ahead or behind us, we hear a screams from the side of the forest. Yes, there's a coniferous forest next to the road for almost the entirety of the trip. We make a quick turn towards the voice to see what's going on, with Edmund abandoning his machine and the rest of us abandoning our horses at the edge of the woods. We can make out two small forms and one larger form in the distance and without further questions, Edmund shoots one of the small forms for a successful mosquito bite (4 points of damage). They turn towards us as we make our way forward and split up running to two sides leaving the taller figure alone. As we get closer, we can make out a woman that was apparently the source of the screams. We check if she's ok while Edmund tries to chase after the smaller form going to east. The woman appears to be just fine; apparently two gnomes had lured her here with cries for help and tried to rob her. Of course, them being gnomes, we cannot pass up on the opportunity and go hunting. Peter calls Edmund back since Edmund failed to regain vision of the gnomes; Peter's tracking skills are like to serve better here.

Turns out the gnomes we went hunting ran just out of vision range and then began sneaking away. Luckily his tracks and scent are easy enough to follow, though. Peter notices a trapwire in the way that he asks Edmund to look at. Edmund takes a look and disarms the trap...triggering a trap linked to the first trap and taking a stake to the leg (critical) and looking very unhappy. The gnomes must die. Peter makes a makeshift bandage for Edmund's leg and we continue the pursuit. The trail goes up a cliff and we set out to climb. About halfway up, we see a major boulder on the top. It's moving towards the edge. We make for quick evasive maneuvers. Nightshade, being in a fullplate, falls spectacularly. Rest of us make our way to the side, and manage to evade it when the boulder falls. Then we climb up, with Adriana and Peter managing a fast climb while Edmund tries to follow behind and Nightshade decides to ignore the whole cliff and start looking for a detour. Peter and Adriana reach the top approximately simultaneously and see two gnomes with bows waiting.

Peter acts the fastest and runs at the gnome closest to him, drawing his sword and delivers a fearsome blow. Adriana likewise acts faster than the gnomes and stings the other one with a poisoned dagger. Edmund pulls of a rather amazing stunt, especially considering his leg, and jumps from the cliff over the edge rushing at the gnome Peter hit and stings it getting straight past its defenses for a solid torso hit, leaving it barely standing. The gnomes abandon their bows and whip out warhammers, Adriana and Edmund taking small scratches but they were by and large ineffective. Subsequently Peter finishes the gnome in front of him with a mighty blow while Adriana stings the gnome with another dose of the poison and this time it takes effect, the gnome summarily falling over.

Edmund, with seething fury, states he's going to do some very unpleasant things to the surviving gnome and for once, nobody gets in his way. Both gnomes are afterwards relieved of their heads - valuable trophies as always - and apparently the gnome Edmund was left alone with let out some "very satisfying screams". Of course, before it woke up, it was tied up in a group effort.

With that little incident out of the way, the party returns to the road finding the woman gone as is to be expected, and continues towards the inn for the night. And with no further events along the way, the inn is summarily reached. As it's almost night-time, the party just takes rooms and everyone goes straight to bed.

Day 59

Everyone agrees to spend a day in the inn so some nursing can be done on Edmund's leg. Peter takes the role of the doctor while Adriana and Nightshade enjoy a day at the bar. The day is almost completely uneventful, except for both Nightshade and Adriana having one too many and subsequently Peter being forced to not only tend to Edmund's leg but carry both of the others to their rooms. Edmund decides to abandon the bedrest in order to relieve Nightshade of his beard now that he's lights out and there are no traps in his room for sure.

After some sneaking, Edmund succeeds and throws the beard in a bin. Later he realizes Nightshade doesn't really have to guess who did it, while Edmund missed out on a chance to actually heal up a bit, and comes to the conclusion the idea was overall terrible.
The Festival (Wall Of Text Crits You For Massive Damage):
Day 60

Early in the morning, the party gets ready for a departure in order to get to Waterdawn in time for the festival. Nightshade has a strange smile upon his face. Probably related to his beard. In any event, everyone gets saddled up except for Edmund who's going to be travelling in the machine this time around in order to get some rest, which requires for Peter to drive it. The trip itself is quite uneventful but it is evening before the party gets there. They exchange greetings with the guardsman who bows after Peter and Edmund introduce themselves, though not necessarily looking the part of a knight, and everybody gets into the city. First things first, the party splits up to find some new clothes more suited for formal high class celebrations. Edmund and Peter visit one of the more skilled tailors in the nobles' district.

Looking our parts as weather-beaten travelers, he looks down his nose on us and says "There's nothing for you here." Our titles didn't convince him but some gold did. He actually has a selection of ready dresses; given we're of rather standard sizes, finding ones fitting us isn't even difficult. Eventually we settle for cashmere outfits with fancy fur, gem & gold decorations. After tight negotiations, we get them for one gold piece each; a good price overall. Edmund states "You're lucky we're not selling you fire insurance."

With this out of the way, we head to Domor mansion, leaving the machine there while at it. The guard at duty is the same one as when we last brought the machine (the time it blew up); he's looking at it extremely suspiciously but we manage to convince him to trust us that it is not rigged this time. Once inside, we are informed that Mr. Domor is at the palace arranging preparations for the opening ceremony and that we're expected there, so after cleaning ourselves up at the guest house and changing for a massively more royal and less woodsman look, we head that way. I must say, there's quite the difference between the two unshaven, ragged men and the clean-shaven, groomed knights that came from the guest house.

At the palace, we're reunited with Nightshade, who has done much the same as Peter and Edmund, and Adriana who has found herself a deep red evening gown. Peter and Nightshade wear a Longsword on their belt while Adriana and Edmund are seemingly unarmed, with various daggers and Hand Crossbows hidden on their person (Peter and Nightshade have a dagger each, too). They also wear Mithril Shirts under their suits. As an interesting point of note, there seem to be some less people present than during Prego's coronation as the Duke of Waterdawn. First, we enter the festival hall and see Prego having a discussion with three other people in the middle of the hall. As soon as he notices us, he invites us to join him and two of his companions leave him. The remaining man is dressed as a military officer of some stature. Prego introduces us to Mr. Marcus Theodor, General of the Waterdawn's military forces. He also introduces us to Marcus.

After exchanging the pleasantries, Prego explains that the cult seems to have disappeared from the north entirely. Apparently, General Theodor assisted him in the operation against the cult, most importantly capturing a large number of cultist as they were leaving Marathon. Currently, there are some very capable interrogators trying to dig information out of the captured. Then he mentions that he has some private matters to discuss with us but that those would have to wait. Marcus Theodor likewise says that he has heard of our capabilities from Prego and as such, has something to discuss with us afterwards in private. After this, Prego and Marcus excuse themselves and we treat ourselves to the aperitifs available.

We then split up and socialize with the various people there. Edmund finds himself talking with Archduke Bren von Vicona, a high-ranking member of the royal court, while Peter is acquainted with Halden Maatel, an extremely wealthy merchant.

Edmund and von Vicona mostly discuss their hatred for the barbaric northern people (which is kinda ironic given Edmund's only claim to any title whatsoever is his knighthood in Waterdawn). Then the discussion turns to the exorbitant tolls a southern lake town Narkelia has been extorting lately, and how the crown's attention has been drawn to money disappearing there without taxes being paid. Another events of interest are occurring on the Silver Mountains, where metal shipments have been growing ever so slightly smaller and people sent to investigate the matter have disappeared. This hasn't warranted further action since the shipments are still coming and because the crown cannot afford to lose agents constantly, but when Edmund inquires if there'd be interest for particularly capable agents, von Vicona states the crown would be prepared to pay significantly for the job. Edmund states he'll see if he could find someone.

Peter and Halden, meanwhile, discuss the tolls of Narkelia; the tolls have increased by twenty percents in two years and Halden wonders how any merchants could pay such price. Narkelia already got rich thanks to their unique geographic position being able to toll basically all trade passing to or from the north, so it is has to imagine what motivations they could have to raise the tolls to such levels as to hurt their monopoly trade routes. There's also talk of something unclear in the capital of Dramadan, Mercenwar, regarding the heritage order; if the present king dies, which is not impossible considering he's already in his 60s, his successor is unclear. Such things are of course always swept under the rug but if the death happened right now, we might be looking at a civil war. Finally, he also mentions how some of the business ventures at the Silver Mountain have been getting less profitable as of late and he's wondering what's going on there.

At around this point, Prego calls everyone to the dining hall for the beginning of the official ceremony. We four find ourselves unsurprisingly seated next to each other, and once toasts are risen and food is served, enjoy the feast. Food is luxurious, as is to be expected, and we thoroughly enjoy ourselves [oh, and we collectively failed a Spot-check]. After the main course, Prego begins a speech [Edmund makes a Fort-save]. First, he speaks of the cult and what has been unfolding in these parts over the last couple of months. Then he praises the efforts of unnamed knights in fighting this threat, and calls victory over the cult and restoration of peace in the north [Edmund fails a Fort-save].

At around this point, Edmund feels his pants really wet in the nether region and begins vomiting uncontrollably. Nightshade and Peter spring into action as pretty much the whole room's attention is turned to him, and he's carried out leaving quite the mess behind. Some servants appear to point us out of the house and with no choice, we carry him over to the guest house at Domor's leaving the servants to tend to the mess. Then we order a doctor to watch over him, though Peter recognizes the substance used here; certain seeds have this effect when enjoyed with food. As the substance doesn't pose a lethal threat, Peter and Nightshade leave Edmund and head back to the festival leaving Edmund in bed.

As they get back, the speech has turned to the future and what Prego aims to accomplish; he speaks of how he intends to improve the condition of the road network and how he plans on improving peasants' position (to collective "boo"s from the audience). After that, he extrapolates: He intends on giving peasants the right to buy the land they farm. Suddenly the gathered people realize that as long as the price is right, all this does is make the peasants more agreeable as they think they can accomplish something with their life, without actually giving the upstarts any real chance of anything. Suddenly people begin murmuring much more positively.

Soon, the speech ends and the dessert begins. Edmund shows up cleaned up some time after in Prego's clothes; luckily enough, nobody pays him any heed; though Prego's eyes stop on him for a moment when he decides to reappear. Edmund had actually decided everything was Nightshade's fault and thus his room is something of a mess now. Further, since his own clothes obviously weren't very usable right then, he raided one of Prego's suits for the occasion.

After the official portion of the ceremony ends, there's music and dancing and all the good stuff. We, of course, participate. Peter dances one with Adriana while Edmund dances with some woman he had never met, apparently. Of course, Nightshade shows off everyone else and steals the show because he's actually a competent dancer. Extremely good, in fact. So good that many rather just watch than dance themselves. The man's got some moves. Guess it comes with being 200 years old.

After the dance, we decide to get down to business. We set to track out Prego who has indeed retreated to a private room in the back. Of course, we are invited, given there's a lot to discuss. He's residing in the second floor, seventh room in the right wing. So we head over there, and the guard lets us in once we give him our names and business. He's sitting in a chair, as per usual, and invites us to join him. First order of business, he asks what the devil was the idea behind throwing up at his festival like that. Peter explains about what he figured of the seeds and how Edmund was poisoned. This prompts Prego to step outside and say something to the guard who promptly sets off on some task.

Edmund is quick to bring up the matter of payment for the last task. Prego offers each of us a gold purse with no less than 200 gold coins; quite the prize by any measure. He also confirms what we already discussed before; Marathon is clear and there's no need for us to head that way. Then, like Amy predicted, he gives us the task to acquire certain ancient sword from Dagorlad at the roots of a mountain range way south even from Narkelia. The location of the sword isn't hard to find; people have found it before. The issue is some old man guarding it, who doesn't let anyone who cannot answer a riddle near it. Apparently, brute force hasn't worked very well. The man's family has some vow to keep the sword from falling to the wrong hands for as long as they draw breath. We agree to do it for 300 gold a piece. We also bring up the matter of the strange aging swords and ask if Prego would take a look at them, which he promises to do the next day at his manor.

With that, the official business is covered and we leave, with Domor reminding us to visit Theodor's suite before we depart as well. That being our next stop, we head to some kind of a war chamber Theodor is currently residing in. Again, we state our business and the guardsman invites us in. We enter a large room with a map of Dramadan and the surrounding areas in the middle of it, with curt greetings from Theodor. Peter notices what appears to be an entrance to a secret backroom in one of the walls but keeps to himself until after the encounter.

Marcus explains about a matter concerning the neighbouring country, Melendia. Apparently, they're preparing for a war. And not some small border struggle at that, but for a full-scale war. Or at least, that's what some of the spies say. There's been many conflicting reports about what's going on over there. Expected outcome of a full-scale war with full armies from both sides would be a bloody stalemate, which makes this seem illogical unless Melendia expects Dramadan to be unable to mobilize fully. Further, what the southern country would do is anybody's guess; if Melendia and Dramadan fight a stalemate, they could easily counter southern provinces from both. Which is very much in their advantage since the southern provinces are very rich while the southern country itself is poor.

The task Marcus asks of us is quite simple: We are to infiltrate Melendia and within four months, confirm or overrule the reports of a full-scale mobilization. On this matter, we are now treated as trusted agents of Dramadan and would be rewarded appropriately; a large, very worthwhile chunk of land near the capital. Alternatively, he offered us some chunks of rare metals but given the land is much more valuable not to mention harder to acquire, we accept that offer. With that, we bid our farewells to Marcus and conclude our business in the Palace. Peter shares the notion regarding the secret door but the party decides to let it slide, for now at least.

We returned to Prego's mansion and on this note, we end the session.

Notes:
- Woah, a mammoth session. I don't think we've ever gotten near as much done in a single session ever. And that was just a shocking amount of plot exposure, as well. And now we have two to four different tasks we can go for in a varying order. And we have contacts in nobility beyond just Prego which is always convenient.
- Edmund's player urged me to roll Sense Motive on Amy when she first approached. I did and Peter figured she did not, in fact, intend to stab me with 10 knives.
- Edmund spent much of the first half of the session wondering what a "dragon" is. Finnish word for dragon is "lohikäärme" which literally stands for "salmonsnake", which made Edmund pretty confused as to how a salmon breeds with a snake. And what manner of a snake we're talking about in the first place. In retrospect, it's only good that he spent most of the encounter with Amy unconscious (even after Peter explained him what a "dragon" is).
- What good is AC when everyone always rolls 20s, anyways? The trap that critically hit Edmund had like +5 attack bonus to his Uncanny Dodged AC of 24.
- Betcha Amy and Nightshade are somehow related. Or not. Can't know. Doesn't seem completely impossible though. At least they're old acquaintances. Then again, given how old Amy is, would make sense for her to spend much of her time with the few remaining Elves.
- Edmund seems to be developing a personal vendetta towards Nightshade. He also wants to dump Adriana somewhere at some point. Wonder what good will come out of all that.
- Feels good to play again, but man was that a lot to type (and play, for that matter). And take in. Overall, this is probably our most productive session ever.
- Edmund's Will-save is like +2. He rolled a natural 20 to make the save against Amy's enchantment. Pretty nice; all good it did for him though is got him poisoned instead, for a much longer duration. Heh. This scene reminded us of that scene in The Gamers 2 (approximate, not paraphrase):
Player: "Why can't I make a save against the Fear aura?"
DM: "You cannot make the DC no matter what you roll!"
Player: "Wrong!"
DM: "What's your Will-save modifier?"
Player: "+9."
DM: "The save DC of the Aura is 32, you'd have to roll 23 on a 20-sided die. I don't have a PhD in Math, but I claim this event is impossible."
Player: "Natural 20 is an automatic success regardless of the circumstances."
DM: "You only have a 5% chance of rolling a 20!"
Player: "I can still make the roll, rules give me the right. I'm sure it's no problem for you if we play by the rules."
*player rolls the die and it lands Natural 1*
DM: "Haha! Now you're completely under his control!"
*player facepalms and hands over his character sheet*

Kind of the opposite of that; except the outcome was about as beneficial :smalltongue:
- We lost all our magical trinkets. Buuhuu. Ok, I'm done.
- Time to invest in Perform: Dance. Paid off that we're both smooth-spoken, this time (Peter has maxed Diplomacy even though he doesn't have an impressive Cha naturally; this is how we got all that good stuff out of von Vicona and Halden).
- The strange swords that age targets didn't register as Elven magic when Amy visited us. Those things unnerve me. Mostly, we want to get rid of them without giving them to somebody who'd stab us with them.
- DM jokingly stated "For your services, Marcus Theodor offers you a discount on Fire Insurance." Edmund's player stated we'd be race-selling those to each other.
- Edmund's player tried to make a case that he can drive with his machine in the friggin' forest by plain driving through the trees (apparently his adamantine bumper helps here somehow). He was a driver of armored vehicles in military and states "The trees give way". That's not how much horsepower you get out of a primitive steam engine. And you don't drive through trees by having your bumper cut them.
- Climb-checks, use for Peter's Swift Tracking (gained this level), Use Rope-checks; always fun to see that all that is not useless.

vitkiraven

2011-10-24, 01:47 PM

Great campaign journal! I always love low magic settings, great to see that you've kept it up for so long. When are you all of you going to have another session?

