Debatra
2016-01-08, 09:11 AM
Welcome to Vistora
Hiya folks. Welcome to my first campaign journal. This will be the chronicle of a currently-ongoing Roll20 3.5e game between myself and some RL friends.
A Little Background
In the beginning, Humans were basically alone in the world. They overexpanded to the point where their world simply couldn't sustain them any longer. Roughly 300 years ago, they created a massive magical gate, which took many of them to a new land. They named their new home Vistora, and it is where our story begins. Vistora is basically "standard" D&D-Land; Elves, Orcs, etc. The Humans made fast friends with most of the other Humanoids of the realm, though they rather stupidly gave them the collective name of "Daemons". Relations went downhill pretty fast as the Humans once again expanded beyond their ken. The "Daemons" elected a king among themselves and together forced most of the Humans back through their gate. Some remained, staying at the "City of Beginnings", or just "Beginning", roughly half a day's walk from the Gate. Eventually, the remaining Humans opened their city to the general populace. They quickly befriended Orcs, and eventually (but not so much) the others began to trust them again.
These days, the PCs own a tavern that we mostly leave in the care of an old man who, by his own request, everyone just calls Old Innie. Tavern needs something? He's got it covered. We all acknowledge that this is weird and move on. My guess is that he's either A) a Wizard, B) evil and going to betray us at some point, C) both A and B, or D) a walking Deus-Ex-Machina so a bunch of tavern owners can go adventuring and not have to worry about the business. Word spreads relatively quickly that this tavern is owned by mercenaries, and that it's usually easy to hire us there. As a result, we have been hired to investigate an Elven diplomatic envoy that disappeared some time ago. How long ago, you might wonder? About a hundred years. In keeping with my unofficial name for our group, none of us even notice the obvious issue there, let alone ask about it. We've been sent to deliver a sealed letter to an Orc leader named Krag.
We've started at third-level.
Go Team Dumbass!
And it is increasingly-reasonable for me to call us that.
DM He generally knows what he's doing, but constantly mispronounces the PCs' names.
Kerik, a Dragonwrought Kobold Rogue. He loves making traps and causing a little chaos. Seems to get on really well with Trideca so far. True Neutral.
Valdaglerion, Gray Elf Generalist Wizard/Fighter. Scheduling conflicts have prevented me from getting even basic info about him. True Neutral.
Trideca Logis, my Magic-Blooded Illumian Truenamer. Mostly by the book (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?214115-In-the-Beginning-Was-the-Word-and-the-Word-Was-Suck-A-Guide-to-Truenamers). Don't pity me; I'm mostly doing it for laughs. It's partly that kind of game. It was originally pronounced tri-DEK-a (as in tridecalogism (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/Midnighters) - and the Wizard's player actually got the reference), but I decided I actually liked one of the DM's mispronunciations better, so now it's tri-DEE-sa. I have often found myself describing her as "having the exact right tool for the job, and nothing else", and will probably continue to do so. Lawful Evil.
There's also Tor, part-NPC, part-DMPC... I'm not quite sure about this one. We all know the potential pitfalls of the DMPC, and you can bet your ass I'll be watching for them. Tor is a pretty standard "dumb Barbarian", lack of pronouns and all, with the twist that she's an Elf adopted and raised by Krag. If nothing else, she's friendly and shares Kerik's love of traps. Dude looks like a lady Lady looks like a dude. Neutral Good.
WARNING: Spoilers for PC death and replacement.
So far, so good. We're all currently alive. Sort of. :smalltongue: That said, we occasionally have some interesting additions.
Daer Draug, Valdaglerion's new wolf Animal Companion that he randomly decided to tame during a fight.
Greet, the Daemon Lord of the Gnolls. Remember that Gnoll we pissed off in the first session? He's tagging along for a while.
And now Valdaglerion's player has been forced to leave us. We're working on getting one or two more people involved.
The First Two Sessions
Truenamer Trails Behind
So... I missed most of the first session. From what I've been told, the party got their asses kicked by some Gnolls and not much else happened. Someone (I think Kerik, but it might've been the Wizard) decided to harvest some Gnoll meat, and the others just kind of went with it. The Wizard's player did the research OOC, and discovered that it is possible to use Mage Hand with a playing card to slit someone's throat. I was reunited with the group IC via some Deus-Ex-Machina-Shortcut, patched them up with Lesser WoN and we proceeded to the Orc camp. Instead of Krag, we're met by his son. We didn't ask his name, instead just managing to bluff our way through anything that required it, and you can just get used to that happening right now.
