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View Full Version : "To the Hilt!" - An Eberron Campaign Journal



DJroboninja
2016-03-17, 11:33 PM
Hello all! I am currently DMing probably the best D&D game I've ever played at the moment -- we started at level 1, just hit level 13, and best of all, aside from myself, it is everyone's first time playing D&D, and THEY LOVE IT -- In fact, we've all been having so much fun that we want to record this campaign for posterity (and also because going back through everything might help me remember any NPCs or sidequest ideas that I've forgotten).

It's a 3.P (mix of 3.5 and Pathfinder) game taking place in Eberron. I will occasionally throw in some out of character DM commentary (like this). I'm an artist by trade and my players love having visual aids for monsters and stuff, so I'll be posting lots of pictures I've drawn for them along the way. Enough boring exposition, LET'S DO THIS!


http://56.media.tumblr.com/d850e145fa201e1e312512b6e5ae2f70/tumblr_nj0k56zv3G1rcd8pvo1_500.jpg

Jim is a subterranean dwarf from the Mror Holds, where he grew up in the ruined city of Noldrunhold. Jim's clan lived by one creed -- take whatever you need from those who can't defend it. They would make raids on nearby villages and communities, pillaging their resources and killing anyone who dared fight back.

Jim, however, was an emotional duergar, and he started feeling conflicted about these raids. While he was a capable warrior, he empathized with those his clan attacked. One day, as they were preparing to assault a halfling commune in the Talenta Plains, Jim decided enough was enough -- he broke off from his unit, ran into the village, and warned the halflings what was coming, saving dozens of lives. When his clan discovered what he had done, he was exiled, told never to return to their ancestral lands in the Mror Holds on pain of death.

With nowhere else to turn, Jim allied himself with one of the halflings he saved on that fateful day. Together, they journeyed forth into the dungeons of Khorvaire and became adventurers, and during their travels, Jim discovered a passion for something he had never learned in his homelands -- dance.

Jim loves dancing, and despite his gruff demeanor and abnormal appearance, he has spent countless hours learning the dance moves of the people he has met in his travels. It is also important to note that Jim is extremely stupid and his player takes great pleasure in roleplaying him as such.

Jim's quest is to amass a collection of weapons and armor the likes of which have never been seen before -- and to find a way to earn admittance to his ancestral home.



http://56.media.tumblr.com/77ba2eaa69b91b784a44bf06a7260e5e/tumblr_nj0jx3g7pc1rcd8pvo1_500.jpg
Jeau (pronounced "Joe") is a halfling from the Talenta Plains. He was part of a nomadic clan for much of his life, and sought to find his place in life. He always had a lust for learning and knowledge, but the trivial information that filled his brain could do very little to help his family on the Plains.

One day, however, his life changed. While wandering the Plains by himself, he found a crevasse that had opened in the earth, and saw a strange light glowing in the darkness below. He started carefully descending into this hole in the earth, hungry to discover what this object could be, but he lost his grip and fell...

...when he awoke, he found he was mostly okay -- however, he landed directly on some strange crystal, which had impaled his hand! The crystal was radiating a faint light, and try as he might, he could find no way to remove it.

He returned home to rest and recuperate, and after a few days, he found his crystal reacting to objects he touched -- swords became sharper, holes in shields would mend back together, and clothes would shimmer with strange patterns of energy. Over time, he learned to control this gift and used these powers of artifice to finally contribute.

Mere weeks after he found the crystal, an ash-skinned dwarf rushed into his village in the middle of the night, shouting about a coming attack. No one believed him, and some of his clanmates were preparing to attack, when Jeau used his mastery over language and diplomacy to convince them to stand down and listen to this strange man. Luckily, Jeau made the right choice, as dozens of these gray dwarves rushed into the village shortly thereafter, dressed for war.

Jeau and this duergar crossed paths again shortly thereafter, and decided to become an adventuring team -- the dwarf serving as the brawn to Jeau's brain.

Jeau quests for knowledge and purpose -- he wants to learn everything he can about this big, beautiful world, and he wants to find a way to help the people around him.


Jim and Jeau have been traveling together for some time, and have traveled far from their humble beginnings in the Talenta Plains. Their quest for gold and knowledge has taken them to the monster nation of Droamm, where many ancient tombs wait patiently to be plundered (I chose Droamm for the start because I wanted the beginning to be very combat focused and light on character dialogue, since my players weren't sure if they would be "into that" -- spoiler alert, they eventually get SUPER INTO IT). Asking around the city of Graywall, they have learned that an earthquake recently revealed the entrance to a long forgotten dungeon known as The Demon's Door. An adventuring party entered the tomb recently, but have not been heard from since. Jim and Jeau buy a map to the location from a pair of Gnoll brothers known as Lyger and Tybor -- they gave them the information in exchange for a share of whatever treasure the group finds.

Jeau and Jim head to the location shown on the map, where they find a pile of boulders in the side of a rocky crag -- near the top of this pile is a hole, just big enough to squeeze through that supposedly leads to the Demon's Door. Before they can get their spelunk on, however, they hear a snarl, and are attacked by a small pack of hungry wolves (this was their first real D&D combat, so I wanted it to be something very simple -- a couple wolves, an open battlefield, the option to head straight back to town if they royally f*** up). Jeau places some bane magic into his crossbow (yeah, he figured out how to artificer pretty quickly) and Jim lets out a battle cry and rushes in -- the two cut the wolves down very easily. Cue Final Fantasy victory music -- doo doo doo dooo dooo doo, doodoodoooooo.

They drop down into the Demon's Door, and find themselves in an entryway, with a dais holding three statues -- their features have been eroded away with time, but they can pick out that one has backwards hands, one has demonic horns, and the other has cloven hooves and a tail. There is some chalk writing on the wall that reads "Olarune 25, 998 YK" -- the date the other adventurers disappeared. Heading deeper into the dungeon, they find a nexus that appears to have been the missing adventurers' campsite, in which they find a few torches.

Tunnels go off in three different directions -- the path straight ahead of them has strange vines growing all over the entrance, the path to their right glows with a faint green light, and the path to their left features a prominent bloodstain, as if a body has been dragged off that direction (they could go any direction, but I wanted to show the left passage as being especially dangerous, in hopes that they would save that one for last). They immediately decide to head left and follow the bloodstain (f***).

They first find what appears to be a wine cellar, the floor littered with broken glass. Jim, thinking it is rock candy, eats a piece and spends the rest of the night complaining about how much his mouth hurts (at least they're roleplaying their characters correctly, I tell myself). They find an ancient bottle of strange liquid, which they keep. A couple of small demonic creatures with thin limbs and gaping mouths attack them in the darkness, using their mobility to their advantage, but Jim is light on his feet and manages to hack them apart without injuring himself (further) on the glass.

Next, they discover a room filled with several dead bodies that appear to have belonged to the lost adventuring party. The only survivor is a hobgoblin with a bat on his shoulder, covered in blood and muttering something to himself about "the Truth". They immediately enter into combat, Jim rushing into melee and Jeau hanging back at range, but they are able to dispatch the warrior (at one point, the hobgoblin drank a healing potion, and the two of them were blown away that bad guys in D&D can heal themselves). Midway through the fight, the bat flies off, and neither of them sees any significance in this. On an altar in the room, they find what looks like the tip of a large black horn from some demonic creature and a strip of tanned, tattooed skin, both of which they spirit away with.

Once back in the nexus, they then head off for the glowing chamber. Inside, they find a library, and are immediately attacked by a group of animated books. Jim has never learned how to read, so books have always been scary to him, and he flies into a rage and tears them apart (Jim would develop a severe dislike of books and libraries after this fight, that still persists to this very day). In the next room, they find a collection of wardrobes, most of which have been ransacked -- one of them, however, is closed shut and something is inside, trying hard to get out. They open it immediately (obviously), and are attacked by a raggamoffyn, a cloud of clothing that starts trying to wrap itself around Jim. Luckily, Jeau is able to tear the creature off his friend and they quickly wreck it with their weapons.

As they continue down the hall, they smell burnt flesh and find a large stone room with a ball of living fire inside, rolling around and scorching the walls. It takes some work and leaves some pretty serious burns on Jim, but they two of them are finally able to prevail -- after the fight, they find an obsidian statue, still clutched by the badly burned hand of one of the goblins from the first adventuring group.

Lastly, they traverse the vine-covered hallway -- these vines cover much of the walls and the air is thick with yellow spores that make it hard to see more than 15-20ft. They happen upon an armory, where they find several yellow-skinned orcs with vines growing out of their flesh, who stumble at them mindlessly. After a quick fight, they keep moving and find several more rooms, some containing zombies while one held a treasure chest filled with ancient stone coins and gems. In the last room, a large yellow-flowered plant grows out of a crack in the wall, surrounded by more of these weird orc-plant-zombies -- Jim rushes into combat right away, but gets wrecked by the zombies and their plant master, dropping to the ground unconscious and bleeding. As the plant starts creeping its vines into Jim's ears, Jeau takes aim with his crossbow and fires off a bolt that sinks deep into the core of the plant monster, causing it to shudder and go limp as he rushes over to heal his injured friend (Jim was at like, -7hp at this point, and I was super scared -- to this day, he still talks about how "he died" on their first adventure).

Once they are healed up, they make their way back to the exit, where they find that strange bat from earlier sitting atop the statues. It begins speaking in a high-pitched voice, complaining that they "killed his toys before he could have any real fun with them" -- he morphs into a small, blue-skinned bat-winged monster that rushes them, but the two are ready for action and they defeat him handily (this was a quasit, who had been invisibly manipulating the adventuring party that came in before them). With the last threat taken care of, they climb back out to the surface world, ready to head back to town and sell their ill-gotten gains.

On the way out, they discuss their agreement with the gnoll brothers and formulate a dastardly plan -- Jeau will lie to them and say that they only found the weird crystal bottle of liquid, which they will give to them in thanks for the information (this was a really good moment of roleplaying, with the two of them really getting into how they were going to f*** these guys out of a bunch of treasure).


And that's where we ended the first session.

Next time -- Gnolls! Money! A new party member!

wobner
2016-03-18, 06:46 AM
you sent a panty monster(raggamoffyn) after your players.

article, "stupid monsters someone was paid to make up", its towards the bottom. warning, this guy swears a bit and uses some unpleasant word choices, but on the whole the article and its follow up are amusing if you can stomach that.(i can't vouch for any other articles, haven't read them)

http://www.headinjurytheater.com/article73.htm

kudos to you for you that. heres hoping a future installment finds them battling the dreaded DuckBunny

those are your sketches? love that dwarf, especially with the little shrooms at his feet, for some reason that detail amuses me. having said the character has low intelligence, the 'blank stare at the ax' look he has is priceless.

Good read, looking forward to more updates.

GorinichSerpant
2016-03-18, 01:00 PM
Why did the quasit reveal itself and attack them? It could have hid away to manipulate mortals another day.

DJroboninja
2016-03-18, 01:43 PM
Why did the quasit reveal itself and attack them? It could have hid away to manipulate mortals another day.

Self-serving answer - He was filled with rage that his plans were ruined, and lashed out at them because he felt he had no other recourse - he had been trapped in this tomb for decades and was a little unhinged.

Honest answer - I didn't have a lot of time to prep for this first session, I was pretty much just grabbing monsters and making them fight them, haha

DJroboninja
2016-03-18, 01:44 PM
those are your sketches? love that dwarf, especially with the little shrooms at his feet, for some reason that detail amuses me. having said the character has low intelligence, the 'blank stare at the ax' look he has is priceless.

Good read, looking forward to more updates.

Thank you so much, I appreciate the kind words. I am at work right now, but I'll check out the link you posted when I get home!

EDIT: Alright, that was hilarious and also inspiring -- my players would adore fighting something as stupid as a duckbunny. In fact, they would probably try to adopt it and keep it as a pet.

DJroboninja
2016-03-18, 04:23 PM
SESSION TWO -- THE MENAGERIE

Alright, next episode, let's do this! I'm probably going to blast through these early adventures pretty quickly, mostly because the further away we get the more we will have forgotten, and we didn't start taking notes until adventure 3 or 4.

The bulk of this session came from a tremendously fun adventure called "The Menagerie", from Dungeon #126 -- it was an adventure I had always wanted to run, and figured it would be another good excuse for the party to tangle with a bunch of crazy monsters (something that I knew would get them hooked). I had to adjust the location and some of the characters to make it fit, and dropped the level of the adventure down to match the party, but otherwise it's pretty straight off the page.


Immediately picking up where the previous session left off, Jeau and Jim reemerge from the darkness of the Demon's Door, the sun shining in Jim's eyes and making it hard for him to see straight. As they are preparing to head back into Graywall proper, they spot a pair of figures approaching on foot -- Lyger and Tybor, the gnoll brothers who first gave them the idea to explore this demonic tomb. Jim's eyesight may be restricted, but Jeau's halfling eyes are sharp, and he spots several weapons that the brothers have attempted to hide amongst their clothing and armor. The adventurers keep their weapons readied, and Jeau starts a conversation with the gnolls from a distance.

"Oy! Job was a bust, those other guys must have ransacked the place and skipped town! All we found, was this bottle of really good looking wine -- we figured you two should have it!" (I knew they were starting to like this whole D&D thing as Jeau was rolling his Bluff check and the group of us fell completely silent...)

"Eh, that sure be a shame, m'boys. We hoped ye'd find us sum'fin worthwhile." Only Lyger is talking; his brother appears to be a mute (gnolls in our campaign all speak with vaguely Irish accents -- none of us remember why). "We'll take that wine -- and we'll take yer gear too. Gotta recoup our losses, aye?"

Jim and Jeau refuse, and a pitched battle begins -- Jim rushes in to engage Lyger in melee, while Tybor and Jeau exchange bolts and arrows from behind rocky outcroppings. As combat begins, the group spots a gray-skinned humanoid that drops from out of a nearby tree, roused from a deep slumber by the sounds of combat. In his hands, he carries a pair of curved daggers, and he wears a long hooded cloak that obscures his features. He rushes over and joins Jim and Jeau in the fight, slashing at the gnolls' weak points and catching them off guard -- together with this new ally, the brothers are dispatched and the adventurers live to fight another day.

The only problem -- they have a bunch of strange, ancient loot to sell, and the only two people they knew in the city of Graywall are bleeding out at their feet. While thanking this warrior, they convince him to accompany them back to the city, agreeing to give him a cut of the treasure since he saved their asses. He introduces himself as...



http://41.media.tumblr.com/56b188fd9dbc74d9879513fc3ccbbbd9/tumblr_nj0kj5pWSL1rcd8pvo1_500.jpg
A changeling, hailing from parts unknown, "Tim" does not know where he comes from, or even if Tim is his real name. Two years ago, he awoke near the city of Great Crag in Droamm, with no memory of who he was or how he got there. With no money to his name and no friends in the city, he learned how to survive out in the wilderness beyond Great Crag, hunting for food and building shelters.

Over time, he discovered latent talents he didn't know he had -- he was ambidextrous, and skilled with knives, and in combat situations he knew how to catch foes unawares and hit their vitals before they could properly react. After many weeks, he started making money by hunting the magical beasts of Droamm and scavenging them for parts, selling them to the highest bidder in Great Crag and Graywall.

One day, while sleeping in a tree, Tim was awoken by the sounds of shouting and clashing blades -- he saw a pair of foreigners besieged by gnolls, and knew he had to help them. Once the foul creatures were dispatched, Tim offered his services to the adventurers in exchange for their profits -- having no place to call home, he was content to wander with them.

Tim is questing to recover his lost memories, and to learn new and interesting ways to kill things.

For those of you keeping track at home, we now have three party members -- two of them have names that start with the same letter, and two of them have names that rhyme. And guess what? IT GETS WORSE.



With their new friend in tow, the group marches back to the monstrous city of Graywall. The city is surrounded by the titular drab stone wall, and is divided into several quarters, all of which seem to be dominated by a different racial group -- there is the Foreign Quarter, Gnoll Hill, Orctown, and other such districts, all but the Foreign Quarter being very distrusting of outsiders.

Over the next few days, the three of them go around to all the shopkeepers in the Foreign Quarter to get rid of the artifacts they found in the dungeon. Some things, like the gems, the obsidian statue, and the crystal bottle, are easy to pass off to interested collectors. However, try as they might, they cannot find anyone interested in buying the black horn or the strip of flesh they found on the altar -- in fact, several of the shopkeepers sternly ask them to leave as soon as they reveal these items.

After many failures, they finally meet a goblin named One-Eyed Flegg, who excitedly tells them that he knows someone who is always interested in curiosities such as these. For an extremely reasonable bribe, he reveals that he has a friend named Wren, who lives across the border in Breland. She is a self-proclaimed demonologist, who has spent much of her life studying fiendish relics. "But how will we get to Breland? That's, like, a whole other country," Jeau wonders. Flegg requests another diminutive bribe, pockets his gold, and tells them he knows a local merchant who travels into Breland regularly on business. His name is Kromm, and he runs a shop in the Bazaar -- Flegg even gives them precise directions to his store.

"That was easy," they all say in unison, whistling and skipping at their good fortune. But once they arrive at the location, they find a scene of chaos -- a goblin woman runs screaming, clutching her baby, an armored orc tells onlookers to get back, and a kobold darts between Tim's legs, turning over his shoulder to shout: "RUN AWAY! THE MONSTERS ARE LOOSE!" (The players are currently experiencing a mix between excitement and terror -- thus, I am doing my job correctly)

They rush over to the door to the shop, labeled "Kromm's Kollektion", and are greeted by an annoyed human and a distraught ogre, who appears to be on the verge of tears. In between sniffles and snorts, the ogre, Ob'karr, explains the situation: "I were fishin' *sniff* down to the river *sniff* and I done caught a big white snake, like I never seed before. I *snort* I bringed it to Kromm to look at, and he tol' me ta put it in the back room, but *sob sob sob* there was a mighty ruckus, an' all his critters got out! IT'S ALL MY FAAAAULT!" he shouts, sobbing.

The human introduces himself as Elgin, an employee of Kromm's, and he elaborates -- several creatures somehow got out of their cages after this snake was brought into the shop, and they are now running loose inside. Kromm was bitten by a cockatrice in the chaos, and turned to stone -- luckily, Kromm always keeps several jars of stone salve in his room upstairs. Thus, he offers these plucky adventurers a deal -- go inside the shop, capture BUT DO NOT KILL the merchandise, and unpetrify Kromm, and he will give them "some sort of reward, you can talk to Kromm about it once this is all taken care of."

The party happily agrees and slinks inside the establishment. The place is a mess, with shelves tipped over and product spilled all over the floor. Behind the counter stands a statue of a surprised, portly orc. While looking around, Jim is attacked by a scaly chicken, that leaps out from one of the shelves, its pecks causing his skin to harden and his joints to lock up slightly. Not wanting to miss out on any gold, they start trying to whack the chicken with the blunt sides of their weapons, but their awkward swings don't connect. Jim then decides to pick the bird up and carry it to its cage, but it keeps wriggling free. Finally, sweet little Jeau has had enough, and he grabs the cockatrice, holds it over his head, and shouts "SOMEONE GET THE CAGE!" (Grapple check: natural 20!). They toss it into its little metal home -- one down.

Creeping to the back room, they spot a large, orange bug, eating what appears to be the oxidized remnants of a wrought iron staircase. Jeau identifies it as a rust monster and Jim and Tim immediately panic. Jim rushes back to the sales floor and strips off all his armor and weapons, down to his skivvies, and lets out a battle cry to bring the bug into the open. The rust monster and a rocky floating squid (darkmantle) come at them, and Jim runs in, slashing and punching with his bare hands while Tim and Jeau throw things from a safe distance. Jim is able to knock the darkmantle unconscious, and wrangle the big bug back into his wooden cage. Three down...

Grappling their way upstairs, they find Kromm's living room in shambles. As they are taking it all in, several objects in the room start moving of their own volition, as if alive -- a chair clambers toward them, a hat rack hops around, and the doors to the next area swing open and closed. As if that weren't bad enough, a blue blur appears from the shadows of the room, rushing towards Jim to bite him, but the barbarian's reflexes are too good, and he holds out his axe at just the right time, clotheslining the little blue lizard and instantly knocking it out (another natural 20, this time on an opportunity attack -- this shocker lizard was buffed up on like five potions and was supposed to be a serious threat, but instead he rocked him with a x3 crit and one-shotted him, sad trombone). While the lizard was down, they still had these living objects to deal with -- Jeau and Tim agree to take on the chair while Jim takes the hat rack. The chair goes down with little fight, but the hat rack is a serious foe -- try as he might, Jim cannot connect with his axe (Jim's luck ran out, and he couldn't roll higher than a 5 to save his life; this hat rack is still seen as one of the biggest threats they've ever faced, and some of the party still think that hat rack might be the BBEG of the campaign).

Eventually, they get through the hat rack and the doors, and find Ob'karr's "white snake" -- a creature Jeau recognizes as a Ravid, a being which can animate unliving objects with false life. The ravid is trailed by an army of pencils, shoes, cufflinks, and other accoutrements, but Jeau is able to use a wand he discovered in the previous session to good effect, and they prevail over the monster.

Once things have died down, they finally return Kromm to the flesh with Elgin's help:

http://40.media.tumblr.com/1b909d704c1a89a2b9b134e0c818f254/tumblr_nx9ii2kn4J1rcd8pvo1_500.jpg
Kromm -- he's like Danny DeVito, but orcier

Kromm agrees to take them to Breland for free, and even offers them some heavily discounted items from his shop -- Jim picks up some healing potions, Jeau gets a wand, and Tim gets one of his knives enchanted.


This adventure was an absolute blast, and I would play it a dozen more times -- it's super simple to run and really exciting for the players because they have no idea what will lurk around the next corner. Jeau bought a wand of summon monster that, if I remember correctly he never, ever used? And I'm only about 18% sure that Jim got healing potions -- don't quote me on that.

Anyway, another session down. Hope you guys are enjoying our dumb fun times.

Next time -- Dragonmarks? Displacement? And ANOTHER PARTY MEMBER?

Demidos
2016-03-18, 05:48 PM
I'm enjoying this. Keep it up!

Yaalsh
2016-03-18, 06:01 PM
Same, great adventures of not so great(perhaps yet?) adventurers.

DJroboninja
2016-03-20, 08:04 PM
SESSION THREE -- ON THE ROAD

What's up guys? I missed you.

So this session was a quick one -- we started a little late, leveled everyone up, and didn't have time for much gameplay. But it still happened, and it was still awesome. Also, remember last post, when I teased a new party member? Haha oops, that actually didn't happen this session.


All decked out with new gear and possessing some swanky new abilities, the party spends a few days in Graywall to throw some coin around and wait for Kromm to get things back in order at his shop. A day or so after dealing with Kromm's shop issues, Jeau awakens to a burning sensation on his right hand. To his confusion, his hand is covered in what looked like a scintillating tattoo of blue and purple colors! Examining it with his artificer abilities allows him to discover some sort of strange magic, coursing through the symbol. Jeau has finally developed a dragonmark, just like his uncle Jax did when Jeau was just a boy. Some experimentation and research allows Jeau to suss out the magic, which grants him the ability to patch up his friends' injuries in combat.


After some well-deserved relaxation, Kromm contacts them and lets the party know that he is ready to move out. Meeting Kromm at the gates, the party is greeted by a large, covered caravan, loaded up with small cages, barrels of alchemical unguents, and locked chests loaded with magical goodies, being pulled by a pair of strong-looking horses. "Oh my god, awesome, what are the horses names?" they immediately ask. Kromm responds, "...what? The horses? Oh, ummmm, they are named... Jerry... aaaaaaand... Lewis." (this was the first thing these guys threw at me that I was in no way prepared for, and at the time, my improv skills hadn't been worked out in a while)

Gathering up all their gear, they head out, and the trip is relatively uneventful for the first day or so. They stop to make camp in the woods one night, and Kromm asks each party member to tell him a story from their past (you wanna make me improvise stuff? WELL TWO CAN PLAY AT THAT GAME). While they stumble on their words a bit at first, Jim tells the story of learning a dance in some far off cantina, Jeau tells of the time Jim saved his tribe's life, and Tim explains that, honestly, he doesn't remember much.

While telling stories, Tim hears movement amongst the trees surrounding the caravan -- Jeau and Tim stay with Kromm while Jim rushes over to protect the horses. Suddenly, they spot a pair of glowing yellow eyes, staring out from the darkness beyond their campfire, and a purple-furred cat, with six legs and whipping tentacles, steps into the clearing, preparing to attack.

https://36.media.tumblr.com/4c8fb9ab98d1334510d272292f4c2e35/tumblr_o4d6l22PIT1rcd8pvo1_540.jpg

Tim recognizes the creature as a displacer beast, and he rushes in to flank it with Jim -- he's hunted these creatures before, and he knows their weaknesses.

As the two warriors fight the magical beast, Jeau and Kromm are surprised by another that sneaks out of the shadows on the opposite side of the caravan. Jeau takes a couple of hits, but he and Kromm get away safely, and he is able to patch himself up with his new dragonmark -- Tim volunteers to stay with his current target while Jim charges into combat to protect his little friend. The fight is long and harrowing, as the creatures' natural mirage abilities made several of their attacks miss, but eventually the two creatures fall. Tim uses his survival skills to scavenge some teeth from the creatures for making a necklace, and they bury the bodies away from the wagon.

Come morning, the group hops back in, and departs for the Brelish border...


This session was quick, but fun, and taught the players how much miss chance can royally suck. Also, this was the session that finally convinced our fourth player to join us -- she had been hanging out and watching us play the past few weeks, and she started piping in with ideas: "Could you pick the cockatrice up and shove it in the cage?" "Could Tim use his Survival skill to cut off some trophies?" "Make sure you protect the horses, you'll be trapped if they get hurt!"

Finally, the others said it: "You are already better at this game than us, we will all die if you don't join." And she agreed.

NEXT TIME -- Breland! A recurring NPC! And I swear to the Sovereign Host, a new player ACTUALLY JOINS!

DJroboninja
2016-03-22, 08:34 PM
SESSION FOUR -- A WRETCHED HIVE OF SCUM AND VILLAINY

Hey guys, how are things?

...

Cool, cool. So anyway, the next session:

When we last left the party, they had just felled a couple of displacer beasts in a forested part of Droamm, and Jeau got to use his swanky new dragonmark ability for the first time.

Fast forward a bit, the party has finally arrived at the Breland-Droamm border, which is staffed with a collection of Brelish soldiers. Apparently, there have been a lot of problems with Droammites entering Breland as part of the crime syndicate known as Daask, which is currently causing a lot of problems in the metropolis of Sharn. As such, Breland has been stepping up their border security, only allowing people through if they have proper papers (to make sure you are in the correct frame of mind for this segment, please picture four people making jokes about cheese and talking about the famed "Land of Brie").

As they are pulling up to the checkpoint and Kromm is rifling through a stack of parchments to make sure he has everything they need, they spot a woman arguing with the guards. She has dark, tanned skin, and is dressed in a suit of worn leather armor. Her teeth are pointed, and she has spots of fuzz on her skin. At her side is a large Cyran wolfhound, looking back and forth between the guards and its master.

As the party is pulling up, the woman looks at the group, motioning for some kind of help from the party. Tim uses his mastery of lying on the guards, saying "sorry for the confusion, this is our friend, and she was meeting us here before we head into Breland. As you can see here, my good buddy Kromm has all of the necessary papers, so we'll be out of your hair right away" (very high Bluff check). The guards say that usually they wouldn't allow something like this, but the party seems trustworthy, so they can head on through. "Get on up here, um, old friend!" As she and her giant hound clamber up into the wagon, they wait until they are out of earshot of the guards before introductions are made...



http://40.media.tumblr.com/46ecb3a7cfb78b7d93e97a7253f1cc82/tumblr_nj0kq689yi1rcd8pvo1_500.jpg

Born in the Eldeen Reaches, Zeau spent the first couple years of her life peacefully, in a commune in the middle of the forest. She and her family were descended from werebears, and here mother and father were large and brutish in appearance, but soft-hearted and caring. However, at an early age, her life as she knew it was taken away from her one dark night -- several men, dressed in silver armor and bearing the crest of the Church of the Silver Flame stormed into her village and cut down her family. She had heard of the infamous Purge, many decades earlier, but no one thought there were still zealots committed to the cause -- no one expected such an attack, not in a million years. Her memories of the night are fuzzy, and she cannot remember why she was spared -- the only thing she remembers about her attacker was his long silver hair, and a scar running from his eye to his jawline.

An aging druid, named Zim Beau Bim, happened upon the carnage after hearing Zeau's cries -- without a second thought, he picked up the little cub and took him back to his home. There, he raised her for many years, teaching her the ways of The Gatekeepers, a sect of druids dedicated to fighting the aberrations and abominations that stalk the world. She learned ancient languages, primal magicks, and combat skills, but she was not content to stay in the forests maintaining the ancient seals and watching for dark threats. Zeau told her adoptive father that she needed to venture out on her own, and find the man who killed her family. Zim was saddened, but understood, and the young shifter set forth into the world.

On her travels, she happened upon a large dog, an apparent stray from the lost nation of Cyre -- she fed the large dog, and took him as a companion, teaching him many tricks and naming him Pickle, a true warrior's name. Zeau and Pickle are on a quest of vengeance and protection, seeking to find the man who killed her family, while also scouring the earth for aberrations and snuffing them out in the name of the Gatekeepers.

(Hey guys, in case you haven't been paying attention, we now have a full party of four people -- Jim, Jeau, Tim, and Zeau [who was raised by Zim Beau Bim]. In other words, two names that start with the same letter, two names that rhyme, and two OTHER names that rhyme. If the party had a nickel for every time I f***ed up one of their names, they would have... like... seventeen nickels?)



With their new friends in tow, the party crosses from Droamm to Breland -- the rocky crags and cracked plains give way to sprawling fields and lush forests, and after a few days of quiet caravan transit, they happen upon the village of Shavalant, a small town near Wren's Cottage. Kromm drops them off and gives each of them a powerful hug, asking them to look him up if they ever find themselves back in Graywall. He rides off as the sun is setting, and the party makes a quick shopping trip, buying what few scrolls and artificer tools they can in the little community before setting off for Wren.

Just as it is getting dark, they venture out from Shavalant and head into a small thicket of trees, which (according to a map they got from Flegg) is where Wren lives. They see her little stone cottage in the center of the thicket, and they can even see the warm glow of lanterns inside. However, as they are approaching, Tim's keen eyes spot something -- the door is slightly ajar, and the porch is marred with several muddy boot prints, apparently from a group of men. As they get a little closer, they see that these boot prints cover the porch, but they stop abruptly at the entrance, with some of the prints half cleaned; part of a boot print outside the door while the other half appears to have been washed away.

They hear something moving in what appears to be a small study, so they draw weapons and stealth closer. As they reach the door to the study, they see a small gray creature that appears to be made of fired clay, flitting about on small bat wings, organizing a collection of books that must number in the hundreds. Not seeing him as a threat, they step into the room and sheathe their weapons.

The small creature turns excitedly, but as soon as he sees the party, his expression changes to one of sorrow. "Oh, Ms. Wren is not here at the moment. She has gone with the dirty men with her books. She told Paracelsus to stay in the cottage, and she still has not come home. Paracelsus is worried." The party deduces that this little thing is Paracelsus, so they ask him where Wren went. "To the Pit. The dirty men needed her help. Dirty men were rude. Ms. Wren is still gone, but she is not dead. Paracelsus cannot be if Ms. Wren is dead."

Everyone is a bit confused, but Tim figures out that "The Pit" must refer to the community of Black Pit, to the north, a town of war criminals, smugglers, and murderers, with a thriving black market. They promise Paracelsus that they will get Wren back and, after purchasing some horses from inside Shavalant, ride off toward Black Pit...



After a few days' ride, the adventurers ride into Black Pit. A great crack in the earth is belching toxic, purple fumes into the sky as a low rumble echoes forth from the darkness below. At the edge of this hole sits a tiny, decrepit village -- while supposedly part of Breland, this community is more or less lawless, so the party enters carefully, keeping an eye over their shoulder.

The adventurers separate from each other to try and find information on Wren -- Jim goes to the local tavern and dances while Jeau asks the collected bar patrons if they've seen the young demonologist; Tim sneak across the rooftops, listening in on clandestine conversations; and Zeau looks for tracks in the muddy alleys that might match the group that took her.

After a couple hours of work, they meet back at the tavern and discuss their findings, deciding that she could only have been taken to one place -- the Blackcap Salvage Company, a disreputable business that sells plunder from battlefields, fences stolen items, and pushes whatever junk they can pull from the Pit. However, as they are approaching the building, they are attacked by Blackcap Salvage employees -- the fight is very short, with most of them getting cut down easily while one is kicked into the fumes of the Pit. Examining the bodies, Zeau is able to discover several recent wounds, all of which appear to have been dealt by a serrated blade. With this strange piece of news, they enter the Blackcap Salvage offices...



Entering into the building, they see a black market sales floor, and a door that has been chained shut and painted with an ominous message -- "DO NOT OPEN" (DM TIP -- want to make your party open something? Tell them not to!) Jeau picks the locks and they head in, where they find a beheaded body covered in flies (at this point, some of them are entertaining the idea of just heading back to Graywall and opening a bar or something). They find a quintet of breathing masks, which they all don, as well as an elixir of truth and a cloak of resistance, which Tim throws on. Next they happen upon a large warehouse, where they can hear wet, fleshy things moving among the boxes. They draw their weapons and enter, spotting a half dozen creatures that looks like blobs of flesh and organs slithering across the stone floor!

http://40.media.tumblr.com/0869106ed215bc307ea95c51c97f4714/tumblr_nj0ktlSo5O1rcd8pvo1_500.jpg

Jeau recognizes them as lemures, the lowest type of devil, and the party is confused by the fact that some of their attacks don't seem to be doing anything to the monsters -- small weapons bounce off, while fire doesn't even singe them. They fight through and succeed, however, after a long fight. Next they find a garbage chute that leads to the floor below, from which a foul smell emanates. Jeau and Zeau do not want to risk jumping in, but Jim and Tim are game -- they wrap a rope around their waists and leap into the darkness, ready to signal the mages in case s**t goes down. While walking on the uneven ground, Jim walks into something... jiggly.

http://40.media.tumblr.com/7def68bbdb84fd0e590cd3c2248c4945/tumblr_nj0kvjkbkv1rcd8pvo1_500.jpg

A GELATINOUS CUBE! Tim and Jim start slashing at the ooze, hacking clumps off the corners, as they shout for some help from up above. Zeau starts firing bullets from her sling while Jeau tries to hit the cube with his wand of burning hands, and after Tim is nearly killed by the creature's acid, they finally manage to defeat it.

Continuing through the basement, they encounter some more lemures in the kitchen, and find a creature storage chamber with an escaped manticore (I remember nothing of this fight, but it happened?), but finally, they find their way to a large storage room. Near a shattered cage in the center of the room stands a cloven-hoofed monster with a beard of writhing tentacles and a serrated glaive in his hand...

(I, um, can't find the drawing I made of him -- will add later?)

A BARBAZU! As they enter, he speaks a throaty sentence in some dark language and summons forth a trio of lemures, and the creatures rush in and attack. The lemures are easy to defeat now that the party is used to fighting them, but the barbazu is a tough fight, raking his toothy blade across the party's flesh and leaving them all bloodied and wounded. Jim is finally able to fell the beast with his axe, decapitating it in a powerful, rage-filled blow.

Opening the last locked door, they find a young half-elven woman with large, round glasses and a head of frizzy brown hair -- Wren. She is at first ready to fight them, but once they reveal that they are here to rescue her, she drops her guard and thanks them profusely. They raid the treasure room where she was being kept and find a few things: a magical shield for Jim, a couple of healing potions, and some valuable-looking gold jewelry. They return to their horses and ride off, back to Wren's cottage...



As the party is heading home from Black Pit, they piece together what happened -- the Blackcap Salvagers, while down in the Pit looking for things to sell, found the bearded devil. It killed several of them before it was knocked out, caged, and brought back upstairs. Having heard of Wren's knowledge of devils and demons, they dispatched a group of thugs to bring her back to the town and help them find a way to sell the monster. Once they returned, however, they found the building overrun with lemures, summoned by the captured devil, which had released him from the cage. Wren locked herself in the treasure room while the salvagers ran off, trying to trap the devils behind the metal doors of their basement, but several escaped and killed part of their group. Wren sat in that room for days, listening to the devil muttering in Infernal as it tried to escape, until the party finally killed the creature...


Whoa, that was a long one -- we were on our game that session! Anyway, the gang is all here and Wren has been rescued, with everyone ready to finally find a place to sell those stupid demon parts they found back in Droamm.

Next time: Another friend of a friend! Sharn! A FANCY PARTY!

DJroboninja
2016-03-24, 08:13 PM
SESSION FIVE -- THE TENTH ANNUAL WAYFINDER FOUNDATION CHARITY GALA, PART ONE

And we're back. This was a really fun session, with very little combat involved -- the sort of thing I worried my players would be able to get into before the campaign started. Well haha, I was pretty damn wrong -- they loved it. This was another pretty long one, so let's jump right in:


After the events in Black Pit, the party safely returns to Wren's Cottage, where they spend a few days helping her get things straightened up while she researches the demonic artifacts they found back in Droamm.

In addition, during this time, Jeau and Wren begin bonding over their shared love of knowledge and magic, and Wren starts imparting some of her skill to Jeau, teaching him how to construct a homunculus, like she did with Paracelsus.

After several days of relaxation, Wren finally has some information for them -- over a million years ago, during the Age of Demons, the fiendish offspring of Khyber ruled the world, until the dragons of Eberron, aided by the Draconic Prophecy, rose up against them. This great war lasted for millenia and tore across the planet, and the pieces they found belonged to a pair of famed demonic generals of this era: the horn belonged to a giant, whip-wielding monstrosity named "Arnadax the Lash", while the tattooed flesh was from a six-armed serpent woman known only as "The Red Queen" (this scene was important because it showed that these things were actually worth a lot of money, but also because it allowed me to drop in some Eberron history with context, instead of just doing an information dump at the beginning of the campaign). These items are extremely important pieces of Eberronian History, but Wren doesn't have the money to pay them anything close to what they are worth.

However, she has a close personal friend who lives in Sharn named Gaius Anderfel -- he has earned a lot of money from financing adventuring expeditions as part of the Wayfinder Foundation, and he has a humongous collection of items with historical value, some from the Age of Demons, others from the lost Empire of Dhakaan, and some from the dark continent of Xen'drik (more natural exposition and information dropping!). She gives them his address in the Seventh Tower district and offers to buy them transport to the fabled metropolis, as thanks for saving her from those unscrupulous scavengers in Black Pit.

After taking a little more time to prep some scrolls and potions and keep their equipment in working order, they set forth, taking a caravan to the village of Woodhelm, and then riding the Golden Butterfly ferry down the Dagger River. Several days into their relaxing voyage, they finally see it on the horizon -- Sharn, the City of Towers, jutting upwards like a collection of swords bursting forth from the earth itself, its towers stretching so high into the sky that the tops are not visible...



The ferry drops them at a tiny thorp known as First Tower, supposedly built around the first tower of Sharn from when it was still a Dhakaani city (give them a little information, bit by bit). From First Tower, they walk the worn path to Sharn, until they find an unbelievably long line of people, waiting at the gates of the city to gain entrance. The party gathers their identification papers and Tim gets rid of a couple minor contraband items as they prepare to stand in line for what feels like an eternity.

Once they finally get close to the gates, they see a little green-skinned goblin being pulled out of the line, as a guard proffers a tiny vial of blue liquid from the man's bag. "You know what this is!?" he asks the goblin, who says "th-that isn't mine, I sw-sw-swear!" The guard shouts "do you know absentia is illegal in Sharn!?"

(At this point, I ask Tim to make a Wisdom check, and he has no idea why...)

Suddenly, Tim remembers something, a snapshot of his past, like a dream being viewed through a thick pane of glass. He is standing in a gorgeous room, surrounded by several people lounging on huge blue velvet pillows -- these people have glazed over eyes, and they look disconnected from reality. Another changeling looks at Tim, and says "we're calling it absentia -- it's going to revolutionize this city". And just as quickly as he left, he found himself back in the entrance line outside of Sharn... (so this is awesome -- Tim's player wanted to play a character with amnesia, but didn't want to know what he didn't remember, instead asking that I make up a history for him to discover -- certain words or phrases have a chance to recover memories if he succeeds on a Wisdom check) (seriously, how f***ing fun does that sound to any fellow DMs reading this?)

The rest of the party asks him what happened, but Tim brushes it off, saying he's fine. Shortly thereafter, the party is allowed entry into the city, and as they pass through the gates, they are greeted by an amazing sight -- a city that soars miles into the sky, as bridges connect towers and magical lifts connect the upper wards with the lower ones. People of all races and nationalities brush shoulders around them -- just from their spot inside the gates, they can see a Karrnathi man arguing with a Thranish merchant, while a group of gnomes wander around taking notes on everything they see, and a large shifter woman slaps a hobgoblin man on the back and lets out an echoing laugh.

They notice what looks like a small skiff with no sails, floating about half a foot of the ground. A half-orc man in a flat hat and wrapped in a thick scar holds a sign that says "MR. BORROWS". Deducing that he is supposed to be waiting for Jeau Burrows, they approach and introduce themselves. The half-orc tells them his name is Rayne, and he is a skycoach operator. His company received a request for transit for a halfling named Jeau Burrows and his group of comrades to the penthouse atop Tradewind Tower. The party is excited, and they all clamber inside as the coach miraculously lifts off into the sky, rising up above the tallest towers.

Rayne figures the party to be new to Sharn and gives them a brief description of the various quarters of Sharn -- Northedge, Dura, Tavick's Landing, Skyway, and Central Plateau (wanted to help them visualize the city, and let them know some of the main things in each area, in case they needed to travel there -- Morgrave University is here, the Dragonmarked Houses are there, etc...). He drops them in Upper Menthis, at a tall, ivy-covered tower, with large bay windows and stone gargoyles built into the edge of the roof. According to Wren's notes, this should be Gaius' penthouse, so they knock on the door and await their new friend...

Unfrotunately, they are greeted by a gruff Karrnathi man who announces himself as Viktor, and asks "Vhat business do you haf vith Mister Anderfel?" (I roleplay Karrnathi as having a Russian accent). The party explains and Viktor monotones that "Mister Anderfel vill be attending ze Wayfinder Foundation Charity Gala this evenink, and departs for the City of Stormreach immediately after. He vill be back in Sharn in two months, please come back then"; at this point, he starts closing the door between them, but Jeau shoves his foot in the doorway and tells the butler that they can't wait that long. Jeau asks if there is any way the party can gain entrance to this gala, to talk with Gaius before he leaves the country.

Viktor sighs, and says "You vill need invitations, and they vill never allow you in dressed like... zat. I know of a few men who received invitations but will not be attendink -- if I give you their names, do you promise to leave?" The group feverishly nods in agreement, and Viktor writes a couple of names on a sheet of paper, asking them to please leave immediately...



The group leaves the penthouse and knows that they have only a few hours before the Charity Gala is set to begin. Tim has a wide collection of outfits in his backpack, so he and Pickle go to procure lodging for their weapons and gear for the night while the rest of the group ventures out to Davandi Tailoring, a clothing store in Upper Menthis that specialized in glamerweave formalwear. "You gotta spend money to make money," Jeau says, and the three of them purchase fancy court outfits for the event.