Eldariel

2011-12-29, 05:32 PM

Seems we have biannual sessions now. Ah well.

Session 18

I Don't Like Swords:
Day 61

We take Prego up on his offer to look at those damnable swords. The second we reveal them, he's visibly upset. Apparently he's all too familiar with the metal. We ask for the short version of their story, and settle for the long one: about a thousand years ago a meteor fell to the lush southern state in current Raldinia. As it fell into a remote location, people initially ignored the stone, seeing nothing special about it. Years later someone wandered near the stone and saw the desolate land. He returned to his village in horror and the story began to spread, more people confirming what happened. Further, animals seemed to avoid the area.

Eventually the story reached the king's court. Initially nobody believed anything but with the amount of noise the event was generating, the king decided to send an agent to verify or deny the rumors. The agent returned confirming the stories, but the king decided that as long as the effect doesn't spread meaningfully from the remote location, it's no real threat to the country and thus decided to leave it be. Thus decades passed until the king died and his successor claimed the throne. He, having found out the corruption was still spreading, decided it's past time something is done about it and sent a detachment of researchers, alchemists and wisemen to find out about the stone. The scientists traveled to the location and began researching the stone. One of the first things they found out is that it also kills people, aging them - something an unlucky expeditionary found out when handling it with bare hands. The expedition grew more cautious and created a way to handle the meteor with protective steel. They began to research for ways to destroy or at least transport the meteor somewhere else. A method to melt the meteor was discovered and they began to remove pieces, intending to transport it to a remote mountain range where it would not kill the known world.

The transportation was a success; the meteor had no apparent effect on the surroundings of the mountains. However, the desert it had created kept on spreading with no apparent way of stopping it. The spreading has stopped only about a hundred years from now, but its effect is devastating to Ralandia, having destroyed most of the available farmland.

The story of the swords themselves involves some idiots who decided the metal can't be that dangerous. They sought out the meteor in the mountains and with the skills of the researchers having worked on the object, created the swords out of it. The stories of the swords aren't well known beyond the fact that the fools who created them were the first who died by them. And they have been a plague upon humanity ever since. The skills to melt the metal have been forgotten over the years, so no easy way to get rid of them exists.

Prego is extremely sad that the swords have found their way into our possession but promises to arrange them into a location where they'll be out of sight, and preferably out of the reach of fools that would seek to use them. We gladly hand them over as we are none too happy to be in the possession of those swords ourselves and indeed, only carry them so we don't have to face another pack of random cultists fooling around with them. As we are about to depart, Prego and Nightshade exchange few words in a language we are not familiar with; we let it slide.
Travel Preparations:
After the spectacle is done with, we begin with arrangements for our travel plans. It's midday as we decide on the next course of action. Due to the time table, we decide to first go and acquire the ancient sword we need to kill Shadowmind, and then continue on to Merkenwar for a fill-in on the situation in the east, and then begin arrangements for our journey to Melendia.

Easiest way to the mountains is to take a boat down the river to Narkelia, then over the lake which gets us near the base of the mountain range. This means we won't be taking the steam engine with us but everybody save Edmund is probably happy to be far from the noisy thing for a while anyways, so that's not a problem. With that, we set out to find a boat to Narkelia at an agreeable price, and have little trouble doing so. We spend the rest of the day stocking up our inventory and ironing out our travel plans. Then we turn in for the night.
The Way South:
Day 62-64

In the morning, we get on the boat, get our horses inside, get to our cabins and enjoy the ride. The wind was on our side so we were able to make way quickly and quite pleasantly at the start. The first stop on our way would be Dalsera, 3 days in. It's actually kind of interesting to actually get to see the place that was once a part of our cover story. But we're getting ahead of ourselves; the first day of the trip is uneventful.

We decide to set up our own personal guard even though we're on a paid trip since who knows when assassins might lurk nigh'. We aren't alive by virtue of being trusting towards strangers, after all. The first night is equally uneventful, as is the second day. Third day, however, the captain looks worried. When inquired about it, he states "There's a storm coming". Since we're still a day from Dalsera, we'll have to seek some cover. The captain reluctantly orders the ship to be taken and anchored to a nearby bay, a natural cover in an uninhabited area of the land. Peter's Knowledge offers him an explanation; this bay is the only reasonable cover available in this area, and as such during storms it's frequented by bandits keen on attacking helplessly stranded ships in hopes of raiding their supplies and valuables. Wonderful.

We set up guards, on the ship this time. Whatever dangers may lurk in the ship, the danger outside is more pressing at this juncture. And sure enough, the third guard duty, which fell upon Nightshade, has him hearing some repeating noise from the front of the boat. He whistles, a code for "danger", and we find ourselves racing across the deck of the ship, balancing as the hull shakes for a moment. As soon as we reach the edge, we see 6 people with various tools in the water level...and a hole in the hull of the ship.

This situation doesn't call for too much negotiation so Edmund shoots one - through the back of his head, very lethally. Given we can get some cover from the edge of the ship, this fight is extremely favorable for us. Peter quickly knocks one unconscious with a doze of poison, Adriana and Nightshade drop another one. They quickly realize their situation and two of them slip inside the ship. Knowing the layout of the ship, we know they reached one of the cargo holds. Nightshade, being basically a rock in his armor, goes to cut them off the cargo hold stairs while the rest of us dive down the side of the ship and follow them through the hole. Before diving down, Peter yells "Hole in the ship!" few times from the edge to make sure the sailors can react accordingly. Sure enough, like buzzing bees they start running around the place for wood to try and make some patchwork patch to keep the ship from filling up and sinking.

The intruders have left the first room by the time we enter. The cargo hold is connected to another cargo hold, which Adriana checks finding nothing, and a corridor for the cargo deck. Searching all the rooms would take a while but we hear an explosion of sorts from one of the rooms which narrows our search down considerably. The room the explosion came from has a rather impressive hole in the roof; apparently the pair has escaped to the upper level. Adriana and Nightshade take the long way around the stairs to try and cut them off while Edmund and Peter go for the direct chase; Peter jumping up the oldfashioned way while Edmund pulls off some impressive acrobatics in a stylish wall-jump through the hole.

Chasing after, Edmund manages to catch a glimpse of one of the two, lands a shot to the back and with Adriana and Nightshade cutting him off, the man is quickly surrounded and surrenders on the spot when Edmund yells "Give up!" Edmund puts on his scary face and asks "Where's the other one?" and the man just points up; we're at the bottom of the next staircase. Peter and Edmund run after the remaining bandit while Adriana and Nightshade tie the surrendered man up for future questioning. At this point it seems likely that the man's target is Captain's Quarters. Peter and Edmund run that way, and Edmund reaches the door.

Then the whole room blows up; Edmund is close enough to be in the blast radius but barely manages to jump out of the way and take cover. Quick scan through the quarters reveals bodyparts and smoldering remains of many things. Of relevance is a stamp on an important-looking piece of parchment; it's the only remaining part of the document but at least it'll allow us to deduct its origin and maybe even figure out what the hell is going on.

As that about rounds up the intruders, our next order of business is fixing up the ship, which takes rest of the evening; a lot of water had come in during the events of the fight and while the hole is patched relatively quickly, emptying the cargo hold is a longer process. Edmund, being the engineer that he is, offers whatever help he can while the rest of us attend to the other business; fishing up the unconscious bandit from the water and figuring out this attack.

After the ship is stabilized, we first discuss with the captain, who luckily did not happen to be in his cabin during the attack, about all this. He tells us he doesn't have any idea why his quarters were blown up, that he does not expect future attacks as soon as we get to leave this bay (which should be by the next day, judging by the weather) and that no, he does not have enemies that would try to blow him up. We suspect he's not telling the whole truth but decide to not push the matters. We also ask him about the stamp and while initially he's not divulging information, Edmund manages to intimidate him into revealing that it's the stamp of the mightiest family in Dramadan and that this is somehow related to the powergame in Merkenwar.

We decide this doesn't concern us overtly much. Next up we question the prisoners; or well, the one that isn't unconscious, at any rate. He openly answers our questions: Basically, he and the five others were hired by the sixth fellow who blew himself up. The hole in the ship and the roof were made by some explosives that person was carrying, and he had hired them for a raid on this ship, paying a good portion of the booty. When we showed him the mark the cultists tend to carry, he said the man did indeed bear that. Then we briefly argue what to do about them; Peter wants to leave them to the sailors while Edmund wants to kill him. Ultimately Peter doesn't feel like arguing and lets Eddie do whatever he wants. Suffice to say, we soon have two more bodies littering the shore. Whatever.

Day 65

We reach Dalsera in the evening and jump off; for whatever reason that boat didn't feel too safe anymore, not least of which because of the barely patched hole in the hull. They'd need to take it to the dock for proper repairs and we have better things to do than wait. We pay for half the trip and leave, grumbling about how nothing can ever be easy. We take a look around Dalsera; a farming town of about 5000 inhabitants. It's actually quite busy this time of the year due to the good harvest and there's a lot of ships in the harbor. We have little trouble finding a ship to take us to Narkelia, though we'll only depart in the morning.

Given it's evening, we take a stroll around the town and find a few inns to consider. After quick questioning we pick one that has not burned down or exploded in recent memory, and enjoy excellent beer in "Green Pint". Drinking way into the night, we go to sleep and groggily wake up in the morning to get to the boat in time.

Day 66-67

It's two days from Dalsera to Narkelia; weather seems good enough that we probably won't have to make stops like on the way here. Furthermore, we hope this boat isn't prone to blowing up. For once, the trip is largely incident-free and we, and the boat, reach Narkelia in one piece. As it's evening, we decide to settle to spend the night here after finding a boat to take us over the lake.

Again, we seek and find an incident-free inn named "Gray Oak"; the other contender, "Red Lagoon", turned out to have burnt its kitchen once a year so we figure it's probably burning the second we enter. We also manage to arrange a boat with little trouble; a lot of people traffic the lake as it connects to the river leading towards Merkenwar making it a rather key crossroads.

Again, we head to sleep and find ourselves alive. What the.
Riddles in the Dark:
Day 68

In the morning we set off to cross the lake. The trip isn't really all that long, and we embark on a ride towards the mountains once we get across the lake. The terrain is hilly so visibility is kind of limited. We ride most of the day without incident but in the evening we are waylaid by a brown bear. It approaches us aggressively and our horses are uneasy. It's on the verge of getting violent but Peter manages to spot a small cavern a bit from there and as such figures it's probably just defending its nest. As soon as the party just turns around and rides slowly away, it leaves us alone.

With that little incident out of the way, we ride forward. As we camp for the night, we decide to rearrange the guard cycle; Edmund notes that he might not be as observant as the rest so he'll take the first watch when it's probably the least likely for attacks to occur (as we've been still for the shortest amount of time), and as that's when we are sleeping the lightest Peter will take second, Nightshade third and Adriana fourth turn to cover the night. None of that matters however, as the night passes without any special events with everyone doing their thing.

Day 69

We depart in the morning and a quick few hours of riding later, reach the cave. It really wasn't too hard to find; what we were told about this whole deal appears true thus far. We also find the advertised wizened old man and figure that yes, we'll probably have to answer a bunch of silly questions. We skip the pleasantries, tell the man "We're here for the sword" and he nods. Then he tosses two ropes onto two rings in the roof. The ropes are 40 feet long and 20 feet from each other. Then we're given a knife, forbidden the use of any other equipment and told to cut both ropes from the top. We ask why the hell is he doing this and he angrily answers "I've spent my whole life here, I want to at least use all these damn tasks I've got prepared!"

[Editor's Note: I'm spoilering the answers in case somebody wants to try and figure these out for themselves.]

We figure it's easiest to just oblige him and finish these damn tasks. After a bit of theorizing about how to do this sensibly, Peter tires of the discussion, climbs up, tosses one of the ends of the rope through the other ring, cuts the first rope, flings himself to the other rope and cuts that rope...and falls spectacularly to the ground badly injuring his legs after barely managing to tumble the falling damage by one category. But he got all of both of the ropes so there test was completed. And yes, there were ways to do this without hurting oneself.

The second test involved a bottle with its cork jammed too deep into the bottle to take it out sensibly. The task was to acquire a coin inside the bottle without breaking the bottle. Simple enough:
We pressed the cork all the way inside and whisked the coin away.
The third test was a bit different. "On a man's tombstone, it is said that one sixth of his life was spent in childhood and one twelfth as a teenager. One seventh of his life passed between the time he became an adult and the time he married; five years later, his son was born. Alas, the son died four years before he did. He lived to be twice as old as his son did. How old did the man live to be?"
There were an easy and a hard answer. Of course, being mathematicians and having it told to us in Finnish, we missed the easy answer spectacularly. The hard answer is as follows:
Let man's age be X. Let the boy's age be Y.
X/6+X/12+X/7+5+Y+4 = X (we get this formula from everything we're told; all those phases of his age add up to his whole age of X - he got married at X/6+X/12+X/7 (childhood + teenage + adulthood before marriage), 5 years later got a boy and then died 4 years after his boy)
X = 2Y
Y = X/2

X/6+X/12+X/7+X/2+9 = X
14X/84+7X/84+12X/84+42X/84-X = -9
75X/84-X = -9
-9X/84 = -9 | :(-9)
X/84 = 1 | *84
X = 84

The simple answer? He spent 1/12th of his life as a teenager. There are 7 years in one's teens. 7*12 = 84. In Finnish, the word "teenager" does not correspond to those 7 years so we missed this entirely.
Then we got a bunch of riddles that we had to answer:
1. I fly, yet I have no wings. I cry, yet I have no eyes. Darkness follows me; lower light I never see.
Cloud
2. It is said among my people that some things are improved by death. Tell me, what stinks while living but in death smells good?
Pig
3. I am weightless, but you can see me. Put me in a bucket, and I'll make it lighter. What am I?
a Hole
4. What gets wetter and wetter the more it dries?
Towel
With that, he simply nodded, opened a secret door of some kind and waved us to oblige ourselves. We found a greatsword with some ancient runes inscribed upon it, and some amulet. We inquired if they had to be used together or not, and the man shook his head. Understanding that we're supposed to be taking these, Peter took the greatsword and Edmund took the amulet.

And then we depart and end the session.