Luckily, this guy is a bad liar, and the DM doesn't even bother to roll our Sense Motive secretly. On the other hand, we're using natural 1/20s on Skill checks, so I end up turning to my friends with a hearty "seems legit, guys". In addition to coming into power, shall we say "suspiciously", This Orc has also decided to banish Tor from the camp, so she had to stay behind for a while. Not a death order or anything, just a generic 'get out and stay out'. Kerik pulls out a wooden amulet they got from the Gnolls, and asks the Orc 'leader' if he knows anything about it. He claims ignorance, and we're pretty sure he's being honest this time.
After some prodding, we discover that Krag and his other son (whose name we also don't know - Go Team Dumbass) disappeared about a week earlier on a hunting trip. They were last seen heading south, towards an encampment of... Oh great, more Gnolls.
So I ask Kerik where he got the amulet (since I've only recently arrived and didn't know IC), and then ask the Wizard if it's magical. Turns out they didn't check. GTD. As a Magic-Blooded Creature, I get Detect Magic once per day. No sense in the Wizard wasting spells when the Truenamer can actually make herself useful. It's magic alright, but none of us want to try it on yet. This is also roughly the point TriDEKa became TriDEEsa.
More Scheduling Issues
Okay, so the thing that made me miss half the game last time was a one-off issue, as was the thing that made our Wizard miss the entire next session. This one wound up not getting any kind of IC explanation.
So we pick up Tor and start heading south. It isn't long before we notice about a half-dozen Orcs behind us, not even trying to hide. After a few moments, Tor turns around and goes to talk with them. Apparently, these guys aren't fans of the new leader. Loyal to Krag, that kind of thing. At this point, we get a little insight into Tor. She's loyal to her tribe, even if that means listening to a false leader. However, she figures that if we can find Krag, he'll be the Leader again and unbanish her. We continue south, now alongside the Orcs.
It isn't long before we hear noises. Some yelling, some banging; it sounds like someone's having a party. A very short walk brings us to the Gnoll camp, where it's apparent that this is more or less what's happening. Kerik suggests laying down some traps in preparation for an attack, and Tor's face just lights up. I give Kerik an Extended Universal Aptitude and send him to scout ahead, only belatedly realizing exactly why that was such a good idea. While I have a decent Hide check, I'm also an Illumian. Meaning I glow unless I specifically will myself to stop doing so. Go Team Almost-Dumbass.
Kerik sees two Orcs in cages, presumably Krag and the other son, and starts setting up some traps. A tripwire or two here, some caltrops and improvised bear traps there, and then he came back to guide us through his work. We moved forward with him. When we were in position, Kerik gave a nice loud shout to get their attention. The Gnolls' leader (whose name we also never got, though this one was less forgetting and more not caring) gets up and asks him what he wants. Kerik hands him a bomb and tells him it's a gift. When asked what the gift is for, he says something along the lines of 'nothing, but we'd like those Orcs'.
The Gnoll isn't exactly agreeable to this. He reveals that "Kree" (who we assumed, correctly, to be the current 'leader' of the Orcs) gave them Krag and his son. He turns to face the caged Orcs in question, and Kerik sets the fuse and rolls it towards the Gnoll. He hears it, turns back and kicks it, causing it to go off and cover his foot in acid. His reaction isn't quite what one would expect. "Heh heh, nice trick." He then looks past Kerik, sees the rest of us and looks toward Tor. "Kree also promise us Tor."
Tor steps forward, engaging the Gnoll in a(n ultimately ignored) Duel of Wills. Kerik brings out the amulet again, driving some of the Gnolls into a rage. Roll initiative, I guess. Tor and the Gnoll leader are basically dueling (and no, we aren't subject to a blow-by-blow description of how awesome they are; it's a more generic once/round "these guys are beating each other up" and such), the Orcs and traps are doing pretty good against some of the others, though we end up needing to take down some Gnolls alone. We end lead some into caltrops, which really just puts some distance between them, but it works. Kerik screws up some acid, but luckily not in a way that hurts us. I take down one with a Mortalbane Reversed Lesser Word of Nurturing, then move to flank so Kerik can basically cut the other to ribbons.
