Nibbens
2014-09-03, 10:12 AM
For those of you just tuning in – get acquainted with the game here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?330770-City-of-Progress-Campaign-Journal).
For those of you who missed the last session – click here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?369149-City-of-Progress-Campaign-Journal-Chapter-6-(End-of-an-Arc-Beginning-of-another)).
Joining us at the table were the usuals:
Beable Bamford - Halfling siege mage and Golem Lord for Rab's Progress, and his trusty Golem "Mouse 2.0" which is a cannon golem in the general shape of a giant Foo Dog. One of the cannons is decked out with plenty of enchantments and the other is just normal.
Galarend - Human Shining Knight Paladin and General of Rab's Progress' standing army. He is never far away from his trusty steed "Bolba" (A huge flying Triceratops decked out in spiked full-plate armor. (yes, it flies. I approved a permanency of a Fly spell in his case due to particular circumstances.))
Lady Wisteria - Human verdant Sorcerer who is the Rab's Progress' herbalist and "tea-master." (In the front yard of her home stands the only tree in the entire city - a huge oak tree)
However, this week we were once again missing the fresh blood due to scheduling conflicts. The players missing are:
An Elf Bard named Vaielen who is a very new player. So he was very low optimized. He specializes in being a skill monkey, much like Bards often are.
We also had a Half-Orc Barbarian named Elisia who was a little less new than the Bard – so her optimization wasn’t that severe either. She has a few tricks with her rage powers and focuses on Great Cleave to great effect.
Track-down-Smack-down!
After several hours of flight, I call for perception checks. Bolba is the only one to notice the wreckage below. He describes the hut they had previously passed over as destroyed. Bolba also succeeds on a survival check and sees a series of large paw prints heading straight south.
Landing to observe and search the wreckage, they notice the large timbers of the hut have been bent, snapped, crush and strewn about the small area. Everyone sees a hand sticking out from beneath the rubble – but again Bolba is the only one to see that the hand isn’t attached to anything. The hand looks as though it was an older man’s and was ripped off rather than cut.
The observe the tracks and once again notice the 5X5 foot cat tracks – and come to the conclusion that the Bandersnatch is still on their tail. Before deciding wether or not to follow it, Lady Wisteria uses her favorite spell ‘Speak with Plants’ on a nearby Crepe Myrtle.
For a tree, it’s rather energetic and amazed that someone can talk to it. It seems happy to help and answers all her questions. She inquires about large things disrupting the plant-life in the area, and he tells her that something large moved south about 2 weeks ago. Then it begins asking her to prune a hard to reach branch that wasn't growing well.
She says sure, but only if she could put some “decoration” on its base. She cast an invisible Arcane Mark on the tree because it was so helpful. She also collected some of its fallen “berries” (Or whatever you call those things that Crepe Myrtles make – if you’ve seen on, you know what I’m talking about) from the ground.
They begin flying south, tracking the large paw prints when Beable gets an idea. He suggests that he Permanency/See Invisibility on everyone, and they all pay for the casting of it. (I simplified the purchase of the materials for speed and ease, as 1 extra day of travel time to go buy them wouldn’t make any real difference here.) The spell is placed on Bolba, Lady Wisteria, Beable and Mouse 2.0. Galarend opted not to, because Bolba could be his eyes – and the fact that Bolba had a much higher perception score than Galarend.
They follow the tracks south quite easily until they come upon a small village with forested hills surrounding it on 3 sides – the south, then east and west. The only side which wasn’t surrounded by trees were north – which they could see. Resting in a natural valley, the town seemed large enough to house about 500 people. The tracks skirted around the town and the PC’s followed it into the wooded-hills. Once there, they tracks seem to disappear once they hit the more rocky sections of the area.
Galarend decided to make his way to the village – and immediately the town (which had the moderate fortification of walls around it) erupted into chaos. The flying Triceratops startled them into battle mode. Before they were able to mount a full on defense – Galarend and Lady Wisteria rode on Bolba’s before jumping off and, with a casting of Featherfall, descended upon the village square.
People were frightened – but Galarend tried to calm everyone with diplomacy checks and succeeded. The mayor came out to talk to him as Lady Wisteria went into the nearest tavern. She approached a man who was quivering behind the counter. She asked him what was going on and was able to get a few pieces of useful info from him – he stated that the entire village was under siege from some monster that drives people crazy if they saw it but it also wouldn’t let anyone leave. It killed anyone who tried to escape. Galarend, on the other hand learned the entirety of the situation from the mayor.