Notes:
- First of all, the proper answers to the ropetrick as we were given after the game:
Alternate Solution #1
Almost all of it. First tie the ropes together at the ends. then climb one of the ropes. Tie a loop in the rope as close to the ceiling as possible. Hang from the loop, then cut the rope just below it (but don't drop it, or you'll be stuck on the ceiling). Run the rope through the loop and tie it to your waist. Swing over to the other rope and pull the rope that's going through the loop tight. Cut the other rope as close as possible to the ceiling, holding tight to the end of it. Once the rope is loose, you will swing down below the loop. Let yourself down to the ground by letting the rope out. At the bottom, untie yourself and pull the rope completely through the loop. At this point you'll have all of the rope except what was used to tie the loop.
Alternate Solution #2
All the rope, provided that the knife is such that: it can support your weight when half the blade is stuck in ceiling, and it can bend at the blade-handle junction without breaking. Climb to top of the first rope, bringing other rope along. At the top, stretch the second rope toward you and circle it around your waist. Cut the first rope at the ceilling, hang on, and swing down on the second rope. Climb back up to the ceiling. Pull up the other end of the second rope, and tie it to the end of the first rope. Loop the tied ropes around the handle of the knife. In one (quick) motion, cut the second rope at the ceiling while pushing the knife into the ceiling. Bend the handle of the knife enough so that the rope won't slip out. Go down, hanging on the double rope with both hands. At the floor, jerk hard to release the knife and the rest of the rope.
Alternate Solution #3
Climb up the first rope, carrying up the end of the second with you. Cut the first rope, flush with the ceiling, swinging down on the second. Climb up the second and cut that flush with the ceiling too, but only part way, until it can just barely hold the rest of your weight. Slowly climb down until you're just short of the bottom. Tie a small loop here and climb up about two feet. Secure the loop about your feet and fall to the ground (roughly three feet). Just before your feet hit the ground the force of the fall will snap the rope at the top.
- I actually included two sessions in this. The previous session didn't deserve its own write-up since it only included the explanation about the swords, and then we spent the rest calculating if it's mathematically profitable to use the steam engine on a ship far as travel time goes.
- We really, really seem to attract explosions.
- The shift in the guard schedule is actually logical, though I really just wish Edmund worked on his perception a bit.
- First time we didn't have the machine along to carry every single thing we could loot.
- The riddle-thing went surprisingly well, especially considering yours truly was working off over 24 hours of being awake at that point. DM too, though he obviously didn't need to think.
- One more brainteaser for those who feel like it the DM was thinking of using but decided against, giving it to us after the session instead (this one was hard, mostly falling under number theory):
Five pirates raid the ship of a wealthy bureaucrat and steal his trunk of gold pieces. By the time they get the trunk aboard, dusk has fallen, so they agree to split the gold the next morning.
But the pirates are all very greedy. During the night one of the pirates decides to take some of the gold pieces for himself. He sneaks to the trunk and divides the gold pieces into five equal piles, with one gold piece left over. He puts the gold piece in his pile, hides it, puts the other four piles back in the trunk, and sneaks back to bed.
One by one, the remaining pirates do the same. They sneak to the trunk, divide the coins into five piles, with always one coin left over. Each pirate puts the gold coin in his own pile, hides it, and puts the remaining four piles back in the trunk.
What is the smallest number of coins there could have been in the trunk originally?
Solution:
The original number of coins must be a number such that you can subtract one and multiply by four fifths and get an integer. These numbers are 6, 11, 16, 21, 26, and so on.
But the pile remaining after the first pirate has taken his gold must also have this property. So the possibilities for the original number are 16, 36, 56, 76, 96, and so on.
The pile remaining after the second pirate has taken his gold must also have this property. So the possibilities for the original number are 76, 156, 236, 316, 396, and so on.
The pile remaining after the third pirate has taken his gold must also have this property. So the possibilities for the original number are 316, 636, 956, 1276, 1596, and so on.
The pile remaining after the fourth pirate has taken his gold must also have this property. The smallest possibility for this is 1276.
This number is the number of gold pieces in the chest the fourth pirate left behind (for the fifth pirate to divide). The fourth pirate hid a quarter of this number, plus one extra, just before the fifth pirate got there. So the third pirate left behind 1276 + 1276/4 + 1 = 1596 gold pieces.
The third pirate hid a quarter of this number, plus one extra, just before the fourth pirate got there. So the second pirate left behind 1596 + 1596/4 + 1 = 1996 gold pieces.
The second pirate hid a quarter of this number, plus one extra, just before the third pirate got there. So the first pirate left behind 1996 + 1996/4 + 1 = 2496 gold pieces.
The first pirate hid a quarter of this number, plus one extra. So the original number of coins must have been 2496 + 2496/4 + 1 = 3121 gold pieces.
- We really, really intend to actually play more. It's just hard with peoples' busy schedules.

JerichoPenumbra

2012-01-07, 07:50 PM

Fantastic read. Makes me want to participate in a Low magic campaign my self.:smallbiggrin:

As a question to you, have you seen the Poison Healer feat from Fiendish Codex I? It could potentially be a good thematic feat for Peter. Basic summary is that poison isn't always that bad for you; if make a save for poison, you heal a little bit. Considering the VP/WP rules you're using it may not be applicable, but the thought of people stealing "healing potions" from you, only to find themselves on the ground suffering from whatever malady you had bottled would be very amusing.

Looking forward to the next update.

Eldariel

2012-01-21, 03:18 PM

Poison Healer looks hilariously awesome. Unfortunately I don't think I'll be able to wield it though due to the fact that it requires Great Fortitude and is derived off Con modifier, which isn't going to be that massive without magic items. That and our poison rules makes them quite a bit more hazardous than usual so getting myself poisoned on purpose is kinda risky.

Here's a session that happened purely online, as an experiment. We'll probably go back to the old system since we have the option but it was an interesting experience either way.

Session 19

Change Of Plans:
After leaving the caves behind us, we decide to camp for the night before heading back. Nothing much happens; Peter has to listen to the howling of wolves but that's the extent of the night's events.

Day 70

We set course for Merkenwar. No wildlife tries to impede our journey and it's surprisingly calm for late autumn so we make the trip fast. As we reach the river, we come to the conclusion that we should've arranged for someone to pick us up. As it stands, our options are taking a long detour or crossing the water body somehow. We decide on the latter and start building a raft; Edmund decides to put his engineering skills into use here.

We spend the evening chopping wood and then camp at the riverside. Hoping for another uneventful night, we are annoyed to find ourselves amidst four massive spiders as Edmund keeps his watch eyes closed. He comes to wake the others up only after Peter and Nightshade have already woken up thanks to their own hearing.

As we bolt out, we spot four massive spiders behind our tents. They, however, act slow. Peter cuts two up severely with a Mithral Tornado. Edmund happens to be in the perfect position to execute a Flashing Sun on two ripping them to shreds with a massive number of hits to the weak points. Adriana finishes one of Peter's targets off, and Nightshade disables the last one with Peter delivering an elaborate finishing blow. All this happened before the spiders got a chance to attack.

Just like that, everyone shrugs and heads back to sleep except for Edmund who decides to relocate the spider corpses before they begin to stink. The rest of the night is relatively uneventful, except for the incessant wolves' howling.

Day 71

We spend the day finishing the raft, and once we are done, start heading down the river. Surprisingly our contraption stays afloat, and we reach the riverside town of Bainaria. Bainaria is basically a sort of a harbortown of Merkenwar; Merkenwar itself isn't a riverside town but goods passed through the river are unloaded in Bainaria and then transferred to Merkenwar over land. As such, the roads are particularly busy here.

As we reach Bainaria, we dismantle the raft. Given it took about half of the rope we carry (and yes, we carry a lot of rope), we'd really rather not leave it. Of course, being the businessman that he is, Edmund spends the evening looking for someone to buy the wood, too. In the end, he hears mr. Beneria has missed some shipment from Melendia and would probably be willing to buy even small stocks of wood at a reasonable price.

We decide to spend the night in Bainaria and handle the wood and assorted silliness in the morning. An inn called "Snoozing Sun" appears to be our lodging for the night; they have the room and it's a clean enough place. Innkeeper Auronki suggests that we might want to bathe, a suggestion we take to heart.

Day 72

In the morning, we wake up to the smell of smoke. Peter and Edmund immediately go "**** this" and pack up for a swift exit. Turns out Nightshade and Adriana still intend to eat their breakfast though, so Peter and Edmund bother to go check out what's going on and turns out that it's the neighboring building that's burning, and the fire is not spreading. So the perfect time to have a peaceful breakfast while bees are tumbling over each other trying to put the fire out.

Nightshade and Adriana go off to deal with some things of their own, each their separate ways, while the rest of us conduct wood business. We agree we'll meet back at the inn at noon. Or rather, Edmund conducts business while Peter tags along with nothing better to do. For a merchant, Beneria's establishment is quite impressive-looking. It's a massive wooden building that seems kind of out-of-place in such a village. While we only got to see the main hall and an office room, it was a definite proof that we're talking about a man who's doing quite well for himself here. Mr. Beneria seems happy to receive any replenishment to his stocks and Edmund is able to argue a significantly high price for the wood netting some 20 silver coins. Time well spent.

On the way back, we ran into a man who appeared to be a merchant. Or rather, it appears he found us. He asks if we're Peter and Edmund and Edmund lies, poorly, saying "No". He says he has a reason to suspect we at least know those guys and asks where we could find them. Apparently he has some message to deliver and we decide to cut the farce and introduce ourselves up-front, with Peter apologizing for the deceit with the usual "We need to stay careful to stay alive". Apparently the man bears a message from Miriam Merkendor, the matriarch of the strongest family currently in Dramadan. She's asking for our presence in an important meeting at the town of Narda, which is en route to Merkenwar. It would take place in four days. At this point we realize we've gotten tangled into some goddamn political mess, with no exit in sight. Wonderful.

After a brief discussion, Peter and Edmund come to the conclusion that it's probably in our best interests to not piss off all the involved parties before we even arrive at Merkenwar and figure we might as well go and see what this meeting is all about. With that, we head for the agreed-upon meeting at the inn, enjoy our lunch and make travel plans.
To Narda:
We set course for Narda. The trip should be about three days so we'll make it with time to spare easily enough. We depart immediately after the lunch; it's best for us if we can look around Narda a bit and figure out what's going on before the meeting of course.

We have a day's worth of uneventful riding, leading us to the edge of the Forest of Harmand. We decide to make camp there. Outside the howling of wolves, the night is remarkably uneventful.

Day 73

We have a surprisingly peaceful ride through the forest. Local wildlife and bandits seem perfectly content to leave us be; probably a wise choice from the bandits and good fortune for the wildlife.

In the evening, we reach the second stop on our trip, the town of Enaurda. It's about one day from Narda and a convenient place to spend the night at. Nightshade wishes to talk with us in the evening so we decide to chat over a beer. We reserve our rooms from the "Humming Pine" and find ourselves a private corner in the tavern. He tells us he finds the whole story about the mobilization of Melendia fishy; the rumor is identical everywhere with nothing backing it up. It seems like the rumor is being spread by some party, rather than being born out of reality.

Peter and Edmund finally reveal the purpose of the trip to Narda to Nightshade too and he agrees we should attend the meeting with Miriam; apparently she's got massive information gathering networks and she should have an idea of what we're getting ourselves into. It should be possible to clear up most of our questions there. Peter and Edmund agree with Nightshade and our plans are reinforced. With that, we spend another uneventful night.

Day 74

We leave for Narda early in the morning. The ride is still blessed by good weather and lack of obstacles, and we get to enjoy scenery on a rather relaxed ride. The most notable thing on the way is, we actually get to see soldiers under the king for the first time; we see units marching towards Melendia. The ride takes us most of the day and we reach Narda by the evening.

As we get to Narda, we spend the rest of the evening gathering information about the political situation, whether we can actually safely meet Miriam and overall, what we are getting ourselves into. Long story short:

- The strongest families of Dramadan are in order Merkendor, Landervald, Ulfarkel and Kolmendern. Merkendor and Kolmendern are long-time allies while Landervald and Ulfarkel are hostile to just about everybody, including each other. The weaker families fall into camps with the four major ones.

- Current political situation arises from the last king having died without a heir. According to the law, the four families should decide the new king. Landervald and Ulfarkel have been delaying the decision, probably to move their own pieces into place.

- There's talk of some party trying to arrange an alliance between Landervald and Ulfarkel, and there's talk about Melendia being involved in this mess too. Melendia is a true monarchy, as opposed to a collection of city states like Dramadan, and as such acts as one political entity.

It appears we should have nothing to fear with Merkendor, at least at this juncture, so we have a somewhat easier mind going into the meeting. We find ourselves rooms in "Blue Twilight" and turn in for the night.

Day 75

Peter and Edmund wake up to a metallic fist hammering the door of their room and a female voice yelling "In the name of the King, open up!" Shaking off our drowsiness and armed as always, they open up the door. We are greeted by 6 soldiers in plates, half of them at the door of Nightshade and Adriana's room and half at ours. They tell us they have been sent to escort us to meet Miriam immediately. While it's not nearly the time for our meeting yet, we figure there's probably a reason for this and depart with extreme haste.

The soldiers form a circle around us and we are swiftly escorted to a mansion we recognize as the Merkendor family mansion. It's a massive building made completely out of stone; a rather impressive sight to behold and a rather impressive show of engineering skill, and completely fireproof. Peter and Edmund immediately like the place just because it's unlike to spontaneously combust. We are taken through a massive entrance hall to a hall in the western wing which serves as the location for our audience. The soldiers leave us near a massive brazier and assume guard positions in the sides. We are greeted by a woman who, we can surmise, is none other than Miriam Merkendor herself.

Pleasantries are quickly exchanged and she cuts to the chase: "I'm sorry to have to bring you here this way, but due to changing circumstances our discussion could not wait. First, I will have to apologize to you all again; the errand you were sent on is fake. There is no mobilization in Melendia. The mission was given to you to bring you here, away from prying eyes, and it was done under my orders. My true reason for summoning you here still concerns Melendia, though.

As you know, the king's line has faded and Dramadan is in need of a new king. By law the decision should be made by the four major families, but Landervald and Ulfarkel have delayed this decision for a long time, presumably to move their own pieces into position. We now have a reason to believe Melendia is somehow meddling with this process. And we need you to help us with that - your task to go to Melendia has not changed but what you should be finding out about is their reasons and methods of intervening with the election of the new king."

We agree; it's principally the same task we were sent on in the first place, just with a different focus. We are to enter Melendia as a part of a delegation that is to negotiate a trade agreement. We are formally tasked as few of the guards of the delegation but as soon as we enter Melendia, we are no longer responsible for anything related to the delegation or the trade agreement and act as agents with free hands to complete our true task, and return to Merkenwar. The delegation departs from Merkenwar in one week, and we are to use that one week to prepare for the trip. We'll have to get more appropriate clothing and things of that nature since most of our belongings are still Waterdawn, and there's no time to send for them at this juncture.

We clarify the current political situation and confirm things we already know, and then depart to do our preparations. We depart Narda and make for Merkenwar, a trip we can cover in one day. Come evening, we arrive at Merkenwar and get ourselves rooms in "Full Tankard".

And then we end the session here.
Notes:
- DM told us he didn't like the story he had planned and rewrote most of it. We didn't get to see most of that, of course.
- We played this game entirely online. Not something I seek to repeat in the near future; Skype crashing constantly, lack of visual representation of most things not named combat and all that was annoying. Still, it was an interesting experience
- Our DM tried to get us to sleep in an inn which we deemed sounded like it was in the local Red Light District, and then to one that roughly translates into "*******". Then he finally gave us "Full Tankard" that we accepted.
- Edmund went around asking everyone for "sidequests" in Merkendor since he found out we've got a week of nothing coming up.
- Seriously, Edmund selling wood was probably the most epic waste of time thus far. It was kinda funny tho so it's fine.
- We actually got experience. For both, this and the last session. Epic!

Eldariel

2012-06-03, 07:56 PM

Our scheduled biannual session struck again. Quite eventful this time around, at least.

Session 20

Shady Business:
Day 76

We awaken in Full Tankard and decide to enjoy our breakfast. As seems to be customary, our breakfast is actually our meeting hours and a gray-cloaked man in a breastplate approaches us. He’s recognized as Veldarn Merkendor, a member of the family we’re working for and a shady man through-and-through with something of a reputation for mysterious dealings. We exchange the pleasantries in a curt business manner and he says he’s come to us because he has heard of our capability, methods and efficiency, all of which are in his liking – most importantly, that we aren’t afraid to use violence. In his words he wants to test our loyalty to the Merkendor family and asks us to help him with a task of acquiring certain items; he’d tell us the details if we agree. Given his reputation, it’s no secret to anybody that he really just needs capable agents for some dirty work and he’s willing to pay accordingly.

We inquire if the officials have any interest in the objects he wants; when the answer is “No” we give him our preliminary agreement and ask for the details. The whole story is that he wants three boxes with their contents and is willing to pay us 100g per box. One is in a celebratory building in the nobles’ district currently in the possession of the Thieves’ Guild. The second one is in the home of one wealthy merchant. The last one is in the hideout of a mercenary gang in the peasants’ district. None of the factions will part with them willingly but the city guard itself is not interested; we are hunting for ill-gotten gains. The big part is that he needs the boxes by this evening. He describes how we’ll recognize the boxes; they’re wooden with a rune on them. Nightshade is visibly surprised when he sees the rune but he says nothing publicly.

We ask for a bit of time to talk between ourselves in our secret language and first ask Nightshade what it was about the rune. He tells us it’s actually a word of the Elven language standing for “weapon”. We agree that already for this reason alone we should acquire the boxes and check their content for ourselves. We wonder if we should rid this world of Veldarn while at it but decide against it considering our current employment. We’d check the boxes first and then worry if need be. We ask for terms of what happens if we fail; apparently we will lose our limbs if this were to happen. Since we’re not terribly worried about success or people trying to rip our limbs off here, we agree to Veldarn’s terms and he gives us an address from which we can reach him over this day. We farewell him and begin our planning, while he leaves with a crooked smile.
Planning:
So, we have three heists to plan. First things first, we decide to split up to scout the three targets; Adriana takes the building in the nobles’ district, Peter takes the merchant’s house and Edmund takes the merchant gang hideout, while Nightshade goes out in the city to gather information.