After a few rounds and a few dead Gnolls, their leader yells out for the battle to stop. He doesn't quite surrender, but he lets us take Krag and Motie (the other son, though we still didn't know or ask that IC - GTD). I have to admit that I wrestled with my alignment for a bit here. Both he and Tor were in bad shape, and I was sure I could finish him off with a word. The Utterance was almost on my lips when it occurred to me that this might get Krag killed. I wasn't worried about Tor, and Kerik and I hadn't even been touched. Krag though? Not sure why, but Trideca kind of likes him. Instead, I use an Extended WoN to help Tor how I can while she frees her adoptive family. The Gnolls and Orcs are licking their wounds and gathering their dead while we approach Krag, who asks us to wait until we can speak privately.
Me, OOC: Back into the cage, then.
We had a quick laugh and proceeded back to the Orc camp. Kree of course, isn't pleased to see his father returned, and they have a nice little 'take him away' moment. Krag has everyone except himself, Kerik and I (but including Tor) clear out of his tent. "Now, we are in a private place." Kerik steps forward, gives him the sealed letter and briefly explains our reason for being here in the first place. He reads it, then tells us to ask him what we will. Then we have to clarify that we don't actually know what was in the letter.
Ultimately, we discover that Krag himself was involved with the carriage's 'disappearance', though he wasn't Leader yet. He mentions that it was after that battle he found and ultimately adopted Tor. He also gives us a small collection of documents they took that day. None of them speak Elven, so they don't understand any of it. Trideca speaks it though, so I give them a once-over, gaining almost no new information. Almost. There's one item in particular that interests me. I read it, then read it again just to be sure, then hand it to Kerik. Then I learn (IC at least) from his confused fumbling that he doesn't speak Elven either and take it back.
It's a birth certificate. For an Elf girl that would be about Tor's age by now. The name on it is "Victoria Windwalker". We weren't given any information on this name (in or out of character) up to this point, but one of the few things Truenamers are good at is being the walking encyclopedia. The Windwalkers were nobles, and since the current Elf king has no known heirs at the moment, they would have a strong claim if there were any left. While it could be someone else, it now appears that TOR of all people is next in line to the Elven throne, and I tell Krag as much. Then Tor falls into the tent.
Krag: Tor! I told you to go outside the tent!
Tor: But Tor was outside the tent! Tor just now fell into the tent.
So she gets up and goes back outside. We all just stand around for a moment, then Kerik walks over and pulls back the tent flaps. Sure enough, she's still there, not even trying to hide her presence. He just closes the flap and rejoins us. Krag then asks one last favor of us: take Tor. He wants his daughter to see the world, to not be held down at home. Then: "The banishment of Tor... is still in effect." We say our goodbyes, then head out to collect Tor, who was no longer right in front of the tent. We head for the encampment's gate, and the guards tell us Tor hasn't left. After getting some directions, we go to her tent and find her packing. She's pretty sure she's got everything she needs, so we start heading back to the tavern. Nothing really happens on the way, aside from Tor being fascinated by just about everything. Apparently, she's never been to a real city before, let alone the Beginning.
We make it back to the tavern, where Old Man already has our preferred drinks ready. We have him get a beer for Tor (if nothing else, seeming to prove he isn't omniscient) and go to talk to the man that hired us in the first place. (Yet another NPC we never got the name of. GTD) I show him the birth certificate and bring up the Tor issue right away, and while he doesn't quite believe it at first, the idea grows on him rather quickly once he has a few moments to process it. He asks to take some of Tor's blood to their capitol, which she agrees to, pays us for the agreed-upon job and leaves while promising our given reward won't be all of it if this turns out to be true.
Not long after, a Gnome we've helped out a few times before (mostly hauling equipment and killing the occasional wild animal along the way) shows up. He offers us ten gold each, up front (which the DM claims has been our usual deal with this guy, and nobody really sees a reason to object) in exchange for helping him carry some things to the Gate. He also agrees to pay Tor. At this point, DM appears to have given up hope that we'll ever ask for an NPC's name and just tells us (GO TEAM DUMBASS!). The Gnome's name is Professor Humblefoo. No, really. So we have another drink or two, then meet up with the professor. Nothing happens along the way, but when we arrive... We've been to the Gate a few times before. It's basically a giant stone archway covered in magical runes that have been inert for almost three centuries. But when we get relatively close to the place, we can see the runes are all glowing. There's definitely some activity there.