The Mayor goes on to explain that for 2 weeks the village has been under siege. Anyone who leaves either doesn’t return, or comes back babbling, violent and missing limbs. When they regain consciousness and if they don’t die of bloodloss – they all talk about a gargantuan cat covered in quills with six legs and cold blue burning eyes. The people are on the brink of starvation, and the majority that live there view the lands as ancestral – my father’s farm and his father’s farm before him, etc etc – so many don’t want to leave. There is also the issue of paying respects to the dead; many of the families want to help make sure that the dead receive a proper burial.
Taking all this in, Galarend introduces Bolba, Mouse 2.0, Lady Wisteria and Beable to the mayor and says that they will take care of the problem. The mayor says that they don’t have much to offer in the way of compensation but will do what he can.
Buffing for the Battle of Bandersnatch Hill.
The PC’s go into battle planning mode and the idea they create is ingenious. Using several castings of Lady Wisteria’s Rock to Mud, and 4 hours of Move Earth and another subsequent casting Mud to Rock created a large enough area underground that could house all 400 people in the village – right under a large building. Beable throws a wall of force over the entrance to protect anyone inside and they begin battle prep.
A liberal casting of spells later they have Lady Wisteria go up to the belltower and rang it like crazy. Bolba and Galarend orbit the village scouting for anything in the forest beyond. Sure enough, Bolba sees something moving out in the distance at the treeline.
Lady Wisteria climbs aboard Bolba and off her and Galarend fly toward the spot where he saw movement. Beable stayed behind at the village wall to make sure that nothing went down while they left.
Upon reaching the edge of the forest – where the hills begin to rise sharply Galarend some 300 feet up in the sky, casts Daylight on a gold coin and throws it down to where Bolba saw movement.
It was here that we decided to stop for the night because we had work early next morning, and we knew this fight would take a while. So the players left – unable to wait for the battle ahead.
See you guys next time! The adventure continues here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?371176-City-of-Progress-Campaign-Journal-Chapter-8-(Bander-Time-Bending)&p=18088596#post18088596).
For those of you who missed the last session – click here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?369149-City-of-Progress-Campaign-Journal-Chapter-6-(End-of-an-Arc-Beginning-of-another)).
Joining us at the table were the usuals:
Beable Bamford - Halfling siege mage and Golem Lord for Rab's Progress, and his trusty Golem "Mouse 2.0" which is a cannon golem in the general shape of a giant Foo Dog. One of the cannons is decked out with plenty of enchantments and the other is just normal.
Galarend - Human Shining Knight Paladin and General of Rab's Progress' standing army. He is never far away from his trusty steed "Bolba" (A huge flying Triceratops decked out in spiked full-plate armor. (yes, it flies. I approved a permanency of a Fly spell in his case due to particular circumstances.))
Lady Wisteria - Human verdant Sorcerer who is the Rab's Progress' herbalist and "tea-master." (In the front yard of her home stands the only tree in the entire city - a huge oak tree)
However, this week we were once again missing the fresh blood due to scheduling conflicts. The players missing are:
An Elf Bard named Vaielen who is a very new player. So he was very low optimized. He specializes in being a skill monkey, much like Bards often are.
We also had a Half-Orc Barbarian named Elisia who was a little less new than the Bard – so her optimization wasn’t that severe either. She has a few tricks with her rage powers and focuses on Great Cleave to great effect.
Track-down-Smack-down!
After several hours of flight, I call for perception checks. Bolba is the only one to notice the wreckage below. He describes the hut they had previously passed over as destroyed. Bolba also succeeds on a survival check and sees a series of large paw prints heading straight south.
Landing to observe and search the wreckage, they notice the large timbers of the hut have been bent, snapped, crush and strewn about the small area. Everyone sees a hand sticking out from beneath the rubble – but again Bolba is the only one to see that the hand isn’t attached to anything. The hand looks as though it was an older man’s and was ripped off rather than cut.
The observe the tracks and once again notice the 5X5 foot cat tracks – and come to the conclusion that the Bandersnatch is still on their tail. Before deciding wether or not to follow it, Lady Wisteria uses her favorite spell ‘Speak with Plants’ on a nearby Crepe Myrtle.