Meeting back up with Tim, they head towards the first location Viktor gave them -- the Lucky Nines Casino in Lower Menthis. This part of town feels like a completely different city than the Upper Wards, as drunkards shout and sing, while changeling prostitutes and drug dealers try flaunting their wares to anyone willing to listen. On the way to the casino, a thin human man walks up to Tim and says "The owls are flying mighty low this time of year." (Wisdom check!) Instinctively, Tim responds "Yes, but ravens always fly high", and the man goes running (cue collective "what the f***" from everyone involved).

Arriving at the casino, the party finds a man named Janus, who (according to Viktor) is also a member of this adventuring organization known as the Wayfinder Foundation. Introducing themselves, Janus explains that his wife is feeling ill, and he doesn't feel like going without her, so he has two invitations that he won't be using. However, when the party asks for them, he smiles and says "well these are very hard to come by, I don't think I could just give them away... that being said, I wouldn't be averse to putting them up as stakes for a game of Dragon's Bluff." The party agrees to his terms, and each kicks in a stack of gold to bet on the game as Tim sits down at the table.

What follows is a long, drawn out game of skill, where Tim and Janus try to bluff bad hands, figure out each others tells, and catch the other player off guard, while the others do their best to distract Janus and keep him from focusing on the game (in game terms, this was a skill challenge ala 4th edition -- each hand, Tim and Janus rolled to see if they got a good hand or a bad hand, and Tim had to use skills like Profession (gambler), Bluff, Sense Motive, and Sleight of Hand, while the rest of the party had to use skills like Diplomacy, Knowledge (nature), and Knowledge (history) to talk Janus' ear off and tell him interesting stories -- this s**t was a blast). After many minutes of playing, Tim finally catches Janus with a crazy hand and wins the whole pot, invitations included! Janus laughs and slaps Tim on the shoulder, saying he can come visit him any time for a rematch (I use a contact system, where certain PCs can earn NPC allies that they can rely on for certain tasks, so for example, Janus at this point becomes a gossip contact for Tim).

Leaving the Lucky Nines with two invitations, the party then hunts down the other Wayfinder -- a man known only as "Hot Irons". Viktor's note says he can be found at "The Burning Ring", but the party has no idea where that could be, so Jeau asks around and finds out that this Burning Ring is a constantly moving illegal fighting ring. Using their natural charisma, the party finds out that tonight's match is going on in a back alley elsewhere in Lower Menthis. Arriving at the alley, they discover a circle of fire, inside which they see a shifter claw a mohawked dwarf across the face, blood dripping from the wound as he collapses to the cobblestones at his feet. A halfling rushes over and patches up the wounds while a man in a ratty top hat declares the shifter the winner!

The party asks for Hot Irons, and they are greeted by an eight-foot tall man who appears to be made out of metal and wood:

http://36.media.tumblr.com/ddea4ff1ad5473ff9dc9c30f7bb28fc2/tumblr_nwg023SPT01rcd8pvo1_1280.jpg

"I'm him, who's askin'?" The party explains their predicament, and asks if they can have Mr. Irons' invitations, to which the warforged chuckles. "Yeah, I heard about that fancy little party. Not my scene." "So we can have them?" "Ha! People only get what they earn. You beat me in the Ring and you can have 'em. Deal?"

The party nominates Jim to take him on, and the ringleader explains the rules to the group -- one weapon, no armor, no outside assistance. However, the party decides that they don't like the odds as they see them, so Tim and Jeau distract the ringleader and Hot Irons with some fake stupid rules questions while Zeau places a protection spell on Jim to shield him from fire (Burning Ring, Hot Irons, they put two and two together and figured out what was coming). Jim steps in with his axe, and notices that Hot Irons doesn't carry any weapons with him. Instead, he hits his fists together and there is a humming noise, as his fists become white hot. The two fight, Hot Irons punching and Jim slashing, but Zeau's abjuration holds strong and the dwarf is able to hit hard and knock him unconscious.

Hot Irons regains consciousness and laughs, wrapping his arms around the dwarf and hugging him, saying that he has to come back again and give him another shot (Jim gains Hot Irons as a thug contact).



The party heads to the Solemn Soldier Inn, where Tim got rooms for everyone for the night. Everyone changes out of their dirty clothes and pockmarked armor, trading them for flowing robes and elegant jackets. Pickle, to his dismay, has to stay behind, along with everyone's weaponry. Just in time for the start of the party, the PCs hop into a skycoach to take them to the magical Skyway -- a floating island above the city that the Wayfinders have rented out for the gala...


Super fun session, with only a bunch of roleplaying, a skill challenge, and a fight. This session's main effect was to ingratiate the players to Sharn and help them understand how the city works, along with giving them a couple of friends to start out with. Much of the campaign takes place in Sharn (spoiler alert), so I wanted to really give them a good mental image of the city and portray it in a way that would make it seem as exciting as it should be.

NEXT TIME: Bear wrestling! A ticking clock! Blackout drinking!

Kol Korran
2016-03-25, 12:50 AM
Hi there! i must say this is a most entertaining and fun read! You have some talent in relaying the adventures, and I LOVED the drawings! I'm a long time Eberron fan myself,and I love your approach to introducing the party to the setting.

I quite liked the "menagerie" adventure, which seemed like great fun, and the intro to Sharn. The City of Towers always seemed like a very complicated place to run, glad to hear how someone else is doing it. Can't wait to see them at the Gala! Will there be... dancing? :smalltongue:

I hope they get entangled with the Daask. That always seemed like a very intriguing gang, though very little is actually written about it. I always wanted to play" Seven stones" sometime in a game. Seemed like a hoot!

As to "tips to amnesia"- If you're old enough to know the game "Planescape Torment", that is pretty much how it is handled there- You play an amnesiac, and various places, people, experiences can give you flashes to the past, just bits and pieces.

In my intro game to Eberron one of my players also wished for his character to have Amnesia,and we did something similar, only I learned too late that the player opted for amnesia not so he could be surprised by background, but because he didn't feel like making a background... :smallannoyed:

This sounds quite awesome, I will follow it. Keep the good work! Also, I started a project some time ago called "The campaign logs archive" (In my sig), I would love for your log to be included in it. Take a look, and if you're up for it, then write me an intro for your log, and I'll put it in.

Thanks for sharing! :smallwink:

Don nadie
2016-03-25, 02:22 AM
I've been following this journal for a while now, and let me say it's really well done, and a great way to introduce people new to the setting and RPGs in general... Well done! Well done also for your players, who are clearly the best kind, and really eager to cooperate in making a nice story.

RFLS
2016-03-25, 04:04 AM
This is really well done; I like the writing style and the artwork is fantastic. I'm excited to read more.

GorinichSerpant
2016-03-25, 11:01 AM
I applaud you for your seamlessly placed setting exposition. It seams placed so naturally. I'm however disappointed that the druid isn't named Taeu for maximum name intertwinedness.

IntelectPaladin
2016-03-25, 12:54 PM
I'm certainly glad to finally find an campaign journal like this.
Thank you for putting this up there, Keep the stories coming! Congratulations, You have fans.

Inevitability
2016-03-25, 01:06 PM
I just want to say that you're a great DM! Keep the stories coming!

DJroboninja
2016-03-25, 01:29 PM
Hi there! i must say this is a most entertaining and fun read! You have some talent in relaying the adventures, and I LOVED the drawings! I'm a long time Eberron fan myself,and I love your approach to introducing the party to the setting.

Thanks so much! It's nice to see that people other than us are actually reading this.


As to "tips to amnesia"- If you're old enough to know the game "Planescape Torment", that is pretty much how it is handled there- You play an amnesiac, and various places, people, experiences can give you flashes to the past, just bits and pieces.

Ummmm, yeah, that game was actually a big influence on his storyline! When he said "I want to have amnesia", that was immediately where my mind went -- good eye, man!


This sounds quite awesome, I will follow it. Keep the good work! Also, I started a project some time ago called "The campaign logs archive" (In my sig), I would love for your log to be included in it. Take a look, and if you're up for it, then write me an intro for your log, and I'll put it in.

That's very funny, I actually used your post to check out some other logs for inspiration, and to make sure I was doing things right -- as such, I would be honored. I'll come up with a little something and PM you?

DJroboninja
2016-03-25, 01:33 PM
I just want to say that you're a great DM! Keep the stories coming!


I'm certainly glad to finally find an campaign journal like this.
Thank you for putting this up there, Keep the stories coming! Congratulations, You have fans.


I applaud you for your seamlessly placed setting exposition. It seams placed so naturally. I'm however disappointed that the druid isn't named Taeu for maximum name intertwinedness.


This is really well done; I like the writing style and the artwork is fantastic. I'm excited to read more.


I've been following this journal for a while now, and let me say it's really well done, and a great way to introduce people new to the setting and RPGs in general... Well done! Well done also for your players, who are clearly the best kind, and really eager to cooperate in making a nice story.

Thanks for all the kind words everyone, we all really appreciate it!

Also Serpant, don't give the players ideas like that -- it's hard enough for me to keep track of who is who as it is!

DJroboninja
2016-03-25, 03:31 PM
SESSION SIX -- THE TENTH ANNUAL WAYFINDER CHARITY GALA, PART TWO

Back again with our next thrilling episode of "To the Hilt!" ...I, uh, promise that title will make sense soon.

When we last left our intrepid heroes, they had just changed into some spiffy new duds, dropped off their weapons (and dog), and taken a skycoach to the magical island of Skyway, which hangs high above the City of Towers...


The skycoach drops them at a small dock on the edge of Cloudpool Park, in Skyway. This district is one of the most striking examples of the manifest magic that holds The City of Towers up -- everything is made of enchanted clouds, made to hold up the weight of people, trees, and even buildings. The park is on the edge of the district, and looking over the edge, the party gets an intense feeling of vertigo as they stare down at the tops of the tallest towers.

A hobgoblin in a fancy black suit stops them at the end of the dock and requests their invitations -- he examines each very carefully and asks to see each of the adventurers' identification papers before allowing them entry. A second hobgoblin frisks each party member shortly after, confirming that they haven't smuggled any weapons or other dangerous items into the event. Once inside, they take a moment to really take in all the sights around them -- just a few weeks ago, they were scrounging around in the dirt in Droamm, and now they are floating high above the world, walking on clouds and surrounded by lights that hang in the air like tiny stars, close enough to touch.

Everyone is dressed in the finery of nobles and aristocrats, the finest glamerweave dresses and tailed coats in the city -- however, these people also have an air of adventurers about them, with several of them sporting scars, missing fingers, and the occasional House Cannith prosthetic limb. The party splits up and starts asking around, looking for the infamous Gaius Anderfel...



After a solid half hour of scanning the crowd, questioning the partygoers, sneaking around, and dancing for attention (here's a fun game, guess which PC each of those was), they finally find Wren's friend, Mr. Gaius Anderfel. Gaius is wearing a long black coat over a charcoal-grey suit -- he has a trimmed black beard and his hair is starting to grey at the temples, and he leans on a table as he talks to another Wayfinder, suggesting some sort of leg injury.

The party walks up and introduces themselves, explaining that they know Wren and have some ancient demonic artifacts to sell for top dollar. "I must admit, I'm very interested in these historical relics you say you have, but you've caught me at kind of a bad time. You see, I have a red eye airship leaving in a few hours for Stormreach, down in Xen'drik -- I recently had a group of adventurers under my employ who... well, suffice it to say I have a few positions that need filling."

"Well, we are adventurers! You could just hire us and not worry about making some big trip," says little Jeau.

"...hmmm. Well I am in no mood for an extended business trip like this, I also don't want to cancel my plans based purely on hearsay..." As he takes a sip from his drink, the clocks strike eight o'clock at night. "What say we make a bit of a wager? Look at these men and women around you -- we Wayfinders, we're a very competitive lot, and there are dozens of games of skill and chance happening at tonight's event. You have... four hours before I am supposed to leave for my flight. Meet me right here, beneath the ice sculpture, and show me that you are the smartest, strongest, swiftest adventurers here -- if you impress me, I will pay you handsomely for these items and hire you on as my new treasure hunters. What do you say, have we a deal?" He extends his hand. "A gentleman's agreement is not final until we shake on it." He shakes hands with each of the adventurers and they all head off their separate ways, to try and win some prizes...


At this point, I gave the players a list of events going on at the party, with names like "A Kiss From Lady Eisenhart!" and "Wrestle the Mighty Sleepy!" I informed them that winning each event will win them a prize worth a certain amount of renown, but that attempting each event subtracts a certain amount of time from the remaining four hours. Then, each player explained which one they were attempting and we tracked where they were at what time. For ease of storytelling, we will just go through each PCs night at the party, one by one (other events happened in addition to the ones I am describing, but I'm skipping over some of the less interesting ones because this is already going to be long as hell)...


Jeau spots two events that particularly pique his curiosity on the list, and heads off to a table on the opposite side of the party. There, a balding old artificer named Arthur Mann has developed a puzzle box that he claims to be unsolvable -- as Jeau is approaching, a sweaty dwarven woman toys with a twisted contraption until a timer goes off, and with a loud click, the contraption reverts back into a small metal cube as the dwarf storms off in a huff. Jeau cracks his knuckles and asks for a chance at the box -- however, the first two times he attempts it, he can't get it in time (this challenge was a simple series of Intelligence checks, and Jeau was just not rolling what he needed to). Jeau walks away as the artificer laughs behind him...

He walks over a cloud bridge to another part of the park, where a flamboyant gnome named Flitwig is claiming to be the Smartest Man in Sharn -- he is offering a crown of holly and silver to anyone who can best him in a trivia contest. Jeau wants to redeem himself, so he saunters up and asks the rules -- Flitwig explains that they will take turns choosing a category from a list and asking a question of the other, with incorrect answers netting the asker a point (oddly, every category in this event exactly matches up with a different subset of the Knowledge skill, what a coincidence). Fitwig gets a few early points, but Jeau starts asking some serious questions of the gnome -- what level of gravity does the Astral Plane possess, in what year was the city of Flamekeep settled, et cetera -- and he is able to come ahead, infuriating the little gnome who stomps away, leaving behind the crown of holly and silver.

Bolstered by his victory, he returns to Arthur Mann's puzzle box for one. Last. Try.

Keeping eye contact with the other artificer the entire time, Jeau picks up the box and begins twisting it, grabbing it, rotating pieces, and pressing switches, until finally it opens to reveal a small clockwork music box. Arthur Mann is flabbergasted, and gives Jeau the unsolvable puzzle box...



Jim has his good buddy Jeau read the different events to him, cursing his illiterate brain all the while. He knows he is good at two things in this confusing world, so he sets out to prove his prowess...

First, he heads to a small table surrounded by people, where a burly half-orc named Drak is arm-wrestling a thinly-built warforged, slamming his metal fist into the table with a great force and letting out a roaring laugh. Jim asks for a chance to test his might against the tough guy, and the two sit down and lock eyes (opposed Intimidate checks), before wrenching at each others' hands with great force [op. Jim and Drak are neck and neck for a time, but Jim loses his grip for a second and the half-orc slams him into the table. Unafraid, Jim steps away and gets back in line to try again. Drak laughs at him for a second, but Jim sits down and shoots him a cold stare, shaking the orcish brute -- this time, the nervous orc can't fight Jim's powerful strength, and he lets out a battle cry as he smashes his arm through the table, proving himself victorious. Drak gives him a lucky rabbit's foot as proof of his ability...

All duergar are strong, so winning an arm wrestling match means nothing to Jim. That was merely the appetizer to the true contest of the night -- the Tenth Annual Wayfinder Foundation Dance Competition.

Jim places his name in for the competition, and waits for it to start. He is last to compete, and he sits in the stands watching as an agile female halfling, a beautiful female half-elf, a drunken middle-aged human man, and a lithe male human all strut their stuff on stage, to the accompaniment of a live band. Jim is nervous, but he knows he can do it, and finally the announcer shouts his name and asks him up to the stage...

The music starts, and Jim fumbles over his feet slightly (Perform [dance] result: 7), and as the music begins to swell he tumbles slightly (Perform [dance] result: 6), but once the music reaches its final crescendo, he goes for a last ditch effort -- an acrobatic flip he learned from a troupe of Valenar elves. He plants his feet, leaps into the air, and...

(Perform [dance] roll...)

Sticks the landing, leading to an uproar of applause and a standing ovation! (NATURAL 20!) After his performance, all the competitors are brought onstage for the announcement of the winner... and Jim is given the lord of dance sash and crowned the victor!



Tim quickly reads over the list and is the first one to walk off, knowing exactly what he plans to do. He asks around about an event titled "Pick Mr. Piper's Pocket!", and discovers that an aged half-elven Wayfinder named Peregrim Piper claims to have the best senses in all of Khorvaire -- he is offering up his gold pocketwatch to anyone who can steal it from his pocket without getting caught. The party is abuzz with stories of the men and women who have tried to steal it, all of whom were spotted by Peregrim before they could get within thirty feet of the man.

Tim climbs a tree made of cloudstuff and looks out across the event, spotting Mr. Piper watching a thrilling bear wrestling match. Using his natural stealthy abilities, Tim creeps out, sticking to shadows and hiding behind the more portly party patrons, making sure Piper never gets a good look at him (a series of progressively more difficult Stealth checks). At one point, he kicks over a dropped bottle, which clinks against a metal pole, leading Mr. Piper to look his direction, but thankfully, he isn't spotted, and after the better part of an hour, he is able to get within inches of the half-elf, keeping his hand slow and steady as he draws the watch from his pocket -- he taps the man on the shoulder, who turns and frantically checks his pockets, before chuckling and patting Tim on the shoulder. The kind old man admits that his senses may have dulled in his old age and gifts Tim with his gold pocketwatch.

With one event down, Tim begins his next quest -- hunting down the famously cold Lady Esmerelda Eisenhart and trying to get a kiss from the Wayfinder Foundation's most renowned ice queen. Asking around the party, Tim gets some information about Ms. Eisenhart, and discovers a few things -- she is very proud of her heirloom jewelry, she is extremely interested in adventuring stories, and she has a weakness for Thranish men.

Tim uses his gifts as a changeling, making his hair black and flowing and making his skin look kissed by the Thranish sun, bulking up his muscles slightly and unbuttoning the top of his dress shirt as he spots her from across the party...

"Excuse me, madam, but is your necklace of Cyclopean make? I once saw a similar necklace while adventuring in Xen'drik, fighting off a crowd of fire giants to protect my beloved sister, Amalia" (Disguise check, Appraise check, Bluff check, some Knowledge checks, a few Sense Motive checks...). He continues wooing her with stories of swashbuckling adventures all across Eberron, and as he is telling a story about fighting an ogre with his bare hands in Karrnath, he leans in and plants a kiss right on her lips, which she happily reciprocates. She hands him her handkerchief and asks him his name, but he tells her that he must return to Thrane, to take care of his poor sick sister who he loves very much, and he disappears into the darkness of the night...



As the party separates, Zeau easily decides where to go -- near where they spoke with Gaius, a large ring has been erected in the center of the park, inside which stands a massive trained bear, named Sleepy. The bear's trainer, Geoff, offers a rare dire bear claw to anyone who can pin his mighty pet. Zeau approaches and asks the rules, and Geoff explains: "Well little lady, you can't bring in any weapons or armor, you can't hurt Sleepy in any way, and you can't haunt me if she kills you." "Those are the only rules?" "Yes, ma'am." "Okay."

Zeau takes off her jewelry and shoes and steps into the ring. As Geoff rings the bell to signal the start of the fight, Zeau glows with a faint green light and hunches over. To everyone's amazement, her skin sprouts thick brown fur, her hands and feet change into large paws with curving claws, and her faces extends out into a muzzle -- Zeau transforms into a giant brown bear, as big as Sleepy! As the crowd begins cheering, Zeau steps forward and hugs the other bear with her mighty paws -- Sleepy fights back, and the two trade advantage a few times before Zeau finally plants Sleepy on its back, letting out a roar of victory (basically a series of CMB versus CMD checks). Still speechless, Geoff gives her the dire bear claw, which she grabs in her large bear hands, choosing to remain in her new form until she has a reason not to.

Lumbering around the party, she spots a man playing Thrones, a game of wits and skill where pieces are moved across a grid (it's like chess, but not, because D&D). Still in her bear form, she sits across the table from the old dwarf, who giggles nervously and asks "what are you doing, Mr. Bear?" Zeau touches a claw to one of her soldier pieces, moving it forward and looking up at her opponent, gesturing with her paw to pass the turn. Flummoxed by what is happening, the dwarf makes a move of his own and passes back to her -- for over an hour, the two play back and forth, stealing pieces and making deft maneuvers, but finally, Zeau is able to trap the dwarf and checkmate him, winning herself a marble king piece...



The group meets back up as the night is winding down, and prepares to take on one last event as a group -- a chubby dwarf named Enbury is holding a drinking contest near the end of the festivities, inviting partygoers to match him drink for drink to prove that he can hold his liquor better than anyone in Sharn.

All four adventurers join over a dozen other Wayfinders at a large circular table, and Enbury makes a toast to the Sovereign Host as a group of halflings fill everyone's mug with a strong ale. He shouts "Round One!", and everyone downs their first mug. "Round Two!" "Round Three!" And so on, as people begin feeling queasy and dropping out of the contest. After a half dozen drinks, most of the challengers have walked away, but Enbury and all four player characters still remain, hiccuping and watching each other through blurred vision.

A few more mugs of ale are downed, and there is a sudden crash on one side of the table -- little Jeau has completely passed out drunk and fallen out of his chair, but Jim, Tim, and Zeau still remain. After a few more drinks, Jim and Zeau both drop out, knowing that someone has to remain conscious to talk to Gaius at midnight, leaving only Enbury and skinny Tim (Tim was rolling some flipping incredible Fortitude saves, even better than Jim and Zeau who have much better Constitutions than him). They share a few more drinks, until finally Enbury collapses in a heap at the foot of his chair, and Tim slams one last mug of victory ale and lets out a belch of conquest, grabbing Enbury's Champion's Cup as he leaves.

The party sobers Jeau up and holds Tim hair back while he vomits in the corner, and they are able to have everyone at least standing when it is time to meet Gaius.

Showing him all their trophies from the evening, Gaius takes a long, slow sip of his drink before setting it down on the table next to him...

"...I must admit, this is quite impressive. What can I say, I admire your spirit! Ha! Please, meet me tomorrow afternoon at my penthouse, and we will discuss payment for your artifacts and make plans for your future as my new group of treasure hunters! I can feel it now -- together, we are going to do great things." He then offers up a cheers with the group, all of whom seem uninterested in drinking for the remainder of the evening...


And that's another session in the bag -- this one was a blast and a half, with nothing but skills and roleplaying to keep the party interested. This was kind of a gamble for me to run, but the players loved it and still talk about moments from this adventure nine levels later.

As always, feel free to reply with any comments or questions you have, and I'll see you guys in a few days for the next session -- at this rate, we should get caught up pretty quickly!

NEXT TIME -- A sudden influx of liquid capital! A PC's backstory comes back to haunt them! A new buddy tags along with the group! And the origins of "To the Hilt" are finally explained!

IntelectPaladin
2016-03-25, 04:01 PM
This.
This is basically How I imagine an adventurer's real night on the town would go.
I'm amazed that someone's managed to to get it down, at last!

Inevitability
2016-03-25, 04:14 PM
The part where Zeau won that chess match while morphed into a bear was hilarious.

NRSASD
2016-03-26, 01:35 PM
Loving the story so far! Your prose and art really compliment each other well, and your DMing skills are quite impressive. Needless to say, you've got a great bunch of adventurers too! Keep on playing and writing, you've got a fan :).

Really enjoying Tim's story specifically, can't wait to see how it turns out!

DJroboninja
2016-03-30, 05:45 PM
SESSION SEVEN - THE FORGOTTEN FACTORY, PART ONE

Howdy y'all! We're back with another exciting episode of "To the Hilt!"

So, first and foremost, this was the week where the biggest running joke of the campaign came up -- the phrase "to the hilt". You see, whenever the PCs are wrecking face in an encounter, I like to get all flavor texty and describe the effects of their attacks. So when a PC says "I cast magic missile at the goblin and the bugbear", I try to do less:

"You kill Goblin 2, but the Bugbear is still alive."

I try to do something more along the lines of:

"Three gouts of blue light streak out of your wand, weaving through the melee and striking true -- one of them bursts clear through the goblin, who slumps over dead, while the other two slam into the bugbear's shoulder, leaving behind a smoking wound and winged fur..."

This got me into trouble, however, when Jim killed one of the bad guys in this adventure (I think one of the duergar OH SH*T SPOILER ALERT), I got all descriptive and referred to him hitting the guy so hard with his axe that the blade sunk in, all the way "to the hilt". The more learned among you may be noticing that axes do not actually have hilts, they have hafts. This got a huge laugh out of the entire group and I am constantly inundated with questions of "Did my arrow go all the way to the hilt?" or battle cries of "To the Hilt!" as combat is starting.

Now you know... the rest of the story.

Anyway, actual D&D recaps, LET'S F***ING DO THIS:


After the Wayfinder Charity Gala, the party awakens in the Solemn Soldier Inn, some of them nursing pretty severe hangovers due to the final contest of the night. As they are getting ready to meet with Gaius about some pressing financial concerns, Jeau reveals something he has been tinkering with since they left Wren's cottage...

At his command, a large dog made of interlocking plates of iron steps into the room, its eyes glowing with a faint green light and its huge metal teeth glinting in the light. Everyone looks concerned until the dog begins wagging its metallic tail and panting. "Everyone, this is Jango!" (Jeau got the Craft Homunculus feat one level ago, but since Jango couldn't really participate in the previous adventure, he was kept under wraps until this session).

With their two dogs in tow, the party leave the little inn in Terminus to head up to Gaius' penthouse in Seventh Tower. After a quick trip through the city, they are once again greeted by his imposing Karrnathi butler, Viktor. "Hello. Mr. Anderfel is expektink you," he says, as he ushers the party into the penthouse, leading them through the foyer into an extravagant drawing room -- Viktor sets down a tray of tea and says that Gaius will be meeting them shortly, giving them plenty of time to take in the opulent surroundings. Several chairs and couches fill the center of the room, while the walls are dominated by a massive fireplace and dozens upon dozens of historical artifacts. A cursory glance of the room spots a bastard sword from the Empire of Dhakaan, a pair of giant iron gauntlets that appear to be thousands of years old, and a weird stone tablet covered in strange lettering that is supposedly from the continent of Xen'drik.

A few minutes later, Gaius enters, wearing a pair of reading glasses and carrying several tomes and reference books, along with a magnifying glass and a jewelers loupe. Sitting down, he thanks them for coming to meet him on such notice and immediately requests to see the relics they found back in Droamm. The party hands him the black demon horn and the square of leathery tattooed skin and he starts examining them thoroughly, looking back and forth between the items and his books. He apologizes, saying that he needs to verify a few things before he makes them an offer -- while he works, he asks the party to tell him the full story on how these items came to be in their possession and how they came all the way to Sharn.

After over an hour of talking, laughing, tea-drinking, and getting to know each other, Gaius makes the group an offer -- three hundred Platinum Dragons apiece if they agree to sign a contract as his official Wayfinder-sponsored adventuring party. If they choose this option, he explains, he will pay for their rooms at the Solemn Soldier and they can continue their personal adventures and keep all the spoils for themselves. However, when he has a job for them, they will give it top priority, exploring the location, gathering as many relevant historical items as they can, and giving Gaius first cut of the treasure -- he will then pay them for their trouble and they can keep everything else. Alternately, if the party does not agree to these terms, he is willing to offer them one hundred Dragons each for the demonic items and allow them to cut all ties after this transaction.

Everyone discusses the terms, and immediately agrees to sign on as Gaius' adventuring team -- after all, it's only a part-time gig with guaranteed money and treasure (this also gave my players an out if they decided they didn't want to work with this guy or wanted to try something different).

Viktor leaves and returns shortly thereafter, handing each PC a velvet bag filled with flawless platinum coins. Gaius tells them that he is very excited to work with them in this new endeavor, and that they should spend some time relaxing, spending their hard-earned cash, and enjoying the City of Towers -- he will contact them soon with information on their first job.



For several weeks, the party has a few things they haven't had in quite some time -- a lot of money, free time to do whatever they please, and a place to live. Jeau immediately sets to work finishing up Jango and making sure his new homunculus is in good working order for their first adventure together. In addition, a few of his allies have requested some custom magic items from him -- Jim wants a belt to make him stronger, Zeau wants some scrolls of utility spells, and Tim wants to keep upgrading his enchanted kukri by making it even sharper (belt of giant strength, ALL THE SCROLLS, and +1 keen kukri, respectively).

Tim spends his down time trying to figure out who that strange man was that approached him in Lower Menthis in the previous session, as well as gambling for money in the casinos of Firelight with his new buddy Janus.

Jim spends his coin drinking in as many Sharn taverns as possible, then drunkenly dancing outside said taverns to recoup his losses. For a stupid dwarf, it's... actually a pretty smart financial system.

Zeau and Pickle head outside the walls to spend some time in nature, and so that Zeau can teach Pickle some cool new tricks.

About a week after their arrival in the city, Jeau receives a letter from his uncle, Jax d'Jorasco, a Dragonmarked healer who operates a healing enclave in Sharn. One day, the party gathers together to visit Jax and finds him in the district of High Walls, which looks like a cross between a refugee camp and a prison -- Cyran flags and heraldry cover every surface, and guard towers ring the area in a tight perimeter. A quick walkthrough of the area finds Jax's clinic, which is stuffed to the gills with sick and injured Cyrans. The party finds Uncle Jax, who is a short, balding halfling with huge bags under his eyes -- he heard from a cousin that Jeau was spotted in the city, and that he had developed a dragonmark of his own, so Jax wanted to contact him and confirm it to be true. While he is swamped with patients, he asks Jeau if he would ever be willing to help out at the clinic when they need it -- he and the rest of the party happily agree.



After a few weeks of free time, the party awakens one morning to find a lavender envelope has been slipped under each of their doors. Inside each is a hand-written note in a gaudy, looping script:

Good morning!

Please come see me at my penthouse as soon as you see this. I have an opportunity which I would like to discuss with you.

-G

They all gather their things and head back to Seventh Tower to meet with Gaius, who asks that they step into yet another room of his massive apartment. Here, he has a table covered in maps, blueprints, hand-written notes, and several recent issues of the Sharn Inquisitive and the Korranberg Chronicle. Even though it's early in the morning Gaius looks like he's been awake since dawn, and his eyes are alight with adventure and excitement.

Gaius points out a map of the Gate of Gold district of Sharn -- back in the old days, this ward was filled with enclaves of the Dragonmarked Houses and was one of the most bustling parts of the city. However, as the City of Towers grew higher into the sky, so too did these industrial aristocrats move higher into the towers, and the Gate of Gold fell into disrepair. Gaius has heard tell of an old Cannith Enclave in this part of the lower city, which was abandoned long ago after some bound elementals went rogue and attacked the House workers. The Cannith artificers had to leave in quite the hurry, and they likely had to leave several items behind in their exodus -- things that could be worth a pretty penny today.

Gaius tasks the party with heading to Gate of Gold, finding the Cannith Factory, and exploring it for any items of historical significance, including blueprints, notebooks, or arcane formulae. He has purchased them a skycoach to the district of Godsgate -- from there, they just need to take a lift down to the base of the towers, and they can follow a map to the Factory. He bids them good luck and lets them know that the skycoach will be waiting outside...

A short trip leads them to Godsgate, where many churches and religions have large, ornate buildings dedicated to their faith. They find a nearby lift and pile on, along with several worshipers of the Church of the Silver Flame and a priest dedicated to Onatar. The lift lowers a few floors, the Silver Flame believers get off and a few stocky, black robe-wearing figures walk onto the lift. It drops a few more floors down, and the priest leaves as well.

At this point, one of the figures in the black robes turns to face the party. They ignore him for a bit, until Jim finally looks over, to spot a gray-skinned, white-bearded man with empty white eyes -- one of the duergar from his homeland, flanked by a pair of warriors wearing the iconography of the King of the Duergar. The other dwarf utters only one word: "YOU." At this point, his allies draw their weapons and attack!

What follows is a tense battle, made tenser by the tight quarters of the lift -- the warriors try to box the party in and keep them away from the other dwarf, who is slinging magic missile spells and telekinetic punches their way. The two warrior get cut down by Jim's battleaxe (see "To the Hilt!" explanation, above), and the sorcerer attempts to make a break for it, leaping over the side of the elevator and cracking a small clay feather in half, letting out a burst of glowing bird feathers all around him and slowing his fall. It looks as though he is about to get away to fight another die (I plan for him to come back later on to harass Jim even more), Tim and his newly acquired ring of feather fall leap over the edge after him! (f***)

Tim holds his arms tight to his sides, quickly catching up with the dwarf, and the two tangle in mid-air for a while, exchanging spells and knives until finally, Tim is able to lop the dwarf's head off! The duergar's body plummets to the ground, landing with a splat, while Tim flutters to the ground and...

https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR6rigW50WdMS3qEfkGpH5sYMBbMJj3f 42CjG6LCG6uDEeceygyng
"He's gonna do a superhero landing..."

...lands in a classic three-point stance on the ground below the lift.



After looting the bodies of the dwarves, they discover the eponymous Gate of Gold that the district is named after -- sadly, though, all the gold has been stripped off it, and it is now nothing more than a giant stone gate covered in graffiti and moss. Following Gaius' map, they find an old steel gate that leads to a dust and trash covered entry chamber. Several hastily-written signs are still visible in several languages, warning of an "elemental breach" and requesting that people avoid entering the Factory. The party collectively says "pssssssh whatever" and continues on, down a large stone staircase. On the way down, they see a stone slab every few feet -- the first few simply detail some safety protocols for the Factory, while three near the bottom display names of those in charge: Samson d'Cannith, Factory Supervisor, Vargas d'Cannith, Elemental Binder, and Marin d'Cannith, Systems Management.

Once they reach the bottom, they discover the place to be covered in cobwebs -- Tim lights a torch and takes it to the webs, burning up a huge patch of them and bringing a strange giant spider out of hiding. The creature has an almost human face, and a set of humanoid hands emerge from below its body, but the rest of it is undeniably arachnid. Tim's knowledge of magical beast biology allows him to quickly hack the creature apart, allowing the group to keep exploring, burning all the cobwebs first just to be safe.

They head down a hallway labeled "ADMINISTRATION", but they are stopped by a pair of huge, rusty constructs that emerge from alcoves in the walls. "P-P-Please present iden-den-dentification." Not having anything of the sort and not wanting to risk fighting these things if they don't have to, they simply say "Oh, my mistake, this isn't the bathroom," and head the other way, labeled "MANUFACTURING".

The party explores a locker room, where they find a couple notebooks and a fist-sized ruby, both of which they abscond with. Continuing down this hallway, the party notices the temperature is constantly increasing, until they find a large, open chamber from which the heat appears to be radiating -- the air is thick and hazy, and the party begins to sweat and cough. Inside, a catwalk is suspended over a large workspace, with several huge vats of molten metal providing the extreme temperatures. Taking tentative steps across the metal walkway, they happen upon a group of beings that look like vaguely humanoid flames, walking of their own accord -- bottlenecked by the catwalk, they are forced to weave around each other to attack these elemental beasts, and Tim's best attempts at flanking and striking the creatures' vitals are fruitless. Eventually they are able to slay the monsters, and they continue down to the workfloor, where several large suits of iron armor are standing in recesses in the floor, one of which glows with a faint light and has a shining scimitar embedded in the shoulder. Nearby is a skeletal corpse clutching a small red dragonshard...



Approaching the dead body, the party suddenly notices the glowing suit of armor lurching to life as it leaps out of its recess in the floor -- it's body is black iron, and the glowing comes from a roaring fire that burns in what looks like a furnace set into its stomach.

http://41.media.tumblr.com/055f2df18a2f7cd7de29dda873867f28/tumblr_nmnorqSfQh1rcd8pvo1_500.jpg

The golem starts firing out cones of fire from its internal furnace, while Tim makes a decision -- "I want that sword". The rest of the party starts hacking away at the golem, while Tim attempts to leap up and grab the sword while it is distracted. After a few tries, he finally is able to grab hold, but the scimitar is wedged in its armor and doesn't want to budge -- in a feat of strength, he rips it free and starts swinging it at the creature again! Eventually, the party is able to work together and keep the monster from moving too much, and they are able to defeat it, Tim gifting Zeau with the sword as a reward for her hard work.

Grabbing the dragonshard from the body's hand, they leave the uncomfortable heat of the factory floor and return to the administration area. Once again they are greeted by the strange automatons who demand identification, but this time, they hold up the red dragonshard and show it to the golems. "Good eve-eve-morning Master Vargas. Please proceeceeceeceeceeceed..."

They find the office of Samson d'Cannith first -- inside, they uncover several books of writing, as well as a wrapped ironwood box holding a suit of fine studded leather hunting armor and a child-size hunting crossbow, along with a note from Samson to his son. Tim suits up in the armor, while Jeau takes the crossbow, which is just the right size from him. The party then enters the office of Vargas d'Cannith, but they notice something odd -- the place is in complete shambles, with books thrown on the floor and drawers torn open. Searching the room, they find a candle of truth and prepare to head back to Samson's office to bunk down for the night. As they are leaving, however, Tim and Zeau discover footprints in the thick dust that covers the floor. They are extremely recent, and it looks as though someone came through and took several items from the office, including some blueprints and a few book on elemental binding...


Hope you guys enjoyed, as usual -- let me know what you think!

NEXT TIME: Garbage! Junk! And a reference to a work of classic literature!

DJroboninja
2016-04-01, 04:18 PM
SESSION EIGHT -- THE FORGOTTEN FACTORY, PART TWO

Hey guys, me again. When we last left off, our intrepid adventurers were exploring an old Cannith factory for their new patron, looking for any items of historical significance. Everything has been par for the course (rogue elementals, angry constructs, blah blah blah), but they just discovered signs that someone has been rifling through one of the offices -- and that this person was here very, very recently...


The party awakens refreshed after spending the night in the locked office of Samson d'Cannith. Looking over a map of the factory, they see that it is divided into three different sections -- Administration, Manufacturing, and Operations. The first two have been explored, so they have only one route left to consider. Gathering up their gear, they leave Samson's office, pass by the malfunctioning administration guards, and head through the doors to Operations.

As the doors slowly creak open, they discover a problematic sight -- a huge section of the hallway has been collapsed in what Jeau deduces to be a controlled explosion, many years ago. Outside of the way they came in, they can only see one possible port of egress -- a pair of giant metal doors covered in warning labels. It's difficult to make out, as much of the paint has flaked off the iron over the decades since the factory was abandoned, but they can make out a few specifics: "STEAM PIPE VENTILATION AND MAINTENANCE", "AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY", and "THIS ROOM IS A CLASS 45B HAZARD - PLEASE REFER TO YOUR FACTORY OPERATIONS MANUAL". The party collectively decides "eh it's probably fine" and ventures forth.

Inside they are greeted to a long narrow room, the walls made up of a snaking network of thick metal pipes. The pipes appear to have been rusted through in places, while in others they look as though they've been hacked open, the holes randomly spurting forth clouds of steam every few seconds. Several automata identical to the pair of guards that hassled them in the Administration wing are absent-mindedly performing maintenance operations on the pipes -- one is hitting a thick pipe with a hammer while another is trying to jam a steam pipe into a section of wall where there is absolutely no room...

http://36.media.tumblr.com/3ceadaedbbf6dc8f3cb2aa1cebd7a388/tumblr_nmnow1HR3g1rcd8pvo1_500.jpg

As the party enters, the machines all look in their direction, and one of them shouts "UNAUTHORIZED ADMITTANCE IS NOT PERMITTED IN THIS AREA" -- at this, all of them begin advancing in a menacing fashion, their large pincers and hammers primed for combat. What follows is an exciting battle, where the party must contend with the individual automata as well as the gouts of steam that randomly shoot out of the pipes set into the wall (in game terms, this fight was a lot of fun to run -- eight sections of the room were secretly numbered, and at initiative count 10 every round, we would roll a d8 and the matching section would deal fire damage to all adjacent creatures). The monsters' hammers hit hard, and one of them is about to smash Tim's face in when it suddenly malfunctions, making it an easy target for the rest of the party to finish (not a deus ex machina, PUN DEFINITELY INTENDED -- to reflect their decades of bad working conditions, the constructs had a chance to malfunction on their turn, and he just happened to stop working when he should have otherwise knocked Tim into negatives).

With the enraged constructs dealt with, the party quickly leaves the steam vent room to find the other side of the controlled demolition blocking their path earlier. They see three doors leading out of the hallway -- one is labeled "OFFICE OF MARIN d'CANNITH", one is labeled "WORKSHOP", and the third is unlabeled...



The party decides to explore Marin's office first, and they find something odd -- the room is lit by a sputtering blue torch. Examining it, Zeau and Jeau discover it to be an everburning torch, which eternally produces light but no heat. Looking around, this office appears to have not been explored or even entered in quite some time. No one is finding anything worthwhile until Tim discovers a hidden drawer in Marin's desk, holding a pair of eyes of the eagle, which the party gifts to Jeau.

Heading into the workshop, the adventurers spot a large room containing several workbenches covered in rusted out tools, screws, and automaton pieces. One edge of the room is dominated by some sort of old arcane machine, the top of which features a pair of metal arms that look like they are built to hold something -- however, they've been bent and cracked open, and whatever they held is now missing. As the party is looking at this machine, Jim hears a subtle sound behind him, like metal slowing rolling down a sloped floor -- he turns and spots all the various screwdrivers, nails, golem pieces, and other bits of metal in the room coalesce into a vaguely humanoid shape in the corner of the room!

http://41.media.tumblr.com/492fffcc80a33a9c6eeac71d2696d64e/tumblr_nmpbu80u6K1rcd8pvo1_500.jpg

The party is just able to prepare themselves for battle as the strange golem rushes forward, attacking with rusty metal claws. Jim and Tim flank it and box it in while Zeau casts a spell to make herself stronger and Jeau fires magic missiles from the opposite side of the room. Just as it seems like they've got this fight in the bag, however, the creature discorporates into its component pieces and begins swirling around Jim and Tim, cutting them and bashing them with bits of iron and steel. Jim goes into a rage and throws down his weapons, preferring to go in hand to hand with this monster, and just as it returns to a humanoid shape, Jim rushes it and (boom, natural 20) grabs the creature's head in his hands, ripping it free with a great, echoing battle cry!

As Jim regains his composure and the party tends to their wounds and makes sure they didn't get tetanus from the rusty metal, they open the third door, and find a staircase descending downward, deeper into the earth -- while the walls are caked with dust, the party can see fresh footprints heading down, along with marks that look like something being dragged...