For the first known time since The Beginning, the Gate is open.
Hiya folks. Welcome to my first campaign journal. This will be the chronicle of a currently-ongoing Roll20 3.5e game between myself and some RL friends.
A Little Background
In the beginning, Humans were basically alone in the world. They overexpanded to the point where their world simply couldn't sustain them any longer. Roughly 300 years ago, they created a massive magical gate, which took many of them to a new land. They named their new home Vistora, and it is where our story begins. Vistora is basically "standard" D&D-Land; Elves, Orcs, etc. The Humans made fast friends with most of the other Humanoids of the realm, though they rather stupidly gave them the collective name of "Daemons". Relations went downhill pretty fast as the Humans once again expanded beyond their ken. The "Daemons" elected a king among themselves and together forced most of the Humans back through their gate. Some remained, staying at the "City of Beginnings", or just "Beginning", roughly half a day's walk from the Gate. Eventually, the remaining Humans opened their city to the general populace. They quickly befriended Orcs, and eventually (but not so much) the others began to trust them again.
These days, the PCs own a tavern that we mostly leave in the care of an old man who, by his own request, everyone just calls Old Innie. Tavern needs something? He's got it covered. We all acknowledge that this is weird and move on. My guess is that he's either A) a Wizard, B) evil and going to betray us at some point, C) both A and B, or D) a walking Deus-Ex-Machina so a bunch of tavern owners can go adventuring and not have to worry about the business. Word spreads relatively quickly that this tavern is owned by mercenaries, and that it's usually easy to hire us there. As a result, we have been hired to investigate an Elven diplomatic envoy that disappeared some time ago. How long ago, you might wonder? About a hundred years. In keeping with my unofficial name for our group, none of us even notice the obvious issue there, let alone ask about it. We've been sent to deliver a sealed letter to an Orc leader named Krag.
We've started at third-level.
Go Team Dumbass!
And it is increasingly-reasonable for me to call us that.
DM He generally knows what he's doing, but constantly mispronounces the PCs' names.
Kerik, a Dragonwrought Kobold Rogue. He loves making traps and causing a little chaos. Seems to get on really well with Trideca so far. True Neutral.
Valdaglerion, Gray Elf Generalist Wizard/Fighter. Scheduling conflicts have prevented me from getting even basic info about him. True Neutral.
Trideca Logis, my Magic-Blooded Illumian Truenamer. Mostly by the book (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?214115-In-the-Beginning-Was-the-Word-and-the-Word-Was-Suck-A-Guide-to-Truenamers). Don't pity me; I'm mostly doing it for laughs. It's partly that kind of game. It was originally pronounced tri-DEK-a (as in tridecalogism (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/Midnighters) - and the Wizard's player actually got the reference), but I decided I actually liked one of the DM's mispronunciations better, so now it's tri-DEE-sa. I have often found myself describing her as "having the exact right tool for the job, and nothing else", and will probably continue to do so. Lawful Evil.
There's also Tor, part-NPC, part-DMPC... I'm not quite sure about this one. We all know the potential pitfalls of the DMPC, and you can bet your ass I'll be watching for them. Tor is a pretty standard "dumb Barbarian", lack of pronouns and all, with the twist that she's an Elf adopted and raised by Krag. If nothing else, she's friendly and shares Kerik's love of traps. Dude looks like a lady Lady looks like a dude. Neutral Good.
WARNING: Spoilers for PC death and replacement.
So far, so good. We're all currently alive. Sort of. :smalltongue: That said, we occasionally have some interesting additions.
Daer Draug, Valdaglerion's new wolf Animal Companion that he randomly decided to tame during a fight.
Greet, the Daemon Lord of the Gnolls. Remember that Gnoll we pissed off in the first session? He's tagging along for a while.
And now Valdaglerion's player has been forced to leave us. We're working on getting one or two more people involved.
The First Two Sessions
Truenamer Trails Behind
So... I missed most of the first session. From what I've been told, the party got their asses kicked by some Gnolls and not much else happened. Someone (I think Kerik, but it might've been the Wizard) decided to harvest some Gnoll meat, and the others just kind of went with it. The Wizard's player did the research OOC, and discovered that it is possible to use Mage Hand with a playing card to slit someone's throat. I was reunited with the group IC via some Deus-Ex-Machina-Shortcut, patched them up with Lesser WoN and we proceeded to the Orc camp. Instead of Krag, we're met by his son. We didn't ask his name, instead just managing to bluff our way through anything that required it, and you can just get used to that happening right now.