Edmund’s trip is very uneventful; nobody pays much mind to him as he walks around the abandoned-looking warehouse noticing that the doors and the walls are reinforced from the inside and that there’s no way of entrance on the roof. He climbs to look through windows near the roof level, and finds that there is a sewer entrance inside. He also counts 10+ men inside. He also concludes that it would be relatively easy to lockpick the unbarred backdoor; frontdoor would more or less require breaking to open. With nothing else to do after gathering the information about the building, Edmund returns to the meeting place at the appointed time.

At the merchants’ district, Peter finds a 2-and-a-half meter tall wall of steel posts with sharpened tops around the house. As he walks past he also notices a guard dog that comes to the gate. Peter approaches the guard dog after the first pass, and 28 on Wild Empathy manages to make fast friends with the creature. At this point it’s a simple matter to scale the walls while throwing the dog something to eat, and scanning the environment. The building is 3-story tall though fairly small horizontally. There’s a door and in the back on the third floor, there’s a balcony that’s facing away from the streets. There are no convenient ladders or anything to the roof though so Peter settles for a cursory look around and leaves as fast as he arrived, also heading to the agreed-upon meeting location.

Adriana finds the building in the nobles’ district unoccupied as mentioned though she doesn’t know if there are some people inside. She detects there are two people, most likely guards, going by it about every 30 mins so it’s easy to sneak in if you know what you’re looking for.

In the meeting, Nightshade informs everybody that the mercenary gang has a fairly good reputation far as getting job done goes, and their current strength is 15 men. The merchant has a wife and children but they all are like to be somewhere during the day, leaving only a servant and the guard dog in the house. As it happens it’s hard to come by information of the thieves though.

With this we start building a framework. Three sets of disguises, three attacks. Our first target will be the merchant since noon is the most certain time to catch the house almost empty. Only Peter and Edmund will take part in this trip; it will depend on stealth, especially with the guard dog probably recognizing Peter but being leery of other people, so Edmund will come along to open locks and ensure there are no traps or such, while Peter will handle the rest. In case the dog gets troublesome, Peter poisons a piece of meat with a strong sleep poison. A poisoned needle is also prepared if need be to make the servant sleep

In the meanwhile, Nightshade will hire the mercenary gang for some fool’s errand that’ll hopefully leave their base with minimal manning. We agree upon him having a caravan in Enaurda that has received threats leaving in the evening; that’ll require immediate movement from the mercenaries though it’ll probably cost us a pretty penny. We assume it will make us much more though.

Finally, while we’re at this Adriana will go to the building in the nobles’ district again and find out what she can. We need more information before we can make any relevant plans about the thieves’ box. With operational plan set, we generate disguises, set our rendez-vous place and time and begin.
Business the Profitable Way:
Edmund and Peter arrive at the merchant’s house without anything special on the way; midday heists are the way to go! The guard dog recognizes Peter by scent easily enough and lets them through after Peter has Edmund give it a small snack and “introduces” him. The two climb over the wall from the backside of the house easily enough and the dog merely follows them around without making much of a noise. Edmund throws a rope to the 3rd floor balcony and after it’s fastened, both climb quickly enough and Edmund opens the bar on the door easily enough. The two of them find themselves in what appears to be a working room. By the sound of things the servant appears to be downstairs in the kitchen at the moment. Peter keeps a watch at the door while Edmund searches the room.

The two find they’re in luck as there’s a hidden safe underneath the table and the carpet. A quick scan through it reveals a trap that Edmund manages to bypass, and a sturdy but openable lock. After a while, Edmund checks the safe and on the logic of “better make this look like an ordinary robbery”, takes everything small but valuable inside, including the box we came here for. After the job is done, the room is quickly restored to the way it was before the entrance. Around when the two finish silently moving the table back to its original place, there are steps in the stairway. Peter and Edmund decide they have enough time and depart the way they came before the steps even reach upstairs, tossing the dog another treat while leaving over the back wall.

Somehow, the whole plan goes off without a hitch and there’s no need to even resort to sleep poison or anything of the sort. The whole party meets up at the tavern agreed as the rendez-vous point and apparently Nightshade’s part had worked too and 10 of the 15 mercenaries in strength were soon departing for Enaurda. Adriana had snuck into the thieves’ building and found 3 people in one room apparently waiting for something, but no other people seemed to be present.
Hired Guns:
The mercenary compound is the second target on the list. After some deliberation, a two-pronged attack from the sewers and the backdoor is chosen as the preferable means of engagement. Adriana and Nightshade will enter from the back while Peter and Edmund will enter from the sewers; Adriana will poison Nightshade’s weapon and Peter will poison few of Edmund’s bolts shortly before the engagement with stun poison to minimize casualties.

Everybody switches to the second disguise of the day a quick trip to the peasants’ district later, the warehouse is visible in the distance. The party agrees on the time of the attack and splits up. Peter and Edmund take the long way through the sewers and are in position just about on time. A bit before the chosen time, a smash is heard as the backdoor is kicked open and Peter and Edmund scramble to match the timing. Edmund acts the fastest and accidentally kills one of the mercenaries; he manages to make another succumb to the poison. Mercenaries however manage to rebound and the two near the door get the first hits on Adriana and Nightshade. The one attacking Adriana misses but Nightshade takes a really nasty hit to the head, though through Herculean effort he manages to not fall unconscious.

In just 10 seconds, the rest of the party mops up with Peter firing the last arrow, and three of the four present mercenaries are administered sleep poison on top of the short-term stun poison currently in their systems. The last one is unfortunately dead. Peter ties Nightshade’s wound up while Edmund and Adriana search the warehouse with Adriana finding a fake bottom in one box, with precious little else of value to take. The party then departs for their inn with Nightshade pointedly saying he’s going to sleep, and the rest begin planning the final job on the thieves. Nightshade does check the items in the boxes though and the rings inside are not, at least, of elven magic so they are of little concern to us.
Stealing from the Thieves:
Some more information gathering is in order. As a stroke of dumb luck, the party manages to find two really drunk people talking about easy money in a tavern. Some more listening reveals that there’s a box and some “one-eyed prick” buyer involved; everything is confirmed when one happens to mention the festival building the box is currently in. The party drinks in a nearby table listening intently as the two drunkards talk about how this is the last time they’ll have to drink this piss water and how good their lives will be once they’re done. Interestingly, it seems they plan on leaving the thieves’ guild and taking all the profit of the task. An important detail, the trade will take place at 6 o’clock. After that they begin to talk about significantly less interesting topics and the party finishes their beers and leaves the environment.

The party begins to formulate a plan; taking the box from the two drunkards is easy enough so it’s mostly a matter of catching them in a place where neither their buyer nor other thieves will be present. The party decides to try tailing the drunkards from the festival building and taking them out as soon as they leave the public vicinity. This plan is deemed good enough and the party switches to the third disguises of the day (sans the wounded Nightshade).

At T-10 minutes, the party arrives at the festival building. Edmund goes in to spot and the two leave on time. Edmund tails them nearby with the rest of the party about one street’s length away. Annoyingly, they don’t leave the main streets until they take two quick turns to a side alley…with the one-eyed person at the back. So much for catching them before they get there. Peter and Adriana hustle towards the event while Edmund utilizes the moment of surprise and shoots one of the thieves. Everybody (except for the other thief) acts quickly and Edmund dodges one crossbow shot but another one from an unseen attacker gets him. His system is quickly coursing with some manner of poison and he drops immediately.

Adriana and Peter step in and take out the remaining thief and the one-eyed person. Adriana also manages to see the hidden attacker though he takes another shot hitting Peter this time. Peter toughs out the poison though and lands a telling blow himself which drops the attacker. Quick scan through the thieves reveals the box with little else of value. Apparently the one-eyed person had never intended to pay in the first place since there’s no money on his person, though he and his friend are relieved of their crossbows made of extremely valuable, and efficient, wood. The party decides the one-eyed person is too dangerous to let live and he and the sniper both lose their lives. The party doesn’t really bother with cleaning up; it looks like a shootout between the thieves’ guild and some other power in the underworld which will be good enough. Edmund wakes up groggily and feels extremely nauseous while Peter manages to fully resist the effects of the poison; Edmund is half-carried back to the inn until he begins to feel better.

The boxes reveal three steel rings of unknown purpose. According to Nightshade, legend has it that they make you immune to disease; a legend that has held true thus far as people in the possession of such rings are generally killed by sword before any disease would have the chance to take over. Apparently Veldarn is a rather paranoid person so this kind of an acquisition would be right in line with his interests, and they’re irrelevant to the party so it is agreed that the deal will be concluded as planned.

Veldarn happens to be present a bit earlier than expected and scans the boxes until nodding happily and tossing a pouch of gold which, upon closer inspection, has exactly the agreed-upon amount of gold. He further offers us another job; apparently he’s heard of our trip to Melendia and he has a sealed envelope to deliver. Apparently we’re to expect trouble from Melendian spies but not before we reach the country. We agree since we’re going anyways and it’s a tidy extra profit.

And this is the end of the session for the day.

Notes:
- We finally hit Level 9! Yay.
- Lots of poisons this time around.
- WTF, non-lethal Edmund? What drugs did Peter accidentally give him I wonder?
- Seriously, only five bodies the whole session. This has to be the least bloody task we've ever done.
- And one gig went without a single casualty.
- Wild Empathy! And Use Rope! Best! Rolling 19 on Wild Empathy didn't hurt either.
- Party took comparatively much damage now. The critical from the merc on Nightshade and the poisoning of Edmund were both pretty worrisome situations.
- If we were smart, we would've just ambushed the thugs in the festival building. We thought we'd get a chance later but ah well. Might work out for the best though with the one-eyed fellow out of the picture.
- For a crooked guy, Veldarn's jobs have seemed surprisingly harmless and decent thus far. Sure, that last gig involved bodies but mostly from the underworld, and bodies that would've occurred anyways (the thieves were going to die, if not by our hands then by the one-eyed man's) so it's not really the end of the world.

Eldariel

2012-06-11, 08:14 PM

...apparently biannual turned weekly for the summer. At least for now.

Session 21

Dragon Hunt:
Day 77

After an uneventful evening and night, our heroes wake up in the morning to a near-full hall during breakfast in the inn. There's a lot of chatter and Peter discerns there's talk about gnomes and some beast in the sewers. Apparently a maintenance crew of 5 men had disappeared overnight except for one who had escaped the sewers, badly wounded, and died shortly afterwards. Closer listening reveals there are multiple parties offering rewards for anyone who would venture down in the sewers and kill these things; apparently the city guard wants no part of some unknown beasts and they find their duty is limited to the surface.

The party discusses the matter over breakfast and concludes that since they're free for the day anyways and a day of absolutely nothing is far less interesting than a day of blood and gold, they would look into this. There are other interested parties, of course, but none are probably as efficient, competent or well-equipped as we are so we figure we should probably be the first ones to track down and slay the targets anyways.

After the breakfast, the party heads for the doctor's house where the body is currently located. Apparently they aren't the only ones as a captain of the guard is at the door staving off masses. Edmund's smoothtalk combined with a quick listing of the titles and a mention of working for the Merkendors earns the party a passage and they scan the body. Immediately apparent, the man died to burns; Peter concludes they seem to be caused by steam. There are no other wounds on the body other than scrapes as he's stumbled about while running away. Hard to say much else about the corpse. Peter takes the scent from the man and the party decides to use that as their key to finding the location in which the crew disappeared.

The party has the entrance from which the man had come up from the captain of the guard, which makes the rest of this hunt easy. The party determines that the sewage is a bit under 5' deep courtesy of Nightshade's Guisarme; the sewer itself is 20' by 20' as this is one of the main lines. Armed with this information, the tracking across the sidewalk begins. With great difficulty, Peter manages to follow the 3-hour old scent trail in the overpowering smell of the sewers. Nightshade holds the front with a lantern and the rest of the party follows behind with Peter right up with Nightshade, tracking. The rogues walk a bit further back, hiding in the shadows. The party arrives at the crossroads where there's a cave-in on one side; apparently this is the area where the crew was working. The crossroads is circular area with a 50' diameter. As the cave-in blocks one side of the room, there's little choice but crossing to the other sidewalk or walking in the sewage.

Edmund's a fan of the former and tries to throw a rope to a torch holder on the other side; he does manage to fasten it but when he gives it a strong pull, the whole holder comes down; so much for that idea. Out of options, the party enters the sewage Peter and Nightshade in the front. Then things start happening; Peter spots a lump of meat thrown to the sewage from one of the sewer entrances and at another entrance, there's a wave with something gleaming behind it. Peter and Nightshade pull back to the sidewalk and in few short moments, a creature that appears to be a massive turtle appears behind the wave. Peter identifies it as a Dragon Turtle, named such for its ability to breathe very hot steam; he knows the body is very thickly armored and the creature is very strong and durable, but slow. It's also apparently aquatic and presumably the sewage would offer no protection from the steam jets it can blow.

Immediately, Peter and Edmund open fire with Peter landing a hit that the creature doesn't even really register, while Edmund merely clings its shell. Peter gets to shoot again before it moves and lands two good hits that grab its attention. Nightshade tries shooting too, unsuccessfully, and the creature decides to help itself to few more snacks; it comes to the party and blows extremely hot steam on them. Nightshade partially avoids the jet while Peter takes a full hit for 38 to the face; both Adriana and Edmund manage to avoid it entirely.

Adriana follows this up with a good shot, and then Edmund runs at the creature, tumbling to melee range and slicing its foot with a brutal critical on Wolf Fang Strike as its focus is on Peter. Peter then proceeds to land 3 more shots on the creature at point blank range earning a howl of pain, followed by Nightshade hitting it once. The creature proceeds to try and rip Edmund apart but only manages some surface cuts as Edmund agilely dodges its attacks, while Adriana tumbles in and lands a solid melee hit that finishes the creature off.

Two creatures jump out of the other sewer entrance screaming as the creature falls. Edmund manages to remain unseen using the turtle's corpse as cover and snipes one, while Peter shoots the other, hurting it and poisoning it but it resists the poison. The other survives and throws some kind of a bomb at Edmund catching Adriana in the area of effect too. Both of them manage to steel their minds and retain their sanity, and Adriana takes the creature out. The party relieves all the creatures of their heads and leaves the sewers in a hurry. Once on the surface, they make their way to an inn and demand to wash themselves and a set of clean clothes offering to pay handsomely. The innkeeper points them to the bathing areas just for the smell alone and the party gets to wash, complete with backwashers, and clothe themselves again in due schedule for a handful of silvers.
Evening Encounters:
Afterwards, the party decides to continue the profitable business ventures with the Merkendors; many parties have posted reward offers with Merkendors' being the second highest. Ultimately the party takes them up on it. After Edmund's negotiation for the reward, its raised from the original post of 55 to 66 gold. After this, the whole party enjoys the rest of the day in the town spending some actual money on drinks, baths, escorts; whatever suits their fancy.

On the way back to the inn, Peter spots four heavily armed people in mithril armor approaching the party on empty streets (roll 27 on Spot). Peter further notices they carry the signs of a Melendian mercenary organization "Brotherhood of Eclipse". As luck would have it, Peter has actually studied said mercenary organization quite a bit (roll 35 on Knowledge: Local); he knows they are quite powerful and have a "Failed assignments are punishable by death-through-torture"-policy in place. Their information gathering network is close to that of the actual governments and they tend to be extremely ruthless and efficient. They are able to operate in Dramadan in limited scale mostly thanks to bribery of the officials. Funnily enough, Peter also happens to know every single one of them by name. He quickly pokes the his comrades saying "mercenaries" in the party's shared language and puts his hand on his sword.

The Brotherhood men approach the party, stop within talking distance and the leader, Markus Heidion, calmly lists the names of the whole party. The mercenaries are more than a bit astonished when Peter counterlists the mercs, listing all their names right back at them and everybody falls silent for a bit, figuring out what just happened. Peter says "Glad we are all acquainted; to what do we owe the pleasure?" and Markus explains "We have come to tell you that you should not go to Melendia. If you stay in this town for two weeks, we're willing to pay you 460 gold coins." A few silent words traded between the party Edmund asks "Is this about the caravan?" figuring if these people are against Veldarn or the Merkendors in general. Markus answers "What caravan?" but Edmund senses he's lying; Edmund himself says "Oh, yeah, nevermind." and fails his bluff epicly. Edmund manages some fairly epic diplomacy and the mercenaries agree to let the party think about the offer.