The adventurers gather light sources and courage and descend to the basement. Here, they find a long, unadorned hallway, with several doors leading off from it. As they approach the first door, they are assaulted by a terrible stench, like rotting bodies and dung. Kicking in the door, they are treated to a charnel house -- the floor is a thick, uneven carpet of ancient congealed trash, atop which the party can see several fresh body parts, including an entire human leg, a thin (possibly elven) arm, and a limbless torso. As they enter, a creature that appears to be little more than a sack of mustard-tinted flesh with a giant mouth, three legs, and tentacles is snacking on a well-muscled half-orc arm...

http://40.media.tumblr.com/669be09fac2b39edb596e44bee211881/tumblr_nmpbvnVlWv1rcd8pvo1_500.jpg

The abomination, which Zeau's Gatekeeper training tells her is an otyugh, toddles toward the adventurers, who are fighting back both an aberration and the most recent meal they consumed. Zeau summons a swarm of bats to flutter around the creature while the warriors get into melee range. As Tim and Jim are preparing to gang up on the chubby guy, it heaves up a mass of partially digested body parts, leaving Jim and Jeau so sick to their stomach that they can barely function -- luckily, Tim is able to catch the creature off guard and slice it open with his twin kukris, saving the group.

Once they've settled their stomachs and cleaned themselves off a bit, they enter the next chamber, which is a small square room that is relatively featureless, except for a few shards of red crystal in the middle of the floor. Jeau identifies it as an old House Sivis speaking stone that has been shattered -- as Jeau explains, these old models used stronger magic and were much more expensive to craft than the more common, modern speaking stones. As such, Zeau is able to detect a lingering magical aura to the stones, which she deduces could be used to communicate between matching stones -- each member of the party takes a speaking stone after testing them out to make sure they work (the primary reason for this? I wanted the party to be able to communicate even when separated, since they would all be at the same table anyway).

The next room has a strange door -- rather than the simple iron doors that make up most of the complex, the entrance to this chamber is blocked by a thick stone slab covered in glowing arcane symbols. The floor underneath the slab is scorched and blackened by some sort of extreme heat (in classic player fashion, these guys see something like that and immediately are like "oh we are obviously going in there"). Pushing the slab aside, they see two very strange circles that appear to have been made of powdered silver -- one circle is empty, but the other holds what appears to be a raging stormcloud, flashing with blue lightning and rumbling with thunder -- Jeau recognizes the creature as a rare type of elemental, a hybrid of fire elementals and air elementals known as a storm elemental.

The party finds a couple bags of powdered silver and a small Khyber dragonshard, and Jeau uses his knowledge of the arcane to figure out that this room was used by the House Cannith artificers to bind elementals for their golems and machinery. At this point, Jeau decides he wants to try something crazy -- he wants to bind the elemental into the dragonshard (yeah, I know it seems like I was planning for them to do something like this, what with the summoned elemental and the dragonshard, but honestly I didn't see this coming -- I just placed the dragonshard cuz it made sense as treasure in this room and assumed the party would see the elemental and attack it). Jeau uses what he knows about these binding rituals and has the party array out at equidistant points on the circle of silver (I am making all of this up as I go). He begins a chant, while the other party members try to use their force of personality to exert control over the elemental, attempting to intimidate it or convince it that a deal is its only option (improv skills DON'T FAIL ME NOW). After a complicated series of arcane gestures, somatic hand motions, charismatic speeches, and droning chants, they are finally able to convince the elemental to accept servitude in the Khyber shard, which glows with a faint blue light, like a far-off electrical storm...

(The players were like "dude that was really cool, good job at planning that out" and I was like "um yeah obviously I planned it duh of course jeez like obviously")

Continuing down the hallway, the party finds two small storage rooms which appear to have been hastily converted into living quarters for some mysterious pair -- one room features a bed with a footlocker and a writing desk, while the other is just a collection of boxes and barrels, some of which have had a sheet draped over them to serve as a sleeping area. Scouring the two rooms, the party finds a couple scrolls and wand which they give to Jeau, along with a stash of platinum Dragons, gold Galifars, and silver Sovereigns. In the first room, they also find a set of recent, hand-drawn blueprints for some sort of strange eldritch contraption -- it features a pair of dragonshards over a long steel slab, which appears to hold a humanoid figure...



Entering the final door at the end of the hallway, the party encounters a long, narrow room, intermittently lit by flashes of blue electricity arcing across the opposite end of the room. A thin man with a wild head of hair and a scraggly beard cackles maniacally as a dim-witted stooped half-orc looks on -- the pair are standing over a large humanoid figure that lays motionless on a slab of metal. Atop the machine that holds the body are two large Khyber dragonshards that bear the same flashing blue lights as the small one in Jeau's backpack -- huge bolts of electricity scatter from the shards, striking the body on the table and causing it to flinch involuntarily.

As the party is watching this strange magical experiment, the man turns to face the party, and his maniacal laugh turns to a shout of terror: "Irgo! Interlopers! Kill them now, the experiment is almost complete!"

With this, the half-orc grabs a huge sword and rushes the party -- Zeau responds by summoning a scimitar of flickering blue flames from her outstretched hand, and the two sword-fight while the wizard continues his mad work in the other end of the room. Irgo is quickly cut down as Jim and Tim advance on the mad wizard, who steps forward and attempts to hold the party back from the body. The warriors pincer attack the wizard, and Tim waits until the time is right, sneaking up behind the old man and (critical hit!) lopping his head off with both kukris in one fluid motion. Tim looks dazed for a second while the rest of the adventurers close in on the machine, but just as they are approaching, there is a bright flash of light, and when their eyes adjust they are able to see that the dragonshards seem to have been drained of all energy, as the body on the table suddenly lurches to life, electricity arcing across the whipstitched mass of body parts and machinery that makes up its body!

http://40.media.tumblr.com/4722fae852ccbca61f9b9ff1ac772bfa/tumblr_nmnp0o6pJK1rcd8pvo1_500.jpg

The monstrosity hits hard and resists most of Jeau's wand magic, but Zeau's sword of blue flames seems to slow the creature down -- the party realizes this and keeps Zeau on making sure the golem stays slowed, while Jeau posts up behind her to provide healing and Jim and Tim hack at the monster from the opposite side. After a long, hard battle, with every adventurer bearing a series of wounds from the combat, they are finally able to hack the monster to pieces, causing it to become inert in a flash of electrical energy. The adventurers rob the bodies of anything worthwhile and take the two large dragonshards which, even sans elemental, should be worth a pretty penny back in Sharn. Looking at the old wizard's identification papers, they find that he is a Karrnathi man who goes by the name Simon Krazburg -- according to a diary found on his person, he came to Sharn to study a strange theurgy between alchemy, necromancy, and artifice.



The party returns to the surface and heads back home for some well-deserved rest. The following day, they head up to Gaius' penthouse to show him the spoils of their adventuring -- he is extremely proud of his new employees, who were able to triumph over the unexpected danger of Krazburg and his monster. He pays them for their time and takes the ledgers, maps, and notebooks the party found below, letting them keep everything else. Gaius tells them that he has no other jobs planned for the near future, so the party should feel free to explore the city some more -- he will contact them as soon as he has something new.

As they are leaving, Tim tells everyone that when he dealt the killing blow to Krazburg, he had another flashback -- he was on the roof of a tower in Sharn, in the middle of a severe lightning storm. Near the railing stood a middle-aged half elf, looking out across the city. Tim watched himself creep up behind the man and, with military precision, perform the same double cut with his kukris, severing the man's head before he even knew he was there.

"...I was an assassin, here in Sharn."

Tim continues looking into his mysterious past, while Jim keeps enjoying the local tavern scene, always keeping an eye over his shoulder for another duergar hit squad...

Zeau and Pickle spend some serious down time recovering from a bout of filth fever she contracted from the group's fight with the otyugh...

Jeau scribes some more scrolls and prepare some more magical gear for the group. However, one afternoon, an envelope slips under Jeau's door -- it's marked with the seal of House Jorasco, and looks to have been written quickly and with purpose:

Jeau,

I need your help. Come to the clinic immediately.

-Jaxon d'Jorasco


OH SH*T CLIFFHANGER.

NEXT TIME: Strange happenings in High Walls! An investigation! Smelling!

RFLS
2016-04-02, 04:00 AM
Hurrah! Came back hoping for a post, I got two. Awesome stuff.

Kid Jake
2016-04-02, 03:03 PM
I've always wondered why there aren't more Eberron journals out there; it's such a cool setting ripe for shenanigans. I've just started reading this one but I think I'ma keep an eye on it.

Kol Korran
2016-04-02, 11:47 PM
I'm very much enjoying the journal, and the party! They seem to be very fun to play with! A good group is hard to find...

Oh,and I just ADORE the drawings! They are very, very well made! A tip of the hat for you!

Question: What level was the group at this point? I imagine around 6th- 7tj level? It seems that their backgrounds are starting to catch up...

@ Kid Jake: Yeah, I too have been looking for Eberron campaign logs. I've written one (My first one), which was a blast, and I've seen another one a long time ago, about the PCs forming a sort of a mafia in Sharn (Unfortunately I've lost track of it. I would have loved to add it to the archive. It was a hoot!)

BTW, I have been having a long time idea of a semi-sandboxish campaign in the region where Droaam is now, but about 150 years ago, before the last war, when the region was a frontier of Galifar, a few years before the Silver Purge was started... Many long time ideas in my head, which I hope to put in game one day... We'll see...

DJroboninja
2016-04-03, 09:29 AM
I'm very much enjoying the journal, and the party! They seem to be very fun to play with! A good group is hard to find...

Oh,and I just ADORE the drawings! They are very, very well made! A tip of the hat for you!

Question: What level was the group at this point? I imagine around 6th- 7tj level? It seems that their backgrounds are starting to catch up...

Thanks, I appreciate the kind words. The plan is for my art to be my career soon, so it's nice to know that it's decent.

And yes, killing the Krazburg Monstrosity gave them enough XP to hit 6th level, which means we're starting to really hit the "sweet spot" of D&D

DJroboninja
2016-04-06, 02:55 PM
SESSION NINE -- TROUBLE IN HIGH WALLS, PART ONE

Oh man you guys, last night's session was F***ING INTENSE and I seriously CAN'T WAIT until this journal gets caught up to where we are. Holy cow guys.

Anyway, previously on "To the Hilt!": Tim had yet another flashback to some sort of criminal background in Sharn, discovering that he was an assassin. In addition, as Jeau was preparing for another long day of scribing scrolls and enchanting equipment, he discovered an envelope had been slipped under his door from his Uncle Jax d'Jorasco, who needed his help.

Everyone on the same page? Yeah? Awesome. Let's do this.


Jeau gathers his allies together as quickly as he can, and together then return to the Cyran refugee district of High Walls -- during the Last War, the ward served as a prison quarter for foreign nationals from Cyre, but with the nations destruction years ago, it has become one of the largest concentrations of Cyran immigrants in Breland. Cyran flags and pennants cover nearly every surface of the otherwise black and grey stone towers that make up High Walls, and as the party is walking through the crowds, they can spot several people missing fingers, limbs, and eyes, likely from the war.

As they arrive back at the Jorasco Clinic, the party finds the place even busier than it was the last time they visited -- people wait in the entry chamber, some infected with various illnesses and others nursing wounds, all impatiently waiting to see Jax or one of his many assistants. The sound is deafening -- children wail and cry, while a Brelish dwarf staunching a bleeding forehead argues with a Cyran human with several busted teeth as three half-elves try to keep them separated. As the adventurers are looking for Jeau's uncle, Zeau notices that all the employees look pale and have large bags under they eyes, as if they are all suffering from sleep deprivation.

Jeau and the others find Jax d'Jorasco sitting inside one of the patient rooms, setting a young elven boy's broken arm -- like his employees, he too looks like he has barely slept in days. He thanks Jeau for coming, and says he has something very important to show them, if they could just wait in the hallway for a few minutes. The group walks out and starts talking about how rough things look in the clinic, when a loud sudden noise draws their attention to the end of the hallway, several doors down -- the sound of wood splintering, followed by a loud thump.

Turning toward the noise and drawing their weapons, the group sees an unconscious halfling woman, who appears to have been thrown through one of the patient doors and into the masonry wall of the clinic. Jax rushes out, and a hush falls over the clinic, as the group prepares to take on whatever is doing this.

A human wearing a worn suit of armor stumbles out of the room -- his skin is ashen and pale, his eyes are sunken and ringed with dark circles, and his skin appears splotchy and diseased. Most startling of all, one of his arms ends in a large claw that is half red flesh bursting with thick veins and half rusty iron, while his other arm has a one-eyed slug with milky blue skin burrowing from beneath his skin...

http://41.media.tumblr.com/2e77c71b9325382dd362e5518e22187a/tumblr_nmv5fevCjJ1rcd8pvo1_500.jpg

Zeau's Gatekeeper training helps her recognize the man as a daelkyr half-blood, an abomination resulting from experimentation by ancient creatures known as the daelkyr -- beings from the far realm of Xoriat who were bound beneath the earth by the ancient Gatekeeper druids. Jim and Tim run forward to fight the strange being while Zeau buffs them and Jeau heals the wounded Jorasco healer. The strange man swings his large bio-mechanical claw with an immense amount of force, and the slug creeping out of his arm fires rays of icy energy. Jim's axe and Tim's kukris are able to hack and slash the man until he stops moving, collapsing to the ground in a heap. However, once he hits the ground, his clawed arm forcibly separates from his body and begins crawling one direction, while the slug slinks out from his skin and begins sliding the opposite way. Pickle leaps onto the claw and grabs it in his jaws, shaking it to pieces, while Tim leaps onto the slug and cuts it into three pieces with his blades.

They search the body and find a kukri forged of cold iron, which Tim takes with him, and the party makes sure the wounded employee will be okay before meeting Jax in one of the patient rooms. Laying the body on the table, Jax explains why he contacted Jeau -- this man is the fifth such person they've found in High Walls in the past two weeks. All of them have been Cyran war veterans who had old wounds from the war, and all of them were discovered apparently dead somewhere in High Walls -- Jax did autopsies on the first three men, and found that, in addition to their pale, splotchy skin, their interior organs were all strange colors, and some had extra organs that Jax could not identify. A fourth man who looked similar to the others was discovered alive and brought to the High Walls clinic -- he was speaking gibberish and coughing up what looked like purple blood, and he died before Jax could help him. The man the party fought was discovered this morning, and appeared dead -- he was brought to the clinic for another autopsy, but his alien physiology made it impossible to detect that he was actually alive. Jax cuts the body open in front of the group, revealing a torso filled with organs that Zeau recognizes as belonging to no known humanoid...

The local Cyran population has been whispering about these mysterious disappearances -- High Walls is a powderkeg, Jax says, and if these strangely altered bodies keep appearing, there could be a mass panic, which is the last thing these people need. Jax asks the group if they can investigate what is happening to these Cyrans, and stop it from claiming any more lives -- he cannot pay them much, but if they come through for him, he would talk to the higher-ups of House Jorasco about getting Jeau established as an official member of the House. While the party isn't excited about the prospect of pro-bono adventuring, they understand that the people of this district need their help, and they agree that having an ally within one of the Dragonmarked Houses could be a very useful boon.



The party separates and begins talking to the assembled Cyrans in the waiting room, asking them if they have any information about these strange bodies and who might be committing these heinous crimes. Many of them are wary of outsiders and don't seem willing to talk, but others are happy to help in any way they can after watching the adventurers strike down the monster that wandered out of the operating room. They glean the following information from their investigation:

Male Cyran Human: "It's Brelish soldiers, kidnapping us and doing crazy experiments. They're making monsters in case the war starts back up, and they know we don't have a government to get back at them..."

Female Halfling Employee: "The Sharn Watch has increased their presence in the district -- they must know something bad is happening here in High Walls. I wouldn't be surprised if one of them saw something that could help you figure out what is going on..."

Homeless Cyran Dwarf: "I know what's happening, I know it for sure -- warehouse on Census Street, I saw some members of the Watch moving crates around, and I swear I heard something moaning and moving around inside of 'em..."

Half-Elf Cyran Patient: "I've been keeping track of this whole situation, and I noticed that all of these men have been found in the southeastern corner of the district -- even the man who was discovered alive."

Reconvening and sharing their various leads, the party makes a plan of action and starts in on their investigation.

First, they head to the local office of the Sharn Watch, and find a bare bones skeleton crew of Watchmen -- asking around, the members of the Watch refuse to give any information, simply giving vague answers of "all possibilities are being pursued and investigated at this time". Not satisfied with this information, Tim sneaks past the front desk and eavesdrops on a conversation between a few Watchmen, discussing something strange they saw on patrol a few nights ago -- two men in black hooded cloaks, both of whom were apparently covered in scars, and one of whom supposedly had something moving around underneath his shirt. Tim notes the intersection they are discussing and returns to meet the others.

Next, they find the warehouse on Census Street, and Tim sneaks in past the guards. However, a thorough search of the many wooden crates doesn't reveal anything beyond some dry goods and bolts of cloth -- nothing alive or moving around.

While the party is highly suspicious of the idea that Brelish soldiers are kidnapping Cyrans and experimenting on them, they decide to pursue that lead, heading to the nearest military garrison, just outside the perimeter of the district. The party speaks with a few soldiers on hand, all of whom refute the idea. Tim uses his social insight to gauge their reactions while Jeau speaks with them, and determines that, to the best of his knowledge, they are all telling the truth.

The party then heads to the Southeastern part of High Walls, to try and put the pieces together...



Splitting up briefly to canvas the area, the party speaks with some locals and examines the intersection where the Sharn Watch supposedly spotted the strange hooded figures. Finally, they spot something -- a trail of purple blood stains which seems to snake through the alleys of High Walls before finally terminating in a dead end. Everyone searches the alley, and Jeau is able to find some bricks which can be depressed in the wall, but they can't figure out the correct sequence, and there's several of them (I planned for it to be a pretty simple Intelligence check, but all of them rolled very low). Finally, Jim decides to take a look, a choice which the rest of the party is extremely skeptical of. However, Jim explains that he has been teaching himself to "be smarter at books and things" (crunchwise, he took a rank in Decipher, because he thought it would be hilarious and he asked me if he could "decipher" the correct sequence -- I gave my usual answer to such a question, which is "you can try"). Jim takes a page out of the genius savant handbook and uses his keen sense of smell to pick out the unique scent of these strange aberrations -- based on the strength of the smell, he determines the order in which they were last pressed by these creatures, and is able to miraculously smell the correct sequence!

(I was like, "okay, you can use Decipher to figure out the sequence if you roll a natural 20, lol" and what does he do but IMMEDIATELY ROLL A NATURAL 20 -- I am a man of my word)

The wall slides inward and rolls to the side, revealing a small square chamber with a metal ladder leading down into the earth below...



The ladder takes the group down about 50 feet, until they find themselves in the middle of the Sharn sewers. The tunnel is wide, but most of it is taken up by a steady stream of disgusting runoff, with only a small stone walkway on either side. As they look around, Jeau spots a series of barely perceptible glyphs painted on the stone walls, leading off in one direction. The party immediately agrees that "this is probably some kind of trap" and heads the opposite direction. The group walks for an extended period of time, until they reach a large junction of sewer tunnels heading off in nearly a dozen different directions -- "okay, maybe it wasn't a trap".

Returning to the ladder, Jeau finds the glyphs again and leads the group through the stone tunnels of the sewer.

They walk for what seems like ages, the glyphs leading the way the entire time. Along the way, the party crosses over a stone bridge patched with metal grating that spans the river of sewage, and encounter a strange blob of ooze that is a deep yellow color, next to a couple of humanoid skeletons. Jeau recognizes it as an ochre jelly, and warns the party of its immunity to electricity and ability to split when cut -- Jim switches over to his hammer and Zeau rushes in with her staff, while Jeau peppers it with magic missiles and Tim throws daggers from off to the side. Eventually, the creature melts into a puddle and drops into the sewage to be carried away. Searching the bodies, Zeau finds a bag filled with slightly glowing stones -- Jeau notes that they are magic stones that she could hurl from her sling in combat, so she takes them with her.

Following the glyphs for another long walk, they finally happen upon a pair of large iron doors, marked with a pair of concentric circles, one red and the other blue. The doors stand out among the ancient stone tunnels, and seem to be where the glyphs come to an end. Estimating the distance they traveled, Zeau remarks that, while they are likely still beneath Sharn, they are no doubt far from High Walls at this point...


And that's where things stop for now. This session was very skill challenge focused, with the whole gathering of information and investigating throughout the district -- if I remember correctly, there may have been even more to it, but I don't have the notes to corroborate that.

NEXT TIME: Combat! Body horror! Eldritch evil!

DJroboninja
2016-04-08, 10:29 PM
SESSION TEN -- TROUBLE IN HIGH WALLS, PART TWO

Hey guys, me again! Fun fact -- this is the second time I've typed this post up, because I accidentally closed the tab when I was proofreading it. Wait, that's not a fun fact. That's actually CRAZY FRUSTRATING.

Anyway, let's do this guys.


After several hours of wandering through the sewers of Sharn, following a series of strange glyphs on the tunnel walls, the party arrives at a pair of large iron doors emblazoned with a pair of concentric circles, the outside one red, the inside one blue. After a thorough trap check, the group pushes the doors open, revealing a square chamber lit with a sickly green glow by a series of floating lights that hover in the air around a spiral staircase that descends several floors down into the darkness.

Tim scouts ahead, descending down the stairs until the chamber opens up into a large rectangular room -- a 20ft tall ceiling is supported by a trio of massive stone columns, and the floor is covered in trails of red carpet covered in black stains. Three pairs of wooden double doors lead out of the room, a separate tattered red carpet leading up to each one. The most striking features of the room, however, are seven strange creatures, each roughly the size of a lean hobgoblin with empty black eye sockets, their skin pink and covered in writhing cilia. A pair of fleshy tentacles sprouts from their shoulders, whipping around them as if sensing the surrounding area.

http://41.media.tumblr.com/63f31da3d2ddc90e74eb1deaed983d6f/tumblr_no9a28vmub1rcd8pvo1_500.jpg

Tim, frightened, methodically climbs back up the stairs and tells the rest of the group what he saw -- Zeau's Gatekeeper knowledge helps her recognize the beasts as dolgaunts, monstrous abominations genetically engineered by the daelkyr from experimenting on hobgoblin stock. Zeau warns the group to keep away from their tentacles because they can drain blood, and enchants Pickle's jaws with a magic fang spell just to be safe.

Once they're ready, the group charges down the stairs, trying to catch the aberrations by surprise -- Jim and Tim leap down from the high point of the stairs, Tim using his ring of feather falling and Jim using his natural toughness ("how much damage would I take? ...oh yeah, then I just jump"). Zeau and Pickle rush down the stairs while Jeau stays near the apex, firing off magic missile spells at as many targets as possible.

The dolgaunts are quick and powerful, but Jim's defenses are nigh impossible to breach, and he holds their attention while the rest of the party wears them down and finishes them off (translation: I was rolling AWFUL in this fight). Once the creatures are all defeated, the team examines the three doors leading out of the room -- the northern and southern doors appear untrapped and unlocked, but the central door between them is locked and covered in glowing arcane sigils, so they decide to head through the southern door first.



Jeau and Tim double check the southern door for traps -- once they give it a clean bill of health, Jim pushes the door open, and is greeted by a long hallway featuring a dozen simply wood doors. As he steps inside, he becomes the target of a volley of crossbow bolts, most of which he blocks, though some are able to sink into his thick flesh. At the end of the hallway, standing behind a short makeshift barricade, are several short, squat creatures with splotchy white skin that appear to be the result of smashing two goblins together. They shout from two gaping mouths and wield a mace, a shield, and a crossbow in their four arms as they load another bolt and prepare to fire.

http://40.media.tumblr.com/542646047f073a2abe6d1a75106ed422/tumblr_no9cqrLiRU1rcd8pvo1_500.jpg

Zeau calls these out as dolgrim, another in the long line of daelkyr experiments. Jim lets out another enraged battle cry and charges down the hallway at full speed, while Tim follows closely behind and Jeau and Zeau stay near the door to provide ranged support. As they are closing the distance with their new enemies, one of the wooden doors bursts open, revealing a human man in a black hooded cloak, who slashes at Tim with a short sword. Tim barely ducks out of the way in time, and suddenly the group finds themselves besieged from all sides -- the doors start opening, one after the other, the adventurers never sure where their next attack will be coming from (this fight was a lot of fun -- at initiative count 10 every round, I had a player roll a die to determine which door would open next, bringing another cultist into the fight). The fight is long and arduous, but eventually the party emerges victorious.

Examining the cultists who attacked them, the party discovers that each appears to be a normal human, likely from Cyre, and most of them bear long-healed injuries reminiscent of war-time wounds. Searching through the small rooms that connect with the hallway, they find that each appears to be a spartan living quarters -- a cot and a footlocker, nothing more. Scrounging through the various rooms, the party finds a few items of value -- a sapphire pendant, an emerald, two potions of cure moderate wounds, four flasks of acid, and a +1 darkwood shield, which Jim gifts to Zeau.

Heading to the northern door of the main chamber, the party finds a long hallway hastily painted with several strange symbols -- what appears to be a pair of female lips surrounding a wide, staring eyeball. Jeau recognizes it as the symbol of some monstrous deity known as the Black Mother, but he can't provide any real information beyond the name. The northern wall of the hallway bears a set of double doors, and the hallway bends around to the left as it continues...



The party carefully opens the set of double doors, which seems to open into an old library. The shelves have been mostly cleared of books, but a few dot the room, their spines labeled in some strange, alien language. On the opposite side of a shelf just inside the door, the party can hear several voices speaking in weird, hushed tones, the language unrecognizable by either of the party's scholars.

Jim gauges the height of the bookshelf, and develops a rare plan -- if the party joins together and pushes with all their might, they should be able to topple it over onto whoever is on the other side, taking some of them out of the fight and catching any survivors by surprise. They tee up at the shelf, but Jim's heavy armor alerts the people in the room -- they start to mobilize, but before they can all prepare themselves for combat, the group slams the bookshelf down, crushing one opponent and injuring another!

Once the dust clears, the party can see several humans in hooded cloaks identical to the men they fought in the previous hallway, along with a splotchy-skinned human that looks similar to the man they faced down back in High Walls. The man's left arm is missing, replaced by a similar veiny bio-mechanical claw, and his shirt is unbuttoned, revealing a reddish-purple leech attached to his chest that pulses with a faint light.

Zeau casts a spell into her staff, causing it to glow with green runes as she wades into melee along with Jim and Tim. The cultists are cut down quickly, but the half-blood slashes and rages against them for an extended conflict, until finally Jim is able to bury his axe in the thing's chest while Tim and Pickle finish off his symbiotic allies. Searching the room, the party finds a series of books, all of which appear to be hand-written in the same chaotic alien language -- Tim decides to take an especially large book, bound in black leather, for later.

Heading back into the hallway and following it around the bend, the group discovers a bloodstain before a thick stone door, appearing as if something was dragged into the next room -- next to the blood is what appears to be a heavily scarred human leg, severed just below the knee. Opening the door, the party finds a small square room that glows with illusory moonlight streaming down from the ceiling, lighting up a pair of strange creatures: they appear completely human at first glance, but as they turn, they reveal a scar of bubbling flesh that runs in an almost perfect vertical line down their face and chest, bisecting their body down the middle. Everything on the opposite side of the scar is covered with rotten green skin -- they both howl as if in extreme pain, and they are both drenched in the blood of what used to be a human body in the corner of the room.

http://40.media.tumblr.com/79892568ed5ca3f0b0f96d2b31f37605/tumblr_no9csiZ9cz1rcd8pvo1_500.jpg

Once again, Zeau identifies the monsters as dolghasts, a more recent daelkyr experiment that attempts to fuse life and undeath into one abominable beast. Running forward with their claws and teeth bared, the creatures enter into combat like wounded animals, screaming in fury with every breath. They are able to strike hard, but the party works together to hack the creatures apart, until finally Jim and Tim deal the killing blows to the creatures -- suddenly, they stop moving and let out a loud gurgle, as their rotten half melts away into a pool of sludge.

Searching the remains in the corner of the room, they deduce that it was a careless cultist who ran afoul of these monsters, based on his clothing. Among the bloody remains, they find a large iron key, glowing with a faint green energy...



Returning to the third door, the party uses the key and unlock it, discovering another wide hallway covered in the dripping black symbols of the Black Mother, from floor to wall to ceiling. As they start walking into the corridor, a voice in their head begins speaking, its voice raspy and unsettling: "Simple little creatures, you wander in here with such bravado, unaware of the terrible death that is coming. You are like lambs, marching to slaughter. You will make a glorious sacrifice for The Mother" (I knew the voice I used was good when I saw how unsettled some of the players got at this point).

Against their better judgement, they continue forward, finding a small operating room with drains set into the floor, the walls stained with layers of dried blood. Several cultists are huddled around what appears to be a pale-skinned dead body, along with a tentacled dolgaunt, and they all turn and prepare for combat as soon as the adventurers enter. Zeau notices something odd, however -- the "body's" leg appears to be another bio-mechanical mix of veiny red skin and rusted iron, and it is twitching ever so slightly.

They start hacking down the cultists, but as they are fighting through them, the body on the table lurches to life, kicking a hooded human into the wall with such force that his neck audibly snaps on impact. The half-blood sits up, moaning in pain and confusion, and rushes at the party, kicking so hard with its strange leg that it leaves divots in the stone. Faced with the half-blood and the dolgaunt, who hits harder and moves faster than the ones previously encountered, Zeau summons a swarm of bats, which distracts the creatures and sucks their blood, allowing the party to gain the upper hand. Searching the room, Jeau discovers a secret door that leads to some strange hidden store room. The chamber is mostly filled with empty crates and barrels, but the group does find a red gauntlet with a dragonshard set into the wrist -- Jeau identifies it as a reparation apparatus, a common artificer implement that enhances repair magic.

Walking back into the sigil-covered hallway, the party prepares to continue on, as the corridor bends to the right, leading deeper into this strange laboratory. The adventurers do not yet know exactly what is going on, but dozens of Cyran veterans appear to have been corrupted by this monstrous cult, whose shadowy leader has already threatened them once...


Boom, even better the second time!

NEXT TIME: A big bug! An epic entrance! A popular creature that cannot be found in the SRD!

Inevitability
2016-04-09, 02:48 AM
A popular creature that cannot be found in the SRD!

Mind flayer? Beholder? Carrion Crawler? Umber Hulk? The suspense is too much!

Kol Korran
2016-04-09, 03:00 AM
Mind flayer? Beholder? Carrion Crawler? Umber Hulk? The suspense is too much!

My money is on a mind flayer... A Jazz playing mind flayer? :smalltongue:

NRSASD
2016-04-09, 02:05 PM
I'm thinking.... Mind Flayer. But I'd really like it to be a thri-kreen!

DJroboninja
2016-04-09, 06:38 PM
SESSION ELEVEN -- TROUBLE IN HIGH WALLS, PART THREE

Dude, our first three parter! This is exciting.

So, after finding out about these strange half-abomination bodies that had been popping up back in High Walls, the party descended into the sewers via secret door, tracked some strange glowing glyphs to a large iron door, and found themselves in some sort of old wizards keep, now inhabited by aberrations who revere a strange dark goddess known as The Black Mother, wherein they were psychically taunted by a strange voice.

We all on the same page, then? Pretty basic stuff so far.


Following the hallway as it bends off to the right, the party finds two sets of doors -- one is a pair of large stone doors covered in deep claw marks, and the other is a set of large iron doors bearing that same strange symbol of concentric circles. However, the iron doors are blocked by a wavering mirage that looks like the inky, dripping sigil of the Black Mother. Unwilling to touch the mirage or attempt to pass through it, the party instead opts to try the stone doors.

These doors open into a large, irregularly shaped stone room. It looks like it was once a speaking hall or classroom of some kind, shaped like a quarter circle with a raised dais in what would be the center of the circle. However, the room now appears to be used as some sort of storage chamber, with several crates and boxes stacked on the dais and nearly all other things removed. In addition, a large iron stake has been driven into the stone of the dais, attached to a long, thick iron chain. The chain attaches to a studded leather collar that is around the neck of a large, brownish yellow insect that stands like a gorilla -- its hind legs are short and stocky, and its forelimbs are thick and covered in chitinous armor. Two long antenna extend from its face, just above a pair of segmented eyes that scintillate with a dozen different colors.

http://41.media.tumblr.com/2f150fbffb981ae9ba2bd1c43e8c511f/tumblr_nob5x7Gvrp1rcd8pvo1_500.jpg

Jeau recognizes the beast as an umber hulk, and the party prepares to fight as it rushes at them -- however, the chain around its neck won't let it reach the edges of the room. Of course, as proper adventurers they won't simply walk away when there is potential treasure or gear sitting in crates on the other end of the room.

They enter the room and spread out to survive the beast, Jim going straight in and Tim flanking from the side. However, as the bug monster turns to look at Tim, he gets entranced by the large insectile eyes and starts muttering to himself in the fetal position, unable to lift his knives. As soon as the party sees Tim get taken out of the fight, Zeau uses her Gatekeeper magic and drops a zone of natural purity on the area, weakening the unnatural creature and making it easier for her allies to strike at. As Jim is trading blows with the giant creature, Tim leaps to his feet and rushes over, apparently back to reality and ready to fight.

However, Tim reaches the melee and slashes his knives across Jim's back, leaving behind a pair of deep gashes -- as the group looks on in shock, they see Tim's eyes scintillating with the same colorful pattern as the umber hulk's eyes, and he's still muttering gibberish under his breath! Not wanting to hurt their friend, the others keep pushing the assault on the hulk, and eventually Jim is able to bury his axe in the creature's thick hide, shattering plates of chitin and breaking the spell on Tim, who comes back to his senses, disoriented.



Jim's back is patched up by Zeau while Jeau and Tim search the boxes, finding several vials of colorful liquid -- Jeau and Zeau identify them as a two potions of shield of faith, two oils of bless weapon, and two potions of blur. In addition, among some assorted mundane swords and crossbows, they find a pair of golden bells on wooden handles, with a dragonshard inside each. Jeau recognizes them as the blasting chimes of House Medani, which send out a burst of sonic force when rung, destroying the bell -- and likely anything in its path (these are based on the chimes from the Dragonmarked book, but single use to make them cheaper).

The group decides to use one of these chimes to blast through the Black Mother mirage and the iron doors beyond -- Tim volunteers to be the user to apologize for hurting Jim in the previous fight. Zeau and Jeau go around and make sure everyone's wounds are healed and everyone is properly buffed for the coming battle, and then they assemble in the hallway.

Everyone else stands back and Tim grabs the bell, lifts it over his head, and points it at the door, the long dragonshard inside it clanging against the golden metal of the bell -- as his arm extends toward the wavering symbol, an unimaginably loud sound rings throughout the tunnels of the complex, like a million church bells ringing in unison. A visible shockwave ripples forth from the end of the bell, washing over the symbol of the Black Mother and dissolving it before continuing on to the door beyond -- the iron rips and tears like cloth, and the stone of the doorway crumbles into a dozen pieces that fire into the room like bullets.

Tim: "KNOCK, KNOCK MOTHERF***ER!"



As the party rushes through the dust and rubble that was a door only seconds earlier, they walk over the bodies of two hooded humans, crushed by the iron doors as they were torn asunder by the blast. The room appears to be some sort of throne room, with a tall raised platform at the opposite end bearing a large stone chair, accessible via a flight of stone steps. Standing before the chair, a look of surprise in its eyes, is a purple-skinned monstrosity -- it is covered in black robes and bears several symbols of the Black Mother, its eyes are small, beady, and black, and the lower half of its face is a mass of four tentacles surrounding a small toothy mouth. As the party enters, it drops the body of one of its cultists to the ground, its tentacles squirming out of the man's caved in skull and dripping with blood...

http://41.media.tumblr.com/086014e55ad9eebded0ac484a4d812b3/tumblr_nob5z4VdWQ1rcd8pvo1_500.jpg

The abomination is flanked by several dolgrim wielding crossbows and morningstars, and several hooded cultists are standing from a kneeling position on the floor, drawing swords from their hips and preparing to fight. All of the cultists nod, as if responding to some unseen order, and that same raspy, unsettling voice once again creeps into the adventurers' minds: "I will not let you dismantle the Black Mother's glorious cathedral! My queen led me to these broken people and I have made them whole again! Witness Her power and TREMBLE!"

As the cultists rush at the group, Jim lets out a frenzied battle cry while Zeau hunches over, thick fur sprouting from her arms as her fangs grow longer and her muscles thicken -- roaring like a bear, she charges in with her scimitar. Tim tries to creep around the perimeter of the room and get the drop on the illithid, Jeau starts firing magic missiles in an attempt to kill the monster's dolgrim guardians, and Zeau and Jim starting hacking apart the insane cult members. The mind flayer's voice once again slithers into Jim's mind, and the world around him begins twisting, and his friends' forms start to waver and change, but his rage fuels him in fighting through whatever the creature is trying to infect him with.

The creature walks down the stairs and its eyes glow with purple energy that washes over the group -- most of the adventurers are able to fight through it, but Pickle is stunned, whining and shaking his head as if trapped in a bad dream. Tim sneaks up behind the illithid and throws a poison onto one of his kukris, stabbing it into the aberration's side and weakening him slightly. Once Jeau decimates the last dolgrim and the two angry people cut down the last cultist, the group surrounds the mind flayer. However, this spells danger for them, as he speaks a dark prayer to his goddess and black smoke starts billowing out of it, burning the flesh of whoever it touches.

The fight is long, as the mind flayer uses its psychic abilities and divine powers to stun, disable, and debuff the party, but eventually Zeau is able to slice through its neck, sending its tentacled head plummeting to the ground at their feet as Zeau lets out a triumphant roar!

The party finds various gold offerings on the raised platform, and searches the throne to discover a diary written by the mind flayer -- its pages are filled with mostly mad ravings and nonsensical schemes, but the group is able to glean that this creature was led from a far off part of Khorvaire by strange voices in his head. According to him, this voice belonged to this "Black Mother", and told him to come to Sharn and lure the wounded, lost Cyrans of High Walls into his service by replacing their limbs with strange symbiotic creatures he found in this ancient wizard keep. According to the diary, several of his recent experiments rejected their new limbs and died after several weeks of painful protest -- these bodies were dumped back in High Walls by the faithful.



The adventurers trudge back through the sewers and return to High Walls to inform Jax d'Jorasco that the district's disappearances should be taken care of -- sadly, many of the Cyrans were made into fanatical followers of this mind flayer, and were killed along with him. Jax thanks the party and patches up their many wounds for free, and promises Jeau that he will talk to House Jorasco about getting him official entry into the organization.

Over the next few weeks, the party once again spends some time living their lives in Sharn:

Zeau and Pickle trek around Sharn, speaking with members of the Church of the Silver Flame about the mysterious man who killed her family, but sadly she cannot gain any useful information.

Tim speaks with his contacts around the city, including the Wayfinder, Janus, who tells him that the city's asylums have been filling up as of late. In addition, Tim suddenly develops the ability to read the language of these ancient daelkyr, allowing he and Jeau to read through the black book he found -- it talks of the various monsters and creatures trapped below the earth of Eberron, including many named daelkyr and over a dozen god-like demons known as overlords, who once ruled the surface world before being eternally bound deep in the earth.

Jim spends some time carousing about High Walls, where word has spread of the group's deeds -- they are now seen as local folk heroes in the district, and Jim gets free drinks and lodging from the thankful citizens, who tell him that, should the adventurers ever need any help, they can always turn to the people of High Walls.

Jeau receives a large packet of information in the mail one day from House Jorasco, informing him that, due to the events that transpired in High Walls and the great help that he provided the High Walls Clinic and, by extension, the House as a whole, he is being admitted as an official member of the Healer's Guild. Should he require anything in the future, the house is at his back to help in the future (mechanically, Jeau received three favors that he could redeem with the house for future assistance). From this point on, Jeau Burrows may now be referred to as Jeau d'Burrows, signifying his affiliation with House Jorasco.

Two weeks after their adventure, the group awakens to discover lavender envelopes slipped under their doors at the Solemn Soldier -- it looks like Gaius has another treasure hunt for them...


First try! No retyping this one.

NEXT TIME: Sabotage! Strangers on a train! Other Hitchcock film references? Tune in and find out!

Reaver25
2016-04-13, 06:30 PM
I am really enjoying the campaign so far! It's a great read man. I really enjoy the party's effectiveness with different situations, especially Tim. Does he utilize his Shapechanging?

Do you think (if you have time) you could read my log and let me know what you think? http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?484586-12-Realms-A-Campaign-Log

Jonagel
2016-04-15, 04:08 PM
Wonderful journal! Writing style, story, and characters are all great, and every sessions sounds like a load of fun!

Any chance you could periodically let us know what everyone is (levels, classes if they took another class, etc)?

DJroboninja
2016-04-15, 10:08 PM
I am really enjoying the campaign so far! It's a great read man. I really enjoy the party's effectiveness with different situations, especially Tim. Does he utilize his Shapechanging?

Do you think (if you have time) you could read my log and let me know what you think? http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?484586-12-Realms-A-Campaign-Log

Thanks so much! Tim uses it occasionally, but I think he honestly kind of forgets about it from time to time. Part of the reason being that Jeau is the party's face in most situations, while Tim is off in the shadows ready to throw a dagger in case sh*t gets REAL.

And I will definitely check out your journal when you have time -- I always love reading through others' campaigns! It's great for me to steal ideas UM I MEAN see what other people in the gaming community are doing.

DJroboninja
2016-04-15, 10:15 PM
Wonderful journal! Writing style, story, and characters are all great, and every sessions sounds like a load of fun!

Any chance you could periodically let us know what everyone is (levels, classes if they took another class, etc)?

Thank you kindly!

That's a good point, I should make a point of doing that from time to time.

At the beginning of the next adventure, the party is as follows:

Jeau - Artificer 7
Jango - Iron Defender Homunculus
Jim - Barbarian 7
Zeau - Druid 7
Pickle - Riding Dog Animal Companion
Tim - Ranger 2/Rogue 3/Assassin 1

While Assassin has that whole "you gotta kill somebody to be in our club" thing, I figured working it into his backstory gave him a pass, so after his flashback he started taking Assassin levels. Sadly, no one else in the party really branches out -- at the point where our campaign currently stands, Jeau, Jim, and Zeau have yet to multi-class. But who knows? Maybe Jeau will be like "yo, I'm doing it -- Artificer 19, Soulknife 1"

DJroboninja
2016-04-16, 12:17 AM
SESSION TWELVE -- RIDING THE RAILS

Hello again everyone! Heads up, this week's adventure starts with a lot of OOC backstory.

Now -- are you guys ready for me to share one of my FAVORITE LIFE EXPERIENCES of my WHOLE LIFE?

This session was going to be rescheduled -- our usual game night was Tuesdays and we had just switched it to Wednesdays. Well, this particular Wednesday, Jeau's player (let's call him "J") got scheduled to work. He texted all of us and said "hey, I didn't get my time off request in on time, I've got to work the night shift at (RESTAURANT). We'll have to post-pone."

Then the best thing ever happened.

Jim's player (why don't we call him "B") said "If you can't come to D&D, why don't we just bring D&D to you?"

We all shared a hearty laugh, trading jokes about how fun it would be to play and have J come over and play through his turn in between waiting tables. And we kept making those jokes.

And soon B was saying "I could make a travel gaming table" and Tim's player ("G") was like "honestly, I could do it, I'm free that whole night" and J was like "Wednesday nights are pretty slow"

Suddenly we realized that we were going to actually play D&D at the restaurant while J was working. And we were so stoked. It was raining, but we didn't care -- we all brought our books and our character binders, and I printed out the adventure and all the monster stats, and B made a small version of our normal gaming table (which I will post pictures of eventually, cuz it's crazy rad). We all met at the restaurant, said hi to J, and set up at a table in the corner. And because we're not @$$holes, we all got coffee and dinner and dessert to make sure we were good, paying customers.