Luckily, this guy is a bad liar, and the DM doesn't even bother to roll our Sense Motive secretly. On the other hand, we're using natural 1/20s on Skill checks, so I end up turning to my friends with a hearty "seems legit, guys". In addition to coming into power, shall we say "suspiciously", This Orc has also decided to banish Tor from the camp, so she had to stay behind for a while. Not a death order or anything, just a generic 'get out and stay out'. Kerik pulls out a wooden amulet they got from the Gnolls, and asks the Orc 'leader' if he knows anything about it. He claims ignorance, and we're pretty sure he's being honest this time.
After some prodding, we discover that Krag and his other son (whose name we also don't know - Go Team Dumbass) disappeared about a week earlier on a hunting trip. They were last seen heading south, towards an encampment of... Oh great, more Gnolls.
So I ask Kerik where he got the amulet (since I've only recently arrived and didn't know IC), and then ask the Wizard if it's magical. Turns out they didn't check. GTD. As a Magic-Blooded Creature, I get Detect Magic once per day. No sense in the Wizard wasting spells when the Truenamer can actually make herself useful. It's magic alright, but none of us want to try it on yet. This is also roughly the point TriDEKa became TriDEEsa.
More Scheduling Issues
Okay, so the thing that made me miss half the game last time was a one-off issue, as was the thing that made our Wizard miss the entire next session. This one wound up not getting any kind of IC explanation.
So we pick up Tor and start heading south. It isn't long before we notice about a half-dozen Orcs behind us, not even trying to hide. After a few moments, Tor turns around and goes to talk with them. Apparently, these guys aren't fans of the new leader. Loyal to Krag, that kind of thing. At this point, we get a little insight into Tor. She's loyal to her tribe, even if that means listening to a false leader. However, she figures that if we can find Krag, he'll be the Leader again and unbanish her. We continue south, now alongside the Orcs.
It isn't long before we hear noises. Some yelling, some banging; it sounds like someone's having a party. A very short walk brings us to the Gnoll camp, where it's apparent that this is more or less what's happening. Kerik suggests laying down some traps in preparation for an attack, and Tor's face just lights up. I give Kerik an Extended Universal Aptitude and send him to scout ahead, only belatedly realizing exactly why that was such a good idea. While I have a decent Hide check, I'm also an Illumian. Meaning I glow unless I specifically will myself to stop doing so. Go Team Almost-Dumbass.
Kerik sees two Orcs in cages, presumably Krag and the other son, and starts setting up some traps. A tripwire or two here, some caltrops and improvised bear traps there, and then he came back to guide us through his work. We moved forward with him. When we were in position, Kerik gave a nice loud shout to get their attention. The Gnolls' leader (whose name we also never got, though this one was less forgetting and more not caring) gets up and asks him what he wants. Kerik hands him a bomb and tells him it's a gift. When asked what the gift is for, he says something along the lines of 'nothing, but we'd like those Orcs'.
The Gnoll isn't exactly agreeable to this. He reveals that "Kree" (who we assumed, correctly, to be the current 'leader' of the Orcs) gave them Krag and his son. He turns to face the caged Orcs in question, and Kerik sets the fuse and rolls it towards the Gnoll. He hears it, turns back and kicks it, causing it to go off and cover his foot in acid. His reaction isn't quite what one would expect. "Heh heh, nice trick." He then looks past Kerik, sees the rest of us and looks toward Tor. "Kree also promise us Tor."
Tor steps forward, engaging the Gnoll in a(n ultimately ignored) Duel of Wills. Kerik brings out the amulet again, driving some of the Gnolls into a rage. Roll initiative, I guess. Tor and the Gnoll leader are basically dueling (and no, we aren't subject to a blow-by-blow description of how awesome they are; it's a more generic once/round "these guys are beating each other up" and such), the Orcs and traps are doing pretty good against some of the others, though we end up needing to take down some Gnolls alone. We end lead some into caltrops, which really just puts some distance between them, but it works. Kerik screws up some acid, but luckily not in a way that hurts us. I take down one with a Mortalbane Reversed Lesser Word of Nurturing, then move to flank so Kerik can basically cut the other to ribbons.