It is agreed that accepting the offer isn't really an option; both the deal with Veldarn and the deals with the Merkendors and the whole country's future ride on the party's mission, not to mention the rewards will probably be far greater than 450 gold combined should the party succeed. This just raises the question of how to fight an extremely efficient mercenary organization with near-infinite resources... Peter recognizes that the four men are among the top of the ladder for the organization and judging by their methods there were others lurking nigh'. Whatever the solution, it won't be easy.

And here we end for the night.

Notes:
- Peter rolled natural 20 for tracking through sewers; the DC is 20 base for strong odors in the environment, and +6 for 3 hours of trail age but 11 Survival + 2 Synergy + 20 managed.
- Edmund wanted to steal a toe from the body in case Peter forgot the smell...? He managed not to in fear of trouble though.
- Edmund almost one-shot the creature with the critical after movement; if Sneak Attack dice were applied to the WP he would've killed it in one hit.
- The bombs were confusion bombs akin to what Edmund was hit with back in Waterdawn. Lucky saves this time.
- Peter just got Evasion for this session (level 9), and then I roll 3 for his first Reflex save. Whee!
- Swift Tracker + Scent + Roll of 20 is a pretty solid combination for following tracks quickly; the sewers were full of bounty hunters by the time we got there but none of them got anywhere since there was little information available about the crew's post and obviously traditional tracking is pretty darn hard on hard surfaces.

groz_nez

2012-06-12, 11:28 AM

I'd like to add some DM commentary.

The idea about gnomes in the sewer actually came to me only couple days earlier. Luckily it was enough time to get it working. Also decided to make gnomes some kind of beast masters of this world. It seems logical that they not only have chemical weapons/explosives, but also some big creatures as kind of protectors. Most likely they developed this strategy because humans of this world hunt them mercilessly, so they need every advantage they can get.

The huge monster in the sewers was little modified version of Dragon Turtle in the Monster Manual. Found it kind of by accident when looking Dire Animals. Even though it's dragon kind in the book, I decided it could work as "natural" overgrown beast. Maybe the gnomes had put some sort of growth hormones in its food. We will have to see what kind of new monstrosity is discovered when gnomes decide to make their next appearance.

Eldariel

2012-06-13, 08:07 AM

Yeah, we're pretty far off what I originally perceived as the focal point of the campaign; the "lost" world so to speak. But you still see tidbits of it every now and then, like this here encounter. Damn gnomes.

JerichoPenumbra

2012-06-14, 01:54 AM

Yay! More summer updates! Excellent read as always Eldariel.

Eldariel

2012-06-27, 10:17 PM

Glad to know at least somebody is reading this, Jericho. :smallsmile: While it's of course useful to just write events down, it's nice to know it's not just for personal use. :smalltongue:

Castleraven

2012-07-02, 09:01 PM

I just thought I'd pop on and mention I read this whenever it's updated, I love the campaign idea and style of it all.

Eldariel

2012-07-04, 11:08 AM

Huh. Well, happy to hear. Thank you, my good sir; it's always nice to hear some feedback, even if it is "I'm reading this" :smallcool: And obviously, for all its literary flaws the Journal can't be that boring if people actually enjoy reading it.

Without further ado:
Session 22

Letter Peter:
Day 78

An uneventful night is followed by a rather eventful morning. Peter & Edmund have difficulty getting up from bed but the nearby door clanging open signifies Nightshade having gone to breakfast so the duo decides to swerve themselves up from bed. The innkeeper quips that he has two letters for the duo; curious, they pick the letters up. It's obvious that one is from the Brotherhood; the second one however is a mystery.

After a thorough investigation, first of the letters is opened. It is an invitation from the Merkendors; there's going to be a conference regarding the caravan to Melendia 18:00 the same day at the mansion of Lord Kaiden Merkendor. Apparently the details for the trip will be hammered out, and the party will meet the other participants too. This leaves the afternoon's worth of free time before the conference.

The second one is opened with similar scrutiny...and once Peter touches the letter he rolls a Fort-save. He passes with flying colors though and the letter just says "Greetings from the Brotherhood of the Eclipse!" A bit later, his fortitude fails and the poison saps his intelligence a bit; he decides to lie down until the conference hoping the effect isn't very long-lasting. Peter's knowledge on the topic reveals though that most likely, this is basically a poison undetectable for the naked eye; invisible and without a smell.

With Peter bedridden, Nightshade says he goes to find out what he can of the Brotherhood. Adriana stays back, while Edmund decides to try and follow Nightshade. A "No, my sources wouldn't talk with you present." and an unsuccessful Hide-check later, he decides to go shopping instead.

Edmund actually manages to not waste his time; in the market district he finds a merchant selling weighted crossbow bolts and arrows with shorter-than-average range but higher damage, very useful for close- and medium range combat. He haggles and buys a stack of 100 arrows and bolts each. Merkenwarian ingenuity at works indeed; metropolises have their advantages.

Still in the business, he hears some massive commotion and hordes of people running towards the inn. As he asks around and chases after the people, he finds out some massive, weird thing is being brought into the city. At the inn, making his way through the crowd he sees a guard of 5 soldiers wearing the Merkendor badges marching by both sides of a vehicle being pulled by four horses. Four more soldiers are inside, but most striking is the machine itself: It's a steam engine much like the one we had back in Waterdawn. It has the same shape and the engine looks similar though it also has crossbows installed around the vehicle, apparently for combat purposes. He marvels at it for a moment and then follows it alongside the crowd. The vehicle ends its trip in the mansion of Kaiden Merkendor; Edmund asks to get in but the guard tells him to wait until the meeting. Figuring he'll get to play with it soon enough, Edmund begins his trip back to the inn.

In the meanwhile, Nightshade has returned to the inn. He's told Peter he couldn't find out just about anything; no sources seem willing to talk about the Brotherhood. The only thing he could figure out is that apparently the Brotherhood considers the deadline for accepting their offer to have already passed; as much was obvious anyways but at least now it's confirmed that the party is now at a covert war with the Brotherhood.

Eventually, Edmund returns to the inn and Peter is also feeling better so the party gets ready for the conference.
Explosive Negotiations:
The stroll through the town was quite uneventful; nobody noticed anybody tailing or anything and there are no incidents reaching the gate of Kaiden's mansion. Suddenly, huge explosion and falling debris force everyone to dive for cover resulting in everybody taking some damage and Nightshade stylishly faceplanting himself in the ground. The whole top floor of the building just exploded. Everybody is in a bit of a shock and the guards run frantically around.

Calm in the moment, Peter quickly scans the environment. He sees some shape perched at the edge as if overseeing the events on a nearby rooftop. In one smooth motion, Peter poisons one arrow, and launches three at the thing; it disappears. Peter waves for Edmund to follow and the two scale the roof, Edmund much less successfully than Peter; he can't manage the wall itself and goes around to climb by the gutter. By the time Edmund begins his ascent, Peter is already on the roof and sees nobody but is able to chase after a blood trail. He looks down and sees the same shape he'd seen on the roof, immobile.

He waits for Edmund to arrive and then, with Edmund aiming his Heavy Crossbow at the thing, they approach it. Turns out it's a man dressed in some concealing cloak with three arrows stuck in his body, and with his throat slit open. Some emblem has been ripped off from his clothes, and he doesn't bear the tattoo of the cultists. Peter tries to find some tracks to chase after but fails. He retrieves his arrows, and the two head back to the mansion, where Nightshade has taken the lead organizing the guards to put the fire out.

In the meanwhile Peter and Edmund interrogate some guards about how all this is possible; turns out some guards had gone missing and there's something weird going on overall. The duo searches the environment and hears some voices inside some locked storage building; moving quickly, Edmund effortlessly picks the lock in one quick tap and the duo moves in only to find two bleeding bodies on the floor, matching the descriptions of the missing guards. Peter manages to stem the bleeding to save the life of one of the guardsmen but the other one has passed away. Meanwhile Edmund checks for traces of intruders but merely notices that whoever it was has probably left through the door, over the wall behind the building. He climbs up but doesn't see any chance for a pursuit so he The duo brings the living guard to Nightshade who promises to make sure he stays alive.

After the fire is under control, Edmund asks Nightshade to keep the others away from the top floor for the moment and the duo takes a quick trip to see what's left. Balancing on the fragile floor, they find almost everything in a thousand pieces. Some valuables are taken since their owners will no longer be requiring them, but for actual clues there's precious little. Edmund is able to find some metal that seems out-of-place though with traces of a resin-like substance. He manages to piece together the metal seems to have been a part of the shell of a massive bomb, while Peter recognizes the explosive substance as different from the gunpowder the cultists have favored; it's a compound of substances one of which you can only really get from Melendia and the other from the south so it seems really out-of-place here.

When the duo returns, a Duke of the Merkendor-family has arrived, and the party gives him a quick rundown on the situation, alongside the surviving guard. Peter also suggests he quadruples the guard, to which the Duke says "It's already done." It is discovered that almost everybody present, including Kaidan Merkendor, has perished. A single diplomat, Arianna Merkendor, has however survived. When she was questioned by the guards, she stated she hadn't seen anything significant before the explosion. All these events have drawn quite a big crowd around the place by this point.

Finally, Edmund goes to check on the machine to ensure it's alright. It seems to have survived the explosion largely intact; only some support beams were somewhat bent. He also found out that the vehicle was designed for a crew of 4 for full combat readiness, and that it greatly resembles the engine we have in Waterdawn. He realizes this one was indeed built by Wårf too! There's an observation hatch in the roof and crossbows that can be fired from the inside around the vehicle. He does what he can to fix any damage it's taken and leaves the device.

Later he asks the Duke if he could drive the thing in the caravan since he has the experience and all. The Duke answers "That would be very much appreciated, given our driver just died in that explosion." Apparently the vehicle is meant to be in the front of the caravan as an armored fighting vehicle in case things turn sour; it can cover the rest of the caravan and it's quite durable.

The party is invited to a new meeting at the Duke's mansion the next noon with departure scheduled for the same afternoon; these events got the Merkendors to speed up the events. With things mostly sorted out, the party leaves the mansion and heads over to the inn.
Cleaning Up:
Peter and Edmund decide to head out to the town for the evening to gain information on the Brotherhood. Since they have no leads, they agree to just randomly go check some places; they eventually end up touring the local "men's clubs", both in the poorer area and the noble district; two strip clubs and two brothels.

Information they find is pretty much none, but they do find the difference in class between the districts. Edmund also manages to enjoy a Fort-save's worth of ladies (Peter makes do with fewer) and both enjoy quite a few drinks, so much so that Peter ends up having to carry Edmund to his room.

Day 79

Groggy Edmund somehow manages to get up and join the rest of the party for breakfast; soon enough, things get going. The party groups up for the meeting at the Duke's place. There are soldiers of Merkendors on roofs surrounding the place and pairs are scouring the mansion constantly; the security is airtight. The guardsmen at the gate ask for papers and allow the party in after the paperwork is taken care of.

Inside, the party gets to meet the rest of the members of the caravan. Apparently the surviving guard from yesterday still hasn't said a word so Peter and Edmund ask to talk to him; Edmund manages to talk his way in with the condition that he takes two guards with him. The wounded guard is still in shock though and unable to speak intelligibly, so nothing of value is learned.

There's precious little to talk about; there's an obvious threat looms on the caravan so there will be a military escort of 20 men, alongside the party and the steam engine. Edmund makes sure to instruct one of the mechanics reserved for the machine on steering it so he can join in the fights should need be; he's fairly good with crossbows, so he'd be the ideal person to man some of the weapons on the machine.

After the negotiation, Edmund is given some papers to show to guards in case they try to bother him about the machine and the party sets to drive the machine to the gate from where the caravan will leave in a while. Some city guards try to stop us but Peter has made a copy of the permission paper and it's in the front of the machine now; soon as the guards read it they stop bothering the party.

With that, the caravan leaves; the machine and the guard is quite the sight. People gather as the caravan passes through the gates and heads for Enaurda. The party mans the steam engine and takes the front. Unsurprisingly, nobody bothers the caravan over the first day and the caravan camps for the night between Enaurda and Merkenwar.

Day 80

The trip continues and the caravan leaves after the breakfast. Enaurda is reached in the afternoon. It is agreed that the caravan will pause here to resupply as necessary; the party takes this chance to sell away some of the valuables they've mustered overtime.

With that, we end for the day.

Notes:
- This was a minds-in-the-gutter session. Somewhat funny but not worth repeating.
- Places around us seem to blow up. A lot. Back to the old ways, I guess?
- Bloody mercenaries refusing to be found. Real annoying to fight something you can't see.
- The explosives here were of something akin to TNT. Gonna be worrisome, what it can do with direct application.
- Still zero successful Reflex-saves now that Peter has Evasion.
- 20 mooks? We'll be like immortal when we get attacked :smalltongue:

Mushroom Ninja

2012-07-04, 07:57 PM

I sign back into GitP for the first time in ages, and I'm greeted by this on the first page! Gonna have to re-read a bit and catch up.

Eldariel

2012-07-06, 05:58 PM

I sign back into GitP for the first time in ages, and I'm greeted by this on the first page! Gonna have to re-read a bit and catch up.

Yeah, 3-year campaigns (with only 22 sessions somehow) can have that effect. Ah well, welcome back anyways. Enjoy your stay :smalltongue:

Dada

2012-11-16, 02:17 AM

I enjoyed reading this, looking forward to your next session.

Eldariel

2012-12-30, 04:46 PM

Always glad to hear, Dada. :smallsmile: I mean, while it serves a purpose as a memory bank, it's kind of a waste if nobody finds it amusing or interesting to read.

Session 23

Smoke and arrows:
Day 81

The whole caravan organizes for departure. The next goal of the trip is Bainaria in the southwest; the trip is expected to take one day. The departure from Enaurda goes without trouble, as do the first few hours of riding. The most dangerous part of the trip is the large forest through which the road passes.

Things seem surprisingly calm; for about half the forest nothing happens. Then Peter (and most people in the caravan not named Edmund) begin to notice some odd things: there seems to be no wildlife about and there's some shine in the horizon. On closer inspection, shine with a massive smoke cloud on top of it. Peter points it out for Edmund first and then sends message to the commander of the troops of the caravan, Sir Geldor. It doesn't take long to identify what's happening: a forest fire.

While a forest fire is dangerous, the wind is blowing from the northwest, so the fire will probably be advancing sideways with regards to us for the moment; while the danger is not immediate, a quick discussion leads to the extremely sensible decision to push the horses and the machine as hard as possible and make it for the other end of the forest. The trip is still a few hours so full-blown gallop is not an option but the horses can hustle.

Peter and commander Geldor share suspicion about the timing of this fire, especially since it started from the middle of the forest somewhat nearby. Nothing to do about that at the moment though.

The caravan runs into a merchant caravan with a broken wagon on the way out. Sir Geldor checks with the party and it is agreed that the party will stay behind to help with the steam engine while the rest of the caravan hurries onwards. Edmund and Peter approach the merchants; the wagon's wheels are completely busted and they're busy moving what they can onto their horses. Peter offers to carry some of the load in the steam engine given it's quite empty at the moment. The merchants agree and a large amount of fabrics are transported over; it is actually possible to carry almost all of the wagon's contents this way. The party agrees to meet with the merchants in Bainaria and step on the gas to catch up with the caravan, while the merchants follow as they can.

The trip progresses swiftly and towards the end of the forest, Bainarian soldiers are seen creating an barrier area to try and limit the advance of the fire to the forest. The caravan passes through with no questions; the soldiers hardly have time for anything but their work. The caravan makes it out no problem though and reaches Bainaria by the dusk, staying overnight in the Blue Wave inn. The merchants make it too and the party uncharacteristically gives them back their wares with nothing more to it.

Peter asks Sir Geldor to talk with them in private towards the evening and it is agreed they'd talk after dinner. The discussion mostly confirms that it's quite likely the fire was no mere accident; Geldor also knows to tell that there are some parties in Melendia that would find it awfully convenient if an unfortunate accident, such as a forest fire, befell the caravan. After that Peter ensures that Sir Geldor is up to speed with information on the mercenaries and the potential resources brought to bear against the caravan; turns out this is largely unnecessary as Geldor knows most of what is to know here. One of the nobles, Arianna Merkendor, approaches Peter about how likely future trouble on the journey are. Peter answers honestly, as is his habit: "Quite." Arianna returns to her inhabitations a bit shakened.