We started playing, and J would pop over every couple minutes to check in, and run his turn if we were in combat. He got a few breaks during his shift, so I saved big scenes for when he could commit full attention.

Guys, this was one of the most fun nights of D&D I've ever played.


So remember that book that Tim found in the illithid's library, last adventure? Well, it was written in daelkyr, and no one in the party could read it. So I had planned a fun little side quest where the party would have to get in touch with Wren, back in Shavalant -- Wren tells them of a crazed wizard who delved too deeply into study of the plane of Xoriat and went crazy. He's now being kept in a local mental ward -- if the party can find him, he can translate the book.

So we're getting ready to start, and the party has just leveled up. G says "so, I speak daelkyr now, what does that book say?" My response is "ummmmmmmm what" and he reminds me that changelings get new languages at a discount -- he spent a skill point on learning to speak daelkyr.

Now at this point, I could have railroaded them and been like "ahaha, it's a weird dialect of daelkyr, you still can't read it but this one guy can go find him hahaha I win", but I'm a f***ing professional, so I told him what it said. And Raving Reebus the Red remains in that mental ward, never to see the light of day.

I learned something that day -- don't plan a quest that can be bypassed with a single skill point.



After receiving another round of mysterious lavender envelopes, the party gathers up their things and heads back to Seventh Tower, to meet Gaius at his penthouse. Once again, Victor greets them at the door, and he leads them upstairs, to yet another new room in Mr. Anderfel's massive penthouse.

It's the middle of the day, and they are led to a massive, well-appointed banquet room, with a long, carved ironwood table, atop which sit many dishes of food. As they are taking their seats and preparing to dig in, Gaius waltzes in: "Good day, my adventurous young friends! Viktor has prepared a lunch for us, so we can discuss your next assignment on a full stomach! Everyone, please, enjoy!"

He takes his seat at the head of the table, and asks the party about how they've kept busy in the weeks since he last saw them. Jeau explains the highlights of their previous adventure -- the battle at the clinic, the investigation, the wizards keep, the illithid. Gaius listens with rapt attention, nodding and mumbling in excitement as the story unfolds. When they mention the red and blue circles that marked many of the doors in the keep, Gaius explains that it is the symbol of The Closed Circle, an organization of wizards who turned their studies toward the daelkyr and their creations -- sadly, their research took its toll, and they were driven mad by their findings, forcing the other wizard circles of Sharn to band together and destroy The Closed Circle.

When they ask about the symbol of the Black Mother, however, Gaius has very little light to shed on the subject -- he merely knows that she is some sort of monstrous goddess, prayed to by beasts that stick to the dark places of the world.

Once the stories are exchanged and the dinner is enjoyed, Viktor gathers up the plates and Gaius unfurls a humongous map across the ironwood table, portraying the gnomish nation of Zilargo. There are several hand-drawn symbols and scribbled notes on the map, and he starts to explain:

"Sources of mine have informed me of an old Dhakaani ruin, just outside of the city of Korranberg in the Seawall Mountains (the food puns continue, as the players think I am saying "cornberg" and won't shut up about how much popcorn and candy corn they plan on enjoying when they get there). This ruin is known as Paluur Draal, an ancient goblin city that was supposedly abandoned when the Empire fell. Over the centuries since, it has been repurposed by gnomes, kobolds, and other races, and the Library of Korranberg considers the ruin to be completely plumbed of secrets. However, a set of ancient Dhakaani keys was recently discovered in Darguun, that supposedly open the doors to a section of the ruin that has been untouched for time untold.

Well, an associate of mine has come into possession of one such key.

The city of Paluur Draal is purported to be the last known location of a powerful set of divining artifacts known as the Tablets of il'Khesh -- with these tablets, we could find ancient treasures the likes of which the modern world has never seen. These tablets, if found, could grant us unimaginable wealth -- we could live like kings.

So, my industrious adventurers, I need you to take a lightning rail coach to the city of Korranberg -- there, you will meet my acquaintance, Rikti, who will give you the Dhakaani key. From Korranberg, you will set forth on foot for Paluur Draal, where countless historical relics are just waiting for you to find them."

At this point, Gaius lets out a small sigh.

"Now, of course, such a journey will not be without... tribulation. Rikti purchased the key from a hobgoblin soldier who is part of a research team preparing to mount an expedition to Paluur Draal. They are known as the Kech Volaar -- the Keepers of the Word. These monsters seek to squirrel out ancient Dhakaani artifacts and lock them away from the rest of the world. Historical artifacts of this nature belong in a museum, not a vault (at this point, my players asked "oh my god, are we Indiana Jones?). These Kech Volaar will be a thorn in your side, racing you for these items..."

Gaius answers a few basic questions and makes sure the party understands their mission -- once they say they are ready to go, he says "Good to hear. Now, as much as I would love to stay and chat, your train leaves in a few hours. I apologize for the quality of your lodgings -- this situation came up rather last minute, and I was unable to procure anything else for you. So, gather up your gear, and get to the rail station post haste -- ADVENTURE AWAITS!"



The party heads to the Terminus district with their tickets in hand, finding the shining silver coach of the lightning rail hovering at the station, a long line of glowing blue stones stretching out past the city gates and off to the horizon. One thing definitely stands out -- a large, stone monolith, covered in glowing blue runes, is being carefully lowered onto a flatbed car near the back of the train. The party gathers information, and gets several conflicting reports, ranging from "I heard they found it on the ocean floor" to "it's a weapon from those bastards in Aundair, gonna cause a new Day of Mourning!" However, they are able to deduce that the monolith was found in Xen'drik and is being transported by House Lyrandar to Korranberg, for reasons unknown.

They get their luggage and make their way to the coach section of the train, where they spend the first day of the trip getting to know their fellow passengers. Jeau shares some Talenta nostalgia with a family of halflings, Zeau grills a couple of Silver Flame parishioners about the man who killed her parents, and Jim gets to know a few Brelish soldiers, swapping battle stories with them. Meanwhile, Tim keeps trying to find out more information about the strange stone monolith near the back -- he doesn't trust it.

After the sun sets, a storm kicks up, and the party retreats to their bunks for some well-deserved rest before they must plunge beneath the earth again...



In the middle of the night, Zeau wakes up to the sound of a scuffle. Her keen eyes scan the darkened interior of the train car, and she spots several clouds of green smoke creeping across some of the other passengers, while a pair of horned men in black armor and a tall, skinny man with scaly skin and vertical pupils watch from the side.

Zeau leaps out of bed and grabs her scimitar, shifting and call out for her allies to join her as she bulks up. Jim and Tim sit up and, realizing what's happening, grab their weapons and prepare to enter the fight. Jeau, however, is in a deep slumber, and stays asleep, despite the impending melee (this is not because he was working, this was because of an abysmal Perception check -- but it worked out well anyway).

The armor-clad figures rush at the group, slashing with their longswords while the scaly guy fills the room with magical darkness. Zeau identifies the horned men as tieflings, and the clouds of smoke as living spells, magical energy given a tangible, animate form. The clouds of smoke keep slithering across the other passengers, causing them to become pale and sweaty, while also plunging them into a deep sleep. The group is finally able to rouse Jeau, who starts firing magic missiles at the living spells while the rest of the group takes out the humanoids, and after a short fight, the interlopers are dealt with.

Searching the bodies, the party finds signs that these men belong to a thieves guild known as The Pilfered Wand, a group of unscrupulous cut-throats who are always after items of magical value. As they are making sure the other passengers are okay, they hear footsteps crossing across the top of their train car, and they venture forth to investigate...

In the next room, a dining car, they encounter several more tieflings clad in black leather armor, some of whom are quickly assembling several large wooden cages. Once the thieves spot the party, they start flipping tables for cover, firing crossbow bolts at the party as they enter. The PCs charge through the room, cutting the tieflings down and progressing towards the front of the train. While passing through, they open the doors to the kitchen, and they find a young elven man named Trill, an apparent employee of the train, who appears extremely distraught. Jeau speaks to him and calms him down, and he reticently agrees to come with them

The next car appears to be extravagantly fancy lodging for more "high class" customers -- crystal chandeliers hang from the ceiling, swaying slightly with the movement of the train, and several spiral staircases lead up to fine mahogany doors. However, these doors appear to lead nowhere, simply ending at the top of the stairs. They ask Trill what's going on, and he explains that each door leads to a separate extradimensional space, which contains a luxury room. Trill seems pretty freaked out, so they escort him back to their original cabin before exploring the rooms. Once he's been dropped off, they go through the rooms, one by one, and find that the first three are stocked with belongings, but have no apparent lodgers. Once they step into the fourth, however, Jim nearly gets skewered by a pair of tieflings and a rapier-wielding changeling woman. The fight spills out down the staircase and the PCs take a few hits, but eventually they are able to bring their attackers down. Searching the bodies, Tim finds a tattered but usable cloak of elvenkind, to enhance his natural stealth talents.



Reaching the front car of the train, the party discovers a skinny human man in a feathered hat (Jim immediately decides he wants that hat) surrounded by several metal spiders. Deducing that he is the leader of these thieves, Zeau hunches over and uses her wild shape talents to cover her skin with scales, as her neck lengthens and her legs grow extra joints -- where Zeau the shifter stood moments earlier, now stands a growling raptor. The spiders clamber forward to strike while the man in the feathered hat draws a wand from his belt, and begins firing powerful streams of fire at the party, scorching their skin and singing their armor repeatedly. Zeau keeps slashing with her large claws and snapping with her sharp teeth, but the spiders are too quick for her to deal with (her dice were absolutely cursed this fight). Dejected, she reverts back to her normal form and summons a long, red-eyed weasel from a planar rift, sending it after the leader.

Eventually, they are able to defeat the artificer controlling the train, and they knock him unconscious, steal his hat and his wand, and grill him for information about what's been happening. Apparently, the Pilfered Wand is attempting to steal the stone monolith from the train, to sell to a third party for a massive profit. However, due to its tremendous size and weight, their only option is to hijack the elemental and divert course, taking the train to a box canyon on the Breland-Zilargo border -- there, they will meet with several soldiers from the Droammite thieves guild, Daask, to sell the passengers into slavery and pass the monolith on to its next owners.

The artificer explains that he set up a device at the front of the train, and his boss, Vikari, put a similar device at the back of the train -- the only way to stop the diversion is to take down both machines. The party asks who the Wand has on the train, and the artificer explains: the yuan-ti and his living spells, a dozen tieflings, the two changelings, himself, and Vikari. "Two changelings?" they ask, and simultaneously all four of them realize it.

"Trill."

They re-knock the man unconscious and sprint back to the passenger compartment, where they find Trill standing next to the unconscious bodies of the other passengers, all of whom have been tied up except for the Brelish soldiers, one of whom is holding the other, who is bleeding out. Trill turns to face them as they enter, and prepares to hold the soldiers hostage, but Tim came prepared -- he had laced a dagger with drow poison, and before Trill could react, he hurled it into his shoulder, the poison seeping into his veins and knocking him out cold. They patch up the soldiers' wounds and tie Trill up -- when he comes to, Tim has shapechanged himself into a facsimile of his now-dead sister, the changeling from the luxury car. Jeau and Tim play good cop/bad dead sister and try to get more information about their plan. Apparently, they should be reaching the point were the tracks diverge -- if the beacon is still active at that time, the train will head for the box canyon, where the trap awaiting them could spell certain doom.

Heading the opposite direction as they started, they make their way through several luggage storage carts, before finally reaching the flatbed that holds the massive stone monolith. The storm is raging above, and lightning arcs off the blue ruins covering the surface of the stone pillar in places. Cautiously stepping out onto the giant column, they are waylayed by several more tieflings, who are being directed by a barely visible figure standing atop the last car of the train. The tieflings are slashed down, with several of them being pushed into the glowing runes, electrocuting them and sending them hurtling off the speeding train...



The party reaches the last car of the train, and there they find a large, spider-like construct that has driven its sharp claws into the metal of the roof, a throbbing hum emanating from within the machine as they get closer and closer to the point of divergence. Standing nearby, is a tall figure, dressed in ceremonial metallic armor. It's body from the neck down appears more or less humanoid, but its hands are backwards, and its face is that of an orange-striped jungle tiger. The group recognizes him as a rakshasa, a dangerous breed of outsider that is extremely strong and tough, with limited magical powers to compliment its martial talents.

"One minute until the switching point!" he shouts over the roar of the storm, "I hope you're excited for your new homes!"

Zeau summons a unicorn atop the rail car, while Jeau uses his new wand of searing ray and Jim and Tim rush into melee. However, they find that most of their attacks are ineffective, barely breaking the skin of the tough creature. Jeau deduces that these creatures can only be wounded by blessed weapons that pierce its tough skin, so he switches the wand out for a crossbow and tosses some oil of bless weapon onto some bolts, loading them one-by-one and firing them into the melee.

The battle is difficult, but right before the switching point, Jeau is able to bury one of the blessed bolts into his eye socket, toppling him over and giving them just enough time to destroy the beacon, avoiding the switch point by only a couple of feet. They search the body for valuables and, as a show of dominance, hurl the rakshasa's body from the back of the train, sending it crashing down onto the blue stones, electrical power surging through it repeatedly until it fades from view...


This adventure was a leveled up version of "Riding the Rails" from Dungeon 143. Normally, I would put an epilogue at the end here, but I'll save that for next time. Hey, speaking of next time...

NEXT TIME: A mysterious meeting! A not-so-abandoned ruin! And Tim's biggest flashback yet!

Yaalsh
2016-04-16, 04:33 AM
well now I just have to play at a restaurant with one of the waiters.
Bucket list updated.

Reaver25
2016-04-19, 10:47 AM
Thanks so much! Tim uses it occasionally, but I think he honestly kind of forgets about it from time to time. Part of the reason being that Jeau is the party's face in most situations, while Tim is off in the shadows ready to throw a dagger in case sh*t gets REAL.

And I will definitely check out your journal when you have time -- I always love reading through others' campaigns! It's great for me to steal ideas UM I MEAN see what other people in the gaming community are doing.

That's definitely understandable! Tim is much more effective slashing someone's head off or throwing a Drow-poisoned dagger from the shadows.

That'd be great! I have definitely enjoyed your campaign, and it's funny that you guys played at a restaurant. I work at one, so that would be amazing if I could do that! Anyways, excited for the next update. :D

codyleaderbrand
2016-04-21, 11:28 AM
I'm a big fan of Eberron, and I'm enjoying this a lot. Keep it up!

DJroboninja
2016-04-21, 11:17 PM
SESSION THIRTEEN -- PALUUR DRAAL, PART ONE

Howdy ho, loyal readers! This session was a fun one, as it featured probably one of our favorite moments of the entire campaign so far...

Last time we left off, the party had just felled a rakshasa who attacked their lightning rail coach, allowing them to barely miss having their train diverted to a box canyon, where Daask slave-traders await.


The rakshasa's body has been stripped of belongings and hurled onto the electrified train tracks, and the simple folk riding the train are safe. While they are going through the rakshasa's gear, they find a note from the thief's contact in Daask -- a gnoll named Myzar.

Suddenly, Tim drops to his knees, almost catatonic...

"Myzar."

That name brings back a flood of memories, still hazy from whatever caused his amnesia in the first place -- it is like viewing them through several panes of tinted, smudged glass.

First, Tim finds himself standing on top of a tower in Sharn, lit by the glow of several moons. A fellow changeling, wearing an eyepatch over his right eye turns to Tim and says "Look at this city. From this day forward, this whole city belongs to you. You're a Tyrant now..."

Then, Tim is running down a long hallway, surrounded by people in tattered clothing, their skin scarred and bruised, broken metal shackles still dragging from their ankles. One of them turns to face him and says "I don't know why you did this, but thank you. You've saved our lives..."

Finally, Tim finds himself tied to a chair -- two figures stand before him: a white-furred gnoll with a scar running from the corner of his mouth up to his ear, and the eyepatch-wearing changeling he spoke to atop the tower.

"Rex, ye've got t' do something about yer lackey!" shouts the gnoll. "He released an entire shipment o' slaves -- that's money from both o' our pockets. He needs to DIE."

"Myzar," says Rex, his voice shaking, "he's my brother. You expect me to kill my brother?"

"Aye, m'boy. He betrayed us -- it's only fair."

"No," says Rex, "there's another way..."

...

"Tim! Tim, what's going on? Tim, are you okay?"

He awakens, pulled back to reality by the voices of his friends.

"My name isn't Tim," he says as he stands up, his voice resolute. "My name is Tam, of Sharn. And I know what happened to my memories."



The train finally chugs forth, the elemental powering it pulling it safely into Korranberg Central Station -- as the party looks out the windows, they see dozens of House Orion armed guards, weapons and shields at the ready. As the train stops, the party grabs Trill, the changeling from the Pilfered Wand, and Gendry, the artificer from the front of the train, and they walk out, their hands raised. Jeau explains the situation to the House Orion officials -- as Jim shoves the thieves forward, sending them tumbling hard onto their knees, Jeau says "these men were part of the thieves guild behind the attack, and they can tell you everything you need to know."

The thieves are taken away and, after some initial questioning, the party is approached by an official from House Orien -- the half-elven man apologizes for any inconvenience they may have experienced on their journey, and gives each of them a small bag of platinum coins emblazoned with the seal of House Orion, and a pass printed on silver paper, good for one free ride on a House Orien lightning rail coach. In exchange, he merely asks the party to sign a contract saying that, under penalty of perjury, they will not discuss any of the events of their train ride with anyone, for security reasons (the party's response is basically "hush money? I don't know... oh, a sh*tload of hush money? Yeah, that's cool").

As they leave the station, they are approached by another envoy of a dragonmarked house -- this time, a young gnomish woman, bearing the heraldry of a House Sivis messenger. "Good day! Would you happen to be a group on business for a Mr. Anderfel?" The adventurers agree, and she hands them a small envelope, sealed by a House Sivis wax seal -- inside is a hand-written letter, with typesetting at the top and bottom identifying it as a Speaking Stone message:

"You will meet your contact under the Rainbow River Bridge. The countersign is 'Bears'
-G"

After the letter is read, they are finally able to take in their surroundings, for the first time since their arrival -- and they discover a city so far removed from Sharn that it boggles the mind. The sun is shining, birds are singing, and gnomes sing loud songs while paddling gondolas down the dozens of rivers that make up the bulk of the city. Everything is bright and colorful -- there is no visible trash on the streets, and there isn't a single mugging to be seen.

While they know they don't have much time to dawdle, they do a bit of shopping while in town -- of particular note, Jeau and Zeau visit the Wholesale Spell Supplies District, Jeau buying up a large supply of magical unguents and oils for powering his infusions and Zeau purchasing the components for a reincarnation spell, "just in case".

After a bit of shopping, they finally find the Rainbow River Bridge -- taking a small metal ladder downward, they happen upon a small stone walkway, barely large enough for two of them to stand side by side and littered with shipping crates and barrels. Looking around, there's no one to be seen, but just as the group is preparing to leave and message Gaius about the meeting falling through, a green circle suddenly appears in the stone wall, as if a hole was bored through the stone. A small gnome, completely covered by a black hat, longcoat, and dark-tinted glasses, steps through, followed by a giant construct made of metal, stone, and wood, nearly twelve feet in height.

The gnome says only word: "Beets."

Slightly confused, Jim says: "Bears."

The gnome throws them a small wrapped package, and wordlessly steps back through the portal with his massive guardian.

The adventurers stand in abject silence for nearly a full minute, before finally Jeau grabs the package and opens it up -- inside, they find what looks like a short iron rod, bearing Goblin script and spattered with rust, along with a parchment map showing a walking path to Paluur Draal, just outside the city. Still unsettled from their meeting with this mysterious gnome, they leave Korranberg behind for the ruins of Paluur Draal...



The party arrives at the outside doors to Paluur Draal, or as it appears to have become known, "Zandirune" -- it looks as though the gnomes of Zilargo moved into the ruins after the fall of the Dhakanni Empire, rechristening the complex. However, it looks like the place has not been used in many years -- in fact, a wooden sign that appears to have once blocked the doors lies shattered to pieces on the ground at their feet. Now, graffiti in a dozen different colors and several different languages mars the lower section of the doors, which hang slightly ajar...

Pushing the doors open, a loud creak echoes through the entry foyer of the ruins -- the large high-ceilinged room is shaped like a diamond, with tunnels heading off in three different directions. The architecture is unmistakably Dhakaani, clashing with faded murals of gnomes building magic items and casting fanciful illusions. As they are taking in the sights and deciding which direction to go first, Zeau sees something move out of the corner of her eye, up near the ceiling of the room -- she turns her head to look, but there's nothing there.

They first head to the right, which takes them to an old armory. Much of the hallway surrounding it has completely collapsed due to time, and nearly everything of value appears to have been taken from this room, except for some rusty gnome-sized swords and suits of armor. Zeau does find a large wooden chest with a dust-covered padlock -- Jeau pops the lock open and the group finds a couple smokesticks, some tanglefoot bags, and some thunderstones. Tim doesn't think that common items like these should be kept under such strict lock and key -- he does a very thorough search and discovers a secret compartment, inside which he finds a wand of shocking grasp, which the party decides to gift to Jeau.

Heading back to the entry chamber and deciding to go through the eastern door, they spot a long hallway flanked with a dozen statues of Dhakaani warriors -- standing between them, feverishly taking notes, are several hobgoblins wearing red and white tabards, their skin tattooed with lines and lines of Dhakaani history. The group hides in a small alcove and discusses their next move -- while these hobgoblins are their rivals for the treasures of Paluur Draal, they are still living beings who don't appear malicious, and the party doesn't want to go in guns blazing.

Instead, Jeau approaches the team of warriors and researchers, who all grab their longbows when he greets them, drawing a bead on the little halfling. Jeau raises his arms, and says that they come in peace -- he tells them (Bluff check) that they are treasure hunters seeking out ancient Zilargo gnome artifacts. The hobgoblin seems intrigued -- he introduces himself as Ven'tak, a member of the Kech Volaar. He makes the party an offer -- if they help them explore the ruin and find Dhakaani artifacts for their vaults, the party can keep whatever Zilargan items they find. The party says "yes, of course, you can have all of them" (because betraying people by lying about what they found worked for them once already) and Ven'tak thanks them for their help -- he explains, however, that he can only give them free reign of the upper floor. If they want to explore the long-lost lower levels (alliteration!), they will need to speak with Ambric, his commander. They part ways, exploring the remainder of the main floor before trying to find the Kech Volaar leader...



The party follows a hallway that leads away from their meeting place with Ven'tak -- as they follow the corridor and begin descending a stone staircase, their noses are assaulted by the smell of mildew and mold. The staircase twists around as it lowers, until it finally deposits them in a long, narrow room that appears to have once been a shower or public bathhouse. About four inches of standing water covers the stone floor, and a decayed Gnomish body lies face down in the water. Zeau examines the small body and determines that it has been in the room for several decades -- as best she can tell, there are no visible wounds, as though the body was drowned.

As they are examining the corpse, the water level of the room begins to slowly lower -- on the other end of the chamber, the water begins to rise, forming into a central core of glistening water with a dozen spindly tentacles of dripping water extending outward. The creature is gigantic (their first Huge creature, which freaked them the f*ck out) and it begins whipping its powerful tentacles at the party, striking with great force.

Their attacks are falling short -- its watery body absorbs the force of Jim's battleaxe, and the creature has no vitals for Tim to strike at. As they are considering running, Zeau has an idea -- an idea just crazy enough to work.

Out of character time:

Zeau's Player (T): "So this elemental is made entirely of water, right?"

Me: "Yeah, it looks like normal water, which is what made it impossible to detect when you first entered."

T: "And it covers that whole 15ft x 15ft area?"

Me: "...yeah, that's the core, and the tentacles reach out another 15ft... Why?"

T: "...can I summon a shark inside the water elemental?"

Me: "..."

T: "..."

Me: "...I don't see why not."

http://41.media.tumblr.com/7e196ce7c6e93862d290efab77e089d1/tumblr_nwg00foi4g1rcd8pvo1_500.jpg

Everyone: "This is glorious."

Zeau's spell turns the tide of combat -- the group keeps slashing and bashing at the elemental from the outside, while the shark starts snapping its powerful jaws around the interior of the creature, breaking its surface and splattering water in every direction as it thrashes about. Eventually, the creature is no longer able to hold itself together, and it collapses into an inert pool of water. Zeau's shark splashes around aimlessly, and she dismisses it back to its home...



Exploring the southern part of the showers, the group finds an open drain that leads away from the room, via a tight tunnel. Zeau wild shapes into a tiny piranha and leaps into the water, swimming inside until she finds a large water basin -- at the bottom of the basin, she finds several bodies, all apparently drowned by the water elemental. Most of them appear to be from the gnomish inhabitants of the ruin, decades before -- however, two of them are much less decayed, and appear to have some surviving items of value. Zeau briefly reverts to her normal form, then shifts into the body of an octopus, using her tentacles to grab up the surviving relics.

Zeau returns to the surface, confusing her friends for a moment with her altered form. She lays out her findings for the group to look at -- an adamantine short sword, a ring of protection, and a small stone idol of a hobgoblin king. Jim takes the sword and Zeau takes the ring, and they agree to give the idol to Ambric when they meet him, as a peace offering...

Before they go there, however, they decide to check out the last hallway that extends out from the entry chamber -- heading north, they find what must have once been a large workshop. The tables still stand, but all the tools have been taken from here long ago, and what looks like several potion vials have been shattered on the far edge of the room. Continuing on, the group checks out some barracks that appear to be for the men and women of the gnomish workshop -- as they enter, Tim feels a sharp pain in his side as he is stabbed by a dagger, and he is able to just barely dodge a second knife from the shadows. Preparing to fight back, the party spots several pale-skinned humanoids, each wearing no clothing -- their features are indistinct, and they seem to blend with the surfaces behind them, like chameleons. Jeau recognizes them as skulks, creatures that haunt abandoned ruins and old buildings, using their stealth to kill and steal whatever they can.

Two skulks on opposite sides of the door attempt to flank the party and hit their vitals with their rusty daggers, while several other skulks hiding behind bunk beds, hurling daggers from cover. Luckily, Tim and Jim are able to deftly dodge the attacks coming their way, while Jeau stays in the workshop, firing several magic missiles from his wand -- his new upgraded version, which fires multiple balls of blue light that streak through the air and strike whatever target he designates, without fail. Thanks to Jeau's magic, they are able to strike the creatures down -- their attackers bear no possessions beyond their weapons, but Tim is able to find a small cedar box hidden under one of the beds, holding several shiny platinum coins.

At this point, the party sets forth, past Ven'tak and his men. They show him the stone idol they found, and he thanks them for their assistance -- he asks if they found any other Dhakaani relics in their search, and they say no, but that they hope the lower levels will bear some nicer rewards. And with that, they bid Ven'tak adieu, and continue on, towards the mysterious Ambric, commander of this Kech Volaar unit...


Hope you guys enjoyed, don't be afraid to leave some comments -- tells us what you think or let us know if you have any questions. Maybe I will answer them -- maybe I won't! Oooooooh, mystery....

NEXT TIME: A bugbear! A party that is saddened by bugbears not being as cute as their names would have you believe! And a DREAD GAZEBO!

Reaver25
2016-04-23, 12:37 PM
As always, a great read on the new session! I enjoyed the (hopefully intended) reference to The Office, "bears, beets, Battlestar Galactica." I thought it was hilarious. Also thoroughly enjoyed the shark bit!

DJroboninja
2016-04-23, 03:34 PM
As always, a great read on the new session! I enjoyed the (hopefully intended) reference to The Office, "bears, beets, Battlestar Galactica." I thought it was hilarious. Also thoroughly enjoyed the shark bit!

I was hoping someone would pick up on that -- you win.

Temperjoke
2016-04-23, 04:28 PM
I love everything that's going on in this campaign and can't wait to read more! :smallbiggrin:

twas_Brillig
2016-04-24, 09:43 AM
Really cool read. Can't wait for more.

Reaver25
2016-04-24, 07:15 PM
I was hoping someone would pick up on that -- you win.

Yay! What do I win?:smallcool:

Also, that was the best episode ever. Dwight impersonating Jim at the end.... haha. :D

DJroboninja
2016-04-24, 10:33 PM
Yay! What do I win?:smallcool:

Also, that was the best episode ever. Dwight impersonating Jim at the end.... haha. :D

You win... Ummm... It's like reddit flair? But, like invisible? And it says "super cool guy" but no one but you and me can see it?

I love throwing pop culture references into my d&d games, but no matter what, one person at the table is always out of the loop and doesn't get why everyone is laughing. Every. Single. Time.

Inevitability
2016-04-25, 01:38 AM
I love throwing pop culture references into my d&d games, but no matter what, one person at the table is always out of the loop and doesn't get why everyone is laughing. Every. Single. Time.

Still better than my pop culture references. Can you believe that no one I DM for knew Dread Pirate Roberts?

twas_Brillig
2016-04-25, 07:28 AM
Still better than my pop culture references. Can you believe that no one I DM for knew Dread Pirate Roberts?

For some reason Dread Pirates seem to fly under the radar. Either that, or nobody likes to bring it up online. Take Mourners (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?432004-Cool-Dreamscarred-Press-fiction!) for instance.

Reaver25
2016-04-25, 11:26 AM
You win... Ummm... It's like reddit flair? But, like invisible? And it says "super cool guy" but no one but you and me can see it?

I love throwing pop culture references into my d&d games, but no matter what, one person at the table is always out of the loop and doesn't get why everyone is laughing. Every. Single. Time.

Woohoo! That is sufficient. :D

That's hilarious. In the campaign my group is playing through, our DM has us go through the Swamp of Fire from Princess Bride. It was inconceivable.

IntelectPaladin
2016-04-25, 07:08 PM
They said it themselves, and they couldn't have said it better.
"This is glorious."
Although, I just have to wonder...
"dread gazebo"? Evidently dire woodwork has been added to the Monster's list.

Jonagel
2016-04-27, 12:33 PM
At the beginning of the next adventure, the party is as follows:

Jeau - Artificer 7
Jango - Iron Defender Homunculus
Jim - Barbarian 7
Zeau - Druid 7
Pickle - Riding Dog Animal Companion
Tim - Ranger 2/Rogue 3/Assassin 1

While Assassin has that whole "you gotta kill somebody to be in our club" thing, I figured working it into his backstory gave him a pass, so after his flashback he started taking Assassin levels. Sadly, no one else in the party really branches out -- at the point where our campaign currently stands, Jeau, Jim, and Zeau have yet to multi-class. But who knows? Maybe Jeau will be like "yo, I'm doing it -- Artificer 19, Soulknife 1"

Thank you! Multi-classing can be very fun, but it seems like these PCs are having a great time as is. Also, the whole amnesia situation, and story creation, sounds like so much fun if done right (which so far you look to be doing!).

Keep it up =D

SZbNAhL
2016-04-27, 07:18 PM
Ah, that horrible moment when you catch up on a campaign log and realise you have to wait for the next instalment like everyone else. Keep up the good work and all that.

DJroboninja
2016-04-30, 10:12 PM
SESSION FOURTEEN -- PALUUR DRAAL, PART TWO

Hey guys, sorry about the delay on the next installment. I bought a video game called Dark Souls III, put it in my Playstation, and suddenly discovered that a week of time had passed. That sure was odd.

Anywho, let's jump right in:


After speaking briefly with Ven'tak, the Kech Volaar scribe, the party continues forth into the ruins of Paluur Draal, heading down a flight of stairs past the statuary corridor.

The hallway leads off to a wooden door, which opens into what looks like an expansive outdoor scene -- rolling green hills head off in every visible direction, and beams of sunlight stream down from above. A short distance
from the door stands an elaborately carved wooden gazebo near a babbling brook, and on the opposite side stands another door, which seemingly leads off to nowhere. The party explores the area, and finds that after a bit of
walking, they seem to run into an invisible wall -- the entire outdoor scene is an elaborate, multi-sensory illusion, and they are still in a small underground chamber.

Continuing through the other door, they return to the smooth stone hallways of the ruin, finding themselves in a partially collapsed corridor with various doors leading off to smaller side rooms -- each appears to be a long
abandoned apartment from the Gnomish inhabitants who moved in after it was first left behind. The adventurers go from room to room, clearing them out and searching for any Dhakaani relics -- in one room, they are attacked by a group of skulks, who leap out from the corners with rusty daggers; and in another, Tim finds a small pine box containing an illusory moving picture of a Gnomish family, along with a potion of haste and a couple scrolls
of expeditious retreat.

Eventually, they find a large bedchamber that appears to have been repurposed as a base camp for the Kech Volaar -- as the party enters, the goblinoids stand suddenly and grab their weapons, the archers nocking arrows and drawing a bead on each of the PCs...



The party carefully holds up their hands, and Jeau explains their purpose -- "We have spoken with your lieutenant, Ven'tak, and he has asked us to help search the ruin for Dhakaani artifacts for you -- we are here for Zilargo
items, nothing more" (SPOILER ALERT - this is a lie).

A large, well-muscled humanoid walks forward -- he is covered in fur, with the exposed skin completely filled with thick bands of Goblin writing, and his face is a lattice-work of scars. He is covered in gleaming metal armor and
draped in tabards of red and white. He introduces himself as Ambric, commander of this Kech Volaar batallion. "I am not sure if I should trust your words, but my men and I could use your expertise. We sent several scouts ahead to explore the lower level of the tomb -- so far, none of them have returned. If you are willing to find our scouts and report back to me, you may keep any non-Dhakaani items you may find..."

Tim uses his impeccable lying talents to ask him "How can we get to the lower levels? We don't have a key..." Ambric nods and grabs a metal rod off his belt, identical to the one the party got from Gaius' shady contact in
Korranberg, except this one has no flakes of red on it. "You can take one of ours -- just be careful you do not lose it, there are very few of these keys in existence..."

The group agrees to Ambric's terms and decides to keep their other key a secret, since they don't truly know how it was acquired. He points them to a large wall bearing the symbol of House Sivis. "Hold the key in front of you
and step forward" Ambric says, miming the action, "and the key will carry you through this wall." The adventurers nod and begin setting up a camp in the bedchamber, but not before sneaking off into the store room that adjoins the large room.

Inside, they find several crates of supplies and barrels of provisions, all labeled in Goblin. They search around the supplies, trying to find any sort of evidence that these goblinoid warriors are up to something beyond what they
say. They find nothing of the sort, but Zeau does discover a secret compartment, that appears to have been left behind by the gnomish inhabitants of the bedroom -- inside, they discover a short metal rod, which Jeau identifies as a metamagic rod of extend, which allows a user to double how long their spells last. Zeau, as the resident buffer and summoner, takes it with her.

At this point, the party is ready to continue on -- Jim takes the key, holds it outward, and steps through the wall of the room, which ripples like the surface of a pond that has had a rock thrown into it. The rest of the adventurers follow in suit, entering the next section of Paluur Draal...



The group steps through the wall, and finds themselves in a jet black hallway. Zeau fumbles through the darkness until she finds Jim's shield, and she infuses it with a light spell, causing it to glow with a faint white light.

A large, wide staircase descends downward for an extended distance, finally opening into a wide corridor. Half a dozen suits of armor flank the corridor, leaning on long, powerful blades. These figures look almost identical to the
statues the party encountered upstairs, except twice the size, and Tim notices that each suit of armor contains a large skeleton, likely belonging to an ogre or other massive humanoid. At the far end of the hallway, the adventurers can just barely make out a pair of dead bodies from the light of Jim's shield -- however, upon closer inspection, it's actually two halves of a dead body...

The party is pretty confident what is about to happen, so they convince Jim to attack the closest one -- he charges forward and slashes his axe into the rusty metal of the armor, puncturing through and shattering several ribs underneath. As soon as he pulls the axe free for another blow, however, the skeleton animates and raises its sword, as do the others.

The party starts firing magic missiles and swinging weapons at these suits of armor, and they feel pretty confident in their abilities, but several of the creatures crowd around Jim and swing their massive swords in his
direction, one of which hits and carves a powerful gash into the dwarf's chest (I really freaked the party out when I held up 2d6 and asked "can I borrow a d6 from somebody?", to which one of them said "I thought he only hit once!?"). Zeau decides to try out her new metamagic rod, and runnels some primal energy through it -- a patch of stone in the center of the hallway glows with a green light, and suddenly a creature bursts forth, spinning like a top and growling. It's skin is green and has the texture of old stone, and it has three legs, three arms, three eyes, and one massive mouth -- a Xorn.

http://41.media.tumblr.com/66f46497cd70d0423c78ee962f8d1c16/tumblr_nwfzy70ktY1rcd8pvo1_500.jpg

Hey guys, OOC DM talk time. A lot of you are probably wondering "why did he draw a summoned monster? That seems like a waste of time." Wellllll you see, I f***ed up. When T (Zeau's player) said she wanted to use one of her new summons, I pulled up the xorn's stats in the SRD. When you go to the xorn page on the SRD, there are stats for a minor xorn, an average xorn, and an elder xorn. Zeau's summon nature's ally spell summons a MINOR xorn, but I gave her the stats for an AVERAGE xorn, which is DOUBLE THE CHALLENGE RATING of a minor one. Well, he appears, and manages to freaking wreck face, and Zeau decides "oh my god, I'm going to summon him ALL THE TIME." I was just like "huh, xorn is an awesome summon" and thought nothing of it.

Over time, xorn became almost the seventh member of their group -- I drew him up, J made a freaking mini of him, and he basically became the party mascot. It wasn't until Zeau got summon nature's ally VI that we discovered my mistake. And if I could go back in time and do it all over again? I'd do it all the same, because a summoned monster has never been so beloved as that chubby green tazmanian devil known as xorn...

DM TALK OVER

The monster leaps through the air, its giant mouth wrapping around the head of one of the giant skeletons -- it tears the creature to pieces, sending whatever is left clattering to the ground in a heap. The skeletons hit hard, dealing major damage to Jim and Tim, but eventually the group is able to destroy all of them, shattering their bones and armor into tiny pieces...

Examining the body at the other end of the room, they find it dressed in the clothing of the Kech Volaar -- the first of Ambric's scouts, rent asunder by the skeletons' giant swords...



The hallway continues into a square room, hallways heading off to the left and right. Standing in the center of the rom is a tall, marble statue of a hobgoblin man dressed in the finery of a Dhakaani noble -- his robes blow about him as if driven by a strong wind, and he stands like an epic god in the middle of this chamber. In the other corners of the room, four more marble statues stand -- one is a short goblin with a wide grin slashing across his squat face; the next is an emaciated hobgoblin in long robes, holding a thick book; the third is a fat hobgoblin with a lecherous grin, dressed like a Dhakaani knight; and the last appears to be a female hobgoblin in a flowing dress, but the statue has been shattered from the shoulders up, leaving her headless.

Each statue bears a small brass plaque on the base, with a name written in Goblin -- Jeau goes around and reads each aloud:

The central statue depicts Marquess Bazz'rek Draag, leader of Paluur Draal.
The goblin is Count Nukrad, head of the archer corps.
The thin man is Baron Raag'dal, head scribe of the Paluur Draal library.
The fat man is Ser Gradok Z'Dax, commander of the Paluur Draal garrison.
And the woman is Marchioness Szak'ra Draag, wife of The Marquess.

Hallways split off from this statuary chamber in opposing directions, each leading to a series of doors that appear to be labeled as living quarters. The group decides to explore the right hallway first -- in the first room, they
find an ancient, moldering diary, that describes a goblinoid's life in Paluur Draal. The group sits down to rest for a spell while Jeau reads through it, and he discovers that Paluur Draal was once a bustling, peaceful place -- the writer of the diary describes happy times and simple living, until Jeau reaches a section on the death of The Marquess, the leader of the city. After his demise, his son takes over, a sickly young man named Bazz'rek. The diary describes a sense of fear overtaking the city, as people begin disappearing in the middle of the night -- the final entry describes the writer's intention to gather up his family and leave, like many of his neighbors before him.

The last page is splattered with blood...

Unsettled and uncomfortable, the group keeps exploring -- the next apartment appears to be empty, but the party finds a small gold ring hidden away, a Goblin poem etched into the surface in tiny letters. They all decide that, once they head back to camp, they will give this ring to Ambric, as a peace offering.

The next apartment, however, is a scene of carnage -- one of the Kech Volaar scouts sits slumped over in the corner of the room, a short sword in his hand. He is horrendously pale, and the walls and floor are splattered with his blood. Several pairs of puncture wounds mark the sides of his neck and his wrists, and he looks as though every drop of blood has been drained from his body...


Blegh!

NEXT TIME: Zombies! Vampires! G-G-G-GHOSTS!

Reaver25
2016-05-03, 02:02 PM
SESSION FOURTEEN -- PALUUR DRAAL, PART TWO
...NEXT TIME: Zombies! Vampires! G-G-G-GHOSTS!

Awesome post, DJroboninja. Can't wait for the next session! Also, I love the new party member. ;P

DJroboninja
2016-05-11, 08:32 PM
SESSION FIFTEEN -- PALUUR DRAAL, PART THREE

Hello all, I've missed you so. This session was somewhat short, so we've just got two chunks to get through. But first, some quick catching up:

Gaius Anderfel has sent the party to the ruins of Paluur Draal, a lost Dhakaani Empire city from ages past. He has heard word of a secret section of the ruin, unexplored these many years, which he imagines will contain dozens of priceless Dhakaani artifacts -- including the fabled Tablets of il'Khesh, a pair of ancient magical tablets lost when the Empire fell. After a difficult train ride, they arrived at the ruin, but encountered resistance in the form of the Kech Volaar, a group of militaristic goblinoids who seek to recover Dhakaani artifacts and secret them away in their expansive vaults. The party has agreed to a temporary alliance with the Kech Volaar captain, Ambric -- they are currently exploring the lower levels of the ruined city, and they have just discovered a Kech Volaar scout's body, drained of all of its blood and savaged by sharp, pointed fangs...


The party fights through their disgust and examines the desiccated corpse -- Zeau deduces that all the blood visible on the floor and walls has come from the scout, and that most of his blood is unaccounted for. Jeau recognizes the particular bite pattern as belonging to vampires -- however, undead creatures are not his forte, so he can only remember that vampires drain blood and are weak against silver.

Continuing past the apartments where they found the body, they reach a T-junction, the jet black darkness of the hallways leading off to their left and right. They decide to head to the right, and they follow the darkened corridor until it opens up into a large L-shaped chamber -- the walls are lined with rows and rows of shelves, most of which have been emptied long ago. Several large metal barrels dot the floor, thin rivulets of smoke dancing above them, and a thin walkway leads throughout the second floor of the chamber. As the party enters, they hear quick footsteps echoing from somewhere in the room -- Jim moves his glowing shield around in an attempt to see what created the sound, but to no avail.

Suddenly, there is a loud thump from near the ceiling -- the group turns their attention toward it, but they can see nothing beyond a noose hanging from the roof and swaying ever so slightly...