After a few rounds and a few dead Gnolls, their leader yells out for the battle to stop. He doesn't quite surrender, but he lets us take Krag and Motie (the other son, though we still didn't know or ask that IC - GTD). I have to admit that I wrestled with my alignment for a bit here. Both he and Tor were in bad shape, and I was sure I could finish him off with a word. The Utterance was almost on my lips when it occurred to me that this might get Krag killed. I wasn't worried about Tor, and Kerik and I hadn't even been touched. Krag though? Not sure why, but Trideca kind of likes him. Instead, I use an Extended WoN to help Tor how I can while she frees her adoptive family. The Gnolls and Orcs are licking their wounds and gathering their dead while we approach Krag, who asks us to wait until we can speak privately.
Me, OOC: Back into the cage, then.
We had a quick laugh and proceeded back to the Orc camp. Kree of course, isn't pleased to see his father returned, and they have a nice little 'take him away' moment. Krag has everyone except himself, Kerik and I (but including Tor) clear out of his tent. "Now, we are in a private place." Kerik steps forward, gives him the sealed letter and briefly explains our reason for being here in the first place. He reads it, then tells us to ask him what we will. Then we have to clarify that we don't actually know what was in the letter.
Ultimately, we discover that Krag himself was involved with the carriage's 'disappearance', though he wasn't Leader yet. He mentions that it was after that battle he found and ultimately adopted Tor. He also gives us a small collection of documents they took that day. None of them speak Elven, so they don't understand any of it. Trideca speaks it though, so I give them a once-over, gaining almost no new information. Almost. There's one item in particular that interests me. I read it, then read it again just to be sure, then hand it to Kerik. Then I learn (IC at least) from his confused fumbling that he doesn't speak Elven either and take it back.
It's a birth certificate. For an Elf girl that would be about Tor's age by now. The name on it is "Victoria Windwalker". We weren't given any information on this name (in or out of character) up to this point, but one of the few things Truenamers are good at is being the walking encyclopedia. The Windwalkers were nobles, and since the current Elf king has no known heirs at the moment, they would have a strong claim if there were any left. While it could be someone else, it now appears that TOR of all people is next in line to the Elven throne, and I tell Krag as much. Then Tor falls into the tent.
Krag: Tor! I told you to go outside the tent!
Tor: But Tor was outside the tent! Tor just now fell into the tent.
So she gets up and goes back outside. We all just stand around for a moment, then Kerik walks over and pulls back the tent flaps. Sure enough, she's still there, not even trying to hide her presence. He just closes the flap and rejoins us. Krag then asks one last favor of us: take Tor. He wants his daughter to see the world, to not be held down at home. Then: "The banishment of Tor... is still in effect." We say our goodbyes, then head out to collect Tor, who was no longer right in front of the tent. We head for the encampment's gate, and the guards tell us Tor hasn't left. After getting some directions, we go to her tent and find her packing. She's pretty sure she's got everything she needs, so we start heading back to the tavern. Nothing really happens on the way, aside from Tor being fascinated by just about everything. Apparently, she's never been to a real city before, let alone the Beginning.
We make it back to the tavern, where Old Man already has our preferred drinks ready. We have him get a beer for Tor (if nothing else, seeming to prove he isn't omniscient) and go to talk to the man that hired us in the first place. (Yet another NPC we never got the name of. GTD) I show him the birth certificate and bring up the Tor issue right away, and while he doesn't quite believe it at first, the idea grows on him rather quickly once he has a few moments to process it. He asks to take some of Tor's blood to their capitol, which she agrees to, pays us for the agreed-upon job and leaves while promising our given reward won't be all of it if this turns out to be true.
Not long after, a Gnome we've helped out a few times before (mostly hauling equipment and killing the occasional wild animal along the way) shows up. He offers us ten gold each, up front (which the DM claims has been our usual deal with this guy, and nobody really sees a reason to object) in exchange for helping him carry some things to the Gate. He also agrees to pay Tor. At this point, DM appears to have given up hope that we'll ever ask for an NPC's name and just tells us (GO TEAM DUMBASS!). The Gnome's name is Professor Humblefoo. No, really. So we have another drink or two, then meet up with the professor. Nothing happens along the way, but when we arrive... We've been to the Gate a few times before. It's basically a giant stone archway covered in magical runes that have been inert for almost three centuries. But when we get relatively close to the place, we can see the runes are all glowing. There's definitely some activity there.
For the first known time since The Beginning, the Gate is open.