After the discussion, Peter, Edmund and Nightshade decide to take a tour around the town to see what's going on. Adriana decides to enjoy herself in the inn, instead. A quick trip around the town reveals that the biggest talk in town aside from the forest fire (which seems to not be growing any longer towards the evening) are the weird illnesses Bainarian herds are suffering lately. Bainaria is an agricultural town so it is a rather massive worry and it's only been occurring relatively recently; little is known about it though.

Towards the end of their town tour, Nightshade and Edmund inform Peter that they are being watched from the roofs. Peter smiles a bit and suggests throwing a party the only right way. The party moves quickly to lose the watcher for a moment and scales a roof themselves; the buildings are close to each other so it's easy enough to jump from roof to roof.

The party then begins to sneak up on the watcher; they get within 150' when the watcher fires a bow at Nightshade. Nightshade takes a hit but retaliates. Edmund sneaks closer. Nightshade takes few more hits, after which Peter takes the chance to shoot him with a poisoned arrow; the man stays standing though but the rest of Peter's volley lands true and he's quite hurt. Edmund finally gets close enough to sneak attack him with a small leap to close the rest of the distance and drops him in one go; the body falls off the roof for good measure. Turns out he only saw Nightshade until it was too late. The party checks the body and discovers the symbol of the Brotherhood, with not much else of note.

The party returns to the inn and mentions the encounter with the watcher to Adriana; she melodramatically complains about missing out on a perfectly good fight. The evening turns to night and everybody hits the bed, eventually.
"Halt!" or "Would you please ride over me?":
Day 82

The northern wind and cold rain alongside the forest fire add up to a surprisingly lonely passage on this normally heavily trafficked road. The next goal of the trip is the village of Kaldelia in the east. It's a two-day trip, and thus the plan is to stay at the inn "Dancing Moon" for the first night. Kaldelia is a small village of under a thousand inhabitants, and its only real significance is being on the major road to Melendia.

The party encounters just about nobody for the first few hours; apparently people have decided to largely postpone their journeys by a day while waiting for the fire to run its course. As luck would have it, thunder decides to add its own spice to the journey. Luckily only the soldiers have to ride in the open; the nobles have their wagons and the party has the steam engine.

Soon, a flash of lightning illuminates cold steel on the road. Seven men stand guard at some kind of a blockade. The party leaves the steam engine behind and mounts horses to check up on the situation, alongside Sir Geldor and 10 out of the 20 other soldiers in the group. The nobles refuse requests to send some silver-tongued person to settles the affairs.

Peter and Edmund recognize the signs the guards carry; these are soldiers of the Brotherhood. As the outriders approach the brotherhood, the guards assume defensive posture to intercept any attacks while the soldiers accompanying the party also assume combat formation. The commander of the guard captain signals "Halt!" and the riders stop.

The guard captain says: "We've been waiting for you. Please turn your caravan back."
Edmund, the designated speaker, responds: "For peace we must continue the journey."
The guard captain answers: "If you wish to maintain peace, turning back might be your best option."
Edmund tells the guard that the caravan will need a while to consider, and the guard signals them it's okay to retreat. The group begins retreating while keeping the front still towards the guards until establishing some distance; at 30' distance the guards draw out bows and the guard captain gives a signal with four enemy soldiers and a tall and a short figure appearing on both sides of the outriders.

Peter reacts the fastest and rides his horse right into the blockade guards' formation and performs a flawless whirlwind attack hitting three enemies, barely recovering the hit against the enemy captain.

Sir Geldor follows right after him hitting the other side of the guards' formation although only landing two of his three strikes. The guards immediately retaliate and while Peter can avoid three of the four strikes against him by taking cover behind his warhorse, Sir Geldor isn't so lucky and takes a critical knocking him out for three rounds.

The riders of Dramadan split into two groups to face the threat on both sides, charging the Ogres while the two remaining men draw bows and open fire on the blockade guard at first. Edmund, Nightshade and Adriana all follow-up the attack on the blockade, with Edmund successfully dropping one of the men surrounding Peter. Nightshade engages one of the guards attacking Geldor and Adriana engages the same ones Edmund does.

The main fight has Peter bashing the guard captain up heavily while taking one hit again in return. Edmund drops another one of the soldiers around Peter while Nightshade continues his personal duel and Adriana lays some heavy damage on the last man aside from the captain near Peter. The other guards mostly clang on the armor of the stunned Sir Geldor. It doesn't take too long for Peter, Edmund and Adriana to mop up leaving only the men around Geldor alive; Geldor shakes off the stunned effect and beats up one of the enemy men in revenge.

In the meanwhile, the left flank has the riders triumphing; the gnome manages to kill one horse and man with a bomb but the three remaining men mop up the gnome, the ogre and two of the soldiers in short order. The right flank has two of the soldiers falling quickly on the other hand, with only two soldiers falling from the enemy.

As soon as the enemy commander falls, Peter rides to the right flank taking the gnome with Edmund following nearby and slaying the Ogre. The remaining two men kill one of the riders before falling. Total tally, all enemies dead while only 4 of the 10 soldiers from Merkenwar died. Most of this is thanks to all the attacks aimed and missed at Peter and Geldor.

Peter and Adriana create a field hospital to treat the wounded while Edmund, Nightshade and Geldor go through the belongings of the fallen enemies. It is worth noting that only the soldiers in the front carried markings of the Brotherhood; the four soldiers in each side could as well be brigands or whatever. Geldor finds a piece of paper from the commander's belongings that's written in Latin script but doesn't make any sense. Edmund manages to decipher it as orders to stop this caravan whatever means necessary; it also contains guides on how to contact the gnomes. Geldor seemed visibly shaken, at which point some of the nobles came to the tent to ask what's going on. Edmund eloquently told them about Melendian bandits which they accepted as a completely plausible story.

Speaking of the gnomes, Nightshade relieved them of their heads and began tanning them. The only valuables aside from there were 12 rings and some coin. Peter took the guard captain's Adamantine Greatsword.

With the immediate hassle dealt with and many of the soldiers wounded, Geldor calls for a camp for the day. A camp is indeed thrown together with a medical tent for the wounded. This halts the progress for the day though.

An uneventful night of tending to peoples' wounds follows and the trip towards Kaldelia resumes in the morning.

Day 83

The camp is summarily dismantled as the rain begins to cease. The fog that had built up is also dispersing though the wind continues making the trip slightly less miserable.

The caravan passes the inn that was intended for lodging this night in the afternoon but Geldor figures it's possible to make it to Kaldelia in the day, it's an easy decision to continue the journey.

The rest of the trip to Kaldelia is decidedly uneventful and the village is reached in the evening. In Kaldelia, Geldor states that he has to send some birds regarding the events of this trip thus far and asks for Peter and Edmund to deal with the caravan for the rest of the trip. They manage to find a fine inn by the name of "Red Horizon" in the village; probably the only decent one in the entire place anyways.

After the nobles are seen into the inn and things are more or less in order, Peter and Edmund go for a city tour. Nightshade says he has some of his own business to take care of, while Adriana decides to stay in the inn again. Peter and Edmund manage to find no trackers this time and asking around in the inn, the most common topic is the local festival that begins in one week, supposedly in the honor of some great local hero who saved the village from a band of gnomes, ogres and bandits. Or so the story would have it anyways; maybe Kaldelians just decided they wanted to party. Other news include that the forest fire has burned out taking only a reasonably small area with it (very little in terms of fields), and the traffic on the road is returning to normal. There seems to be no knowledge of any activity of any Melendians here so the mercenaries faced earlier are probably not from this direction.

With not much to bring back, Peter and Edmund go to sleep. Through their sleep they notice how Nightshade comes back extremely late, but nothing beyond that.

Day 84

The caravan departs at dawn with Ralkend, leaving behind the five injured soldiers. This drops the total fighting strength to 16, counting Geldor and the party. Ralkend is a crossroads town at the root of mountain range "Maarde", and passing the mountain range is more or less necessary to get to Melendia and this is the only reasonably easy passage anywhere near the area so this is really the only route available. This trip is approximately two days so the plan is to spend one night out in the wilderness.

On a positive note, the wind turns and is coming from the south, so the weather is significantly more pleasant for the moment. While there's a decent amount of company on the road, the trip is largely uneventful. Day turns to evening, evening turns to night and the caravan stops for a rest.

Around at the point where the caravan stops, the galloping of a horse is heard in the distance. Peter, Edmund, Nightshade, Adriana and Geldor go out to meet the rider; it's a messenger from Ralkend. He wishes to speak with Geldor who signals for the party to be present too. Apparently the birds Geldor sent have gone through and there will be reinforcements available in Ralkend. In the light of the recent events, we will be provided with 16 more men to try and get us through. Apparently the fight about whether to even continue this project was fierce but eventually it was decided that stopping at this point is not really an option anymore. He also gave Geldor a private sealed letter with some personal instructions. The rider then bids us farewell and continues his trip towards Kaldelia.

In the dead silence of the night during his guard, Peter hears some weird ticking in the darkness. It's coming from direction of the steam engine. He wakes up Edmund and the two sneak up to check what's going on. They find nobody there but there's some weird bulge in the bottom of the machine, connected to the axle. Edmund examines the device and determines it's some kind of a timer mechanism, most likely some kind of a bomb directed at the axle to break it in half. Actually, the reason it's making sound in the first place is because the cogwheels have went out of place somehow. Edmund manages to disable the timer but further inspection on the material inside the device reveals it to be the same explosive used to blow up the mansion in Merkenwar. It becomes unstable in couple of days, so this is very dangerous material now, making removal of the bomb tricky.

Edmund is not confident in his ability to remove the bomb but Peter thinks to ask Adriana, who agrees to try. The guardsmen are also asked to help with a hole in the ground to use as bomb disposal. After all is said and done, Adriana tries to remove the device...and manages to first shake it a bit causing Edmund to rush to her aid only for her to mess up the second try entirely dropping the from the container causing it to blow up. Edmund just rolls out of the way in time while Adriana only barely avoids the worst of it. The wagon's axle is bent a bit and the bottom is singed but nothing that can't be fixed. Adriana herself manages to survive with just a fright and a bruised ego.

At about this point Sir Geldor comes out of his tent face red asking what the hell is going on. Things are explained, he complains about not being woken up before the blowing up and seems quite unhappy with the reasoning Edmund gives him but ultimately relents and goes back to sleep. At this point, quick examination reveals that the up-coming mountain pass is the likeliest place where the bomb was planned to explode simply because the machine would be basically impossible to get out of there with that. Since the road blockade delayed the trip by a day, chances are the bomb was placed after that as otherwise it would've probably gone off already. It's impossible to be sure of anything though so the obligatory witch hunts are postponed.

Ultimately, everybody goes back to sleep and the night continues without further incidents.

Day 85

The trip towards Ralkend is resumed and eventually the town is reached.

We quit the session here.

Notes:
- First mounted combat we've had thus far.
- Cover from behind the horse plus Wall of Blades = Peter blocks all the hits!
- Somehow enemies couldn't hit the stunned Geldor once (in three rounds). As soon as he came to, he was hit again. Dem dice.
- The riders in the sides could've suffered far worse but the ogres and the gnomes were rolling awfully.
- Adriana managed a slew of 3 awful die rolls to screw up removing the bomb and blowing it up in her face and failing to evade the explosion.
- The mass battle worked surprisingly well; just rolling attacks without too much finesse for the battles not in the limelight and then focusing on the fight with the PCs kept it fast enough while still allowing for all the fights to be determined by the dice as it should be in D&D.
- I forgot my papers. Now I have a mock-up sheet where I replicated everything but skills near perfectly. Not having rolled a thing in Char Creation has its advantages.

JerichoPenumbra

2013-01-01, 03:54 PM

Awesome! An update of one of my favorite journals to greet the New Year!

Eldariel

2014-03-02, 02:24 PM

Well, I meant to post this half a year ago. Or maybe a year? Anyways, I only finished half of it and it actually took me until our next session to finish writing it. Luckily I have somewhat detailed notes at least, this would otherwise be a bit rough :smalltongue: Anyways, without further ado:

Session 24

Departure:
In Ralkend, we are greeted by the commander of the reinforcements, Sir Malkor. After clearing things up, their strength of 16 men join our caravan escorts bringing our total strength up to 32 warriors. Ralkend is quite packed now since there's been a surprising turn for cold weather, with heavy snowing in the part of the road that goes through the mountains, and many people are hoping for the snow to melt away, and are waiting in Ralkend. Luckily the caravan has a reserved inn, and we make directly for the "White Dawn".

Rest of the day is spent stocking up the caravan with gear for the winter passing. Significantly, tracks are acquired for the steam engine so that it can actually pass through deeper snow without getting stuck. The soldiers also get their winter blankets and winter uniforms; the adventurers are of course already equipped for such.

Peter and Edmund decide to spend time out in the town, gathering information and enjoying themselves, while Nightshade and Adriana go fill in their backpacks. Peter and Edmund manage to pick up few interesting tidbits: apparently there's been some weird folk going towards Melendia with some weird markings. There are also snow leopards out there and they are highly prized for their hides; the weather is doing a good work of ensuring there are few hunters indeed. Other than that, the surprise winter is what most of the folks are talking about.

After everybody is back in the inn for the evening, Nightshade does his trademark disappearance act. He's only gone for an hour though before he comes back and asks to talk with Peter and Edmund in private. Turns out the elven artifacts we used have had another effect beyond the potentially dangerous corruption; we're imbued with residual magic. In effect, he believes it might be possible for us to use few simple spells with training; he mentioned that for instance, it'd be possible to learn some degree of telekinesis. The side effects are fatigue, and more dangerously, risk of corruption. But used in moderation this could be a great tool. After a brief discussion with Edmund being ever-skeptical, Peter and Edmund decide that they'd start training in the machine on the following day as time allows, only ever using the powers in emergencies though.

Day 86

Early in the morning, there's a knock in the door of Peter and Edmund's room. After a brief spurt of paranoia the door is opened revealing a soldier asking for our presence in a meeting regarding the trip. Though drowsy, the two wake up and hurry up to the meeting room. Sir Geldor, Peter, Edmund & the nobles are present, and turns out the meeting is about schedule; the nobles want for us to stay in Ralkend and wait for the snowing to end, and hopefully for the weather to get a bit warmer. Peter and Edmund argue that the weather isn't guaranteed to get warmer any time soon and even if it does, there's no guarantee it won't turn sour again. It is also argued that it's in the caravan's favor to pass over as soon as possible, before the weather gets possibly worse. Edmund's diplomacy proves sublime and the nobles grudgingly agree that it's probably best to just go rather than waste time here.

Afterwards, Peter and Edmund decided to make sure Nightshade and Adriana are awake. Peter punches through the door and finds Nightshade with Guisarme pointing towards him asking "What the hell?" After a quick exchange it turns out Nightshade was already awake and that there's an angry innkeeper coming up. The innkeeper looks at the door, asks "What the hell?" and Edmund tries to explain something about the door having been that way when the party came. The innkeeper does not buy it, and in the end Peter pays for the door. With that all cleared up and stocking up done, the troupe gets ready for departure.
To the mountains and beyond:
At about noon, the caravan takes its leave and challenges the wintery mountain pass. The whole party is inside the machine, which makes the wind far less of a problem for them than the rest. The soldiers, and to lesser extent the diplomats in their carriages, are none too enthusiastic about experiencing the winter’s kiss. Onwards we must push though, and the party is quite possibly the happiest of the whole caravan.

The first day of the travel is relatively unproblematic; the snowline isn’t reached until the end of the day and the late autumn weather, while chilly, is hardly problematic when properly prepared for. The caravan makes unfettered progress through the pass for the whole day until stopping for the night by nightfall. The camp is made at the snowline and the whole caravan sets rest with the machine acting as a sort of a border guard with the party having their own watch in addition to the troops. The first night proceeds somewhat easily until on Peter’s watch, he hears wolves howling. Out of interest, he goes to see what’s going on and establishes a Wild Empathy contact with one of them. He later lets the wolf go after instructing it to keep its herd safe. Other than that, the first night is quite uneventful and come morning, the party gets ready to move on.

Day 87

The first thing to do is switching to the snow tracks for the machine as the trip basically begins at the edges of the snowfield. It’s worth noting that the machine was running for the whole night, as the party isn’t at all certain they could get it moving otherwise. The soldiers complain and put warmer clothes on, while the nobles complain even louder as they aren’t even moving and thus are of course freezing in the carriages. The machine, of course, provides quite the adequate amounts of warmth, leading to the party again having the easiest time of the bunch.