After a bit of exploring, they finally encounter the source of the noise, a skeleton that is walking on its own, still barely wearing the tattered remnants of some ancient Dhakaani fashion. The light of Jim's shield illuminates a network of slick organs, almost like intestines, that coil in the creature's stomach before climbing up its rib cage and creeping out of its open mouth, where it ends with a set of snapping claws...

http://41.media.tumblr.com/a3a284213e67b393bdd2612ad1de25c9/tumblr_nsh432S3gQ1rcd8pvo1_500.jpg

The party prepares to attack, when they hear the sound of running footsteps approaching from behind them -- out of the darkness, three zombies come rushing toward them. Two of them were Kech Volaar scouts, their tabards still stained with blood, while the third appears to have been a fellow Dhakaani noble.

Zeau casts magic stone and begins hurling glowing white pebbles from her sling, trying to hit the zombies, while Jim draws his hammer and steps forward, trying to absorb the skeleton's attacks and crush his bones into dust. Jeau recognizes the skeleton as a mohrg, the body of an executed killer, whose tongue can cause paralysis --
he relays this information to the party, and begins firing magic missiles at the creature. Tim, realizing his knives won't be too effective against the skeleton, scales one of the bookshelves and circles around the zombies, hitting them from behind and catching them off-guard.

The fight is difficult, but eventually the party is able to bring down the monsters. Searching through the massive archive, they find the shelves to be almost completely empty, save for a couple of books -- the adventurers take a couple of the dusty old tomes to give to Ambric once they make camp, while Jeau keeps a book on necromancy and undead for himself, in the hopes that it will make identifying these undead creatures easier...



After the fight with the mohrg, the party backtracks to the T-junction, where they find a moldering old wooden door. Poking their head inside, they find an old, unused bathroom, and they choose to continue on.

Heading back to the marble statue chamber, they continue through and begin exploring the other apartments they have yet to investigate. Each looks like the ones they encountered earlier -- spartan chambers holding one or more stone bed frames, a couple of dressers, and little else. Three of the apartments are completely empty, but one of them is not -- as they enter, they see the translucent figure of a hobgoblin woman floating a few feet above the ground, her long tattered dress blowing around her as if moved by some unseen wind.

As the party opens the door, the woman slowly turns to face them -- her mouth opens wide and she lets out an unearthly scream, which sends chills down each of the adventurers' spines. Just as quickly as she was spotted, she disappears, apparating through the wall and disappearing into another part of the dungeon.

Continuing on, the party reaches another T-junction, and they decide to head south. The corridor leads to a pair of closed wooden doors -- heading through the far door, they discover a long room filled with arrows and crossbow bolts. At the far end of the room, several archery targets are peppered with long arrows, many of which have been shattered. Suspended by the arrows are a few small Gnomish corpses, the flesh rotted away with age. Zeau examines the arrows with her detect magic spell and finds that a couple of them are magical -- Jim takes them, "just in case".

The party returns to the hallway and heads through the other doorway, which leads into a large, mostly pillaged armory. The walls are lined with racks of rust-covered weapons, and a set of wooden shelves block the view of the middle of the chamber -- Zeau and Tim can hear the sound of animalistic slurping and gulping coming from the other side of the shelf, and the room reeks of rust and blood and death. Tim peers around the weapon rack and spots three creatures huddled around the body of a Kech Volaar scout. Their skin is stark white and their hair is jet black and stringy, and blood covers the lower half of each humanoid's face...

http://65.media.tumblr.com/43722adf59337f82e987ab20becd7c1c/tumblr_nsh4fu7Agg1rcd8pvo1_500.jpg

Jeau recognizes the creatures as vampire spawn -- not true vampires, they are little more than animals in a humanoid form, and they swear utter fealty to their vampire lord. Jim rushes in and slams his axe into the back of
one of the spawn, but his weapon can barely break through their thick skin. The spawn spin to face the group, blood still dripping from their mouths, and they charge into combat, slashing with their powerful claws. Jim takes a few hits and feels his energy being drained away -- black veins course across his ashen flesh and his eyes become sunken.

Eventually, they are able to tear through the savage undead, but rather than die, they transform into clouds of vaporous gas and attempt to flee through the open doorway. Zeau uses her druidic magic to summon a wind wall blocking the doorway -- with nowhere else to go, the gaseous forms of the vampires hover in the air and the group uses torches and fire magic to reduce the creatures to ash (not strictly how the rules for vampires work, I guess, but I didn't want them to just be stuck in a room with unkillable balls of gas for the duration of Zeau's spell, so I ad hoc ruled that fire could still damage them in gaseous form -- COME AT ME RULES LAWYERS). Zeau gathers up the ashes in a cloth sack, just in case they should try and return to unlife, and the adventurers head back down the hallway to delve deeper into the complex...


That's it for this session -- but perhaps the next one will be posted VERY soon...

NEXT TIME: More Vampires! More Goblinoids! Same erratic posting schedule!

DJroboninja
2016-05-11, 09:29 PM
SESSION SIXTEEN -- PALUUR DRAAL, PART FOUR

WHAT'S UP JERKS?

I have been really busy playing dark souls spring cleaning lately, so I haven't posted as much as I should have been the past week or so. To remedy that, you guys get DOUBLE POSTS TODAY!

Don't say I never did nothing for you, eh?


The party doubles back after their encounter with the vampires in the armory, returning to the T-Junction they encountered earlier. They discuss returning to the Kech Volaar camp to rest and recuperate, especially with Jim's life force sapped away, his veins black with negative energy. However, the hardy duergar merely laughs it off -- "I've survived worse, I see we keep moving!" Thoroughly convinced, the party heads off to the north, towards the as-yet-undiscovered areas of the ruined city.

Following the jet black darkness of the corridor, the group encounters a pair of elaborate wooden doors, carved to resemble a great, twisted oak tree and inscribed with Goblin writing. They attempt to open the doors, but they won't budge, the ancient locks still holding fast. Jeau gathers his thieves tools and starts working the probes into the lock mechanism, moving them around until the tumblers within audibly click. Tim confirms the door to be free of traps as Jim pushes the doors open -- there is something blocking the other side, but Jim pushes his shoulder into the center of the two doors and hefts them inward...

As the doors open, a desiccated hobgoblin corpses collapses into the center of the room -- this chamber was once an elaborate, beautiful bed chamber, but it has been completely torn apart. The old sheets and blankets have been torn into ribbons, the dressers have been toppled over, and the mirrors have all been shattered. The room is coated with a thick layer of dust, and the inside of the grandiose wooden doors are scored with dozens upon dozens of grooves and marks, torn into the wood by ancient fingernails...

Zeau examines the body, and discovers it to be a female hobgoblin -- there are no signs of trauma or injury, so Zeau presumes that the woman died of thirst or starvation. As she is looking over the corpse, a shape drifts into the room through the opposite wall -- the same translucent blue woman in a flowing dress that the adventurers encountered in one of the apartments, earlier. She floats over the remnants of the bed, and in a raspy voice screams "GET OOOUUUUT!" The group feels that same pang of fear from their earlier encounter, but they fight through it and refuse to back down. As Jim is gripping the handle of his axe and gritting his teeth in combat preparation, Jeau steps forward, giving his friend a hand motion to stand down. He begins speaking to the ghost in Goblin: "Why should we get out? What should we be afraid of?"

The ghost holds her head in her hands, weeping. "The Marquess!" she shrieks between sobs, "he is a monster!"

"Did he do this to you?" Jeau asks.

"Yes... He threw me away in my room so I could never leave -- HE LEFT ME HERE TO ROT!"

Jeau sighs. "I'm very sorry. Is there anything we can do to help you?"

"My bones... Take my bones from this wretched city, bury me outside, in the light of the moons... Do this for me, and you can have anything you want from my possessions..."

The party agrees to do so, and carefully gathers up her remains to give her a proper burial. As they do, she drifts out of the room, once again disappearing through the wall, sobbing into her hands the whole time. Searching through her bed chambers, the party finds some ancient Dhakaani coins, along with a glove of arrow snaring and a hand of the mage -- Zeau takes the glove and they stow the necklace away as they depart from the sorrowful bedroom...



Continuing deeper into Paluur Draal, the adventurers find a large room that appears to have once been a common bedroom for the poorer citizens of the city. Tim stealthily peeks through the doorway and sees that all the old wooden bunk beds have been broken apart and shoved into one corner of the room, to make space for eight large coffins -- seven made of dark, rotting wood and the eighth made of thick, powerful stone. As the party enters, two of the wooden coffins open up, their lids sliding away to reveal a pair of hobgoblin vampires, hissing and cracking their knuckles as they stand, their eyes glowing with a faint red light. Meanwhile, the massive stone coffin's lid slides away, a long scraping noise filling the room. The lid slams to the floor, and from within leaps the master of Paluur Draal's vampire population...

http://67.media.tumblr.com/4b68dc699cd1a0efb45453138e8fe207/tumblr_nsh4e1lcxj1rcd8pvo1_500.jpg

...a grinning goblin in a long, leather trench coat, a powerful bow in hand. As the goblin, who the group recognizes as Count Nukrad from his statue, lands, he hisses and shouts "Kill the interlopers for me, my children -- the Marquess will be pleased!"

The goblin shouts a command in an unintelligible language, and it seems to echo through the stone hallways of the dungeon. Meanwhile, Jeau reacts with lightning speed, grabbing an orange bauble off his necklace of fireballs and hurling it into the center of the room -- the ball begins to glow with bright orange light as it sails through the air, and as it strikes the hard stone floor, it detonates into a massive explosion of flame. One of the hobgoblin vampires is completely decimated by the blast, his form replaced by a cloud of vapor as the smoke clears, while the other has blackened skin and several patches of missing skin. The Count, however, reacts with amazing speed, grabbing the heavy stone lid of his coffin and covering himself with it like a shield -- he emerges from the explosion completely unscathed (evasion!).

Count Nukrad leaps from coffin to coffin, firing arrows at the party as they engage the remaining vampire spawn and begin dismantling the wooden coffins. As Jeau starts firing magic missiles, Zeau opens up a summoning circle in the middle of the room, out of which crawls a creature with a humanoid upper body and a snake-like lower body, it's entire form black and flickering with orange light, like charcoal after a fire -- a salamander. Nukrad is agile and quick, but the party is able to quickly surround him with the salamander's help and reduce the Count to a cloud of vapors, which retreats into his large coffin to begin rebuilding his corporeal form.

Jim raises his axe to shatter the sarcophagus and end Nukrad's existence permanently, but before he can, a loud cacophony of squeaks and shrieks begins emanating from the hallway, and the party discovers what the vampire's unintelligible call was as a massive cloud of black bats pours into the chamber, surrounding the group and harassing them with hundreds of tiny teeth. Jim focuses on destroying Nukrad's coffin while the rest of the party tries to stop the swarm of bats -- after several grueling rounds of combat, the last of the bats falls as Jim's axe pierces through Nukrad's stone box, which explodes from within, leaving behind a pile of dead ashes...

They destroy all the remaining coffins, and discover something odd -- there are eight sarcophagi total, but they've only encountered six vampires. Two more are still out there...


You'll notice at around this point in the campaign, that the recaps will be getting a little bit shorter -- now that the party is increasing in level, combats are becoming more complex and longer, and three hours can only hold so many encounters. Also, this is the point in the campaign where our notes are actually broken down by actual game sessions, so I know where they start and end -- with the earlier posts, I was kind of just guessing...

NEXT TIME: THE THRILLING CONCLUSION!

DJroboninja
2016-05-11, 09:31 PM
Oh, by the way, last night we finally concluded Tim's personal quest regarding his amnesia, so those of you who are especially enjoying that piece of the puzzle can look forward to a true ending for Tim's lost memories!

Also, F*** YEAH THREE PAGES

wobner
2016-05-12, 12:22 AM
Oh, by the way, last night we finally concluded Tim's personal quest regarding his amnesia, so those of you who are especially enjoying that piece of the puzzle can look forward to a true ending for Tim's lost memories!

Also, F*** YEAH THREE PAGES

Looking forward to this, and still quite enjoying the read. Incidentally, love the goblin in the leather jacket.

DJroboninja
2016-05-15, 10:40 PM
SESSION SEVENTEEN -- PALUUR DRAAL FINALE

Hola amigos! It's been a long, strange trip, but we're finally here, the last session of the epic excursion through the Dhakaani Ruin of Paluur Draal!

Enough talk! TIME FOR ADVENTURE!


Still beleaguered from their battle with the vampire lord and his minions AND his bat swarms, the party continues onward, heading toward a pair of double wooden doors, the edges engraved with Goblin writing. Jim, angered and weakened from his encounters with the undead of this lost city, kicks in the door, revealing a large banquet chamber. Long, low tables of rotting wood, stained with old wine and moldy food, run the length of the room. Several plates and glasses are arrayed across the tables -- to the party's horror and disgust, the plates all bear humanoid body parts and the wine glasses are all filled with thick, red blood.

One table is completely trashed, all the glasses and plates tossed to the floor and shattered. Two gnomish vampires are crouched atop the table on all fours, hunched over and hissing -- Jeau surmises that the loss of their master has driven them completely mad and caused them to lose any semblance of intelligence. At another table sits a morbidly obese hobgoblin, his skin purple and stretched tight across his form -- he is dressed ostentatiously, like a Dhakaani aristocrat dialed up to eleven, and he is laughing uproariously at the vampires' antics in between bites of a dripping humanoid leg.

http://67.media.tumblr.com/155cc6a71a2d6ec402df9d35713eb040/tumblr_ntz7muAw5f1rcd8pvo1_r1_500.jpg

The fat undead hobgoblin is flanked by a half dozen small gnomes, all of whom have the same pale, purple skin and sharpened teeth, their plates heaped with viscera before them. As the party enters, the vampires rush forward, running on all fours like feral dogs, while the fat hobgoblin and his monstrous gnomes cease their laughter and stand -- the leader pushes his chair backward and hefts his great weight up onto his feet while his gnomish followers scramble up onto the table and begin running toward the party...

Jeau recognizes the creatures as ghouls, flesh-eating monsters whose touch can paralyze creatures and whose decrepit claws and rotten teeth can transmit a dangerous disease known as ghoul fever. Jim attempts to leap up onto one of the long tables (Acrobatics check roll... NATURAL ONE) but steps on a discarded humanoid hand on the slippery, blood-covered floor, which sends him tumbling to the stone, hard.

Zeau and Jeau start firing spells at the two vampires while Tim rushes the group of ghouls as Jim attempts to stand back up. The ghouls start leaping at Tim, slashing at him with their little claws while the heavy-set ghoul laughs and lumbers towards him. Tim takes several scratches from the ghouls, and feels his muscles begin to tense up, but he fights through their paralytic touch and keeps slashing with his curved knives.

Eventually, Jeau and Zeau are able to damage one of the vampires to the point that he transforms into a cloud of mist, like the others they have dealt with -- however, with no coffin to which he can retreat, he reverts back to his normal form, and Jeau is able to drive a silver crossbow bolt into his chest, causing him to collapse into a pile of ash. Meanwhile, Tim and Jim are able to slash through the ghoulish gnomes, hacking them in half with their blades -- his retinue dispatched, the fat ghoul looks terrified, but he refuses to back down. As they are closing in on him, a nearby door opens to what appears to be a kitchen, and a zombified hobgoblin steps out, holding a massive butcher knife and a platter of organs and body parts -- seeing the melee happening in the banquet hall, however, he drops the platter, which clatters to the floor, and begins closing in on the two warriors.

The adventurers are up against a feral vampire, an obese ghoul, and a knife-wielding zombie, but eventually they are able to prevail -- Jeau fires another silver bolt into the remaining vampire's head and Jim is able to behead the zombie chef, while Tim slashes his kukri through the massive ghoul's stomach. As he does so, however, the ghoul opens his mouth and says "Why do I feel so-" and promptly explodes in a raining cloud of viscera and coagulated blood that blankets the tables of the banquet hall. Tim is covered in ichor from head to toe, his stomach turning and his lunch returning as a result...

The party searches the bodies, finding little to nothing of value, and they continue on into the kitchen, where they find the remains of a pair of Kech Volaar scouts hanging from meat hooks, several of their pieces missing. Jim swallows hard and searches through their pockets, finding a pair of healing potions -- out of charity, he gifts both to Tim, leaving them on a table so as not to get any of the ghoul's remnants on him...



Leaving the blood-covered banquet hall, the party sees a tunnel heading off to the north, flanked by elaborate carved frescoes and leading toward a pair of twenty-foot tall iron and wood doors. Deciding that they have more dungeon to explore before venturing that direction, they head to the right, where after a bit of corridor they find a closed wooden door. Jim tries to push it open, but finds it locked from the other side, and Zeau's keen ears hear hushed voices talking from the other side of the door.

Jeau knocks and speaks through the door in Goblin, saying they are allies of Ambric and asking if they are surviving Kech Volaar scouts. A shaky, frightened voice from the other side says "How can we trust you? You're trying to trick us!" Jeau, as a good will gesture, slides the key Ambric gave them under the door. "Ambric gave us that key -- he asked us to come find you, and bring you back to camp."

At that, the door creaks open, revealing a pair of hobgoblins draped in the red and white tabards of the Kech Volaar. They are covered in small wounds and their clothes are splattered with blood, some their blood, some not. They hobble out, one supporting the other, who appears to have suffered a grievous wound to his leg. They reveal their names to be Kondrik and Drogo, and Jim takes the burden of Drogo's weight, allowing the other scout to focus on himself. The scouts in tow, they continue south -- on the way back to the Kech Volaar camp, they explore a couple of rooms they have yet to delve into, one of which appears to be the bedchamber of the fat ghoul and his gnomish guards. In this room, hidden under a mattress, they find a rusty sword in a gaudy white leather and silver scabbard, which Jeau recognizes as a keen scabbard, which temporarily sharpens any sword placed inside it to a razor edge -- the party gifts the item to Jim. Luckily, they encounter no resistance and are able to traverse back to the marble statue chamber and trudge up the dusty stairs to the old bedroom beyond.

As they step through the magical wall, which once again ripples like the surface of a lake, Ambric and his soldiers stand, some of them drawing bows in case whatever comes through isn't friendly. Jim and Drogo step through first, following by Kondrik and the rest of the party, and Ambric looks expectantly at the wall, waiting for more of his scouts to return. However, Jim just looks at him and shakes his head, and the bugbear lowers his eyes and mutters a curse under his breath. "I thank you for finding our brothers -- I am sorry more of them did not survive that hellish dungeon below." While Zeau and Jeau tend to the wounded scouts, Jim and Tim give Ambric a couple of minor Dhakaani items they found below, as a peace offering, and the group prepares to get a night's rest before finishing the lower level.

As the party awakes, Jim feels his lost energy return, his strength no longer feeling as it has been sapped away. However, Tim awakens dripping with sweat, his joints and muscles tense -- Zeau looks him over and diagnoses him with ghoul fever, likely contracted when the heavy ghoul exploded on him. Zeau is concerned for him, but Tim explains that he'll be fine -- he can survive one day of the disease. Ambric and his men ask the party what remains of the lower level, and Tim lies, saying that there is only one chamber left -- they will explore it and bring back whatever they find for the Kech Volaar. Ambric asserts that he should send a retinue of men along with them, to help them bring any artifacts back to the camp site, but Jeau dissuades him: "You've already lost several soldiers, why risk your remaining men? We will explore the remaining area, and come get you once we're certain all threats have been eliminated."

At this, Ambric nods. "I understand brother. You are brave warriors, and the Kech Volaar will not forget your assistance in this wicked place." At that, the adventurers head back through the wall to the lower levels of the city (at this point, everyone in the party feels like sh*t for tricking them)...



Heading down into the darkness below, the party quietly trudges toward the final area, encountering no resistance as they do. They finally return to the hallway bearing the dust-covered stone frescoes, the engravings choked with thick cobwebs. One side of the hallway portrays a hobgoblin, born under a full moon and raised as a warrior. As the fresco continues, this hobgoblin ages until an older man, presumably his father, dies, and the old man's crown is given to him. On the other side of the hallway, the same man, now older, rules over Paluur Draal, beloved by the citizens -- as the images continue, he meets a woman, the two are married, and the final image depicts the two of them holding a small, sickly child...

Jim approaches the massive doors and pushes them inward, revealing a massive throne room -- moth-eaten banners of Dhakaani writing hang from the ceiling in front of the walls, and on the opposite side of the room, on a raised platform with a staircase leading up to it, is a large darkwood throne, edged in tarnished silver. A hobgoblin skeleton sits atop the throne, its clothes tattered by the ravages of time, its skull resting stop one hand, as if bored. At his feet, on opposite sides of the throne, sit a pair of stone tablets, each the size of a large book, engraved with Goblin writing that pulses with a faint light...

The party approaches, their footsteps echoing in the giant chamber, and as they do, two small blue flames burn into existence the skeleton's empty eye sockets, and it lifts upward, a mountain of dust falling off of its old bones as it does. The skeleton stands from the throne and continues rising, his hands outstretched as he levitates into the air above the raised dais. “More outsiders, come to plunder the riches of Dhakaan?" he shouts, his voice raspy and hoarse, "prepare to face the full might of the Dhakaani Empire, the Eternal Kingdom! I am the Marquess of this place, and you trespass on hallowed ground!”

http://67.media.tumblr.com/c413a3f76532d7b66adf334bf4eaa19e/tumblr_ntz7ts9IKF1rcd8pvo1_500.jpg

At this, the party of adventurers separate from each other, taking up battle stances -- Zeau begins buffing the party with spells, Jim charges forward, head-on at the creature, Tim creeps around near the perimeter of the room, trying to get into an advantageous position, and Jeau grabs his wand of scorching ray and takes aim...

Lightning quick, the Marquess makes a single motion of his thin fingers and sends five skulls of misty blue energy hurtling toward the party, two striking Jim and one hitting each of the other party members -- before the adventurers can react to this first onslaught, they see a bead of orange streak out from the Marquess' outstretched finger, which strikes the stone floor and explodes into a ball of flames! The fire washes over Jim, who grits his teeth in pain; Jeau and Zeau attempt to leap out of the way, but they are still slightly singed by the blast; and Tim tumbles away from the explosion, untouched by the flames.

Zeau responds by holding her hands up to the sky -- a ring of white traces through the air above the Marquess, out of which drops a column of silvery flames that streak across the ancient hobgoblin, blackening his white bones (this was, if I remember correctly, the first time Zeau ever used flame strike, and everyone's response was a cheer and the question "why do you ever prepare other spells!?"). The skeletal figure is wounded, but far from defeated, and Jim rushes toward him and swings his powerful axe into his rib cage -- as it strikes, however, his weapon is partially shunted off, unable to deliver its full force to the creature. Jeau fires a series of magic missiles into the Marquess, which strike and send splinters of smoking bone from his body. Tim finally reaches the melee but due to the raised platform, he cannot get into a good position with Jim, and his knives can do nothing to the monster's hard bones.

The skeletal ruler of Paluur Draal speaks a short phrase of Draconic and disappears from view, reappearing on the other side of the room, his hands glittering with arcane energy as he laughs a raspy chuckle. The fight is long and arduous -- Jim approaches the Marquess, but the wizard saps away his strength with a ray of gray energy; Tim is finally able to get into an advantageous position to catch the creature off-guard, but he responds by raising a wall of thick, supernaturally-hard ice between them and levitating into the air; and at one point, the Marquess moves his hands in a sweeping, circular motion, sending a storm of ice and hail across the party, nearly dropping all of them into the negatives.

However, after several minutes of pitched battle, Jim is able to slam his weapon into the creature's ribs, shattering them to pieces and sending him plummeting to the ground. He shakily attempts to stand, as he begins muttering "Nooooo... the Empire... of Dhakaan... can never... faaalllllllll..." as he crumbles to dust, his possessions and clothing falling to the stone floor around him (this was, by far, the longest fight of the campaign up to this point -- everyone looked like they had just finished running a marathon after it was over).

Zeau uses detect magic to look over the Marquess' items and determine which, if any, have magical properties -- as usual for the spell, from Zeau's perspective, all color drains away from the environment, and any magical auras glow with a different color, indicating what magic they hold. However, as the color drains away, the Tablets near the throne begin to glow with a brilliant white light, and Zeau drops to the ground in pain, nearly knocked unconscious. "Those tablets," she says through gritted teeth, "have powerful magic in them..."

http://67.media.tumblr.com/e001cd1a2a48ca124bc53133590a6bd1/tumblr_ntz7vdLXNG1rcd8pvo1_500.jpg

However, she was briefly able to recognize the magical auras of the other items, and the group divides up the various magical treasures: Jeau takes a scroll of teleport and a scroll of dominate person, along with the Marquess' boots of levitation and headband of intellect; Jim takes the skeletal figure's ring of protection; Tim takes a potion of invisibility; and Zeau gathers up a pile of ancient coins, a pair of garnets, and a beautiful black pearl, as well as the Tablets of il'Khesh. The group decides what to do at this point -- if they head back to the Kech Volaar camp, they may have to fight their former allies if they discover they have been deceiving them, so the group votes to use their newly discovered scroll to teleportback to Sharn. Jeau unfurls the scroll as the adventurers all gather in a circle, hoping this decision will not cause them problems in the future...



Jeau finishes reading the scroll, and purple smoke surrounds the party -- their stomachs lurch and, as the smoke clears, they find themselves standing near the train station in Tavick's Landing, surrounded by confused and frightened onlookers. Looking up, they see the sun for the first time in days, and suddenly, the party's accomplishment fills them with glee -- they just did something amazing.

The party takes the Tablets back to the Solemn Soldier Inn, and rest up for the evening, planning to meet with Gaius in the morning -- before calling it a night, however, Tim heads off to the closest Jorasco house of healing to get his ghoul fever taken care of.

As the sun rises, the party grabs the Tablets and wraps them in one of Tim's old cloaks, taking a skycoach to Gaius' penthouse -- he and Viktor greet them at the door, and he is ecstatic to find the Tablets of il'Khesh in their possession. "This is glorious news, my friends! These Tablets contain supernatural divination powers -- I can use them to find more ancient ruins and tombs for you to plunder. We will become the richest people in all of Sharn. Speaking of which," and at this point he snaps his fingers and Viktor returns shortly with four velvet bags filled with platinum pieces, giving one to each of the adventurers. As with their previous excursion, Gaius demands to know all the details, and the party fills him in -- their encounter with the Pilfered Wand on the train, the water elemental, the skulks, the Kech Volaar, the vampires, the ghost, the ghouls, and finally, the Marquess himself.

All the while, Gaius is jotting down notes and asking questions -- after the recount of their final fight, he says "How fascinating, you fought a lich? They are some of the strongest fonts of arcane power in all of Eberron -- you should be quite proud of yourselves. Of course, it goes without saying that you destroyed his phylactery? Otherwise, as I'm sure you know, his body will just rebuild."

The party stares in silence.

"...WHAT!?"


Woooooooo, we did it. See you guys soon!

NEXT TIME: Interrogation! Information! Registration?

wobner
2016-05-16, 01:25 AM
beautiful twist with the lich, I was hoping you would play that card. that's the trouble with playing with seasoned players, you can't get away with stuff like that even when they know they aren't supposed to know. guessing your players will never make that mistake again though.

You seem to be handling your new players very well, not that they don't seem to be taking to the game both easily and enthusiastically. I commend both you and them.

Inevitability
2016-05-16, 03:13 AM
That part at the end was just pure gold.

Kol Korran
2016-05-16, 05:28 AM
Love the adventures, love the writing style, and I simply ADORE the sketches! Quite fantastic! :smallbiggrin:

As to the last part? It reminds me (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pWC-4dx3Q0) of this! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-busojcI7Y) :smallwink:

DJroboninja
2016-05-17, 06:29 PM
Love the adventures, love the writing style, and I simply ADORE the sketches! Quite fantastic! :smallbiggrin:

As to the last part? It reminds me (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pWC-4dx3Q0) of this! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-busojcI7Y) :smallwink:

Thanks Kol Korran - my nightmares have been getting dull and uninspired lately, so I appreciate you dredging up the terrifying cartoons of my childhood.

Kol Korran
2016-05-18, 02:05 AM
Thanks Kol Korran - my nightmares have been getting dull and uninspired lately, so I appreciate you dredging up the terrifying cartoons of my childhood.
Sorry. I really enjoyed the show... I apologize it brought back bad reactions...

DJroboninja
2016-05-18, 05:58 AM
Sorry. I really enjoyed the show... I apologize it brought back bad reactions...

Oh I loved that show, but that damn episode creeped me out. Besides, I don't want boring nightmares, I want variety!

wobner
2016-05-18, 07:52 AM
Thanks Kol Korran - my nightmares have been getting dull and uninspired lately, so I appreciate you dredging up the terrifying cartoons of my childhood.

thanks DJroboninja, now I feel old.

DJroboninja
2016-05-18, 02:32 PM
thanks DJroboninja, now I feel old.

Wobner.

You are so welcome

DJroboninja
2016-05-19, 10:49 PM
SESSION EIGHTEEN -- UNFINISHED BUSINESS

God kveld, my friends. It's time for another exciting episode of "To the Hilt!" We always level up as a group, so most of this session was leveling up and shopping -- however, that doesn't make it any less awesome.


After their adventures in Paluur Draal, the party has returned to Sharn, given the Tablets of il'Khesh to their patron, Gaius Anderfel, and been paid handsomely for their time.

Zeau spends her cut of the money on her favorite thing -- scrolls. Her scroll cases are filled with new scrolls of some of her flashier new spells, including flame strike, call lightning, and dispel magic. In addition, she gets a new collar for Pickle that enhances his teeth -- as she clasps it around his thick neck, his teeth seem to pulse with a faint blue light (collar of magic fang).

Jeau uses his money to craft two more wands of magic missile, allowing him to never be without his favorite spell. He also uses part of his cut to enhance Jango, beefing up his armor plating and strengthening the power of his bite attack (adding Hit Dice to Jango).

Tim spends his platinum on buying a bevy of poisons from some of the more unsavory merchants of Sharn and getting his off-hand kukri enchanted to match his main one -- they are both magical razor blades at this point (+1 keen kukris in both hands).

Finally, Jim has taken the gold he has received from this most recent job and added it to the gold he has been saving up from the past several adventures:

"Jeau", he says to his artificer friend, "I want you to make my axe better."

"Sure buddy, what are you looking for?"

Jim smiles and passes him a crude crayon drawing of a battleaxe covered in sweeps of orange, droplets of green, jagged arcs of yellow, and circles of blue.

"...what am I looking at here, Jim?

Jim's eyes get wide, and his smile wider. "RAINBOW. AXE."

(B has decided his ultimate goal for Jim is a "Rainbow Axe", a Battleaxe with every elemental enchantment on it. As of right now, Jeau is able to get him halfway there -- Jim's Battleaxe is now a "+1 flaming caustic battleaxe", and it will only get better from here...)



With some free time, the party begins talking about what they want to do. Tim ventures forth an idea -- he has a deep-seated hatred of slavers, so he wants to head to the box canyon where their train was being diverted (see "Session Twelve" (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=20671364&postcount=40), true believers!) to defeat the Daask agents, if they are still there. The rest of the party has no issues with this idea, as the idea of murdering people who kidnap and sell other people is right on board with their general morals.

They contact a House Orien scion at the Sharn Lightning Rail Station and make an agreement -- they purchase passage on the train, paying a bit extra to strike an agreement to be dropped off in the middle of nowhere at the switching point between train lines. Thus, they hop on the next train toward Zilargo, setting up in a passenger cart similar to the one they rode in on their previous journey. However, the train stops just before sunrise, and a House Orien employee, dressed in the blue and yellow of a train attendant ushers them off, trying to keep the other passengers from noticing. The adventurers leap off, landing with a puff of dust as the sky is just beginning to turn blue, and the train pulls away, disappearing off to the southeast.

They start walking, following the line of blue stones that makes up the secondary track, which has been unused in quite some time. As the sun rises and the day breaks, they continue trudging northward, and eventually Zeau's keen eyes spot the smoke of a campfire on the horizon -- they can barely make out a place where the tracks slope downward in between two tall, straight stone cliffs, the campfire burning atop the western wall.

Zeau leaps into the air, and her figure glows with green energy and shrinks down -- as the light fades, her form is that of a black-feathered raven, and she scouts ahead, flying off toward the canyon. As she reaches the area, she flies up high and circles around a campsite, where she can see three small teepee-like tents, along with a larger, square tent. Sitting near the fire are three gnolls, who appear to be playing some sort of dice game while they cook their morning meal. Along with the gnolls is a large creature, as tall as two men -- its skin is gray and rough, like stone, and it has two heads, which appear to be loudly arguing with each other. Carefully, she keeps her distance and returns to the party, reverting to her normal form and relaying what she saw...



The party makes their way to the box canyon and find a rope ladder leading from the train tracks up to the top of the plateau -- however, based on Zeau's description of the area, the ladder would put them right in the middle of the camp, in full view of the gnolls and the giant. Instead, they develop a plan -- Tim will head up first, climbing up the southern side of the cliffs and entering the campsite from behind. Meanwhile, Zeau will wild shape into a bird and circle the area, while Jim will climb the rope ladder and hang just below the lip of the cliff and Jeau will use his new boots of levitation to hover in the air beside him -- if Tim is spotted and things go sideways, the rest of the party can easily join the fray and attack.

Tim sheathes his kukri as the rest of the party gets into position -- he grabs the craggy rocks of the cliff and begins slowly, methodically climbing up toward the Daask camp. It is a difficult climb, and he nearly slips at one point, but he makes his way to the top and slides onto the flat stone plateau, creeping up to the tents as silent as a ghost. Carefully, he goes through their small teepees, finding nothing of note except for a series of letters -- a correspondence between Myzar, the albino gnoll who got Tim's memories taken away, and Skrrzit, one of the gnolls stationed here at the box canyon. The handwriting is difficult to make out, but Tim is able to muscle through and discover that Skrrzit and his allies have grown bored watching over this canyon and waiting for a slave shipment that apparently will never arrive. Myzar's letters assert that they only need to stay there "a few more days", but it would appear he has been saying that for weeks.

Tim steps out of the tents and draws his knives -- he then shouts "SKRRZIT!". All five heads in attendance turn to look in his direction, but he sees one gnoll in particular mutter to himself: "...how does he know my name?" At that, he points at that gnoll and prepares to fight.

Zeau lands on the plateau and returns to her normal form, while Jeau floats upward and begins blasting the giant with magic missiles and Tim leaps onto the stone and grins, speaking a word in Undercommon and causing his battleaxe to erupt in a gout of flame and a sheathe of sizzling, dripping green acid. Tim, still pointing at Skrrzit, shouts to the rest of the group -- "leave him alive, kill the rest!"

The gnolls begin gathering their axes and shields, while the giant stands and grabs a pair of massive stone chunks attached to handles by thick, rusted chains. As he begins twirling the weapons in his hand, he stomps his foot and looses a battle cry that echoes through the rocky crags -- his eyes begin to glow with a faint blue light, and the chunks of stone that serve as his weapons begin to flicker with small arcs of electricity.

Jim enters into melee with the giant while Jeau keeps blasting the group with magic missiles from the safety of the air and Zeau begins summoning a great storm cloud overhead. Tim gets rushed by the gnolls, and starts swinging his magic kukri at the two unnamed gnolls, keeping Skrrzit safe whenever possible. Zeau starts calling down bolts of lightning to fry the gnolls, while Jeau and Jim use their combined effort to fell the berserk giant. Eventually, everyone but Skrrzit is felled by their combat prowess -- Jim walks up behind him, speaking a word to remove the elements from his axe and shifting his grip. He swings and hits the gnoll in the back of the head with the flat of his axe, knocking him unconscious...



The group ties Skrrzit to a nearby chair and gathers around him, pushing the chair up to the edge of the cliff. Once they are ready, Tim backhands the gnoll back to consciousness.

"WHO, WHA, WH-... Look, I-I-I ain't have no gold or nuttin', please, let me go," Skrrzit says, his eyes darting back and forth from one adventurer to another.

"Tell us where Myzar is," Tim says, his voice low and stern.

"I-I don't know, I swear to yah, I gots no idea!" Tim determines that the gnoll is lying, and Jim reaches down and grabs one of his fur-covered fingers, breaking it with a loud snap that causes Jeau and Zeau to both wince and look away.

"OH SIX BE PRAISED, DAT HURT! Okay, okay... I know where he's at, I'm sorry I lied... Myzar is in Graywall, for the Champion's Games. Daask, we got a group o' gladiators competin' dis year, y'see, and Myzar's the manager."

"The Champion's Games? When do they start?"

"Uhhh, a-a-a week from now, yeah. Myzar got there early to get set up, he don't like being out in public, y'see."

The rest of the team huddles up to discuss if they have any more questions for Skrrzit while Tim keeps an eye on him, but after a moment, they hear the sound of a weapon being drawn and a loud gurgling behind their back. As they turn to see what is happening, they see a torrent of blood streaming from Skrrzit's open throat as Tim kicks the chair he is tied to over the edge of the cliff, sending it plummeting down to the train tracks below.

Mouths agape, the group stares at Tim in disbelief.

"Well, guess we're going to Graywall," Tim says, cleaning the blood off of his knife...


The end of that scene was awesome, as the rest of the party was discussing other items of interest that they may question him about, but G roleplayed the crap out of the situation and just spoke loudly over everyone else "I KILL HIM". Everyone looked over silently, and I described what happened from there. Tim got several badass points from this situation, a specific tally that Tim has been keeping since the beginning of the campaign -- they have no tangible game benefit, but he is constantly asking "do I get a badass point for that?"

NEXT TIME: A funeral! An old friend! A new foe!?

DJroboninja
2016-05-20, 03:51 PM
SESSION NINETEEN -- THE CHAMPION'S GAMES, PART ONE

Ni hao party people, who's up for some Dungeons?

...

...and also, possibly, some Dragons!?

Haha, cool, I should mention that neither one is featured in this session.

Anyway, brief recap, the party hunted down a party of Daask-affiliated warriors and fought them on the cliffs of a red stone canyon -- interrogating the only survivor, they discover that Myzar, the albino gnoll who took part in removing Tim's memories, is operating in Graywall, managing a team of gladiators in the Champion's Games, which will be beginning within a week's time.

It's a long one this time -- LET'S GO.


Before the party prepares themselves to head back to Graywall, they have something to do that they have been forgetting about. Having returned to Sharn after their fight with the Daask cut-throats, the adventurers gather on a small hill outside of the city, near the King's Forest. A single oak tree juts out of the earth atop the hillock, next to a rectangular hole Jim has carved into the dirt.

Zeau asks, "should we say something?"

Jeau, using his knowledge of ancient Khorvairian religious practices, makes a simple, generic speech about life passing on to death -- as he finishes, he nods to Tim, who dumps the bones of the Marquess' wife, the Marchioness, into the hole. As her remains clatter to the bottom of the make-shift grave, a translucent blue figure rises from the bottom, her dress blown by an unseen wind and her face buried in her hands.

Between sobs, she says, "I thank you... kind strangers... I only wished to... see... the sky... one last time!"

"Before you go," Jeau says, imploring the ghostly woman, "do you know where your husband hid his phylactery? It's something like a small box, or similar item -- we cannot truly destroy him until we find that phylactery."

The Marchioness begins to fade from view, raising her face toward the heavens. "The City on the Dagger River, Ja'sharaat..." As the name leaves her lips, she disappears from view with a low rumble, followed by silence...

"Ja'sharaat? Does anyone know what that is?"

Jeau sighs. "It's the goblin city upon which Sharn is built." The entire group stares at the massive metropolis looming nearby. "It could be anywhere..."

Once they arrive back in Sharn, Jeau visits the nearest House Sivis speaking stone office and sends a missive to Wren, his scholarly friend in the northern part of Breland, near the small town of Shavalant. He asks her for two things -- information about the Champion's Games and a possible location for the Marquess' phylactery...

The party spends a few days upgrading their equipment and buying provisions for their trip, and Jeau scribes a scroll of teleport to take them back to the familiar town of Graywall. As they are preparing to leave Sharn yet again, they receive word back from Wren:

"Hello Jeau! How are you all doing in Sharn? I hope you are all well.

So, the Champion's Games -- this tournament has been going on in Droamm for many years, and it is one of the biggest events in the nation each year. It is a series of gladatorial combats, summoning contests, magical duels, and theatrical performances -- the gladiators fight for an escalating cash purse with each round, culminating in a massive prize and the rights to wear the Champion's Belt for one year!

It is dangerous, however -- fights continue until the surrender or death of all opposition. Each team needs a manager, who is given the cash prize and tasked with dividing it up between the fighters -- if you are looking to join, you need a manager! If you are fighting in this tournament, PROMISE ME YOU WON'T DIE!

Also, I tried using my divinations to find the phylactery you mentioned, but I couldn't see anything -- it seems to be protected by some powerful magic. I will keep looking and let you know what I find...

Yours,
Wren"



After reading Wren's letter, the party confirms that they plan to enter themselves into the Champion's Games as a gladiator team, discussing who to hire on as their manager -- they briefly entertain the idea of electing one of them manager, but quickly decide against it. After a brief discussion, the field is reduced to three names -- Hot Irons, Jim's bare-knuckle-brawling Warforged friend; Janus, Tim's gambling buddy; or Kromm, the friendly magical monster merchant from Graywall.

The decision is made and the party teleports to Graywall using Jeau's scroll -- they are surrounded by billowing green smoke and once again their stomachs turn, but once the smoke clears they find themselves back in Graywall, right outside of Kromm's Kollektion, which is much quieter than the last time they were there (Sesssion Two (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=20557852&postcount=6) for those who don't remember).

Walking inside, they see their friend Kromm, standing behind the counter -- the bell attached to the front door jingles and jangles, and Kromm turns around to greet new customers. However, his expression changes from a small grin to a giant smile as he recognizes the group: "Well look who it is! What are you guys doing back in Graywall?" He rushes out from behind the counter and shakes the hand of Jim, Tim, and Jeau, before dropping to a knee and kissing Zeau on the hand.

"Well," Jeau begins, "we are going to be competing in the Champion's Games this week!"

"The Champion's Games!? Well, you ought to put on quite the show! After what you did to those displacer beasts, I bet you could handle anything the Games could throw at you. Who's going to be managing you?"

"...well, we were hoping that you would, Kromm."

The orc's mouth hangs open for a moment in disbelief. He tries to put up a fight, saying that he has no experience with such a responsibility, but the party will have none of it -- they insist. Eventually, they convince him and, after Kromm gets his employee to watch the shop for the rest of the day, the group heads to the Graywall Arena to register for the tournament.

As they arrive, Kromm leads them to where he believes the registration takes place, and the group is greeted by a middle-aged woman with large glasses. Before she begins any of the registration process, she demands that their entrance fee be paid in full -- two hundred gold Galifars each. Kromm thinks this seems a bit too high, but he can't convince her to lower the price, and Jeau and Tim both fail at attempting to persuade her to give them a discount. Jim saunters up to the counter (Jim has a Charisma of 7 and 0 ranks in Diplomacy, but his player says "eh, what the hell, let's give it a shot") and flirts with the woman (Diplomacy check), who immediately gets red in the face and smiles -- apparently she has a thing for big, burly dwarven men (NATURAL TWENTY). "Well, I suppose we could call it... 150 Galifars each?"

They agree, and all of them throw down their entrance fee on the counter -- finding that the maximum team size is five, they also put down an entrance fee for Pickle to join them.

"Well everything seems to be in order," says the registrar, "all I need now is your team name."