For a tree, it’s rather energetic and amazed that someone can talk to it. It seems happy to help and answers all her questions. She inquires about large things disrupting the plant-life in the area, and he tells her that something large moved south about 2 weeks ago. Then it begins asking her to prune a hard to reach branch that wasn't growing well.
She says sure, but only if she could put some “decoration” on its base. She cast an invisible Arcane Mark on the tree because it was so helpful. She also collected some of its fallen “berries” (Or whatever you call those things that Crepe Myrtles make – if you’ve seen on, you know what I’m talking about) from the ground.
They begin flying south, tracking the large paw prints when Beable gets an idea. He suggests that he Permanency/See Invisibility on everyone, and they all pay for the casting of it. (I simplified the purchase of the materials for speed and ease, as 1 extra day of travel time to go buy them wouldn’t make any real difference here.) The spell is placed on Bolba, Lady Wisteria, Beable and Mouse 2.0. Galarend opted not to, because Bolba could be his eyes – and the fact that Bolba had a much higher perception score than Galarend.
They follow the tracks south quite easily until they come upon a small village with forested hills surrounding it on 3 sides – the south, then east and west. The only side which wasn’t surrounded by trees were north – which they could see. Resting in a natural valley, the town seemed large enough to house about 500 people. The tracks skirted around the town and the PC’s followed it into the wooded-hills. Once there, they tracks seem to disappear once they hit the more rocky sections of the area.
Galarend decided to make his way to the village – and immediately the town (which had the moderate fortification of walls around it) erupted into chaos. The flying Triceratops startled them into battle mode. Before they were able to mount a full on defense – Galarend and Lady Wisteria rode on Bolba’s before jumping off and, with a casting of Featherfall, descended upon the village square.
People were frightened – but Galarend tried to calm everyone with diplomacy checks and succeeded. The mayor came out to talk to him as Lady Wisteria went into the nearest tavern. She approached a man who was quivering behind the counter. She asked him what was going on and was able to get a few pieces of useful info from him – he stated that the entire village was under siege from some monster that drives people crazy if they saw it but it also wouldn’t let anyone leave. It killed anyone who tried to escape. Galarend, on the other hand learned the entirety of the situation from the mayor.
The Mayor goes on to explain that for 2 weeks the village has been under siege. Anyone who leaves either doesn’t return, or comes back babbling, violent and missing limbs. When they regain consciousness and if they don’t die of bloodloss – they all talk about a gargantuan cat covered in quills with six legs and cold blue burning eyes. The people are on the brink of starvation, and the majority that live there view the lands as ancestral – my father’s farm and his father’s farm before him, etc etc – so many don’t want to leave. There is also the issue of paying respects to the dead; many of the families want to help make sure that the dead receive a proper burial.
Taking all this in, Galarend introduces Bolba, Mouse 2.0, Lady Wisteria and Beable to the mayor and says that they will take care of the problem. The mayor says that they don’t have much to offer in the way of compensation but will do what he can.
Buffing for the Battle of Bandersnatch Hill.
The PC’s go into battle planning mode and the idea they create is ingenious. Using several castings of Lady Wisteria’s Rock to Mud, and 4 hours of Move Earth and another subsequent casting Mud to Rock created a large enough area underground that could house all 400 people in the village – right under a large building. Beable throws a wall of force over the entrance to protect anyone inside and they begin battle prep.
A liberal casting of spells later they have Lady Wisteria go up to the belltower and rang it like crazy. Bolba and Galarend orbit the village scouting for anything in the forest beyond. Sure enough, Bolba sees something moving out in the distance at the treeline.
Lady Wisteria climbs aboard Bolba and off her and Galarend fly toward the spot where he saw movement. Beable stayed behind at the village wall to make sure that nothing went down while they left.
Upon reaching the edge of the forest – where the hills begin to rise sharply Galarend some 300 feet up in the sky, casts Daylight on a gold coin and throws it down to where Bolba saw movement.
It was here that we decided to stop for the night because we had work early next morning, and we knew this fight would take a while. So the players left – unable to wait for the battle ahead.
See you guys next time! The adventure continues here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?371176-City-of-Progress-Campaign-Journal-Chapter-8-(Bander-Time-Bending)&p=18088596#post18088596).