The loud-moving thing does, of course, offer rather flimsy amounts of stealth, which naturally contributes to the utter lack of interesting encounters over the day; rather handy, but also kind of monotonous. The caravan plods through the increasingly deep snow fields at an increasingly slow pace, but progress is constantly made and there exists an assessment that three more days would see the journey through. The constant snow pour does little to improve the trip, of course.

Come night, the caravan sets up a camp and a watch is kept like before. This night, nothing of major consequence happens; hardly surprising between the amount of snow and the still-continuing rain. Everybody keeps their watch, notices nothing out of the ordinary, as if there was much one could notice with the snowing, and eventually morning rears its head unannounced.

Day 88

The trip starts the same the previous day ended: endless slogging or driving over the snow-covered land, cold & complaining for everyone outside the wagon and somewhat warm lack of comfort inside. The worst of the snowfall begins to subside as the day progresses, which makes things somewhat more bearable.

Come time for camping, Peter finds some tracks he identifies as belonging to snow leopards around the camp. Being the good poachers they are, Edmund and Peter decide to make a little fortune. Tracking them down is quite easy with the snowfall having let up a bit and after the creatures are found, a few sharp shots sees to them turning into fortunes. At this point though, Peter hears some footsteps nearby. He’s got half the mind to ignore it but Edmund wants to check out, what’s going on.

Peter and Edmund track down a smallish human figure wearing extremely heavy clothing trekking through the winter. Edmund insists on stopping the figure; ultimately Peter figures they might as well, in the role of agents of Dramadan or something along those lines. The traveler turns out to be a woman. Edmund introduces himself as a knight, decides he’s spontaneously responsible for the traffic in this area, and asks for her business in this area. She claims to be a hunter but Edmund notices that she isn’t telling the whole story. He decides to interrogate her and after a few choice words and the threat of an arrest, she reveals her name is Marianne, and she’s actually smuggling some items on a payroll for a person she seems terrified to name. When asked to show the wares, Peter and Edmund are shocked to find that the items she’s carrying actually resemble the various elf artifacts they’d encountered before.

Edmund, honestly for a change, informs her of the dangers associated with these artifacts and manages to frighten her out of her mind. She ultimately provides the pair with a map that shows the cave she was supposed to drop off the artifacts at, and tells she ultimately gets them from a person named “Argo” from Aurondil, the capital of Melendia, and a person who owns a lot of jewelry stores around Melendia. Apparently Argo is involved in smuggling to Dramadan in a wider scale. She disavows the business and few parting words of advice on where to go for shelter, the party allows her to take her leave. It’s not even a matter of opinion just for the logistical issues of bringing extra people, let alone prisoners, along with the trip. It doesn’t hurt that she also seemed to genuinely want to be rid of that job and start off fresh in Dramadan, and there seemed to be possibilities for that. The party figures afterwards that with their present engagements, checking the cave right now would be impossible so it is decided to worry about that on the way back.

After all that has passed, Peter and Edmund drag the leopards back to the machine to allow for Nightshade to work them, and the nightfall accompanies them. Watch is set, but no further surprises happen to pass by close enough to the noisy machine to be thoroughly dismantled by the party.

Day 89

As the morning greets our heroes, the sun is shining for the first time since the trip through the mountain pass began. The snowline is soon reached and the heroes reach warmer pastures, more precisely the town on the side of the mountain, Paldorna.

And this is where the session is called.

Notes:
- Yeah, I kinda dropped the ball on actually getting this update written. In my defense, I've been really busy. Honest!
- Edmund actually solved something without violence for once and his ridiculous vigilantism and paranoia lead to something apparently somewhat positive for once.
- The DM actually was all prepared to drag out the cold hazard rules with a bit of a glee in his eyes until Edmund's player pointed out we're inside a machine that produces obscene amounts of heat.
- We kept the machine running for 3.5 days straight; the amount of fuel it's consumed must be ridiculous. Though the caravan was well-provisioned on that front at least so.
- I'm experimenting with actually trying to write this a bit of a prosal style instead of leaving it solely as a documentary of what's happened. Feel free to let me know what you think, or if you can even tell the difference (or if you don't care, that's fine too I suppose).
- Next update to follow shortly given we played it today, 2.3.2014.

Eldariel

2014-03-07, 07:15 PM

It's up-to-date! It's finally up-to-date! Woohoo!

Session 25

Descent to Melendia:
The caravan arrives in Paldorna around the evening. With the official nature of this project, the inn “Rolling Mountains” is already reserved and ready to receive the troupe. The caravan heads straight that way with the formalities handled promptly, and the whole group relishes the chance to enjoy a bit of a warmer atmosphere after the mountain pass. The talk of the town is that there are food riots in Aurondil, the capital of Melendia. That seems to be the extent of information people have around here: it seems only so much of the news travels across the border. A beer and a heavy supper later everybody is turning in, with the party occupying two rooms as per usual, and for once nothing happens. The fact that we’re with a platoonful of soldiers might also have something to do with it, of course.

Day 90

The caravan resumes movement early in the morning. The goal is only one day’s travel away so everyone is quite enthusiastic to get this slog over with. Surprisingly enough, the formalities on the border are actually just formalities and we all get over with nary a problem.

After the border, the caravan slogs through a forest that covers most of the border between the countries. In spite of the worries inherent to passing through dense woods, nothing special happens and the caravan successfully navigates the forest, no doubt helped by the clear, paved road running through it. Peter does run front guard and Adriana rear guard in the forest just in case but the party is unwilling to make too big of a number of themselves when they’re supposed to be just run-of-the-mill guards and thus keeps relatively close to the formation. Indeed, nothing remotely threatening shows up. There is, however, a surprising amount of traffic towards the border, and far less so in the opposite direction. The reason becomes apparent soon enough: while the highway between the two countries is paved and the easy to traverse, the land is wet and soft. Quite atypical for the time of the year, this is a symptom of the heavy rains that have been hammering Melendia for months. Indeed, the people are apparently escaping the floods, though fewer are coming this far. It is expected that there’ll be far greater numbers of refugees further inland.

After the forest, the caravan reaches its destination: a border town by the name of “Valders”. That is where the party’s guard duty ends too and their real mission begins. The caravan heads to the designated inn named “Bloody Moon” and on arrival, Malkor calls the party in for a private talk. He provides them with four equipped horses based on his secret orders. The party takes the opportunity to first gather some information, which naturally means Nightshade disappears on roads unknown. The rest of the party goes around the town looking for their own sources. The word on the street has, the weather is truly a problem in addition to the last harvest having been poor, poor harvest is expected again due to the constant flooding, especially of “The River of Janor” that is situated by the most important settlements of the country. There are more mentions of the food riots and interestingly, also of what the party is here to research: there is large-scale military movement further inlands by the roads bordering the River of Janor. The party also catches the name of a person complete who seems to kind of be an information merchant of sorts around here: Galle.

The party gathers enough information to locate the house, where Galle meets with people, and soon enough makes their way there. The door of the building is sealed but few knocks prompt a person to open a hatch asking for the group’s business. Edmund explains they’d like to find out more about the military movement in the north, and the person inside disappears for a second. Some clanking later, the door is opened slightly ajar and to the party’s surprise, a bald, short, muscular, dark-skinned man appears beckoning them inside. This is quite surprising given people living in Melendia are almost invariably fair-skinned: this person must have moved here for reasons unknown to us.

The party enters the building and notices a number of locks on the door that were the cause of the clanking. There is also a heavy crossbow bolted behind another hatch, apparently to take gut shots at any unwanted visitors, and the door is also heavily reinforced. The building overall resembles a small fortress - it barely has any furniture. From the entrance, there’s a room with a bed and a table with a candle, and then another that contains walls filled to the brim with all manners of recordings: books, parchment, papers, et cetera. This room is lit by a couple of candles and in the middle, there is a man sitting at a table reading a book. The guard directs the party inside the study, where they are greeted by an older thin, balding man with glasses, likewise of dark complexion. The man in the study, presume to be Mr. Galle, asks the guard for the party’s business and the guard fills him in on our intrigue regarding the events inlands. While this discussion is taking place, the party spies the book on the table: it seems to handle about the next major town on the main road, Aumande, and the local military commander’s ties to the Brotherhood of the Eclipse. Galle begins by explaining he does indeed have detailed information on the events inlands, but there is of course a price. The party inquires on his proposal, and turns out he needs a message delivered to Doldan, the key crossroads town after Aumande by the main road where the road splits into two, to both directions along the riverside. He also requires an immediate reply by a raven the party is to take with them.

The party accepts Galle’s terms fairly swiftly, going that way anyways on their way to Aurondil, and Galle in turn explains the situation. Apparently the massive troop movement is because the forces of Melendia are mobilized…to fight the flood. All the military in that area is tied to building and strengthening the flood barriers in the hope of avoiding massive flooding and hopefully saving some of the crops. A logical explanation, but certainly still useful to be certain that the party and indeed Dramadan has absolutely nothing to fear from the military of Melendia itself. It smells like there’s some power playing Dramadan against Melendia for its own gain via misinformation, and of course the party’s task continues in form of finding out who, and why. When intrigued about the open book, Galle smiles a bit and intrigues about the party’s ties to the Brotherhood. He then continues that, indeed, someone who has trouble with the Brotherhood would better steer clear of Aurande. He then intrigues for any further business; when the answer is negative, he shoos everyone out so he can focus on his work again.

The party ponders their next course of action: taking the main road through Aurande seems ill-adviced and disappearing soon would probably be prudent so the party merely fetches their horses and switches to another, lower class inn, finding one by the name of “Creaking Door”; the reason for the name becomes apparent upon entrance. Aurande is surrounded by forest from the southwestern side and by high, hard-to-pass, hilly terrain on the northeastern one. There is a lake behind the forest that would also need to be crossed to truly clear the immediate surroundings of Aurande. The party decides that it’s probably less laborious to take the trip through the forest, find a boat in one of the fishing hamlets by the lakeside and cross the lake over trying to navigate the unknown mountain range that’s no doubt experiencing winter conditions already. Forest also offers more cover for a better chance at passing unseen. Nightshade finds the rest of the party in the inn a few hours later and shares his own discoveries about the troops that confirm what the party heard from Galle. He also tells that due to the riots, martial law has been declared in the capital Aurondil. Finally, he agrees to the plan and it’s set in motion.

Day 91

The night is uneventful, but come morning there’s a lot of buzzing in the commons room. There are wild rumors: people have heard of the martial law in Aurondil, and some say some noblemen have been killed, while others claim the palace has been stormed by angry mobs. Other stories are afoot too. The party mostly ignores this though and enjoys their early breakfast and leaves around 6 in the morning.
This Smells Woody:
The first part of the new course can still be ridden on the main road, something the party full takes the advantage of. The number of refugees appears greater than before and things seem dire for much of the small folk. The party pays little heed to all this though, mostly interested in their own engagements. After about half a day ride, the party turns off from the main road into the forest by the name of Forest of Olden. Turns out the ground actually enables riding, if not at very high speeds, something the party takes full benefit of. Peter slows the party down a bit to hunt and manages to fell a deer for the party to eat. Weather also takes a turn for the worse and the dreaded rains start again. Soon afterwards, a camp is set with the watch order being Edmund, Peter, Nightshade, Adriana. Edmund places some crude traps mostly to alarm him of the presence of some intruders.

During Edmund’s watch, he thinks he hears some footsteps, puts his pipe out and hides. Nothing comes near the camp though. As he wakes up Peter and tells him of it, they quickly scan the surroundings and Edmund manages to find tracks in spite of the rain and Peter quickly assesses them, finding four separate sets of tracks left by heavy boots smelling of human. There doesn’t seem to be an animal involved. Peter decides the tracks should be followed and has Edmund wake up Adriana and Nightshade while he already starts following. Peter deducts that due to how heavy the tracks seem, the people producing them are in heavy load or more likely, armor, and thus should be significantly slower than the lightly armored party. The tracks are about one hour old though so it’d take a while to catch up to them, but the party decides they should especially since it seems the track turned around exactly by the camp so they clearly were looking for someone and think they found him. The party takes the risk of leaving the camp, complete with the horses, unguarded on the basis of people probably being unlikely to just happen upon it in the middle of a dense forest in heavy rain.

An hour and some of hustling later, the party catches the sight of some torchlight in the horizon. A bit further in, there are confirmed four lights mounted on four large people. Peter also finds a disturbing smell this close, resembling the smell of rotten flesh, much like the consumed cultists in Dramadan. The party has a quick exchange on whether to just attack or to talk first; ultimately it is decided that Peter and Nightshade would call out the people and engage in a discussion and if it looks that way, Edmund and Adriana would open up with a surprise attack. Peter and Nightshade run up the figures while Edmund and Adriana sneak behind looking to get to range for good attacks (not easy in darkness in a forest under rain, but the men carrying torches certainly helps). The whole event is taking place still about an hour’s trip away from the town or the road so it should be reasonably isolate.

Peter calls out to them when he reaches clear visual contact, at about 30’, and asks for their business. The four men turn around, armored head to toe wearing Melendian military symbols. The person who seems to be a leader and a giant of a man even compared to the other tall three, not to mention, armored in a mountain of steel, responds how his business are none of Peter’s concern, but he would like to in turn inquire Peter’s business in the area. Peter dodges the question by simply explaining they’re travelers, and further pushes his own question by inquiring about the strange coincidence of a group of soldiers to run into them in the forest and then inexplicably just turning back when they found people. The giant says they’re patrolling; Edmund senses that's not entirely accurate and Peter in turn figures it can't be true based on the fact that at least according to his knowledge, there are no regular patrols in the forests this far inlands. Peter finally asks them why there seems to be a strange smell around them: the men look at Peter as if he’s mad and say they know nothing of any smell. At this point, Edmund, and Adriana following his lead, take a shot at the giant. Edmund’s shot deflects harmlessly off the plate but Adriana manages to find a chink and elicit a howl of pain.

At this point initiative is rolled and Peter manages to act first. He moves in between two of the giant men, drawing steel as he moves, and poisons the tip of his blade with a stunning poison while at it. He identifies the enemies as mostly human and takes a giant swing at the two men putting all his strength into it. He manages to cut the giant with a sound blow and the giant promptly loses consciousness to the poison, but Peter’s blade bounces off the second man’s armor. Edmund takes two shots at one of the remaining men with his Hand Crossbow, landing two telling blows through the man’s plate. The man still remains standing though. After this, the enemies act surrounding Peter and bring down four giant swings on him, one man able to swing twice. Peter is able to parry the first blow and dodge one other but is still painfully close to major wounds in the other two. After this, Adriana also shoots at the same target Edmund had shot, one that conveniently positioned himself with no cover to the snipers they still cannot see. The man falls to two good shots to the back. Nightshade moves up to flank one of the remaining men flanking Peter and manages to land a blow, albeit a mere glancing blow.

Peter takes aim at the target he flanks with Nightshade and yet again, puts all his strength into the attack. He strikes true once and the man takes a sizable blow but is still standing. Edmund races over the ground drawing his rapier, and takes the advantage of Peter distracting that target, killing him with two sharp blows. At this point the remaining man takes flight, runs away drawing and blowing a horn, followed by swearing from Edmund who points out how the ones with the horn should always die first…and then he realizes all four carried one. Nightshade and Adriana spend their time tying up the stunned giant, while Peter charges at the runner, with two heavy strikes. He corrects the trajectory of the second blow mid-strike, and fortune smiles upon him: his blade first cleaves the man’s arm and then his torso in half killing him instantaneously in two critical hits. Edmund goes to help tying the man up, just in time for his body to apparently recover consciousness. He tries to bust the ropes but his groggy mind fails him as he cannot muster the strength to break the bindings and his three captors take the opportunity to tie more ropes around him. The party isn’t too worried about the horn given how far in the woods they are but just in case they choose to be swift.

The interrogation recommences and Edmund tries to be diplomatic for once. Surprisingly enough, the man is quite talkative without a direct threat to his life. Peter, simultaneously, checks the bodies and finds all their left hands resembling as if they were experiencing gangrene. This is eerily similar to how the utterly black cultists that attacked Peter, Edmund and Nightshare near the temple about three months previously looked like. Edmund gets the giant to talk real quick, but apparently quite truthfully: his name is Hador. He was ordered by his Brotherhood-affiliated superior to look for “something interesting” in the forest and he has no idea, who the people in the party are. The four of them were returning under orders to get reinforcements in case they were to find something. The left hands are apparently fully operational, side-effect of some ritual they had attempted in Aurondil; so these people are indeed affiliated with the cult. The cult in Melendia is lead by a man named Maarket in Aurondil, who also recruited Hador, and they are preparing some big ritual there.