"...TO THE HILT!"

(I f***ing hate them so much...)



The next day, in the middle of the day, the party is escorted through the arena, which is a gigantic stone oval with fifteen-foot high walls and a loose, sandy floor -- dozens of rows of seating climb up the edges, enough to sit hundreds of people. "Just think," Kromm says, "tomorrow these seats will be filled with people, cheering for you." They are walked to a set of large doors and enter into the "back-stage" sections of the Arena, and eventually taken down several flights of stairs to an area known as the Coenoby -- a massive, natural cavern beneath the floor of the Arena. Several small stone huts dot the floor of the cave, and each is labeled with a different team name. The guards escorting the party lead them to a hut marked with "To the Hilt", and Jim makes sure to tell the guards that their name should have an exclamation point on the end...

Kromm tells the group that the first night of the tournament is the official opening of the Champion's Games -- a great feast where all of the gladiator teams can rub elbows with each other, and their managers can secure sponsorships or favorable betting odds for their teams. He says that he needs to check in with his shop, but he will be back for the Feast in his finest suit. Before he leaves, he asks the party to make him a promise -- that, should the need arise, they will surrender in the tournament. He doesn't want any of them to die -- he couldn't bear the guilt. The adventurers all nod in turn, "We promise not to die..."

For the next couple hours, they rest in their little hut in the Coenoby, drumming their fingers until they are told that the Feast will be beginning in one hour, at which point they change into their fancy clothing from the Wayfinder Foundation Gala. Tim, however, uses his shapeshifting abilities to transform his form into that of a thin, demure elven woman, donning a sparkling glamerweave dress as he does so.

The party heads back to the Arena floor as the sun is beginning to disappear behind the stone walls of the structure -- dozens of tables are arrayed across the area, some large and covered in tankards of ale, glasses of fine, and platters of succulent food from over a dozen different cultures and locations, others small and marked with a hand-made tent displaying the name of a gladiator team. In a large viewing box overlooking the Arena, they can see what looks like an unspeakably ancient old woman, he one eye glowing with a red light as it darts around the area, never focusing on one thing for more than a half second. As they meet at their team table, they take a look around the area and start taking in the competition:

The Crazy Eight
Five figures draped in black and wearing masks that cover the upper half of their face. They are keeping together as a group, heads down, speaking only when spoken to by their manager, a peg-legged half-orc...

Jungle Arcana
Four female elves from the island nation of Aerenal, their bodies are covered in skeletal tattoos. A man approaches their table with a glass of wine in his hand, smiling lecherously at the women, but one of them slams her fist on the table and shouts at him, scaring him off...

The Unhumans
A group of half-orc warriors draped in simple slacks and shirts, wearing the heraldry of House Tharashk. Their manager is a well-kept half-orc man with carefully coiffed blonde hair, a dragonmark glowing on his wrist...

Black Blood
Several tieflings, all decked out in plate armor as if they weren't told this first night was a simple feast. Their eyes dart around looking for danger, and a blue-skinned ogre mage floats around them, chatting up the other managers...

The Sapphire Squad
A foreign-looking man dressed in a turban and wide-legged pants chats up every woman within his view, smiling and flirting constantly. As the party looks in his direction, he notice their gaze and winks at Tim's elven visage...

Pitch Blade
This team appears to be only two warriors -- a pair of duergar in black armor, who stare intently at Jim, their eyes never faltering the entire feast. Asking around, they discover that they were the last team to register, and they do not appear to have a manager...

The Gravediggers
Finally, they spot Myzar's team, five gnolls all wearing expensive looking clothing. They stand in a huddle around their table, laughing uproariously with shrieking, high-pitched guffaws that echo throughout the Arena. Nearby, the party sees Myzar, his white fur and giant facial scar making him easy to spot in the crowd...

Throughout the night of the Feast, the party and Kromm get to know the other teams. Tim keeps an eye on Myzar, watching his every move -- however, their are guards everywhere, and an attempt on Myzar's life would surely not end well. As he is watching his old enemy, the head of the Sapphire Squad approaches, and identifies himself as Korush, a Janni from far-off lands -- he begins fawning over Tim's beauty and elegance, and Tim eventually plays along, asking him stories about what he can do and what powers he possesses...

As Jeau is getting a drink, he feels a tap on his shoulder -- he turns to see the face of the manager of the Unhumans, who introduces himself as Edwin d'Tharashk. He has a swagger to his speech and the force of personality of a man who thinks very highly of himself. "To the Hilt, hm? An interesting team name. And an even more interesting team. So, you are a scion of House Jorasco, hm? What's a man of the Healing House doing in a fight?"

"My people can heal, but we can also hurt," Jeau says, distrustful.

"Well I work for the Prospector's Guild, in House Tharashk. And I must say, that dragonshard in your hand is of immaculate quality. Tell me, where did you find it?"

"Talenta, years ago," Jeau says, his eyes narrowing.

"Very interesting. A dragonshard of that purity could be worth a pretty Crown to the right buyer -- have you considered selling it?"

"No."

"I understand. Just be careful, little halfling. Some people would go to great lengths to get something like that away from you..."

There is a moment of silence, followed by several thunderous bursts above the Arena -- the fireworks that mark the end of the Champion's Feast. At this, Edwin nods to Jeau and smiles, walking away without another word.

As the fireworks end and the applause rises and falls, the standings for the next day are revealed:

To the Hilt will be facing off against two teams in a three-way free-for-all fight -- Jungle Arcana, and the Sapphire Squad...



The party is marched up to the main floor of the Arena just before noon of the following day -- this time, they are decked out in their best armor and weaponry. They hear a magically-enhanced human voice from the other side of the giant doors before entering -- it announces the arrival of Jungle Arcana and Sapphire Squad first, to the sounds of resounding cheers.

Then, the voice says, "and last, but surely not least, we have a brand new team -- hailing from Sharn, please welcome to the Champion's Games... TO! THE! HILT!!"

At that, the doors open, and just as Kromm said, the seats are filled to capacity -- people of all races, nations, and creeds sit shoulder to shoulder, many of them holding flags, pennants, and banners bearing the names of the other teams participating in the Games. The announcer begins explaining the rules for the contest, and with that, the teams get the go-ahead to begin preparing for the fight -- Jeau starts throwing buff spells onto Jim and Tim, while Zeau summons up her primal magic and transmutes her flesh into the bark of an old tree. Across the way, the ladies of Jungle Arcana, four elven archers, are drinking potions, hurling the clay vials into the sand as they are done and grabbing another. Meanwhile, a pair of mercenaries in Korush's employ mount up onto a pair of warhorses while Korush grandstands for the crowd, his arms outstretched as the fans rain down roses and other flowers around him.

"Alright, everyone, let's count it down," the announcer shouts, "THREE! TWO! ONE!"

And they are given the signal that combat has begun. Korush's men charge ahead, both heading toward the elven archers, while the women of Jungle Arcana form a phalanx and begin taking aim with their bows, two firing on Sapphire Squad, the other two targeting To the Hilt!

Meanwhile, Korush lifts off the sands, floating in the air above the Arena floor, and he draws a glistening silver scimitar off his belt, hurtling toward the adventurers and spinning through the air, laughing uproariously as he does so. Jim lets out an angry roar and shouts "I HATE THAT GUY", using the natural arcane energy in his duergar blood to double in size and stomp toward the Janni. Jeau starts firing magic missiles at the archers and Zeau starts summoning a massive thunderhead above the Arena, causing a gasp of excitement and fear to escape from the gathered crowd. Tim, meanwhile, grabs his knives and charges toward the mercenaries, hoping to catch them off-guard.

The lead archer from Jungle Arcana speaks an Elvish incantation under her breath and suddenly multiplies into a crowd of identical women, standing in close proximity. They all nock an arrow and fire toward the party, one of which leaps forth from the group and covers itself in a thick layer of ice as it sails through the air; then she fires another, lightning quick.

The fight is long and difficult -- the party is assailed by arrows, some magical, some mundane; Korush slashes his scintillating scimitar across Jim's giant flesh, using his magic to try and shrink him back down to normal, but failing; Tim slashes one of the horses and sends the rider flying into the sands below, where Zeau's lightning bolt obliterates him, turning the sand around him to glass.

The archers eventually are bloodied to the point of surrender, and Korush's two men are both dead, but the boisterous janni refuses to give in. He looks to the crowd and shouts "my beautiful fans, how shall I kill this monster from the depths of Khyber!?" At that, Jim swings his massive axe, dripping with caustic liquid and flickering with flames, and separates the man's head from his shoulders, causing his body to drop the the sands below with a thud...

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! YOUR VICTORS... TO! THE! HILT!"


Damn, I forgot how much happened that session! This adventure is partially adapted from "The Champion's Belt" in Dungeon 128 -- the fights in the Arena were definitely a high-point of the campaign. I'm especially proud of how much I made the party hate Edwin d'Tharashk and Korush -- when Edwin walked away the party was visibly unhappy with his veiled threats, and when Korush was killed the entire table cheered!

NEXT TIME: Another fight! AND ANOTHER FIGHT!?

DJroboninja
2016-05-28, 09:43 PM
SESSION TWENTY -- THE CHAMPION'S GAMES, PART TWO

Hello? (lo-lo-lo-lo...)

Is anybody there? (er-er-er-er...)

Well, anywho, let's continue on with the story of the Champion's Games. Technically I am combining two sessions into one -- Tim decided to go scouting ahead on Day 3 of the tournament and that night's game was just following his adventures deeper and deeper into the earth as the rest of the party said "you should probably come back" and Tim was all like "hmmmmm, one more room". It's best we just skip that one.

To recap, Tim has discovered the location of the usually-reclusive Daask gnoll that was instrumental in getting his memories removed -- he is managing a team of gladiators at the Champion's Games in Graywall, a humongous week-long tournament that draws fighters from all across Khorvaire. The party has contacted their old friend Kromm to act as their manager, even though he has no experience, and they have officially joined the festivities, under the name "To the Hilt!". At the opening gala, the party spotted the albino gnoll and his so-called Gravediggers, as well as a team of two duergar known as Pitch Blade, who stared daggers at Jim throughout the feast, and a scion of House Tharashk known as Edwin, who seems to be willing to go to great lengths to get the dragonshard in Jeau's hand. The next day, To the Hilt was able to emerge victorious in their first battle against a pair of teams -- Jungle Arcana and the Sapphire Squad.


Immediately after their fight with the elven ladies of Jungle Arcana and the boisterous janni leading the Sapphire Squad, the party is still celebrating their combat prowess, patting each other on the back and recapping the excitement of the long combat. They are lead back down to the Coenoby below the arena and taken back to their small individual cabin.

After several hours of downtime, there is a knock on the front door -- Tim is distrustful, grabbing his knives out in case the worst happens, but the rest of the party is more trusting, and they open the door to see Kromm standing there, a huge grin across his face. He is holding a small leather bag in one hand and a bronze statue of a large bull in the other. As he shuffles into the small building, a huge grin plastered across his face, he keeps talking and talking without punctuation, recapping the fight in its entirety and telling To the Hilt how amazing they are.

Once Kromm is able to calm himself down, he presents them with the bronze bull trophy, signifying a victory in the first round of the Champion's Games, and tells them that their purse was 2000 gold Galifars in total -- he tells them that, as their manager he is only going to take ten percent. The party mentions that ten percent is a very low cut for a manager, but he explains that, since he is brand new and has no real idea what he is doing, he can't justify taking any more (at this point, the party asked me if that was a benefit that only Kromm would have given them, and I explained that all of their potential managers had a special benefit involved -- Hot Irons would grant them knowledge about their opponents, Janus would bet against them and allow them to gain some monetary benefit if they lost, and Kromm would take a smaller cut. I believe this was the point where the party realized I was now over-preparing for sessions).

Kromm's face gets a bit somber at this point. "They posted who your next fight is going to be. It's those other gray dwarves -- Pitch Blade they call themselves. I watched their first fight today -- lasted less than a minute. You guys better be careful out there, don't be too proud to give up if it means saving your life..."

The adventurers promise once again that they will survive these fights, and as Kromm is leaving they make a request -- that Kromm send a Speaking Stone message to Gaius Anderfel, asking him if he can give them any assistance in the tournament. Kromm nods, and leaves...



As the third day of the tournament begins, the party discovers that they have a full day of nothing ahead of them -- their fight with Pitch Blade isn't until the following afternoon, and the current day is dedicated to magical contests, arcane theatrics, and other events meant to be watched and enjoyed by the fans in attendance.

While the rest of the party spends their day talking and enjoying each other's company, Tim spends his day on a single-minded pursuit -- watching Myzar's team, the Gravediggers, through the small window in their dwelling. There are dozens of guards posted throughout the Coenoby, so an immediate attack would be a bad idea (there were several instances of G saying "guys I think I can handle the guards, do you have my back" and everyone else saying "don't do that, we will not help you"). Also, Myzar never appears for as long as he watches -- however, after several hours of sitting by the window, he spots a goblin who approaches the gnolls' cabin, the guards acting as if he isn't even there. The goblin and one of the Gravediggers have a short conversation, and then the gnoll leaves, heading for the caverns beyond the Coenoby, slinking away into the shadows...

"Guys, I need you to make a distraction," Tim says, "one of them just left and I'm going to follow him."

"But if you get caught we'll be kicked out," says Jim, unwilling to leave the greatest event that he has ever been allowed to take part in.

"That's why I need a distraction."

At this, the rest of the group heads out into the middle of the Coenoby, and Jim uses one of the only two talents he has -- he starts dancing. There is no music playing at all, but Jim starts anyway, and begins calling out to the other gladiators to join him. For a bit, no one seems interested, but eventually, one of the other gladiators walks out to meet him, and begins dancing with him, and eventually more join. A team of sahuagin known as the Teeth of the Devourer step out from their cabin, and begin drumming a beat on their massive tortoise-shell shields. Soon, nearly half the remaining warriors are taking part in an impromptu dance party, and all of the guards are watching them, some even tapping their feet or bobbing their heads to the beat.

As this is happening, Tim, sticking to the shadows, creeps out of the Coenoby and disappears into the tunnels beyond, without any of the guards taking notice -- he disappears for several hours before returning, the smell of death cloying to his cloak, his breeches wet below the knees.

"The tunnels connect to the sewers below Graywall," he says, "and Myzar is down there..."



After a night of partying for some and trudging through sewage for others, the group is once again lead back up to the main arena above. As they approach the doors, they can hear the crowd going crazy on the other side, and as the announcer's magically-enhanced voice booms across the area and proudly shouts their name, the doors open and they look around to discover several home-made pennants and banners displaying the name "To the Hilt!" in big, hand-drawn letters.

The announcer then introduces Pitch Blade, and the two duergar walk out on the opposite end of the oval-shaped Arena, both covered in black armor and furs and carrying swords nearly as long as they are tall. They take no notice of the crowd, walking out and staring intently at Jim. As the announcer starts recapping both teams' first round wins, they get the okay to prepare for the fight and see Pitch Blade beginning to grab potion after potion from their belts, drinking them down and hurling the empty vials to the sand at their feet. Zeau casts magical energy into her form and replaces her skin with the bark of an old tree, Jeau infuses his headband with artifice to boost his intelligence, and Zeau and Jeau together buff up Tim's Dexterity and Jim's Strength, until finally the announcer and the crowd count it down once more: "Three... Two... ONE... FIGHT!"

The two duergar both lift off the ground, magically-enhanced by their potions, and their swords both burst into flames as they charge at the party...

http://66.media.tumblr.com/ef2742e32874f10c54eb7df97ad59d59/tumblr_nx9ify8MbN1rcd8pvo1_500.jpg

Jim immediately lets out a resounding battle cry and once again invokes his natural duergar magic to double in size, his battleaxe expanding to be the size of a small tree -- he speaks the command word to wreathe his weapon in flames and dripping acid, and charges in as well. Meanwhile, Zeau once again begins conjuring a lightning storm above the arena (which, thanks to its use in the first round, is now a crowd favorite, eliciting a standing ovation from several excited fans) and Jeau starts blasting magic missiles toward the two enemy combatants. Tim starts working his way toward the melee, looking for an opening...

As Jim nears the flying warriors, the two of them both invoke the magic in their blood and become giant as well. Jim and Pitch Blade clash weapons in a flurry of sparks, as one of the duergar snarls in Jim's face like an animal, and shouts at him in Undercommon: "TRAITOR! You have betrayed your people, and we will kill you in front of these soft surface folk in the name of the King!" The other shouts "King Dravik wants your head, and your father wants you to come home and stand trial. Your father is weak, like you -- you will never see him again."

The dwarves begin slashing their massive swords at Jim, biting through his armor and leaving several deep gashes along his arms as Tim joins the fray, side-stepping the giant dwarves and attacking them from behind. As the fight continues, Zeau calling down bolts of lightning that turn the sand into glass and Tim slashing at his armored quarry, Jim begins taking more and more hits from the pair. Seeing his best friend in danger, Jeau decides to use a new trick up his sleeve -- he funnels some of his artificer energy into his wand of magic missiles, and five blue missiles streak out, all nearly twice their normal size, and they strike one of the enemy warriors, hitting him in the chest and blowing his chest open (Metamagic spell trigger, boom). He shrinks down and plummets to the ground, smoke pouring from his ribcage...

The remaining dwarf continues fighting with Jim, trading blows back and forth, but soon To the Hilt's greater numbers prevail -- he speaks through blood-stained teeth to Jim, saying "King Dravik will send more of us -- there is nowhere on the surface world where you can hide. YOU WILL PAY FOR W-"

And suddenly, a bolt of lightning strikes downward from the stormcloud above, jolting into the dwarf's chest with such force that his skeleton is visible through his thick skin. The magic in him subsides and he drops to the ground, smoke roiling off his blackened corpse as the crowd erupts in cheers.

"Ladies and gentlemen, your victors -- TO! THE! HILT!"



After their fight with Pitch Blade, Kromm presents the party with a silver statue of a gladiator, and a purse of gold more than twice the size of their winnings from the first round. Kromm lets them know that he's been seeing To the Hilt merchandise around Graywall -- the group is getting more and more popular. The party asks Kromm if they've received a response from Gaius yet, and Kromm shakes his head.

Shortly thereafter, he presents the semi-final brackets, which are very confusing to the group:

The Unhumans vs The Gravediggers
To The Hilt vs ???

Kromm grins a wide smile: "You've got a beast battle! That's a great honor -- you must really be impressing the tournament hosts." The party asks what sort of beast they will be fighting, but Kromm shrugs, saying that it's different every year, and always something rare and exciting. The party bids Kromm goodnight, simultaneously confused and excited by this revelation.

The next day, in the middle of the afternoon, they are once again lead to the arena, the crowd going insane as the announcer introduces them. Meanwhile, the announcer says "And, their challenger..." as a massive wood and steel crate is dragged out by a team of four arena guards. The crate shakes and rattles from whatever is inside as the party gets the okay to begin preparations, unaware of what they will be fighting.

After a moment, the guards grab thick iron chains, one attached to each corner of the box, and run in opposite directions. As they reach the end of the chains lengths, metal pins spring out of the crate and the sides fall away, revealing a strange beast that looks slightly like a frog -- however, rather than amphibian forelimbs, the creature has four thick, flailing tentacles, and a fleshy stalk juts out of the top of its head, bearing a trio of eyes that blink rapidly, adjusting to the bright sun of the mid-day.

http://67.media.tumblr.com/21b3c8ad9b5b7bd78a4eafaa80d5416c/tumblr_nx9ibbTLUq1rcd8pvo1_500.jpg

"...ladies and gentlemen, MADTOOTH! THE HUNGRY!"

The beast begins crawling toward the party at a rapid speed, and the group turns to Jeau, asking what it is -- he falls silent for a second, and says "I have no idea!" Zeau grits her teeth and says "it doesn't matter" and calls down a divine flame strike onto the creature, blackening its flesh as it nears the group.

Jim and Tim charge forward as Jeau and Zeau hang back, and as the warriors approach the monster, it's long, stretchy tongue shoots out and wraps around Tim, picking him up off the ground and dropping him back down to the sands below. Jim starts slashing his axe into the beast's bulbous, moisture-covered body, but finds that the flames from his axe do nothing to the creature's moist flesh (ew, I hated typing those words). Tim starts hitting it from behind, carving his knives through its form, while Jim continues hammering on it with his axe, leaving behind many large, gaping wounds. Jeau and Zeau remain away from the melee, firing spells from afar, trying to distract Madtooth and divide his attention. After a bit, the creature swings all of its tentacles at Jim, wrapping each one around one of the dwarf's limbs and lifting him off the ground.

The beast holds Jim above his head, opens up his giant, tooth-filled maw, and drops him in, swallowing him whole!

The rest of the group shouts in alarm, calling out Jim's name and hurling everything they've got at the monster, trying to target his head an tentacles so as not to hurt their friend -- if he's even still alive. Meanwhile, inside the creature, Jim uses the power of his rage to growl and grow claws from the tips of his fingers (beast totem rage power), using them to slash at Madtooth's insides surrounding him. Jeau, once again seeing his friend in trouble, holds his wand up, sights in on the beast, and charges it with magical energy -- a strong wind blows around him, kicking up his cloak, as the tip of the wand begins to glow blue and the crystal in his hand starts to shine with golden light.

Five orbs of blue energy rocket out of the wand, corkscrewing through the air and converging on one point -- the monster's eyestalk. All five hit at once, and a dull "thump" rings out through the arena, followed by an echoing "BOOM" as Madtooth's three eyes explode into a million pieces, splattering the arena with bits of blue blood and smoking flesh. As the monster collapses backward, Tim uses his kukris to slice through the monster's gullet, sending Jim spilling out onto the sand covered in dark blue viscera...

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, your winners once again" the announcer shouts, "say it with me, TO! THE! HILT!"


What an awesome session -- everyone got to play the whole time and no one argued about what do or who should stop exploring and return to the group.

At least that's how I'm choosing to remember it.

NEXT TIME: Sewers! Drugs! And proof that people are still reading this!????

Temperjoke
2016-05-28, 10:20 PM
We're just trying to be polite and contain our excitement, while waiting for another chapter :D

DJroboninja
2016-05-29, 12:17 AM
We're just trying to be polite and contain our excitement, while waiting for another chapter :D

But this is the internet, where politeness goes to die...

NRSASD
2016-05-29, 01:03 AM
More specifically, the OoTS forum, where politeness goes to make one last, valiant stand against the insane and profane darkness of the internet...

Don nadie
2016-05-29, 02:51 AM
I always wait eagerly for the next chapter! I don't always write so, though :P

Kol Korran
2016-05-29, 05:54 AM
We're still here. And I love your log!

What was that tentacle creature at the last battle? I remember seeing... "Something"... vaguely like that, But I can't place it...

SZbNAhL
2016-05-29, 06:23 AM
I am also still here and still enjoying the log.

Inevitability
2016-05-29, 06:29 AM
We're still here. And I love your log!

What was that tentacle creature at the last battle? I remember seeing... "Something"... vaguely like that, But I can't place it...

I'm like 99% sure it's a Froghemoth (http://theoldworld.wikidot.com/local--files/froghemoth/CB-Froghemoth.png).

DJroboninja
2016-05-29, 09:25 AM
I'm like 99% sure it's a Froghemoth (http://theoldworld.wikidot.com/local--files/froghemoth/CB-Froghemoth.png).

Ding ding ding, we have a winner!

DJroboninja
2016-05-29, 09:26 AM
Also, happy to see people are still interested and following along - you guys rock!

twas_Brillig
2016-05-29, 12:17 PM
Ahh! I remain impressed by the level of intrigue you manage to pump into these updates. Not to mention prize-fighting just seems like such a non-murder hobo-ly way to keep everyone engaged with violence and lucre, but you've also got it tied into at least two characters' backstories, which is just perfect. Seeing the froghemoth made me really happy -- what's the over/under on Gaius finding some very interesting leads in the Barrier Peaks?

Jonagel
2016-05-29, 04:33 PM
Still reading and still enjoying! Characters, story, and writing style are great -- please keep it up :D

Also, I cannot wait for round two with the lich. A lich, who I hope, comes back with a full house. Finds the remains of each major hobgoblin they fought and uses necromancy to bring them back maybe? Would be tragic with the lady....

DJroboninja
2016-05-30, 04:04 PM
SESSION TWENTY-ONE -- THE CHAMPION'S GAMES, PART THREE

What's the haps, my friends?

Who's ready for another exciting episode of To the Hilt?

To recap, the party is fighting in the Champion's Games, a grand fighting tournament held every year in the city of Graywall, in Droamm. While the promises of combat, glory, and gold are more than enough to get the group interested in the festivities, Tim has another reason to be there -- Myzar, the albino gnoll who helped get his memories taken away, is managing a gladiator team. Earlier in the tournament, Tim snuck away from the rest of the group, exploring the caverns deep below the arena floor, and thinks he knows where Myzar is hiding...


Shortly after their combat with Madtooth the Hungry, Kromm arrives at their cabin in the Coenoby, once again holding a cash prize and their trophy from the previous round, a golden statue of an armored warrior. Kromm shakes his head and says "I couldn't believe the display you put on earlier -- when that, that thing ate Jim? I was terrified! It was so incredible. I guess what I'm trying to say is... thank you for letting me take part in this tournament with you. This past week has been one of the best of my life, and the winnings are going to open up so much for me. Thank you." The orc gives an awkward grin, and the party and he share a big group hug.

After a moment, Kromm looks over his shoulder, toward the Gravediggers' camp on the other side of the Coenoby cavern. At this point, they are the only other team remaining in the cavern, after the Gravediggers easily dispatched the Unhumans in the semi-finals of the tournament. As the party follows Kromm's gaze to their cabin, they can see that every guard in the Coenoby has moved their post, and they are now arrayed all around the small domicile the other team is calling home -- Tim surmises that Myzar has paid the guards off to defend his team from whoever would be facing them in the finals.

Kromm turns around and pulls some notes from his pocket, which have been hastily folded a few too many times. "I've watched the Gravediggers in all three fights they've had so far, and I've got some information for you..." He explains that the group is led by Hartskar, a wicked gnoll in a breastplate that accentuates a long scar that crosses from shoulder to hip on his chest. Hartskar wields a large sword, and likes to fight dirty -- kicking sand in people's faces, gouging eyes, and kicking groins. His lieutenant is a female gnoll named Shazz -- she fights like Tim, Kromm explains, and he's seen her use some magic in their fights. The other three appear to be basic warriors, who follow Hartskar's every word and work together as a team.

To the Hilt thanks Kromm for his assistance, and he nods, giving each member of the party a hug or handshake as he sees fit. "Tomorrow is another exhibition day, so no fights for you. I'll see you the day after tomorrow when I give you the Champion's Belt..."



The following morning, the party awakens, once again checking on the Gravediggers. They all appear to be within their Coenoby cabin, unwilling to leave, while the Arena guards flank the area, surrounding them on all sides. Tim explains that today may be the only possible chance they get to strike against Myzar in his base within the sewers -- he is going to fight him and the others are more than welcome to come with him. He will guide them through the caverns back to the place he found several days earlier...

Jim is reluctant at first. "But we're almost in the finals. If we're caught sneaking away from the Co... the Ce... the big cave, we will be disqualified..."

"Then we just won't get caught," Tim replies (Jim's player, B, was having the time of his life in the arena, and the idea of not getting that belt was terrifying to him).

Watching the guards, the party finds them to be absent-minded -- they are playing cards, talking to each other, and only half-heartedly watching over their new charges. Once the party is geared up and ready to head out, Tim waits for an opportunity, watching the guards and gauging them -- finally, he turns to the rest of the party and says "Now."

All of them slink out the door, sticking to the shadows and following Tim's lead to get out of there safely. At one point, Jim stumbles, his armor clanging as he does so, and the rest of the group is convinced that they've been caught, but they look over to see only one guard look up from his card game before shrugging and going back to it (Jim rolled very poorly on his Stealth check -- the guards rolled even worse, somehow).

Eventually, the group is able to make their way out of the Coenoby and into the next area, which was once a housing area for the underground denizens of Graywall. A statue of a giant holding a massive stone hammer looms over the entrance to the labyrinth of tunnels, and the party feels overwhelmed. However, Tim knows the path, remembering from when he followed the Daask gladiator earlier in the week -- he tells the party to keep quiet as they follow him through the twisting, turning tunnels of the cavern...

After a long, winding journey through the corridors, To the Hilt arrives in a small natural cave -- before they even enter the area, the stench of rotten meat and death is powerful, causing the party's stomachs to turn. Tim whispers: "Some sort of undead in here, and a massive pile of old meat. Someone put them here, and someone is feeding them..." Perring around the corner, they spot twelve creatures with sickly green skin, all emaciated and devouring a massive mound of rotting food -- Jeau recognizes them as ghasts, undead that eat flesh and reek of death. Tim explains how, in his previous adventure here, he used a potion of spider climb to avoid the massive group of creatures, and the others discuss how they can get around them this time -- eventually, Tim decides to distract the group and sneak past. He aims and hurls a dagger into the corner of the room, which clatters loudly against the stone, causing most of the ghasts to turn toward the noise and hiss, creeping toward it to investigate.

As they are attempting to creep past, however, one of the creatures notices them and lets out a raspy cry to alert his brethren. Jim grins, since this is what he wanted all along, and rushes into the fray, while Jeau throws another bead from his necklace of fireballs into the corner, frying several of the creatures that shuffled over to look into the strange sound. The fight is quick, as Jim's axe and natural resistance to paralysis allow him to stand in the center of the pack of ghasts, slashing and smashing until all unlife is stamped out...

The group continues on, finding their way to another cavern that is filled with water, which seems to run in from somewhere on the surface. The water spills down a stone tunnel, filling up a small basin, before rolling down a sloped rock to what looks like a manufactured chamber. Tim points: "The caves meet the sewer system down there -- be careful, it's slippery."

Carefully, the group makes their way down the slope, water trickling around their feet, before entering into a circular stone room, the water dripping through a metallic grate and dripping down into the darkness below. As they are getting their bearings, the party hears the sound of laughter echoing from down the tunnel.

"Almost there." Tim says...



The party starts walking toward the stone chambers in which Myzar's operatives have holed up for the duration of the tournament. Tim explains that Myzar is a skittish gnoll, who doesn't trust anyone -- he rarely leaves the Daask safehouses of Sharn, and refuses to stay in any sort of public place for too long. As they near the first room, they see what looks to have once been a maintenance office for the Graywall sewer system -- inside, there are two orcs and three gnolls, some playing cards while the others talk about past jobs.

To the Hilt discusses their options, and finally settles on one -- Tim will shapechange into Myzar and lead Jim into the room, pretending that he caught the dwarf wandering the tunnels, while the rest of the group waits outside (a plan which has become known in our group as "Pulling a Chewie"). Tim shapeshifts into Myzar, his skin transforming into white fur, his face turning into a long muzzle with a thick, gash-like scar creeping up to his ear. As the two of them are walking into the Daask den, Jeau, Pickle, and Zeau post up outside the entrance, Zeau transforming into a massive, orange-furred tiger just in case...

As "Myzar" walks in he grabs one of the gnolls playing cards and slams his face into the table, causing him to let out a canine whimper and fall backward as the other stand at attention.

"Alright," he growls, "which one o' ya gits has been lettin' deep dwarves wander around, hm!? I caught this gray-skinned punk right outside the door here..." He then punches Jim right in the gut as hard as he can, and the dwarf pretends to collapse to the ground, unconscious.

The soldiers are intimidated, and confused. One of them near the door says: "...but, Mr. Myzar, I thought you were in your room?" (all PCs, simultaneously: "F***!")

"Myzar" uses his mastery of lying: "I've got a secret way in and out, ya git. Y'think I trust you lot to protect the one entrance!? YOU TWO, GET OUT THERE AND PATROL FOR MORE DWARVES!"

The two farthest Daask soldiers get up and salute, grabbing their weapons and heading for the hallway. As soon as they do, the orc turns to the side and spots a gigantic jungle cat, which growls and pounces on him, giving him just enough time to shout "OH GODS, THERE'S A TIG-"

Before the remaining Daask operatives can react, Tim grabs his kukri and slits a gnoll's throat, while Jim "wakes up" and grabs his axe, demolishing another. Jeau, Zeau, and Pickle are able to easily dispatch the two in the hallway, leaving only one leftover -- the orc scrambles away from Tim and Jim, sprinting down the hallway toward a purple curtained chamber. Tim, lightning quick, laces a dagger with drow poison and hurls it at the orc, which stabs into his shoulder, but he keeps running. As the others rush in to join him, Tim poisons another dagger and hurls it, this one also hitting the orc in the back, but he keeps stumbling down the hallway, disappearing behind the curtain...

http://i.imgur.com/PRmvaYj.gif



The party charges after the wounded orc and rushes through the velvet curtain into another chamber -- this one, like the first area, is simple, unadorned stone, rivulets of water dribbling down it in places. However, the room is lit with a faint purple light and filled with a strange-smelling smoke, several large cushions lining the walls. Sitting in these cushions are several gnolls, along with a few creatures the party recognizes from the Champion's Games -- all of them have glazed over eyes, the pupils a faded lilac color. Only a couple of the gnolls stand and react to the group entering, the others lost in some other stream of consciousness. However, two creatures are already prepared to fight as soon as they cross the threshold -- a massive, blue-skinned ogre, holding a greatsword and floating a few inches above the ground, along with the poisoned orc, his breathing labored and his eyelids heavy.

The ogre mage breathes out a great torrent of icy energy at the party, trying his best not to hit any of his allies, while the awakened gnolls lazily stand and lift their weapons. The party enters and starts firing spells and swinging weapons in the ogre mage's direction -- he responds by using his natural magic to try and take hold of Jim's mind, but the raging dwarf fights through it. Eventually, the group is able to hack apart the Daask gnolls and knock the poisoned orc into unconsciousness -- Tim, finally, is able to leap onto the flying ogre and behead him, sending his body collapsing to the stone floor below, none of the drug-addled viewers taking notice.

Searching the room, the group finds several doses of absentia, a powerful drug becoming very popular in Sharn, which temporarily transports the user's consciousness to a different body elsewhere. Jim gathers some and puts it in his pack: "You never know..."

Continuing deeper into the maintenance offices, the party finds what appears to be a communal sleeping chamber for Myzar's guards and drug dealers -- several simplistic bedrolls are laid out across the floor of the room, nearly filling the chamber. Searching through the area, they find a set of high-quality thieves tools, a jade statue, and a strand of prayer beads, which Zeau recognizes as containing some healing magic. Taking everything, they enter into a large room off to the side of the sleeping chamber, the whole of which is a massive metal pipe, which extends downward and upward for as far as anyone in the party can see -- a small rusty walkway rings the perimeter.

The group considers leaping down into the darkness below ("it has to be here for a reason!"), but logic reigns superior and they decide against it. As they traverse back through the communal chamber, they approach a darkwood door set into the wall, a door which appears to have been added recently -- the door is warped by moisture in places and ringed with mold in others, and there is a metallic name plate in the center:

"MYZAR'S ROOM - DO NOT ENTER"


See you guys soon for the exciting conclusion!

NEXT TIME: An old enemy! Some answers! And a champion is crowned!

IntelectPaladin
2016-05-30, 06:17 PM
Let me assure you that you're forum posts are still some of my favorite.
I hadn't meant to be gong long enough to cause you to type out an echo,
but college finals got in the way.

I'm deeply looking forward to you're next post. I mean,
Honestly, this thread has been the best read I've seen in awhile.
The amazing art doesn't hurt matters, either.

And perhaps,
If you ever run a game on these forums, or some free online chatbox thing,
Could you use another player? I've been out of Role-playing games for far too long.

Thank you for reading this, and I hope you have a better day!

SZbNAhL
2016-05-31, 03:17 AM
So the gnoll with a scar across his chest is called "Heart-scar?". Was that intentional or just a fun coincidence?

MintyNinja
2016-05-31, 05:51 PM
Incredibly enjoyable read, even for one such as myself who knows next to nothing about Eberron.

Harmelyo
2016-06-02, 12:46 AM
I really enjoy reading through your adventures reports. Please keep them coming.

DJroboninja
2016-06-04, 05:21 PM
SESSION TWENTY-TWO -- THE CHAMPION'S GAMES, FINALE

Howdy pardners! Who's excited for another episode of To the Hilt?

As you know, when last we left our intrepid heroes, they were fighting in a massive fighting tournament known as the Champion's Games. Before facing off against the Gravediggers in the final round of combat, the party has ventured deep down into the caverns below the Arena, to face off against the albino gnoll, Myzar, who took part in erasing Tim's memories. They have followed the caverns down into the Graywalll sewer system, where Daask has a small operation set up -- fighting their way through a group of guards and a drug den, the party has come upon the doorway to Myzar's personal chambers...


The darkwood door is locked, so Tim takes out his thieves tools and sets to picking the mechanism. The party mentions that Myzar may be just beyond the door, so Tim pauses for a moment, and shifts his features into the beautiful elven woman he has been appearing as throughout the tournament. After a few minutes of work, there is a click, and Jim pushes the door open to reveal a very spartan bedchamber -- a central stone pillar supports the stained rock of the ceiling, and the only items that speak of a denizen are a moldering bedroll, a water-damaged armchair, and a long darkwood trunk lined with adamantine. The room is only lit by a burning block of incense in the corner, which fills the chamber with a fruity aroma. Tapestries of wool, some stained with blood, others tarnished by water and grime, line the walls...

The group searches through the room, finding nothing of note and no sign of Myzar -- however, they examine the burning incense and deduce that he was here very recently, as the block has barely burned down at all. Tim goes to open the heavy lid of Myzar's trunk, but as he touches it, a prism set into the front begins to glow with light -- beams of every color of the rainbow spring forth and begin streaking across the chamber!

Jim is struck with a red beam, and feels his skin burn beneath it; Jeau is hit with a yellow beam, which makes his hair stand on end and his body spasm; Zeau is struck with an orange beam, which eats through her clothes and leaves behind a patch of scarred flesh; and Tim is hit by a beam of green energy, which pierces through him and causes black veins to creep out across his skin from the point of impact. Tim stumbles backward and collapses to the stone, fighting against the progress of some supernatural poison in his bloodstream -- Zeau rushes over and uses her druidic magic to delay the poison's progress, and Jeau touches him, utilizing his dragonmark powers to restore some of Tim's lost life force. As they help him back to his feet, they can still see the black veins inching across his form.

As they pilfer the inside of the trunk (finding several bags of gold, a handful of gemstones, a Murlynd's spoon, and three bags of dust of tracelessness), Zeau turns to Tim and asks "do you want to turn back?"

"No," Tim says through the pain, "I may not get another chance at him..."



Moving through the hidden door behind the tapestry, the party follows a small hallway that opens up into a large chamber. While it appears to have once been some sort of pipe maintenance station for the sewer system, Daask has converted it into a storage chamber and armory. Bags of illegal substances, piles of Graywall guard uniforms, and racks of wicked weaponry line the chamber, filling much of the open space.

As they enter, they see a figure standing in the middle of the chamber -- a gnoll with white fur, and a wicked, bubbling scar tracing the side of his face...

http://67.media.tumblr.com/3d6da4b331c2247b7ab6149fdf13bcaa/tumblr_o808sh0LAa1rcd8pvo1_500.jpg

Myzar lets out a loud, high-pitched laugh that echoes through the huge stone chamber. "Now this is a new one -- killin' yer opponents' manager afore th' fight. Is this how ye've won all yer matches?"

At this, Tim reverts his appearance to his normal form, his blonde hair turning stark white and his feminine features shifting to become masculine and indistinct. "Remember me, Myzar?"

At this, the gnoll's grin turns into a snarl. "Tam!? Son of a bitch, how do ye know who I am?"

"I'm not sure," Tim says, "I get flashes and pieces. All I know is that you helped take my memories away -- and now I'm going to kill you."

Myzar draws a pair of short swords from scabbards at his belt. "Ye had yer chance to avoid this, m'boy. I wanted you dead on th' spot after what ye did. Now, I'm gonna kill ye anyway."

As he raises his weapons to the ready, several other gnoll bodyguards step out from behind the wooden crates and weapon racks filling the room, and the two groups charge into combat. Tim rushes straight at Myzar, slashing his kukri at the gnoll despite being weakened by the poison held at bay in his system; Jim rushes in along with him, trying to keep the warrior's attention off of Tim. Jeau and Zeau turn their attention to Myzar's bodyguards, Jeau launching magic missiles at them and Zeau summoning a lightning storm in the underground chamber.

Jim and Tim begin hammering at Myzar, who uses his two blades to protect himself, blocking and parrying their attacks and retaliating with his own -- in one hand, he wields a jagged black sword, every cut from it bleeding profusely. Eventually, Jeau's artifice and Zeau's primal power are able to pick off the bodyguards, leaving only Myzar to deal with. Tim swings his kukris at him like a man possessed, but Jeau raises a valid point -- they should try and keep him alive in order to question him about how Tim could retrieve his memories.

Jim speaks a command word and shuts off the elemental magic on his axe, swinging it to try and broadside Myzar -- eventually, the gnoll succumbs to the overwhelming odds, leaving an opening and allowing Jim to strike him in the back of the head, causing him to collapse into a heap...



The party hogties Myzar and sets him up against the wall, between the rusted metal pipes that course through the stone of the maintenance tunnels. Tim takes Myzar's jet black short sword, upon which Jeau recognizes a wounding enchantment, and also finds several vials of assorted poison in his possession, taking them all to add to his personal collection. As Myzar is started to wake up, Jeau lights a tall purple candle atop a nearby crate -- a candle of truth discovered in their travels.

Tim slaps Myzar back to consciousness and he growls and barks at them, fighting for an extended period of time to escape from his bonds -- however, Jim and Tim were able to tie him tight, and he can find no way out.

"Tell me where my brother is," Tim says, brandishing Myzar's black sword.

Myzar starts to say that he has no idea, and then reacts as if in intense pain, as the flickering purple of the candle flame grows in intensity. "Arggh, I... he's still in Sharn. Th' Tyrants operate out o' th' red light districts in lower Sharn... I'm not sure which."

"Why did you take my memories away?"

Myzar groans again: "Ye were supposed t' be protectin' a shipment o' slaves, but instead ye set 'em free. Cost me thousands and hurt the relationship between the Three Guilds -- Daask, the Tyrants, and the Boromars. I wanted ye dead, but yer brother wouldn't allow it -- takin' your mind was his idea."

"How can I get my memories back?"

Myzar glances at the candle and says "A mage from th' Tyrants took your mind 'n' put it in a dragonshard. Rex, yer brother -- he said he would keep it somewhere safe. Find him, and he can give 'em back."

Tim grits his teeth and asks one final question: "Will killing you prevent me from getting my memories back in any way?"

Myzar puts his head down and grits his teeth, the candle flaring up again. "...no..."

Tim grabs Myzar's sword and uses it to slit the gnoll's throat. As his life drains out of him, Tim just turns around and walks away, and the rest of the group follows suit...



After killing Myzar, the party slowly makes their way back to the Coenoby cavern. On the way, Zeau uses a scroll of delay poison to continue holding off whatever venom is coursing through Tim's veins. Eventually, they are able to make their way back to the caverns below the Arena, late at night. One by one, they sneak back to their cabin, sticking to the statues and avoiding the gaze of the guards assembled around the Gravediggers' camp.

As they rest, the group sets up shifts to watch over the Gravediggers and see if they receive any sort of news about Myzar's demise -- throughout the entirety of the night, however, there is no sign of anyone approaching or leaving the cabin, until the early morning when a feast is delivered by a group of House Ghallanda chefs, all dressed in white.

As Zeau prays to the nature spirits of Eberron for her spells, she makes sure to prepare neutralize poison, to finally free Tim from the venom put inside of him by Myzar's trap. As they are getting ready for the final battle, their manager, Kromm, visits them once again, bringing a bottle of expensive Aundairian wine for the group of them to share. They raise a glass to the impending victory of To the Hilt, and Kromm slips each of them a healing potion -- "Don't be too proud to use that," Kromm says with a grin.

Just as the sun is setting, the group is approached by a contingent of guards, who lead them back up to the main floor of the arena. The sound on the opposite side of the massive doors is almost deafening, like a great storm is raging -- however, as the announcer's arcane voice rings out their name, they discover that the sound is merely the roar of the crowd, the seats filled to capacity as the sun begins to dip below the outer walls. Looking around, the party can see people in the crowd holding official-looking "To the Hilt" banners and pennants, and some groups are actually dressed to resemble the members of the party. However, their moment of excitement is tempered by the entrance of The Gravediggers, who snarl and howl as they walk out to their starting positions.

The announcer regales the audience with a recap of the two teams' battles throughout the tournament as they get the signal to begin pre-fight preparations. The Gravediggers begin downing potions as Shazz, the female gnoll, takes out several scrolls and uses them to enhance her allies. Hartskar, the leader, takes a shield off his back and holds it to his side -- he lets go of it and it hangs in the air next to him as he unsheathes a massive sword.

Zeau starts boosting her allies with multiple castings of bull's strength and barkskin, until finally the announcer shouts "everyone, for the last time this year, let's count it down -- THREE! TWO! ONE! FIGHT!"

Jeau and Shazz both charge forth, firing scorching rays at each other as Jim and Hartskar rush toward each other at the center of the ring, Jim expanding to double his normal size as he does. Tim slathers some of the poison looted off Myzar's corpse onto a couple daggers as he rushes forward, hurling the poisoned knives at Hartskar's minions -- however, as they hit and sink in, the gnolls seem to have no reaction to the poison and fight on as if nothing happened.

Zeau starts summoning a storm cloud above the Arena, and half the people in the stands begin chanting: "BRING THE STORM! BRING THE STORM! BRING THE STORM!"

Tim starts attacking the underlings as Jim and Hartskar begin hammering at each other -- Jim's huge axe hits hard, but Hartskar is able to deflect some of the blows with his greatsword and retaliate with a handful of sand into Jim's eyes and a flurry of slashes. Hartskar's slashes start adding up, and his dirty tricks keep reducing Jim's effectiveness, so Jeau and Zeau begin using their magic to assist against him, Jeau firing bright blue magic missiles and Zeau calling down bolts of lightning.

Eventually, Jim unleashes a massive attack against Hartskar (using B's new favorite feat, Action Surge) and Jeau fires a swirling helix of empowered magic missiles, which hit Hartskar right in the center of the chest, blowing his ribcage open and sending him flying backwards, a smoking husk.

Shazz lets out a roar of anger and charges Jim, just as Tim is finishing off one of the other gladiators. She slashes with her sword, looking for an opening, but she can barely wound the massive duergar -- he unleashes another frenzy (using the last of his action points) and carves her into three separate pieces, leaving behind a bloody mess in the Arena sand and creating a triumphant roar from the crowd.

Zeau calls down one last lightning bolt, which fries one of the remaining warriors, and the last Gravedigger -- as all of To the Hilt is advancing on him, bathed in his allies' blood -- drops to his knees and throws his battleaxe away, surrendering.

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE CHAMPIONS OF THIS YEARS TOURNAMENT -- TO! THE! HILT!"



Shortly after the battle, once the party has had time to patch up their wounds, there is a great ceremony held in the center of the arena. Each of the adventurers is led to a wooden stage in the center of the battlefield, the crowd erupting in cheers as each of their names is called. Kromm is presented with a large oak box filled with platinum and the Champion's Belt, a belt of leather and gold that has been passed down for generations in the tournament.

After the ceremony, the party is interviewed by several reporters, representing the Sharn Inquisitive, the Korranberg Chronicle, and many other publications, while they walk to a nearby bar for the victory celebrations. The party buys everyone in the pub a drink and purchases several rounds for themselves, enjoying the adoration of the public. At one point, once the hubbub has died down slightly, the party asks Kromm what he plans to do with his cut of their Arena winnings -- the friendly orc grins and says "I was thinking about opening up a new shop. In Sharn?" The adventurers cheer this decision, saying that they can't wait for him to get started -- if he needs anything, they say, he can always count on them.

Near midnight, there is a loud thump as a puff of smoke appears above the adventurers' table -- they reflexively grab for their weapons, only to see a lavender-colored envelope fluttering down to rest on their table...

"Everyone, please visit me at the penthouse as soon as you are able. I have found something amazing.
-G"


To all the DMs out there -- run an arena adventure for your players. They will freaking adore you for it. I promise.

NEXT TIME: Fantastic Racism! Promises of Wealth! And an airship ride, FINALLY!

Temperjoke
2016-06-04, 05:55 PM
Woohoo! :smallbiggrin:

DJroboninja
2016-06-04, 07:33 PM
By the way, a little poll:

I'm currently running an Age of Worms campaign for a mostly different group (other than myself and T, Zeau's player, it's different people) -- for all the other players, it's their first time playing D&D.

Would you guys be interested in a campaign journal for that group as well? It's not an original story like this one, since I'm using a published adventure path, but I'm adding my own little twists along the way and it is set in Eberron so I've changed stuff in that regard. Let me know if that sounds like something you'd be down with reading or if you're like "age of worms uuhh whatever i played it like 8 times uuuuggghhh"

Inevitability
2016-06-05, 07:07 AM
By the way, a little poll:

I'm currently running an Age of Worms campaign for a mostly different group (other than myself and T, Zeau's player, it's different people) -- for all the other players, it's their first time playing D&D.

Would you guys be interested in a campaign journal for that group as well? It's not an original story like this one, since I'm using a published adventure path, but I'm adding my own little twists along the way and it is set in Eberron so I've changed stuff in that regard. Let me know if that sounds like something you'd be down with reading or if you're like "age of worms uuhh whatever i played it like 8 times uuuuggghhh"

Age of Worms? Consider me interested.

SZbNAhL
2016-06-05, 07:55 AM
By the way, a little poll:

I'm currently running an Age of Worms campaign for a mostly different group (other than myself and T, Zeau's player, it's different people) -- for all the other players, it's their first time playing D&D.

Would you guys be interested in a campaign journal for that group as well? It's not an original story like this one, since I'm using a published adventure path, but I'm adding my own little twists along the way and it is set in Eberron so I've changed stuff in that regard. Let me know if that sounds like something you'd be down with reading or if you're like "age of worms uuhh whatever i played it like 8 times uuuuggghhh"

I'd definitely read that.

twas_Brillig
2016-06-05, 11:02 AM
Love the finale.


By the way, a little poll:

I'm currently running an Age of Worms campaign for a mostly different group (other than myself and T, Zeau's player, it's different people) -- for all the other players, it's their first time playing D&D.

Would you guys be interested in a campaign journal for that group as well? It's not an original story like this one, since I'm using a published adventure path, but I'm adding my own little twists along the way and it is set in Eberron so I've changed stuff in that regard. Let me know if that sounds like something you'd be down with reading or if you're like "age of worms uuhh whatever i played it like 8 times uuuuggghhh"

Definitely interested.

ComaVision
2016-06-06, 11:00 AM
By the way, a little poll:

I'm currently running an Age of Worms campaign for a mostly different group (other than myself and T, Zeau's player, it's different people) -- for all the other players, it's their first time playing D&D.

Would you guys be interested in a campaign journal for that group as well? It's not an original story like this one, since I'm using a published adventure path, but I'm adding my own little twists along the way and it is set in Eberron so I've changed stuff in that regard. Let me know if that sounds like something you'd be down with reading or if you're like "age of worms uuhh whatever i played it like 8 times uuuuggghhh"

Absolutely, this is probably my favourite campaign journal. Are you going to illustrate portions of that campaign as well? The white gnoll's awesome.

DJroboninja
2016-06-07, 11:34 PM
SESSION TWENTY-THREE -- SILVER & GOLD

Yo yo yo, it's time for another episode of To the Hilt!

Last time, when we left off, the party had just been crowned the victors of the Champion's Games, an annual gladiatorial tournament held in the Droamm city of Graywall. To the Hilt earned a massive purse of gold, the rights to carry the Champion's Belt for one full year, and the commensurate bragging rights that come with being the reigning champs -- in addition, Tim was able to hunt down the gnoll who initiated the removal of his memories and slit his throat, letting him bleed out in the sewers of Graywall.

The party just received a missive from their patron, Mr. Gaius Anderfel, to return to Sharn for another mission...


To the Hilt lets Gaius know that they will meet him as soon as they are back in town, and they hop onto the next Orien trade caravan leaving for the metropolis. Several days after leaving Graywall, the party arrives in Sharn, in the middle of the night. The adventurers discuss how to get back to the Solemn Soldier Inn and decide to walk there, taking in the delightful, moon-lit night.

As they are walking and recounting their glories in the Graywall Arena, Zeau notices something -- they are being followed. For the past four towers, a group of five men have been walking behind them, silently. Zeau doesn't look directly, but out of the corner of her eye, she spots moonlight off armor and hears the rattle of weapons. Quietly, she tells her comrades: "We're being followed, I make five men, all armed and armored. Act natural until the next bridge."

They continue walking, until they get to the center of one of the many bridges that connects the massive, sky-scraping towers of Sharn. Zeau whips around to stare at her pursuers and shouts "Alright, why the F*** ARE YOU FOLLOWING US!?"

The five men chuckle and draw white masks from their jackets -- the masks are white hoods with carefully-cut eye holes, each bearing a streak of red paint below the right eye, like a bloody teardrop. Each carries a beautiful, high-quality longsword on his hip, and is wearing immaculate armor and glamerweave clothing. Also notable in the light of the streetlamps is a necklace bearing the symbol of the Church of the Silver Flame, around each man's neck. "Oy, werebitch," says one of them, "you should learn to mind your manners. A filthy halfbreed shouldn't talk to a Puritan like that."

Zeau growls. "You should watch your language too. You're talking to the winners of the Champion's Belt." She motions to show off the belt, draped over her shoulder.

"You hear that boys", laughs the same hooded man, "they let anyone fight in Graywall. Even a stupid moonie cu-"

Suddenly, his words are cut short, as a dagger buries itself right in between his eyes, blood staining his white mask -- the party turns to look at Tim, hand still outstretched from throwing the knife with perfect accuracy. Under his breath he mutters "I don't like racists" (while I was in mid-sentence, spouting hate-speech from the leader of the gang, G suddenly said "alright, I'm done with these guys, I'm throwing a dagger at the **** who's talking" and proceeded to immediately roll a NATURAL TWENTY -- everyone freaking cheered).

The other "Puritans" are terrified by what has happened, and each draws their sword and rushes forward toward the party. The fight is quick, and brutal -- despite their well-crafted equipment, the warriors are poorly trained, and the Champions are able to cut through them quickly. When there are only two remaining, Zeau says "leave one alive", and before the warriors can even react, Jim beheads one of them and Tim forces the other to his knees.

Zeau stomps toward him, growling like an angered animal. "Who are you people!?"

"I... I ain't scared of no moonie whore," he whimpers, averting his gaze. Jim hits him with a powerful punch and rips the hood off his head.

"Answer her," Jim says, his voice a low rumble.

The young man grits his teeth at the pain and is silent for a bit, but finally he answers them: "We are Puritans. Servants of the Silver Flame. A hundred years ago, the Church tried to Purge all forms of lycanthropy from the continent -- we're keeping that tradition alive. There's a cancer infecting Khorvaire, and it takes many forms. Whether it be shapeshifting face-stealers," he says, glancing toward Tim, "beasts from the depths of Khyber," he says, this time looking to Jim, "or thrice-damned moonie c***s."

"Are you only here in Sharn?" Zeau asks.

"No, we are all over Khorvaire -- everywhere that Ser Dalton has preached the good word of Puritanism."

At this, Zeau's eyes seem to glaze over, and her breathing becomes fast and bestial...

The name brings Zeau back to a memory, long repressed -- she is just a cub, sitting in a wooden hut somewhere far away. The room is bathed in blood, and a man stands over her, a fresh scar just below his right eye -- he holds a huge sword that drips with crimson, and prepares to lift it for one last strike. A man's voice cries out from outside -- "Ser Dalton, come quick, we've found the elder." The man looks down at Zeau and spits toward her, before walking outside toward his compatriots...

Back in present-day Sharn, Zeau twists her shape into that of a massive crocodile, and swiftly grabs the Puritan's head in her jaws, twisting in a horizontal roll and snapping the man's neck with a loud crack. She reverts back to her true form and kicks the man's body over the edge of the bridge, blood dripping from around her mouth. The rest of her allies look at her, silent for a moment, before Jeau asks "Zeau... what just happened?"

Zeau, her breath still rapid and intense, says "Ser Dalton is the man that killed my family. I'm going to find him. And I'm going to kill him." She turns away from the battlefield as they drop the remaining bodies over the edge of the bridge.

"Let's go, Gaius is waiting..."



The next morning, after a good night's rest and a long bath, the party leaves the Solemn Soldier, finally having Jango back in tow -- the metallic dog barks a monotone bark upon seeing his master again. The party hops into a skycoach and heads back to Seventh Tower to meet Gaius at his penthouse. The coach drops them off as the sun is shining high above them, and they knock on Gaius' massive front doors.

Gaius' manservant, Viktor, greets them at the door, as usual. He says "Velcome, my friends, Mister Anderfel is-", but he is swiftly interrupted by Gaius' voice from the dining room:

"Viktor? Is that them? Let them in, let them in!"

Viktor sighs, and dramatically sweeps his arm, gesturing for the party to enter. They walk into the dining room where they find Gaius -- he is well-dressed as always, but has a pair of big bags beneath his eyes and has a mad grin across his face. A pot of steaming coffee sits in the center of the table, half-empty...

"Please, come sit, some sit. Would you like some coffee? It's quite good. So, the reason I've asked you here today, I'm sorry, I must seem downright crazy right now... Anyway, have any of you heard of Dakkenrath, the Claw of Chaos?"

All of the adventurers look toward each other, but none of them seem to recognize hat name.

"I understand, it is long-lost history at this point. Well, this being known as the Claw of Chaos was a great, four-armed general from the Age of Demons -- one of the greatest warriors of the fiendish armies, its said that he was able to slay more dragons that any other fiend in those ancient battles. You're probably wondering why you should care. Well, he carried with him an arsenal of four powerful magic weapons, artifacts binding powerful old magic within them -- a crimson sword, a black dagger, a silver wand, and a stone staff. These powerful items are said to hold God-like power within them -- but if they could be found, they could be sold for a King's ransom..."

"Do you remember the Tablets of il'Khesh?" The party all nods, recalling the artifacts they looted from the lich's throne room in Paluur Draal. Gaius grins, "Turns out, they contained powerful divination magic within them -- I have been searching with this powerful magic for days, and I have found Dakkenrath's fabled arsenal. I want you to retrieve these items for us. I have purchased airship tickets for you, to the jungle nation of Q'barra -- your mission is to travel to the ancient city of Hakatorvhak, the Throne of the Holy Dragons."

He pauses theatrically, letting the words sink in.

"In Hakatorvhak, there is a place known as the Deep Vault. Here, the lizardfolk servants of Rhashaak, the ancient black dragon who serves as warden of the city, watch over a multitude of demonic artifacts and fiendish prisoners from the Age of Demons. I need you to sneak into the Deep Vault, fight your way past its guardians, and recover any of the historical relics within -- including, but not limited to, the Arsenal of Dakkenrath. These are important pieces of Eberronian history, and they have been locked underground for centuries, due to the dragons' antiquated fears. Save these treasures from their jailers, bring them back to me, and we can live like kings. It will not be easy -- in fact, I'm certain it is by far the most dangerous job I have sent you on. However, the rewards will be great."

Gaius takes a massive swig from his cup and demands Viktor brew another pot of coffee as he asks if the party has any questions. The group double checks the information and looks over their airship tickets, finding that, this time around, Gaius has spared no expense -- he has purchased four private luxury cabins for the party. The adventurers thank Gaius for the information, and promise to return with the items as soon as they are completed with the job as Viktor leads them outside...

(At this point, the party started doing the math -- four fantastic artifact weapons, four member of the party. They immediately start weighing the options of giving the arsenal to Gaius to sell, or keeping them for themselves. The consensus comes to "we will cross that bridge when we come to it...")



After a full day of preparations, the party arrives at the House Lyrandar docking tower at sunrise. There, a large tower juts out, stretching into the sky several stories above all the surrounding buildings. Various docks and walkways lead to airships, each looking like massive wooden sailing ships that magically bob in thin air, a ring of elemental energy circling the structure. Some of the ships are surrounded by rings of flame, others by rings of crackling lightning.

The party follows the signs to Dock 18, where they find the Astral Diamond, a tremendous airship surrounded by a hoop of popping blue flames. The center of the deck is a huge engraving of a kraken, and several half-elves wearing blue and black uniforms hustle around the deck and rigging, making final preparations for departure. The party nervously looks around for some portent of danger, like the stone monolith that spelled problems for them on the way to Paluur Draal, but finds nothing out of the ordinary as they exhale a sigh of relief.

The adventurers give their tickets to a friendly half-elven hostess, who checks everything for accuracy and welcomes the group to the Diamond, directing them to their cabins below deck. The party finds their homes-away-from-home just as the airship smoothly pulls away from the tower, and they unpack their things and prepare for a few days of quiet travel. After a few hours, the group goes their separate ways to enjoy themselves on the first evening of their journey:

Tim heads to a small gambling hall beneath the decks, shifting into his beautiful elven woman guise and ordering a drink. He sits down to a game of Dragon's Bluff and says to the man next to him "Hi, this game looks like fun. How do you play?"...

Jim finds a shardhorn band playing an impromptu set near the front of the ship, where several people are having a dance party. Jim taps his feet for a second, before grinning a wide grin and letting out a hearty laugh, losing himself in the dance...

Zeau and Pickle head up to the main deck, beneath the circle of blue flame, in order to get some quiet time away from the others. Zeau stares off into the distance, the wind blowing in her hair -- as she closes her eyes, she only sees the face of Ser Dalton...

Jeau remains in his cabin with Jango, scribing some utility scrolls to make sure the group is properly prepared for their adventures in Hakatorvhak. As he is finishing up the final sigils on a scroll of resist energy, there is a knock on the door. Jeau stands up from the desk, wondering what Jim could possibly need from him, and opens the door. However, rather than his friend, he is greeted by a snarling man and four tough-looking thugs.

"Hello, little man. Mind if we come in?"



The man muscles into the room as Jango growls at him. His skin is a soft grayish-brown color, and he has a pair of short black horns jutting out from the top of his forehead. His most notable feature, however, is his left eye, which is nothing more than an engraved and decorated sphere of solid gold. The man grins, his canines long and sharp, as one of his thugs closes the door behind him and locks it.

"Your name is Jeau Burrows. My name is Jakob. It's very nice to meet you. Here's what is going to happen -- you are going to come with me and my friends, quietly and peacefully. If you resist, we will rip your little metal friend to pieces and knock you unconscious, and then you will come with us. Either way, you're coming with us, so why don't we just do this the easy way, hm?"

Jeae, careful and subtle, grabs his speaking stone shard from within his cloak, and holds it in his hand, looking at Jakob and saying "So, let me guess this straight, you strange men just barged into my room and you want me to come with you -- and if I refuse you will attack me and take me by force?"

"Yes," Jakob says, confused, "that is literally what I just said."

Meanwhile, throughout the rest of the ship, the other three speaking stone shards light up, and Jim, Tim, and Zeau hear Jeau's words, understanding what is happening...

Zeau tells Pickle to run to Jeau's room as fast as he can, and transforms into a cheetah, rushing past startled travelers as she charges through the corridors below the decks of the ship. Jim instantly leaves his impromptu dance party, to the confusion of his new friends, and runs to Jeau's aid, shouting at full volume for people to get out of his way. Tim hears Jeau and looks up from his cards -- "I fold", he says, pocketed a huge pile of chips and reverting to his normal changeling form, grabbing the maintenance pipes jutting from the hallway ceiling and using them to leap over other travelers.

Back in Jeau's cabin, Jakob growls and says "Enough, little man. You've got til the count of three to come with us quietly. One... two..."

Jeau, acting on instinct, says "Wow, that gold eye of yours is really cool. Where'd you get it?"

Jakob smirks. "Lost my eye in a knife fight, after some folks caught me cheating at Dragon's Bluff. I killed 'em all and bought this baby with the whole pot... Oy, what are you doing, little man?"

Jim charges toward a group of drunken travelers, filling a hallway -- "MAKE A HOLE!" he shouts, causing all the men and women to reflexively leap out of the way...

Tim gets a crazy idea and leaps out of a porthole set into the side of the airship, using his ring of feather fall to drift down to the next floor, pulling himself through the window and landing with a roll, much closer to Jeau's cabin...

Zeau, still in jungle cat mode, runs at full bore toward Jeau, weaving between people's legs without skipping a beat, as the confused travelers shout behind her, barely audible at her extreme speed: "Was that a f***ing cheetah!?"

The thugs are closing in on Jeau, and he tries another tack -- "How much are you getting paid for this job Jakob? I mean, you're the leader, so you're probably getting paid more than these guys -- how much we talking?"

The thugs look at Jakob, their eyebrows raised. "Boys, this is a conversation for much later -- we need to focus on completing the job first, aye?"

Just as Jakob draws a short sword off his belt and says "Alright, enough stalling -- we're doing this the hard way," everyone turns toward the sound of a massive crash. Jim bursts into the room, not through the door, but through the wooden wall several feet to the side -- he holds his rainbow axe with a white knuckle grip and says "GET AWAY FROM HIM!"

The thugs draw axes off their belts and wade into melee with Jim, but Jim just lets out an animalistic roar and completely bisects one of them with a single swing (first attack -- critical hit). Jeau and Jango leap into combat with Jakob, Jeau drawing his wand of magic missile and buffeting him with blue energy as Jango bites into his leg. Zeau charges into the room, reverting into her normal form and slashing with her scimitar, following closely by Tim, who begins throwing daggers at the thugs. Jeau shouts for his compatriots to keep Jakob alive as the bounty hunter starts slashing his weapon at the halfling, the blade dripping with some blue poisonous liquid...

The team carves through Jakob's thugs, and Jim slams the tiefling into the wall with such force that he collapses to the ground, unconscious. They gather around his body, just as the voices of several Lyrandar guards echo from down the hallway:

"Everyone, lay down your weapons and put your hands above your head!"

(We ran this scene as an extremely fun skill challenge -- Jeau had to use Charisma-skills to stall Jakob and his men and put off combat starting, while everyone else had to use skills like Athletics, Acrobatics, and Intimidate to get down to Jeau's cabin in time to save him. Everyone had a blast, and it was really tense, because of the ticking clock)


Really fun session -- lots of setup for the next adventure, but a good amount of personal quest time for Jeau and Zeau.

Next Time: Negotiation! Interrogation! Exploration!

DJroboninja
2016-06-11, 10:42 PM
SESSION TWENTY-FOUR -- CRACKING THE VAULT, PART ONE

Oy, wot's good, guvnor?

When last we left off, To the Hilt was given a new mission by their patron, Gaius Anderfel -- using the Tablets of il'Khesh, Gaius discovered the location of several ancient artifacts known as the Arsenal of Dakkenrath. However, the items are trapped underground in a place known as the Deep Vault, beneath the ancient dragon city of Hakatorvhak in the jungles of Q'barra. The party was gifted with first class passage to their destination aboard a House Lyrandar airship known as the Astral Diamond. Everything was going good for the adventurers, who separated to enjoy their time on the ship, until a bounty hunter with a gold eye named Jakob attacked Jeau. Luckily, he was able to stall until his friends arrived, and he and his thugs were quickly dispatched, just before House Lyrandar guards approached the chamber...


Just as the party is standing over Jakob's unconscious body, a voice rings out from the hallway: "Everyone, lay down your weapons and put your hands above your head!" The party does as they are told, setting their weaponry on the floor and placing their hands on top of their heads as four half-elven guards, dressed in the livery of House Lyrandar, step into the room. The four men sweep the corners, pointing loaded heavy crossbows all around the room before training them on the four adventurers. One of them, who appears to be a higher rank than the others due to a gold kraken pinned to his coat, says "In the time of House Lyrandar, explain what is going on here, immediately!"

Jeau steps forward, hands still raised, and says "These men attacked me here, in my chambers. My name is Jeau d'Burrows, scion of House Jorasco -- check the manifests, this room is registered to me."

The guard lowers his crossbow and grabs a scroll case from his belt, pulling out several pages -- after leafing through several of the pages, he nods. "Mr. d'Burrows, I apologize for the aggression. I'll get some men in here to clear out these bodies and throw the survivor into our brig -- I will see to it that we get you moved to adequate chambers."

The adventurers look at each other, and Jeau says "We were hoping to have a conversation with that man when he awoke, to find out what he was doing attacking me."

"Sir, I'm sorry," says the guard, "but that would be very against protocol..."

Jeau places a hand on the half-elf's elbow -- "Five minutes. That's all we require, then he's all yours" (J rolls a gangster Diplomacy check).

The guard thinks for a moment, then nods. "You have until the other guards arrive -- no longer." With that he steps out and shuts the door behind him, his muffled voice shouting for people to move along, that there was nothing to see here.

The adventurers truss Jakob up quickly and prop him up against the wall, and Jim awakens him with a powerful backhand. He winces at the pain, then glares at the group silently.

"Who hired you?" Jeau asks.

"I don't know," says Jakob. Jim socks him across the jaw and he spits out a bloody tooth. "No, I mean it. I only met with a subordinate of the client, don't even know their name. We met at a public place in Sharn, and I was to return you to a separate public place in the city. Then, our payment would be placed in a House Kundarak bank account."

"Who was the man you met with?"

"Human. Had a tattoo on his arm, but I don't know what it was supposed to be. That's all I know."

Jeau frowns. "How were we going to get off the ship?"

"We stored some life rings elsewhere on the ship -- we would just jump off and float back to the ground, safe and sound."

"What is the account number for-", Jeau begins, but is cut off by the door swinging open, the guard they spoke with earlier leading in several others, who begin picking up the bodies of Jakob's thugs.

"Mr. d'Burrows, you're safe now -- I've got your new room assignment here, along with some free tickets for the trouble," the guard says, handing Jeau a small envelope. He leans in and whispers: "Sorry, I couldn't give you more time..." With that, the party is lead out into the hallway and apologized to profusely, as Jakob is dragged away in chains...



The rest of the airship trip is uneventful -- Tim continues fleecing people for everything they're worth, Jim keeps dancing, Jeau keeps crafting, and Zeau keeps spending time with Pickle. On the last day of the journey, Jeau puts the finishing touches on upgrading Jim's rainbow axe -- he funnels artificer energy into the weapon and speaks a command word, causing the weapon to drip with green acid, lick with orange flames, and crackle with yellow arcs of electricity.

On the final afternoon of the airship leg of their trip, several House Lyrandar guards and crewmen travel around from room to room, informing all of the other passengers that they are coming up on a "cloud of noxious fumes from the jungles below" and that everyone must remain in their rooms, below decks, for the next hour. Once the crew have corralled everyone below decks, the members of To the Hilt are gathered and led upstairs, out into the sunlight. One of them hands out a series of clay feathers, all of which are engraved with a faintly glowing symbol of the House Lyrandar sigil, the Kraken.

"Sorry about the hullabaloo about poison gas, we had to make sure no one saw this -- it is highly irregular to allow passengers to disembark from anywhere but a registered airship docking tower. However, Mr. Anderfel paid quite the pretty copper to make this happen, so we are happy to oblige..."

As the party looks out over the outer railing of the ship, they can see a massive jungle, stretching out as far as the eye can see in every direction, hundreds of feet below them. The branches of the mighty trees coil and intertwine, forming an opaque canopy of foliage, and birds of every color of the rainbow flit about in the air below and around the Astral Diamond. The jungles only thin in one area -- a massive volcano to the north, which belches smoke into the sky above. A ruined city of obsidian rings the lower reaches of the volcano, its walls jutting up like shattered teeth on the horizon. Pools and lakes of smoking green liquid bubble far below, dotting the landscape around the ruins of the fabled Throne of the Holy Dragons -- Hakatorvhak.

The crewman explains: "This is where you will be disembarking. Crack the feather in half after fifteen seconds -- its magic will carry you safely to the jungles below. House Lyrandar thanks you for traveling aboard the Astral Diamond -- have a safe remainder of your journey."

The party collectively shrugs and hurls themselves over the side, Jeau clutching Jango and Zeau holding onto the scruff of Pickle's neck -- the wind rushes at them, buffeting their clothes and blowing their hair about as the jungle canopy rapidly gets closer. After a brief wait, each of the adventurers grabs the clay feather they were given and cracks it in half -- as they do, a burst of feathers in a myriad of different colors fills the air around them before fluttering off and dissipating into dust. As the feathers disappear, their descent is slowed, until they find themselves plummeting slowly and steadily toward a clearing in the trees...



The party all land with a soft thump in the undergrowth of the jungle, grouping up in the center of the humongous clearing used as a landing zone. Insects of various sizes buzz and chirp all around them, and the air is thick and humid, a drastic temperature change from the deck of the airship.

Through the thick canopy, the party can no longer see the volcano upon which Hakatorvhak rests, so they must find their way through the jungle -- based on their initial inspection of the jungle from above, the group estimates that they are about one-and-a-half days out from the city. Before heading out, Zeau uses one of her newest spells, commune with nature, to speak to the nature spirits of the jungle -- she crouches down on the ground, crossing her legs and muttering a Druidic chant under her breath. As she does so, she hears a chorus of dozens of ghostly voices speaking inside her mind.

"What terrain can be found in these jungles?" Zeau asks suddenly, causing her compatriots to jump.

"The jungle is wet," says one voice, "we are filled with mud," says another, "rocky outcroppings... for shelter... great massive trees..." Each piece of information is spoken by a different ghostly voice, seemingly from a different direction each time.

"What sources of water are there?" Zeau asks.

"Several rivers... and stagnant pools... it rains often... but beware the lakes of green... which bubble and burn..."

Zeau asks one final question: "What is the general state of this jungle?"

"The jungle thrives... we are thick and lush... but avoid... the northeast... we are corrupted... and ill..."

With that, the strange voices fade, and Zeau stands up, relaying the information to her allies. Tim leads the way, using his natural wilderness survival skills to blaze a trail through the rainforest around them -- at one point, they hear the approach of a massive creature, that appears to be little more than a mound of sentient vegetation stumbling through the forest. Luckily, Tim is able to spot the creature's approach and help the party hide amongst the roots of a huge tree, safely avoiding the beast.

The party spends a night in a large, natural cave, resting in shifts to keep an eye on the cave entrance. Once again, though, thanks to Tim's wilderness survival training, their cave provides them with a safe, undiscovered location to rest for the evening.

After a long trudge through the jungle, their clothes heavy with humidity and their foreheads beading with sweat, the adventurers finally come upon the lost city of Hakatorvhak...



The party nears the outskirts of the city, and finds the place to be seemingly deserted. Giant structures stab out of the ground around them -- some of them appear to have been sculpted out of black stone and subsequently shattered, while others appear to have been melted into spires of twisted, shining glass. Several spikes jut forth from the exterior walls, some bearing the remains of creatures -- a few of the bodies are skeletal and stained by the jungle air, while others are fleshier and less rotten. As the party is surveying the area, they hear voices shouting out in some strange language, echoing through the towers and spires.

Tim and Zeau examine the area and find several sets of footprints -- large groups of small, stumpy prints; smaller groups of humanoid boot prints; teams of lizard-like reptile footprints; and pairs of thin reptilian footfalls, with deep claw marks between them. Tim guides the party through the city, trying to keep his fellow adventurers quiet and in the shadows -- several times during their infiltration of the city, Tim flags his allies down and the group slinks down, disappearing into one of the shattered buildings just as a patrol of unseen creatures marches by.

Despite Tim's best efforts, however, Jim's clanking armor gives the group away -- as they are making their way between structures, they hear a loud shout from behind them, turning just in time to see a tall, muscular figure stepping out from behind a ruined wall. The beast is over ten feet in height, with a reptilian face and bird-like legs, standing upright like a man. His entire body is covered in black scales, and he hefts up a giant club made of wood, bone, and metal, a huge frill jutting out from the top of his head and trailing down his back, all the way to the tip of his tail.

The massive lizardfolk barks an order in Draconic, and another steps out from behind a nearby structure. And another. And another. Until finally, seven of the gigantic lizardfolk stand around them, weapons at the ready...


It's weird, typing up this entry I realized that there was no combat during this entire session -- but we all still had a lot of fun. These guys might not just be kick-in-the-door-murder-hobos!

NEXT TIME: A difficult door! A spooky scary skeleton! And the BIGGEST CREATURE OF THE CAMPAIGN SO FAR!

Temperjoke
2016-06-12, 02:52 PM
:biggrin:

Thanks for sharing! I love reading these!

twas_Brillig
2016-06-13, 07:06 PM
NEXT TIME: A difficult door! A spooky scary skeleton! And the BIGGEST CREATURE OF THE CAMPAIGN SO FAR!

I will never get tired of parties struggling against furniture.

Kapow
2016-06-15, 04:23 PM
Thank you very much for sharing this!
I like your style and your players seem to be really great, Jim the dancing barbarian is simple genius
And your drawings are awesome, I wish I could do this.

I have to let you know that I have "To the hilt" (the "Die Krupps"-song) playing in my head now for two days. :smallwink:

Keep up the good work

DJroboninja
2016-06-20, 06:33 PM
SESSION TWENTY-FIVE: CRACKING THE VAULT, PART TWO

Well hooooooowdy folks!

When last we left our intrepid adventurers, To the Hilt had been contracted to find a mysterious place known as the Deep Vault by their patron, Gaius Anderfel. This Vault, hidden beneath the ancient dragon city of Hakatorvhak, is said to hold a quartet of powerful weapons known as the Arsenal of Dakkenrath -- Gaius wants the party to recover these weapons for him, so they can sell them for a tremendous profit. The party, however, wants to keep them.

Taking an airship to the skies over Q'barra, the party was dropped into the middle of the jungle, and forced to blaze a trail to the ruined city. While they managed to evade most of the search parties and guard patrols, the adventurers were finally spotted by a large, black-scaled lizardfolk warrior -- and six of his closest friends...


The seven lizardfolk step out, brandishing massive clubs of wood, stone, and iron, stepping around to flank the adventurers. Jeau recognizes the beasts as blackscale lizardfolk, gigantic warrior lizardfolk that are resistant to acid. Immediately, Zeau begins summoning a thunderstorm above the ruins of Hakatorvhak, as Jim charges the closest creature and slams his axe into him (natural 20!), nearly dropping him in a single blow as he carves a deep gash in the blackscale's chest. Meanwhile, Tim reacts on instinct and leaps into combat, swinging his dual kukris at one of the blackscales, who is distracted by Pickle -- Tim slashes him through the spine and the massive creature collapses into the mud, dropping his club and gurgling in pain (what the hell, two more critical hits!).

Jeau grabs out his wand of scorching ray and takes aim... blasting the lead blackscale in the chest with a ray of fire that knocks him backward, leaving him smoking and smoldering (ANOTHER CRITICAL WHAT IS HAPPENING). Zeau begins calling down lightning bolts, finishing off one of the wounded lizardfolk -- now that the numbers are a bit more even, she begins calling in an old friend, Xorn, who buzzsaws up from beneath the earth and starts chomping at the warriors. After a very short combat, the last of the blackscales is felled. Zeau dismisses the thunderstorm and sends Xorn back to his home plane, as the party loots the bodies -- to their dismay, the guardians carry nothing more than their equipment.

To the Hilt quickly runs away from the aftermath of their battle, sticking to the shadows and cutting through shattered buildings at Tim's direction, to ensure they aren't caught off guard by another patrol. Eventually, they are able to discover the Deep Vault -- a massive dome of polished obsidian stone, that glints with the light of the moons. Looking around the perimeter, the adventurers can only discover a single entrance...



Quickly stepping up the stairs to the door, the party finds that, rather than a simple door with a basic lock, the pair of doors are basically a complicated clockwork device -- several key holes are visible near the seam between the two doors, the insides an interlocking series of gears and trip levers. The metal of the door is a mix of iron and adamantine, and long bars of adamantine stretch across the doors, held in place by unseen machinery.

Jeau sits down and crosses his legs, grabbing out his thieves tools and setting in on the daunting task ahead of him. Jim kneels down next to him, assisting him by handing him whatever tool he requires as he sets about the task. Tim, meanwhile, climbs one of the nearby spires to get a better vantage point and keep an eye out for any incoming patrols, and Zeau and Pickle head to the top of a nearby structure to do the same. The process is long and arduous -- for every locking mechanism that Jeau makes his way through, he seems to activate another failsafe and provide more work for himself (the insane rolls from the blackscale fight seem to have depleted all of their luck for the remainder of the night).

After a bit of work on the door, Tim spots a patrol incoming -- rather than the giant, black-scaled reptiles they encountered earlier, these appear to be human-sized soldiers in full-plate armor, wielding strange double-bladed swords. Rather than fight them, the party decides to try and hide -- Tim directs the group to a good spot, in the shadows of a burned-out stone tower, and Jim and Jeau gather up the thieves tools and join Zeau and Pickle there. A long, tense wait comes to pass, as the sounds of their armored foot steps echoes through the empty streets of the city -- after a bit, they seem to have passed them by, and the group returns to their previous goal.

After over an hour of work, Jim has an epiphany (aka gangster Knowledge (engineering) roll), and he points to a specific area of the door -- he remembers a similar locking mechanism from a vault in Noldrunhold, from when he was a boy, and he tells Jeau to try tripping a catch inside the hole. As he does, there is a series of loud clicks, as the adamantine bars disappear into the door frame with a grinding noise and the doors open up. Quickly, the adventurers meet up at the door and rush inside, pushing the door closed in case the sounds of the door called any attention to their location...



As the door slams shut, the party turns around to see the interior of the black dome -- the walls are the same smooth obsidian as the outside, and a staircase descends downward on the opposite side of the room. The floor, however, is a sight to behold -- the surface upon which the party is walking is clear, yet hard as a rock. The strange material descends downward for about ten feet, before it reaches the same black stone as the rest of the structure, and suspended in the floor is the skeleton of a massive demonic figure -- it lies on its back, but would have stood nearly thirty feet tall, with cloven hooves and massive, twisting horns.

The party walks across the disorienting floor, reaching the stairway and heading down to the floor below. They are greeted by a huge hallway, obviously constructed for creatures much larger than the adventurers -- doorways lead to the left and to the right, labeled with Draconic script engravings above each. The doorway to the right is blocked by a thick black curtain, while the doorway leading to the left is blocked by a pair of massive black metal doors. Jim attempts to open the doors, and as he does so, the keyhole begins to glow with green light -- before he can react, a liquid arrow of dripping, green acid fires out from the keyhole and strikes him in the chest, leaving behind a smoking scorch mark on his chest that continues to burn long after the arrow is gone. Tim and Jeau work together to disable the trap, and pick the lock, opening the doors much more carefully than their dwarven friend.

Inside, they find a huge armory -- inside, they find several of the massive clubs wielded by the blackscales, along with several strange double-bladed swords and a suit of full plate mail, akin to what the second patrol was using. In addition, the party finds several strange items, which appear to be thick plates, pentagonal in shape and harder than steel. Two of them are blue, three are black, one is red, and one is white -- Jim takes all of them in his backpack.

Passing through the curtain, they find a darkened chamber filled with beds -- some the size of normal humanoid beds, others nearly twice as large and made of stone. Tim sneaks in and uses his assassin skills to sneak up to one of the sleeping giants and plunge his kukris into his throat, killing him instantly -- the other groggily awakens and gathers up his club, attempting to enter the fray but instead being cut down by Jim's axe.

On the other side of the hallway, another stairway descends downward -- the party nods to each other in agreement and heads down, deeper into the vault...



The party heads further downward and sees a large, circular chamber, almost completely featureless and devoid of any decor. The walls are stained with blood and gore in places, and another set of stairs going down can be seen on the opposite side of the room. Standing in the center of the circle is a massive reptilian beast -- it is nearly twenty feet tall and bipedal, with gigantic, powerfully-built hind legs and short, vestigial forelimbs, its huge head little more than a giant set of jaws. It's scaly hide is mottled black in places, and small horns jut from its head, as a pair of leathery black wings extend from its back...

http://65.media.tumblr.com/226c765da9f0e0bdc1ee73997e2b54e9/tumblr_o93aofGCys1rcd8pvo1_500.jpg

The creature plants itself as soon as it spots the party coming down the stairs, and roars a loud, echoing roar that rings throughout the room. The party briefly considers heading back upstairs, but they decide to stand strong and charge into battle. Jim rushes down the stairs and heads straight for the huge creature, axe in hand and loosing a loud battle cry, Pickle and Tim in tow. The dinosaur reels back and inhales deeply -- before any of the adventurers can close with it, it opens its huge mouth and vomits forth a stream of smoking, green acid!

Tim deftly leaps out of the way, unaffected by the caustic substance, but Jim and Pickle take the brunt of it, leaving them singed and scorched. Jim and Pickle start hammering on the creature, while Tim tries to circle around behind it and flank it. Jeau and Zeau, meanwhile, start preparing their magic, Jeau firing magic missiles and Zeau charging her staff with shillelagh. The dinosaur roars in pain as Jim's rainbow axe strikes into him, and he bends down and snaps his humongous jaws around the dwarf, lifting him off the ground and shaking him about. Seeing her friend in peril, Zeau rushes in to try and heal Jim while Pickle tries to hop around and distract the beast, giving Tim an opportunity to hit him hard.

The dinosaur leans his head back and releases his grip on Jim, dropping the dwarf down his throat, to the horror of his allies (Jim's player, B: "NOT AGAIN!").

The rest of the party acts swiftly to try and free their friend, surrounding the monster and swinging with everything they've got. Meanwhile, Jim is inside the fiend, its stomach muscles pressing against him and its powerful stomach acid melting away at his clothes, armor, and skin. He starts clawing at the dinosaur's innards surrounding him, leaving behind large, deep gashes.

The fight is long and hard, but just when all seems lost, the dinosaur doubles over in pain and coughs up a small puddle of blood -- the adventurers are confused, until Jim suddenly bursts forth from within the creature's stomach, pulling dark-red intestines and other viscera along with him! He falls to the ground amidst the blood and guts, teeth gritted and claws bared, as the massive lizard stumbles a few steps before its towering form collapses to the hard stone, dead and gone...


NEXT TIME: What else lies below the Deep Vault? Demons? Treasure? Both!?

Don nadie
2016-06-20, 07:33 PM
Epic - as usual. And I love the t-rex-dragon :D

IntelectPaladin
2016-06-20, 07:37 PM
Wow, get a load of that new-post smell.
Anyways, thank you for continuing this series, It's always worth reading!