Apparently Hador is working for both, the Brotherhood and the cult under the pretense of being a Melendian soldier; the party figures he isn’t too bound by loyalty. A quick private conversation in the party’s secret language follows: nobody really wants to kill this man since he’s been so cooperative but he presents a logistical challenge and a security risk alive. Edmund suggests tying him to a tree with the horn and ordering him to only blow it once the party is out of hearing range under the threat of death. Peter objects as this would still let the Brotherhood know the party is indeed traversing through the woods. Peter suggests just forcing him to drop his current affiliations and going south to Dramadan, but Edmund points out there’s no way to stop him from just doing whatever after he’s walked away. Ultimately Peter figures might as well explain him that he was injected by a slow-working, but lethal poison while unconscious and that if he tells the story the party wants told, they’ll provide him with an antidote in the same forest two months later. Since the party felt he was a decent liar, this felt like something he should be able to tell, especially since his life is equally on the line.

The party wants him to spread the story that his patrol was attacked by a mob that’s apparently formed as a consequence of the food riots and that only he escaped. Wild animals would dispose of the bodies as soon as the party removes their armor anyways. Edmund figures the plates are good for a reasonable chunk of gold anyways, so taking them along is a very profitable enterprise in every sense. When the details are shared with Hador, he seems all too prepared to fulfill his end of the bargain, and the party and Hador part ways at surprisingly friendly terms. Hador is, however, ordered to wait a couple of hours before returning just to ensure that there’d be no chase.

Afterwards the party backtracks back to their camp and finds it surprisingly untouched. They decide to just continue their rest since they should be relatively safe and indeed, no further surprises occur before morning, and surprisingly enough, sunlight. Wolves were howling over the night; it is probably safe to assume not much remains of the three corpses left in the woods and rain has probably washed away any traces worth worrying about. The party enjoys delicious deer meat and departs for the closest of the fishing hamlets by the name of Torpala.
Jack’s Floods and Towns:
Day 92

From the forest, the trip to the hamlet of Torpala is a breeze. The trip itself is about half the day, but with the late start due to the events of the previous night, it’s already evening by the time the party reaches their target. The place is really small: it has under a hundred inhabitants and indeed, it lacks an inn entirely since it’s not exactly a tourist resort. It is also one of the few places where food is barely a problem, since fishing provides the families with an easy, reliable access to food. Most important ports by the lake are on either side of the hamlet leaving it basically as a community of fishermen, who sell most of their catch to merchants from the lakeside town of Lado on the opposite coast, and the fishermen themselves use either Aurande or Lado as their marketplace. As the party finds out the hamlet has no inn, they settle themselves with camping outside after finding a way across. A bit of asking around later, they find a merchant from Lado, who has arrived to pick up a fresh cargo and is leaving on the morrow. He agrees to take the party across for a couple of silvers, horses and all. The party agrees with the merchant to depart on noon and ends up deciding to camp outside the town due to the lack of a building to sleep in.

The night proceeds uneventfully, though wolves still seem abound, and come morning the party breaks their fast with each other and then heads back to Torpala.

Day 93

Party gets on the boat without a hitch and the trip commences. While the trip itself is uneventful, the party takes the opportunity to dig for tidings. The crew knows to tell that with the constant rains, which seem to have stopped just for the party’s trip, Janur is flooding again in spite of the best efforts of the Melendian military and the state of affairs can indeed be confirmed by just looking at the lakeshores. The food riots have continued and overall, there is not much new under the sun but the previously acquired information is mostly confirmed.

The Kraken’s repeated failure to show up sees to a safe end for the boat trip and the ship sets ashore at the docks of Lado. Pleasantries are exchanged as the four bid their farewells to the merchant and his crew. As it was already early evening by the time the ship docked, the party simply seeks an inn to rest in for the night, to regain their bearings and to act as a base for snooping operations. They end up finding an inn by the name of “White Wolf” and after helping themselves to a room and some food, which is twice the normal price thanks to the food shortage, split up to look for whatever finds them in the town. No new rumors turn up for all the talk of the food riots and flooding; seems that’s all anyone has time for. The party turns in for the night with Peter and Edmund sharing a room and Adriana & Nightshade sharing the other one, as per usual.

Come night, Edmund and Peter both hear some noises outside. An inspection reveals that a food riot is taking place near the food storages in the harbor: a mob is demanding to be fed. Peter and Edmund talk a bit over whether this concerns them, leaning towards ignoring it. Ultimately though, Edmund comes to the conclusion that having some favor with the local authority would be convenient. At the same time, with many large organizations after them, the pair figures a false identity or two plus an intervention in favor of the guards would be just the ticket. Peter normally hides his armor under opaque clothes and wears a cloak. He decides to simply have his shining armor in the open and act as a guard. Edmund, on the other hand, hides his armor, puts on some mustache and assumes the identity of Jack Mustache, diplomat extraordinaire.

After putting on their masquerade gear, the pair leaves the inn and approaches the captain of the group of guards holding back the mob. It seems the mob is still non-violent for now but who knows how long until that changes. They are simply demanding food. Edmund introduces himself as a diplomat travelling towards Aurondil, and explains how he’d rather avoid bloodshed in his presence. The guards are first trying to push him back but as he makes his case, the captain tells him “Sure, whatever, if you think you can do something beyond just agitating them, go ahead.” Edmund steps between the storage buildings and the mob, and accompanied by a chorus of boos and various objects thrown in his general direction (though most of the truly unpleasant stuff missing thanks to his nimbleness), begins to address the audience.

Edmund, or rather Jack, holds an eloquent speech about how just a nation can’t be built on violence and how they’d feel if they were the guards, being threatened with violence for doing their job. He appeals to the peoples’ self-conscience and altruism. It takes about a minute for the people to really start listening to him and a couple more for them to stop yelling and throwing things, but soon enough they really begin to come around. After talking for a while, he then instructs the people to form a line and the guards to give them a day’s ratio of food, so that the guard can show up as the good guys too. In the end, nobody talks against him and aside from a lot of shoving and trampling, luckily non-fatally, the mob does indeed get their food. The captain is impressed and introduces himself as Landor. Edmund recommends him to arrange a better guard in here as the people, while satisfied for now, will probably riot again later, while Jack has to continue his travels on the morrow. The captain says he has sent a message to his superior in Pakinde and he should be getting help any time soon so that’s all taken care of already. Jack ensures his name would precede him and then the pair slips back into the night and to sleep, reassuming their ordinary identities.

Day 94

Come morning, everybody meets up for an early breakfast and Peter brings up the topic of the plates and where to sell them. The discussion turns towards the fact that they actually carry official Melendia military sigils and those would be very troublesome to get rid of so it is decided to throw them into the lake instead. Edmund and Peter leave the town and search for a private point around the coast line carrying the pieces of armor while Adriana and Nightshade get everything ready for departure. The Plates are cast into the lake, seemingly unnoticed, and the party gets ready for departure.

The group sets on for Pakinde, which is one day’s ride away. On the road, an interesting sight manifests: hungry beggars are heading towards Pakinde, while content folk seem to be heading away from there; fallout of the previous night’s events, no doubt. Adriana and Nightshade have actually not been informed of Edmund and Peter’s escapades yet, so it’s fully possible they are unaware of the pair’s involvement in the events. And thanks to the disguise, none of the beggars recognize Jack Mustache nor his guardian. Indeed, the party decides to ignore the beggars on the roadsides and head towards Pakinde straight: it is not their job to fix the whole food economy of Melendia, and the purpose of the whole stunt was indeed to create a usable character when appealing to authorities.

Sunny day sees to a relatively swift ride and indeed, by evening the party reaches Pakinde. It is decided to spend another night here and snoop around a bit more: the ride on to Doldan is two days so it can’t hurt to stock up. The party decides on an inn by the name of “Green Pasture”, paying a bit of an eye to picking the inn furthermost from the river. As soon as everybody has settled down, Nightshade goes off on his own to some secret meeting. Peter, Edmund and Adriana meanwhile ask around the traditional way. The only real news is that Aurondil is still under martial law. Aside from that, most of the talk is about the poor harvest and the increasingly dire food shortage. Indeed, the party has to pay double what they’d pay in Dramadan for their portions again. The party also sees the soldiers in action with the flood wall and Edmund notes that there is no possibility this is a nation heading towards war. The next course of action then is to find out who is driving the rumors, and why. The party has engagements to keep in Dolden, and business in Aurondil, which is also convenient for this goal, so the direction of the travel doesn’t change at all.

While Peter, Edmund and Adriana are sitting at the table in the inn exchanging news, a man comes up to the group:
“Peter and Edmund, I presume?”
“I’ve heard the names. Why are you looking for them?”
“You were described to me. I have a letter to deliver to you.”
“Okay, we are them. Thanks for the letter.”

The letter does carry Nightshade’s seal, but it is searched for any manners of tricks or traps anyways. As none are found, the letter is opened. Nightshade explains that he’s found out what we have, but there’s more: the elven artifacts and the war rumors are connected. He’s going ahead and leaving immediately; apparently he’s got an informant in an inn called “Black Smoke” halfway through to Doldan, who he wants to meet. He requests a meeting in this inn with a history for fire on the morrow. With nothing more to work with, the trio decides to sleep for the night and set on early in the next morning. Everyone retires to the one, shared room this time and sleep comes almost immediately to the sound of rain starting over the night.

Day 95

In the morning, the group wakes up to yells to the effect of “The flood wall has broken down!” and there’s a lot of chaos on the streets with masses trying to run from the areas where water is flooding in while soldiers are trying to get in there to do what they can. The party quickly ponders the option of trying to aid with the problem before dismissing it as too time consuming. Edmund does figure he could draw up some kind of a plan for a pump using steam power which could be exceedingly useful in here, but he’d need time and that’s a commodity the trio lacks at the moment. They agree to buy a wagon in Doldan for the rest of the trip so Edmund can hopefully get some design hours in.

It’s still raining, of course, and the party leaves Doldan and its troubled masses, while navigating the flow of refugees out of the town. Onwards the troupe must ride and indeed, the day is one swift ride in an unpleasant, cold rain while trying to steer clear of the occasional refugee or traveller on the roads. Unsurprisingly nothing of special note happens with the soldiers occupied with the river, and everyone busy somewhere.

Come evening, the party does indeed reach Nightshade’s half-way inn “Black Smoke”. Leaving the horses in the stables, the trio bursts into the commons room, but finds no sign of Nightshade. The innkeeper approaches the trio, and the tired old discussion about whether the innkeeper is talking to Peter, Edmund and Adriana takes place again. After finally confirming that it is indeed the right person, the party receives their letter. To their dismay, it does not carry Nightshade’s seal, however. It carries the markings of the Brotherhood of the Eclipse. The letter is, of course, studied thoroughly before anybody touches it. Nothing of suspect is found and it is opened in an iron bucket courtesy of the house. When nothing fails to happen, Peter goes through the letter.

“Greetings, travellers.

The fact that you are reading this message means you have reached the inn “Black Smoke”. We are surprised, you’ve managed to get this deep into Melendia. Unfortunately we are now forced you to show you why you should have stayed out of things that do not belong to you. We have captured your friend, who goes by the name ‘Nightshade’. If you ever want to meet him alive again, you will come to the house indicated on this map in Doldan by midnight tomorrow.

Best regards,
Your Friends from the Brotherhood”

Adriana knows the area marked on the map. She’s been there before and she has a relatively good memory of the layout of the location. The indicated building was in the currently flooding sector of Doldan, and apparently it’s a wooden building that has been officially empty for multiple years now. It is a fairly large one at that. The trio, of course, immediately begins discussing this turn of events. First, Edmund studies the handwriting that has gone into the letter. He deciphers that it was written by a right-handed individual and judging by the style, he was in an extreme hurry. The events must therefore have been fairly recent. Peter states it is obviously a trap, and the only reason they’d set such a trap and keep Nightshade alive is because they’ve come to the conclusion we are hard to catch or kill alone so they might try to trade his life for getting us out of the country permanently.

After a bit of brainstorming with the possibilities where Nightshade is dead or where the house is empty, Edmund and Adriana agree: there’s simply no reason for the Brotherhood to arrange the trap at such a distant location and with such an obvious invitation if they merely wanted to try and attack the trio. It would simply be a lot simpler for them to attack e.g. by the road. Nightshade is also the only thing forcing the party to go to the marked location so if he’s not there or not alive, the party can easily enough use auxillary eyes to find this out and simply not go there. Edmund and Peter also figure that Nightshade might have been careless with his secret informants since the Brotherhood was so easily able to track and trap him. As such, all the ideas begin with the assumption that Nightshade is indeed alive and that the Brotherhood will primarily plan on using him as a barter chip, with of course a trap built around the building.

First ideas are very tactical in nature: sleep-inducing fumes producing arrowheads, smoke to cover the rescue, et cetera. Edmund and Peter are of course completely willing to sacrifice Nightshade if worst comes to worst but their primary plan is to still try and save him, as a sort of a payback for all the times he’s helped them out and also pragmatically and even to a degree out of camaraderie. Adriana doesn’t voice her opinion on the matter. The party quickly realizes planning the encounter on a tactical level is not all that useful though: the real issue is that the Brotherhood gets to prepare the battlefield in their favor, if not for such a long time, and has a tactical leverage on the group. Eventually Edmund comes up with a weird, but brilliant idea to literally dismantle that advantage. He’ll use the guise of Jack Mustache, whose reputation probably precedes him with the swift military messengers, to push the city council to arrange a group of demolition workers to dismantle the house and use the woods to strengthen the flood walls elsewhere. Peter doesn’t like how targeted the idea is so he recommends upping the ante and using a larger number of workers to simultaneously start dismantling the whole block. This forces the Brotherhood to play their hand early or gives a more even board for the rescue with quite possibly in the open. Most likely it’ll force the Brotherhood to spring the trap early or not use it entirely though.

Peter proceeds with the sleep arrow plan anyways; it’s hardly a problem if Nightshade falls asleep, and getting the Brotherhood members in closed spaces would of course make it a literal breeze to just put on protective gear, go in, pick up possibly sleeping Nightshade and leave. He chats with Adriana about possible sources for such tools and ingredients necessary and she gives him some contacts in Doldan. The party then locks the plan in, and since all time is valuable, decides to simply not sleep for the night. The party manages to find a wagon they can buy, though for premium price, at Black Smoke and sets off immediately ironing the plans out in the wagon. Peter and Edmund would sleep for the trip while Adriana rides, and Adriana would then sleep in Doldan, while Peter and Edmund see to the preparations for the operation. So it is decided and so it is done: the party departs immediately with Adriana driving while Peter and Edmund arrange the details they can before drifting asleep and getting whatever rest they can.

Day 96

The trip goes, again, unmolested and the trio reaches Doldan in the morning. Adriana shows Peter around the interesting parts of the town, while Edmund puts on the face of Jack Mustache and heads straight for the city council. His name had indeed reached Doldan by this point and the city council is all too enthusiastic to assist him in his plan to fight the flood. The workers themselves are certainly on board with the idea and are asking when to start. Edmund decides to make them start the project in 4 in the afternoon to enable Peter to make his preparations and for Adriana to rest, to which the workers agree.

Peter, meanwhile, is looking for everything he needs in the unsavory parts of the town, and putting together arrowtips that would cause poisonous fumes to start spreading on impact.

And here we call the session for the day.

Notes:
- The session felt very smart, in a way. It was quite enjoyable coming up with crazy plans for crazy moments to turn the tables around.
- Edmund has been far less trigger-happy and far more useful lately, which is definitely a boon.
- Nightshade is finally (probably) in trouble, a chance to pay back for the times he's saved Peter and Edmund.
- This is beginning to feel more and more like writing a book based on game events. It's crazy.
- Not much time for the wagon magic practice that was mentioned few sessions back. Our heroes are busy people.
- Swift Tracker was immediately useful upon acquisition. It wouldn't have been possible to reach the guards otherwise, but their Heavy Armor-capped movement speed was no match for the party's.
- Holy **** that was a lot to write. Over 6500 words. I wonder how long this thing is in its entirety.
- Had to switch session for planning time and designing what the arrows do and such anyways. I think we'll use the PF poison system from now on; it seems significantly more useful for this kind of thing. Next session will be crazy awesome. Tho this was a lot of fun too. And we even lied surprisingly little: only to Hador and even that was just to spare his life (and spread some misinformation amidst our enemies).
- Jack Mustache was a brilliant idea. It also eerily reminds me of the function of Bruce Wayne to Batman. It's the socialite guise for the hero of the night for doing things that need a public face and concealing the real character behind it.