Thank you for reading this, and I hope you have a better day!

DJroboninja
2016-06-20, 08:33 PM
Thank you very much for sharing this!
I like your style and your players seem to be really great, Jim the dancing barbarian is simple genius
And your drawings are awesome, I wish I could do this.

I have to let you know that I have "To the hilt" (the "Die Krupps"-song) playing in my head now for two days. :smallwink:

Keep up the good work

Welp, looks like we've got ourselves a theme song. Thanks so much for telling me about this song, I've never heard of the band before.

SZbNAhL
2016-06-21, 06:12 AM
Woah, I don't think I've ever heard of even three crits in a row before, much less four. That's *taps calculator* one in 160,000.

Kol Korran
2016-06-21, 10:31 AM
Woah, I don't think I've ever heard of even three crits in a row before, much less four. That's *taps calculator* one in 160,000.
In my first campaign log, at the very last battle, something quite similar happened, yet in a very appropriate moment at the end battle. I won't spoil it all, but the party was trying to fight a sort of... thing, and tried to deal.enough damage to it to enable binding it, yet they we're getting really worn down. They we're about 1 round from a TPK, and failing the campaign, at the very last battle, and were still quite far from dealing the damage.

I was bummed- so the campaign is going to end like this? After months of play? Yet I gave my players a promise I won't fudge or save them, and was readying myself with a heavy heart to kill them horribly, end the world sort of thing, and call it a night. Perhaps we could do a future campaign, dealing with their failure?

But then, just before the end, 2 characters, EACH rolled a tripled or quadrupled critical! They dealt massive damage, and the very last character, activated the bond, and they we're victorious! We all looked at each other in disbelief. "Did this actually happen? Did we actually win?"

I wouldn't have believed it had I not witnessed it with my own eyes. We roll openly. Talk about serendipity! :)

DJroboninja
2016-06-21, 11:20 AM
Woah, I don't think I've ever heard of even three crits in a row before, much less four. That's *taps calculator* one in 160,000.

It should be mentioned that Tims keen kukris crit on a 15-20, so those aren't as unlikely - Jim and Jeau both got 20s though and it was crazy

SZbNAhL
2016-06-21, 11:28 AM
It should be mentioned that Tims keen kukris crit on a 15-20, so those aren't as unlikely - Jim and Jeau both got 20s though and it was crazy

Fair enough. Still pretty cool, though.


In my first campaign log, at the very last battle, something quite similar happened, yet in a very appropriate moment at the end battle. I won't spoil it all, but the party was trying to fight a sort of... thing, and tried to deal.enough damage to it to enable binding it, yet they we're getting really worn down. They we're about 1 round from a TPK, and failing the campaign, at the very last battle, and were still quite far from dealing the damage.

I was bummed- so the campaign is going to end like this? After months of play? Yet I gave my players a promise I won't fudge or save them, and was readying myself with a heavy heart to kill them horribly, end the world sort of thing, and call it a night. Perhaps we could do a future campaign, dealing with their failure?

But then, just before the end, 2 characters, EACH rolled a tripled or quadrupled critical! They dealt massive damage, and the very last character, activated the bond, and they we're victorious! We all looked at each other in disbelief. "Did this actually happen? Did we actually win?"

I wouldn't have believed it had I not witnessed it with my own eyes. We roll openly. Talk about serendipity! :)

You're making it very difficult to keep my resolution not to start reading any more journals until after finals :smallbiggrin:

IntelectPaladin
2016-06-28, 08:28 PM
Hello? (OH?-oh?-.,?-)
Anyone here? Are updates still happening?

DJroboninja
2016-06-28, 09:09 PM
Haha, oh my god I just realized how long it's been since the last update. Sorry - vacation and a little unknown video game called Overwatch have been monopolizing my time.

Tomorrow! I promise! Maybe!

NRSASD
2016-06-28, 11:12 PM
As a watcher of Kaveman's journals, a week is not long to wait for fun, high quality journals like DJroboninja's. Enjoy your vacation and kill a Bastion for me!

DJroboninja
2016-06-28, 11:56 PM
As a watcher of Kaveman's journals, a week is not long to wait for fun, high quality journals like DJroboninja's. Enjoy your vacation and kill a Bastion for me!

Nothing in this world brings me more joy than killing one of those heartless bastards.

DJroboninja
2016-06-29, 05:42 PM
SESSION TWENTY-SIX: CRACKING THE VAULT, PART THREE

Hey guys! I'm back and ready with another installment of To the Hilt! Stay tuned -- there may be a special surprise for you guys today...

When last we left our Eberronian friends, they had just entered an ancient tomb known as the Deep Vault, located in the dragon city of Hakatorvhak. Inside, they hope to find a collection of ancient demonic weapons known as the Arsenal of Dakkenrath -- they hope to wield these weapons, but their patron Gaius wants to sell them.

After much work, Jeau and Jim were able to open the door to the Vault -- inside, the party found a massive demonic skeleton set into a clear floor, along with a massive armory and sleeping chamber for the Vault's guardians. Heading deeper into the Vault, the party fought against a humongous half-dragon tyrannosaurus, which devoured Jim -- thankfully, the duergar's rage allowed him to claw his way free. Having just felled the beast, the party prepares to continue their descent...


Healing up after their encounter with the black-scaled dinosaur, Tim slinks ahead to scout for the group. Descending a few steps down to the next level, Tim spots a large room, the perimeter ringed with what appear to be jail cells -- bars that appear to be made of rough hewn stone stand between the inhabitants of the cells and the outside world, and the various cells hold a motley crew of demonic entities. Some are short, squat, and flabby, with gray skin and overly long arms, others are tiny and covered in red scales, a pair of bat-like wings protruding from their back. Only one creature has a whole cell to itself -- a thin humanoid with jet-black skin, its body covered in a slick red slime.

Several jailers patrol the area -- all of them appear to be giant black-scaled lizardfolk, like the ones the adventurers encountered in the streets of Hakatorvhak. However, one of them is dressed in a more civilized fashion than its compatriots, draped in black and green robes with a charred, black reptile skull hanging from a chain around its neck. None of the figures seem to spot Tim, and he carefully, silently returns back to his compatriots to relay what he saw.

As Tim is explaining the room to his allies, Jeau and Zeau throw down a couple of buff spells -- after a very brief planning period, Jim lets out a battle cry and runs down the stairs, leaping off and charging the nearest lizardfolk. As To the Hilt enters into combat with the guardians of the Vault, the various demonic figures in the room's cells begin shouting and hollering in strange, alien languages, filling the room with a sussurrus of chaotic noise. As Jim trains his attention on the robed lizardfolk, the figure grabs a pentagonal crimson plate off its belt, similar to the multi-colored plates the party found upstairs. The blackscale holds the item up and speaks a word in Draconic -- the red pentagon crumbles into dust as the figure is wreathed in a glowing red light, which seems to absorb the magic of Jim's weapon. While its allies fight with simple tactics, smashing the party with their massive clubs, the priest-like figure uses magic and divine energy to heal itself and its allies, protecting them and strengthening them in their fight.

While the blackscales are huge and powerfully-built, the party is able to eventually cut them down, using Jim's rainbow axe and Tim's keen kukris to carve through them, with ample assistance from Jeau and Zeau's magic. Searching through the guardian's bodies, they find several more of the hard, multi-colored pentagons, which Jeau finally recognizes as dragon scales, along with a metal ring bearing eight stone rods -- the party surmises that each rod is a key to one of the cells in the room.

As they are scouring the last of the bodies for valuables, each member of the party hears a voice in the back of their head: "Release me mortals. Free me from this prison and I will make you kings among men..."

The adventurers turn to see the black-skinned humanoid staring at them, its eyes glowing with a faint light. The demon is up against the stone bars of its cell, none of its limbs passing through the gaps between the bars, red slime dripping from it and rhythmically falling to the stone floor at its feet. The voice speaks again: "What say you mortals? Do we have a deal?"

Jeau recognizes the demon as a babau -- a stealthy demonic assassin who uses cunning to operate as an utterly ruthless killer. The halfling relays this information to the group, whispering to be on guard as he steps toward the creature.

"Who are you?" Jeau asks.

"Your pathetic mortal mind could not comprehend my name," says the voice inside Jeau's head, "Now set me free."

"How long have you been here?" Jeau asks, changing the subject.

"I have seen generations of these reptile jailers come and go. I know not how long it has been -- likely hundreds of your paltry lifetimes."

"If we set you free, will you kill us?" Jeau asks.

The voice chuckles. "Assuredly."

At that, the party turns tail and leaves the babau behind, his laughter following along with them as they continue down to the next level of the Vault...



Yet another staircase leads the party downward -- by Jim's estimate, the party is at least 80ft below the city of Hakatorvhak and only going deeper. Six doorways flank the opposite sides of a hallway, each marked with a distinct rune that glows with a faint green glow. Jim grabs the handle of one of the doors, but the second his flesh touches the iron of the door, the green rune begins to glow brighter, as thick green smoke begins pouring out from the sigil, filling the area around the door with caustic fog.

The party suffers some minor burns, but eventually the smoke dissipates -- as a group, they decide that no more doors can be opened until Tim and Jeau have both determined them to be trap-free. The rogue and the artificer go around, checking each door in turn, finding four of the doors (including the one they already attempted) to be protected with powerful arcane traps. After an extended work period, all of the doors are safely unlocked and disarmed, and the party goes through each one in turn:

ROOM 1
The party finds a black chest (which was checked repeatedly for traps) containing a large sum of gold, a necklace with a green gem (brooch of shielding), two bags of black sand (slashing sand), and a pair of bracers made of jet black scorpion chitin (scorpion bracers).

ROOM 2
The adventurers tear through a room of mostly mundane supplies, finding only a potion of fly, a potion of protection from fire, and a potion of fox's cunning.

ROOM 3 and 4
These rooms are apparently empty -- the floors pitted and pocked with scratch marks, likely from some unknown creature or heavy object.

ROOM 5
A pair of small chests (once again, judicious trap checking -- they officially no longer trust me) are found here, containing a couple bags of gold, a red velvet robe covered in strange patches (robe of bones), a bag made of fish skin and filled with sharp teeth (bag of teeth), two vials of silversheen, and five small dragonshards (memory shards).

ROOM 6
This room produces a pungent odor that only intensifies when the door is opened -- inside, the party finds several boxes and barrels, all filled with demonic body parts and pieces. Some are dried, others appear slightly fresher -- the party digs through them, disgusted, and takes a few of the more well-preserved pieces "just in case".

(Fun fact -- all of the treasure in these rooms was randomly rolled from the tables in the back of the Magic Item Compendium, which is my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE way to give my players new toys)

Continuing on through the hallway, they find another stairway, heading further downward -- voices can be heard from below, and the party once again prepares themselves for battle...


That's it for that session party people. See you soon!

NEXT TIME: Dungeons! Dragons! Treasure!

DJroboninja
2016-06-29, 06:54 PM
SESSION TWENTY-SIX: CRACKING THE VAULT, PART THREE

WHAT!? TWO POSTS IN ONE DAY!? OH SNAP STRAP IN!

In case you forgot, the party is currently exploring the Deep Vault, a dungeon filled with demonic artifacts, among which are four ancient weapons known as the Arsenal of Dakkenrath. The party has descended several levels deep into the complex, finding black-scaled lizardfolk sentries, chests filled with strange treasures, and demonic creatures trapped in arcane prison cells...


Tim once again sneaks ahead to get a good look at the next level -- creeping down the stairs, he sees another large chamber of jail cells. This time around, the bars are made of smooth, black iron and bear glowing green sigils that trace the length of the metal. The center of the room is dominated by a massive cage holding a bulbous, frog-like demon with a wide mouth and humongous clawed hands -- the room is permeated with a gut-wrenching, rotten stench that seems to be coming from the creature. Tim fights back a gag and keeps glaring around the chamber...

Several others cells hold denizens, ranging from emaciated humanoids wreathed in black flames to stumpy purple creatures that are little more than a giant mouth with legs. Jailers patrol the room -- two of them are the familiar blackscales, while the other six are the size of normal humans, their bodies obscured by plate mail armor. The smaller figures wield double-bladed swords, and appear similar, if not almost identical, to the patrol they barely managed to avoid when first entering the Vault.

As Tim is preparing to head back up to his allies, one of the armored warriors spots him, grabbing his two-bladed sword and shouting in Draconic to his allies, who all prepare for a fight. Tim shouts for help from his friends, and Zeau and Pickle are the first to enter the fray, Zeau keeping her scimitar at the ready while Pickle charges down to the floor and gets ready to start biting. Before he gets the chance to, however, one of the armored jailers lifts up the front of his helmet, revealing a humanoid face with sharp teeth and reptilian eyes -- he opens his mouth, unnaturally wide, and spits forth a stream of acid that strikes into Zeau's dog, leaving a massive burn across one side of his body as he whimpers in pain.

Jim and Tim run in and start slashing at the armored warriors, who spin their swords in swirling arcs, while Zeau starts chanting a Druidic summoning spell, her hands glowing with green energy. Jeau grabs a wand off his belt and runs down to heal Pickle, while his own dog steps into the middle of the battle, gnashing his teeth and trying to deal damage.

The blackscales fall quickly, but the armored jailers are tough and resilient, as well as extremely strong. Their blades hit hard, and they spin them in acrobatic, carefully choreographed routines, slashing everyone around them repeatedly and leaving everyone bloodied and fatigued. Zeau summons a thick-skinned gray rhino, which charges forth through a green portal -- before it can turn the tide of the fight, however, the jailers spinning swords cut it down and return it back from whence it came.

The fight is long and arduous, and everyone is pretty battered by their draconic opponents, but eventually they are able to emerge victorious, surrounded by the armored corpses of the jailers. The massive frog-like demon, which Jeau identifies as a hezrou, continually watches them as they scavenge the bodies, occasionally licking its lips with a huge gray tongue. The party doesn't give him the opportunity to try and persuade his release -- as soon as they are done searching the bodies and healing, they continue deeper into the Vault...



The party heads downstairs and finds another jail cell chamber -- this time, the iron bars all bear blood red sigils on them. As they survey the room, the adventurers spot a couple of armored jailers frantically attempting to undo the lock on one of the cages -- inside is a tall, insect-like creature, its chitinous outer form the bright blue of a frozen lake. Not wanting to have to deal with whatever the creature may be, the party charges in, and is able to cut down the warriors before the fiendish being in the cage can be set free. Jeau doesn't recognize the blue-skinned monster, but he does spot a couple of tall creatures, their white skin stretched taut across their bones and a scorpion-like tail hovering over their head, that he recognizes as bone devils. Jeau remarks on how odd it is that the Vault contains both demons and devils, two cultures that are immortal enemies of each other...

Before they can be asked to set anyone free, they continue downward -- for the first time, the dimensions of the Deep Vault alter slightly. The room they find themselves in has two doors, one leading to the right and another to the left, along with a massive black stone gateway that extends forward, before turning into a twisting, slowly descending staircase. Zeau surmises that the party is almost to the bottom of the Vault -- they should prepare for anything.

However, before they head through the gateway, they decide to explore the two closed rooms flanking the hallway in which they stand. Tim and Jeau check the doors for traps, finding none, and spend some time unlocking the doors. Inside each room, they find a few sundry treasures, along with several treasure chests -- they first explore the room to their right, finding several strange items:

STONE CHEST
Jim finds a large golden goblet studded with opals, two scrolls that Zeau identifies as scrolls of stoneskin, and a pair of boots made of solid stone (rock boots). Jim takes the goblet and the boots, giving the scrolls to Zeau.

BLACK WOOD CHEST
Tim finds a gemstone shaped like a black star, a metal mask set with a crystal in the forehead (mask of mental armor), and a black metal rod with a button halfway down its length (rod of transposition). Tim takes the mask and gives Jeau the rod.

RUSTED METAL CHEST
Zeau finds a mahogany bracelet, an amulet set with a sapphire gem (amulet of aquatic salvation), and four vials of clear blue liquid (elixirs of swimming). All of these are tossed into Jim's backpack for later.

Heading through the other doorway, the party finds several metallic dragon statues and tapestries depicting demonic figures, all of which are saved to be sold if the party should ever return to Sharn. In addition, the party finds three treasure chests in the chamber:

GOLD CHEST
Zeau finds a curved blue sword (+1 frost scimitar) wrapped in a carpet of beautiful, golden fur, which Jeau recognizes as belonging to a celestial lion. In addition, there is a cloak that seems to scintillate with a half dozen different colors, which bleed into each other (cloak of elemental protection). Spotting the cloak, Jim shouts "RAINBOW CAPE" and snatches it from Zeau's hands -- the party decides that, thematically, Jim should keep the cloak, and Zeau takes the scimitar.

SILVER CHEST
Jeau finds the chest to be almost empty, containing only a black velvet bag filled with interlocking rings of different colors. The halfling realizes that he is holding a disassembled ring of master artifice, and vows to put the item together when they get back home.

PLATINUM CHEST
Tim examines the largest chest, made of stone and platinum. As he is looking for signs of traps, he feels a hand on his shoulder -- "Give me a second" he says, and then he feels the hand's grip tighten and tighten, pain rushing through his arm. "Ow, what are you do-" but before he can get the words out he is lifted off the ground!



As the rest of the party is looking over their new treasures and discussing the splitting of gold and valuables, Tim lets out a shout of pain -- the adventurers turn to see Tim hovering a few feet off the floor next to a huge chest of stone and platinum, held aloft by a boneless, tentacle-like arm which is extending itself from the body of the treasure chest. The lid opens, revealing a maw of sharp, mismatched teeth, as a single eyeball protrudes from the top of the container -- the party recognizes the form of a mimic, a creature they've faced off with once before, and they quickly pull themselves away from comparing treasures and draw their weapons.

Jim grabs his rainbow axe and charges straight at the mimic, slamming the weapon into the top of the lid -- the blade sinks in deep and black sludge issues forth from within, but as Jim attempts to pull his weapon free for another strike, he finds it held fast. He pulls with all of his might, but the mimic's body is exuding a thick, clear adhesive, which hardens around the blade of his weapon, holding it in place.

Pickle rushes in and bites at the creature's side, sinking his teeth in deep and causing the abomination to issue forth a shout of pain. However, Pickle begins whimpering, as his jaws are stuck fast to the treasure chest, and the adhesive is creeping across his muzzle, holding him in place and burning the flesh beneath his fur.

As Tim is being flailed around by the mimic, he grabs his kukris out and slashes at the creature -- using his quick reflexes, he cuts through its flesh and yanks his knives away before the adhesive can spread across them, leaving some surface cuts behind. The mimic clenches down harder on his shoulder, and the adhesive spreads out from the monster's hand, burning Tim's skin where it touches him.

Jim grabs his warhammer out, slamming it down on top of the creature and smashing several of its teeth in the process, but once again he is unable to yank the hammer free, as it sticks to the mimic's flesh. Jeau hangs back, firing magic missile spells at the creature, while Zeau steps toward the melee and tries to heal Tim and Pickle as best she can. Jim starts grabbing out throwing axes, using them as melee weapons as he slams them into the mimic, but once again, the adhesive grabs hold -- after an extended combat, the creature is holding Tim, has Pickle stuck on one side, and has a magical axe, a warhammer, and a pair of smaller axes stuck to its lid.

Finally, Jeau blasts one magic missile barrage that zeroes in on the mimic's single eyeball -- all five missiles converge and explode in a burst of blue light, and the adhesive quickly turns thin and watery. Pickle and Tim are dropped to the ground, and Jim's weapons clatter to the stone floor as the mimic melts into a puddle of bubbling, black sludge...

Both rooms properly explored, the party has one course of action remaining -- head through the ominous black stone gateway, and descend down the spiral staircase beyond, to the final areas of the Deep Vault...


Woooo, almost there guys. Hope you enjoyed, and I'll see you guys very soon for the conclusion of this chapter...

NEXT TIME: More dungeons! More dragons! More treasure? Find out next time on TO THE HILT!

Harmelyo
2016-06-29, 07:57 PM
2 posts in a row!! Is it christmas?!
Thank you for that. I will have plenty of reading in the train thanks to you.

DJroboninja
2016-07-06, 03:23 PM
SESSION TWENTY-SIX: CRACKING THE VAULT, FINALE

Hola, mis amigos! We've got a long one today -- easily one of the most memorable sessions in the campaign so far!

As you know, when last we left our band of merry wanderers, they were exploring a massive dungeon known as the Deep Vault, which plunges several floors downward, beneath the ancient city of Hakatorvhak. On a quest from their wealthy patron, Gaius Anderfel, they are searching for a fabled set of demonic weapons known as the Arsenal of Dakkenrath. However, the Vault contains more than just treasure -- several prison wards containing fiendish captives fill the Vault, along with their draconic jailers. The party has fought their way through dozens of draconic warriors and beasts, and have discovered a spiral staircase that twists deeper into the earth...


The party heals themselves up after their encounter with the mimic and steels themselves to pass through the black stone archway leading to the spiral staircase -- looking into the shadows beyond, the wide stairs slowly descend, as far as their eyes can see. The adventurers start making their way downward, Tim and Jeau checking for traps periodically. Eventually, the party encounters a section of staircase that stands out -- an archway of white, marbled stone rings the corridor, tracing up the walls and connecting on the ceiling. The air inside the archway wavers as the party eyes it, moving slightly like the air just above a campfire. Zeau detects magic and sees several powerful abjuration spells carved into the stone, some form of ancient magic that prevents certain creatures from passing through.

The party discusses their options for a bit, and finally Jim elects himself to be the team guinea pig, as usual -- he steps carefully forward, rainbow axe at the ready. As he passes through the gateway, he feels a slight tingle that makes his hair stand on end, but nothing more -- he continues walking to the other side, unaffected by whatever ancient magic the stones hold. One by one, the rest of the party crosses the threshold, feeling the same strange tingle, but eventually all of the adventurers are able to safely clear the archway. Confused, the party keeps moving, down the massive staircase that winds through the stone, toward some unseen destination.

After the white archway, the party walks for another five minutes of descent before encountering another white archway, identical to the previous one. Once again, the party walks through, one at a time to be safe -- once again, they pass through safely. As they continue walking downward, they happen upon two more of these archways, all identical to the first.

As they appear to be nearing the bottom, the adventurers notice a small crack in the black stone wall, out of which issues a faint, purple light. Looking through the thin opening, they can see phosphorescent fungus and a thin tunnel that extends onward into darkness.

"Khyber," says Jim, recognizing the tell-tale signs of the world below the surface of Eberron, "we are very far down at the moment..."



Finally, after nearly half an hour of walking down stairs, the floor finally flattens out into a rectangular vestibule that opens into a gigantic cavern. Pools of algae-ridden stagnant water dot the floor, and a large pool, apparently very deep, sits in the exact center -- stalactites of stone taper down from the ceiling, and water drips into the pools from several sources far above, filling the chamber with a chorus of drips and drops.

Several great braziers of flickering, green fire light the room, hanging from the high ceiling by thick chains of rusted black iron -- the otherworldly light makes the cavern appear even more massive, causing the shadows to stretch into what looks like infinity. On the opposite side of the great cave, the adventurers can see the outline of a huge doorway, nothing more than a thin groove carved into the dark stone of the underground chamber -- in the center of where the door would be sits a Draconic rune that appears to be composed entirely of green fire, which sputters and drips down to the floor below at a steady rate.

The party can see no signs of any living creatures, but they are certain of one thing -- this will be their final battle before they can claim the treasures of Dakkenrath.

The adventurers take a moment to prepare for battle -- Zeau casts a few rounds of bull's strength, cat's grace, and owl's wisdom, along with a few uses of barkskin to toughen up their front-line. Jeau, meanwhile, channels his artifice magic into the weapons of his comrades, filling them with dragonbane enchantments -- the party doesn't know what exactly they will be facing in the cave, but based on the rest of the Vault, they figure it must be draconic in nature.

Once they agree that they are properly prepared for the task ahead, they step into the cavern...



The part takes their first tenuous steps into the humongous natural cave complex, sticking together and watching all around them. As they head forward, the cavern begins to rumble slightly, and all the braziers of green fire begin to die down, the light in the chamber dimming. All of the pools of greenish water begin to bubble and roil, as if being boiled from below, the surface of the central pool rolling like mad, as if a geyser is preparing to erupt.

Slowly, a figure begins to rise from the pool at the center of the cave -- as the green water pours off its form, massive four-legged body is revealed. The body is covered in jet black scales that reflect the light off the green lanterns high above; a pair of leathery, bat-like wings jut from its back, flapping away the water covering them. A great, long tail whips through the air behind the creature as it rears up on its hind legs, its head suspended high above the party on a long, reptilian neck -- the face appears skeletal and sunken in, the eyes burning with a frightening green light, just above a mouth filled with long fangs that drip with caustic, dark green liquid...

The party suddenly finds themselves face to face with a humongous black dragon.

Before the party can react, the dragon breathes in, its chest puffing out slightly -- it lowers its head and opens its mouth wide, spewing forth a torrent of green acid that bubbles and steams through the air, audibly sizzling as it approaches the party. Jim uses his new rainbow cloak to protect him from part of the blast, but still feels the acid pour across his flesh, leaving several patches of blackened, scorched flesh. Pickle leaps out of the way partially, but is still struck by part of the fast-moving liquid, which washes over his hind legs and leaves him whimpering in pain. Tim is able to react with lightning reflexes, somersaulting through the air and completely avoiding the acid.

Jim rushes forward, letting out a rage-filled bellow and using his innate duergar magic to increase his stature -- his form glows with strange red energy, and his body doubles in size, his new rock boots stomping against the floor of the cavern and shaking several small pebbles loose with each step. However, he cannot reach the dragon in the middle of the pool and merely stands off to the side, rainbow axe at the ready.

Zeau runs forward and takes the bag of teeth the party found upstairs, hurling it with all her might into the pool of water at the dragon's feet -- as the bag hits, it opens up, pouring dozens of small, needle-like teeth into the water. The teeth begin to coalesce into large forms, becoming a swarm of sharp-toothed piranha that begin swirling around in a feeding frenzy, biting at the dragon's flesh -- its thick, black scales seem to protect it from most of their assault, but a small trickle of blood begins to darken the area around the swarm, and the dragon roars in anger.

Tim separates from the remainder of the group, nodding to Jim to flank the dragon with him as best as he can. As he rushes around the pool, the dragon's long, scaly tail whips forward and strikes into him, knocking the wind out of his lungs and cracking a rib as the changeling yelps in pain.

Jeau and Jango hang back, Jeau firing a volley of five magic missiles at the dragon -- before they strike, however, the dragon's eyes flare with light. All five orbs of blue arcane energy dissipate, their magic undone, within inches of the monstrous reptilian beast.

The dragon lets out a bestial roar, which echoes throughout the chamber, shaking the very stone of the cavern. As it does so, nearly a dozen skeletons climb out of the surrounding pools of green liquid -- their bones are blackened and pitted in places, and they appear to be from a wide array of races, some appearing human, others looking more like lizardfolk. The skeletons bare long, black claws, and they begin to stumble forward from the pools, emerald algae dripping off them with each step. Several of them surround Tim, slashing their sharp, undead claws at the changeling, while the others begin moving toward Jim.

The dragon, still in the pool at the center of the cave, lashes out with his long neck, biting into Jim's shoulder -- its fangs sink in deep, drawing blood, and the acid in its mouth scalds the area, smoking roiling off the duergar's flesh. Jim roars in pain and fury as the dragon once again swings its tail at Tim, cutting through the air and missing the assassin by mere inches.

Jeau, seeing that the dragon has an innate resistance to magic, begins directing his magic missiles at the skeletons that have risen from the water, picking them off one by one, his arcane bullets striking their bones and splintering them into a dozen smoking shards. Pickle runs in and bites at one of the skeletons haranguing Tim -- the dog's jaws yank away one of the creature's legs, sending the undead monster plummeting to the ground where it crumbles. Pickle whines in pain, as smoke pours out of his mouth, the skeletons bones seemingly infused with caustic acid. Zeau begins speaking a Druidic chant, opening a portal to Lamannia to summon forth their old friend, Xorn.

Jim, even with his massive reach, cannot strike the dragon with his axe, so he steps backward and hurls a smaller axe, which plinks off the dragon's scales -- as the dragon turns its glowing green eyes to the barbarian, he shouts a feral shout, trying to catch the massive reptile's attention. Tim meanwhile, starts swinging his kukris, slashing at the skeletons that have him surrounded. While his blades are not the best weapon for dealing with their solid forms, he is able to cut down a couple of them, allowing him to get out of the center of the melee.

The dragon falls for Jim's gambit as the piranha filling the pool continue to snap their tiny jaws and bite at the dragon's thick hide -- the massive beast crawls forward, biting at Jim and swinging its front claws, leaving several gashes and gouges in the dwarf's flesh. It also batters the barbarian with its leathery wings, and once again slams its tail toward Tim, which once again barely misses the changeling.

As the fight continues, Jim repeatedly swings his tremendous rainbow axe at the dragon, with help from Xorn's humongous bite and Tim's knives. Zeau carefully enters into the fringes of the melee, sending Pickle out of the combat to protect him -- she channels divine energy into her hands, touching Jim and healing some of his wounds as he keeps swinging, fueled by anger. Jeau keeps using his wand of magic missile to blast dozens of bolts of blue energy, destroying the blackened skeletons that continuously rise out of the pools surrounding the cavern as Jango looks on.

Jim's toughness is tested by the dragon's many attacks, as his wounds begin to pile on -- enough to kill a normal man twice over. Tim also takes several blows, both from the dragon and its skeletal minions, and his vision begins to blur as he nears a loss of consciousness. Finally, Tim makes a last-ditch effort, leaping onto the dragon's back as it roars and thrashes, trying to knock him off. Tim grips his kukris, waits for an opportunity, and slashes both of his blades through the dragon's neck, just at the base of its skull -- dark blood begins to spill from the wound and the beast stumbles and wheezes, losing its footing until its form goes limp and its dead weight plunges into the pool in the center of the cave, its blood turning the water black...



The adventurers shout, in simultaneous victory and terror. As the dragon's blood fills the water in the central pool, the green rune on the cavern wall begins to glow, brighter and brighter, as light seems to pour from the seam in the stone. The light continues to build, until it is as bright as sunlight and the party is forced to avert their eyes. The light blazes throughout the cavern, until a low rumble shakes the entire structure and the light disappears -- once the adventurers' eyes are able to adjust, they see that the outline has turned into a full-fledged adamantine door.

While the party is excited to plunder the treasures, they first decide to search for the dragon's hoard. Zeau uses her wild shaping abilities and transforms into an octopus, leaping into the black water and descending toward th bottom. The water continues downward for about fifty feet, where the stone tunnel widens into an underwater cave -- a huge pile of rusted weapons and armor sits at the bottom, some flecks of orange rust suspended in the water around the druid. She pulls in to investigate and, while most of the hoard is useless, ruined metal, there are a few items of note.

Zeau emerges from the pool, dripping with the dragon's dark blood. She throws down a barnacle-covered wood box filled with platinum coins, a book that appears to be engraved on multi-colored dragon scales, and a set of tarnished golden goblets, all of which is tossed into Jim's backpack.

Finally, the party is ready to open the final door of the Deep Vault. Jim walks over to the heavy, dark metal of the doors and plants his huge hands on them, pushing with all his might. The doors creak inward, revealing a single rectangular stone room...

A single glowing orb set into the center of the ceiling lights the small room with bright, white radiance. Four chains are set into the four corners of the room, fashioned of black iron and covered in shimmering green sigils, all leading to the only thing of note in the room, an alien figure kneeling in the center of the room. Standing, the beast would be nearly eighteen feet tall -- its head is horned and is brow is spiked, with giant, tusk-like teeth jutting from its jaw. Its skin is mottled and covered in thick scales that range from blood red to jet black, and four arms extend from its torso -- two giant red pincers, resting above two smaller limbs that end in humanoid hands. Each arm is pulled taut in opposing directions by the massive black chains, keeping the creature in the center of the room with their opposing force.

As the party enters and tries to wrap their minds around what is happening, the green markings on the chains begin to fade from view, and the beast opens its mouth to let out a low, raspy laugh that seems to be coming from a dozen different voices at once. The sigils completely dissipate and the chains crumble, leaving behind an x-shaped pattern of black dust, with the creature at the center. The fiendish monster stands slowly, hefting its weight up by its powerful legs as the laugh crescendos, louder and louder.

http://66.media.tumblr.com/7efff9c606a8f2ce3d8e31e1adb1e3f7/tumblr_nz2ooxAxLE1rcd8pvo1_500.jpg

The party recognizes the monster from Gaius' descriptions -- Dakkenrath, the Claw of Chaos, an ancient demon warrior.

(The looks on the party's faces as I asked them to roll initiative will warm me every cold winter's night for the rest of my life).

Jim, undaunted, charges the monster and slashes his rainbow axe at the beast -- he strikes Dakkenrath in the center of his chest with a powerful blow, but the axe barely scratches his scales, its elemental magic leaving not even a singe on his fiendish flesh.

"I thank you, tiny creatures," Dakkenrath says, his voice sounding like an assembled mob shouting in unison, "these walls have taunted me for too long. I must leave -- the Mother of Madness calls to me and I have already kept her waiting far too long..."

He steps backward as his form glows with orange light. Suddenly, in an instant, he disappears without a trace. The party is left standing in that small rectangular room -- no Arsenal, no treasures, no anything.

As they turn to climb the spiral staircase that led them to the underground cavern, a powerful rumble, like a mighty earthquake, shakes the stone walls of the cave -- several stalactites tumble down to the stone floor, shattering around the adventurers, as a low, rumbling sound echoes forth from the staircase. As the party rushes toward the stairs, a plume of dust and shattered stone bursts forth from the doorway, blasting them backward with enough force to lift them off their feet.

"A cave-in," Jim says, breathing heavily, "we're trapped down here..."


One of the best sessions of D&D I've ever played. Moments like this are why I DM.

See you guys soon.

NEXT TIME: ???

DJroboninja
2016-07-06, 03:28 PM
BONUS POST -- HALFWAY POINT

The end of the Deep Vault marks the exact halfway point in the campaign -- the party, at this point, just hit Level 11. To celebrate this big milestone, I made new portraits for all the party members -- enjoy!


http://67.media.tumblr.com/9315ff45da19af3ecd744fe18868ecce/tumblr_nz2p3g9LzZ1rcd8pvo1_500.jpg



http://67.media.tumblr.com/8ee0e9b418d8264360cd560eb47ae606/tumblr_nz2p5b03241rcd8pvo1_500.jpg



http://67.media.tumblr.com/6579671f599f1b03a81119ff56a27fed/tumblr_nz2p73hMis1rcd8pvo1_500.jpg



http://65.media.tumblr.com/9e5a566a2ade5b5a14d7d0e0fbdbb05f/tumblr_nz2p96HhUS1rcd8pvo1_500.jpg


I'll see you guys very soon -- I'm planning on making a post showing off our gaming table and our Heroforge minis before we continue on with our story.

MintyNinja
2016-07-06, 03:46 PM
That was epic. Absolutely masterful! I cannot wait to see the fallout from this session.

IntelectPaladin
2016-07-07, 10:24 PM
Well.
That happened.
It's a shame none of them remember that It's A Prison.
Ah, well. I'm looking forward to seeing them slay it.
Rest assured, I'm definitely looking forward to the next update.
Which should include more than a few NPC reactions to the situation.
Not to mention that it's always a pleasant surprise to see customized artwork for a campaign journal!
I hope it's nothing too taxing, by the way.
I also look forward to the party's relation's reactions. Maybe artwork of their reactions?
Thank you for reading this, and I hope you have a better day!

Don nadie
2016-07-08, 01:38 AM
All the illustrations are really cool, but the one of Tim, duregar barbarian who just LOVES rainbows is awesome :D

DJroboninja
2017-01-04, 11:04 PM
SESSION TWENTY-SEVEN: WHERE THE SUN DON'T SHINE

Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm hey guys?

Couple things:

1.) A few months back I got a promotion at work and went from working 30ish hours a week to 50ish hours a week -- I lost a lot of free time, and let the campaign journal languish as a result.
2.) I'm sorry.
3.) The party just hit level 19 (!!!) SO I NEED TO HURRY

Quick recap of last time, in case you need it (I know I do!):

The intrepid adventurers known as To the Hilt ventured into a great dungeon in the jungles of Q'barra, known as the Deep Vault. According to their patron, Gaius Anderfel, the Vault contained a set of magical weapons that once belonged to a great demonic warrior known as Dakkenrath.

Fighting their way through scores of draconic lizardfolk, half-dragon jailers, a friggin' t-rex and a gosh darned dragon, they eventually discovered the most hidden room of the Vault, which opened as soon as they dealt the final blow to the dragon guardian.

Walking inside, they found no weapons, no artifacts, no treasures -- instead, they were greeted by a massive four-armed red-skinned fiend, whose arcane shackles crumbled to dust before their very eyes. Jim charges the beast, his magical axe barely able to make a dent on its flesh as the creature cackles: "...the Mother of Madness calls to me and I have already kept her waiting far too long..." before teleporting away.

Just as the party tried to flee and reached the great stone staircase that led them down into the depths of the Vault, a cloud of dust and pebbles billowed forth.

A controlled cave-in from up above. They were trapped in the final chambers of the Deep Vault, miles beneath the earth's surface...

Alright, are you guys ready? I'M READY. LET'S ****ING DO THIS! I'M SORRY I CUSSED!


The adventurers cough as the dust and debris hangs in the air around them, smoke still settling from a massive controlled collapse somewhere near the top of the massive staircase that led them to the Keeper of the Vault. Looking around the cavern, the party sees only two exits -- the gateway leading to the collapse and the doorway before Dakkenrath's former prison. They decide to rest and recuperate for a bit while they determine their next course of action --as they do so, Tim and Zeau set to scavenging the dragon for parts, using their wilderness skills to gather a dragon eye and three claws.

After an extended rest while the party licks their wounds and discusses their next course of action, the party remembers the crack in the wall they passed as they reached the bottom of the seemingly endless staircase that led them down to the Keeper's chamber. The crack is small, and would be easy to miss, but Jim's eyes, attuned to the darkness of Khyber, spot a thin tunnel, choked with rock formations and lit by purple phosphorescent fungus. Seeing the tunnel as their best option for escape, Jim asks for some room to work and puts his considerable strength behind a single blow with his rainbow axe, shattering the weakened stone into a dozen pieces and opening up a passage just big enough for the larger members of the party to squeeze through.

After a short walk, the thin tunnel opens into a larger corridor -- Jim takes point, using his duergar eyes to watch for danger in the shadows beyond while Zeau lights up her shield to allow the four adventurers and their canine companions to see. They gather themselves, take a deep breath, and venture into the jet black depths of Khyber...



Venturing forth, the party discovers several smaller tunnels breaking away from their main path -- Tim and Zeau use their knowledge of wilderness survival to determine the quickest route out of the dark underworld, but Tim gets the party lost down a long, snaking corridor and the party is forced to waste time and resources backtracking. Shortly after, they find their path once more, but happen upon a patch of dangerous violet fungus, which explodes into a cloud of poisonous spores, weakening everyone but Jim, thanks to his natural resilience.

At this point, not wanting to waste any more time or subject the group to any more unnecessary risk, Zeau decides to use a newly discovered piece of primal magic -- she crouches down, asking the party to be very quiet as she begins chanting in Druidic. After several minutes, she starts to commune with the nature spirits of Khyber, a chorus of whispering voices that only she can hear, echoing forth from the stone around her. She asks the spirits for guidance, and discovers that her worst fears were true -- the tunnels of Khyber are a massive, interconnected spider web of twisting corridors and cavern complexes. She also takes some time to learn about the local flora and fauna, discovering that several strange species of moss of fungus can be found in the surrounding tunnels, and great aberrations of all shapes and sizes stalk the great tunnels of Khyber.

Zeau suddenly snaps out of her trance and lets the party know what she gleaned from her conversation with nature -- if they don't find a way out of these tunnels, they will likely starve down there, if one of the terrifying beasts of the underworld doesn't kill them first. Luckily, her communion with the nature spirits showed her which tunnels to follow and which ones to avoid in the surrounding area, and she takes point, leading the party northwest towards freedom.

...in theory.



After a few days of strenuous travel, the adventurers happen upon a great cavern, with a humongous underground lake at the center. The ceiling is at least 50ft above them and covered in stalactites, and the entire room is bathed in a teal glow that seems to emanate from the depths of the lake. In the very center of the chamber stands a tall stone ziggurat, carved in strange, twisting symbols -- atop the pillar stand six small figures, their faces obscured by hooded cloaks and their voices a coordinated chant in some strange, alien language.

Sneaking to the side of a large rock formation near the edge of the lake, Zeau holds out a hand and shouts in Druidic, warping the very earth at the figures' feet, transmuting the rock into thick, murky mud. The pillar, now soft and amorphous, collapses under its own weight as the cultists sink down into the mud, crying out in fright as they do so -- as they flail for freedom, the party is able to get a good luck at them, and while they have the proportions of goblins, their skin is milky and transparent, allowing all their veins and organs to be barely visible through their skin.

Tim begins throwing daggers and Jeau starts firing magic missiles at the trapped cultists, while Zeau begins summoning a lightning storm in the high ceiling of the chamber. As Jim is preparing to wade into the water to fight the creatures hand-to-hand, a mysterious creature rises from the glimmering water -- it's body is long and vaguely shaped like a large fish, the skin a scintillating blue. Long, whipping tentacles reach out from the sides of its body, and a trio of glowing red eyes, in a straight line going up the creature's head, stare directly at Jim, stopping him dead in his tracks.

"Kill them...", a voice whispers in his head, and he turns around to find that where his friends had stood moments earlier, now stand several shadowy, demonic figures with glowing red eyes. Fearing for his safety, he turns and lets out a battle cry, swinging his rainbow axe at the smallest of the monsters...

Meanwhile, Jeau watches his best friend stride forward, weapon in hand as a strange fish-like creature rises from the lake -- suddenly, Jim turns around with a look of fury in his eyes and swings his axe toward the small artificer, missing him by mere inches. "Jim, what the hell are you doing!?", he shouts.

Zeau begins calling down lightning bolts, working with Tim to finish off the strange goblins at the center of the lake as Jim shouts a loud battle cry -- they turn to see Jeau running away in terror and Jim charging forward, slashing his axe across Tim's chest before the changeling has any idea what is going on. Zeau spots the glowing red eyes peering forth from the lake and, thanks to her Gatekeeper training, recognizes the beast as an aboleth, a monstrous aberration that uses sorcery and psionic power to dominate creatures and turn them against each other. She rushes over to Jim's side as the barbarian raises the axe to strike a killing blow on his roguish friend -- she shouts a Druidic syllable and holds out a hand, which flashes with green light, dispelling the abomination's control over her friend.

With Jim having regained his senses and the last of the aboleth's guardians dispatched, Zeau warns the party to avoid the aboleth's tentacles but Jim, in his righteous fury, ignores her guidance and leaps into the pool, swinging his rainbow axe with a savage anger toward the creature that turned him against his friends. A few hacks from his axe later, and the beast's bloodied corpse sinks to the murky depths of the lake, as Jim treads water, hyperventilating with anger...

Waiting a bit for the creature's disgusting mucus to disperse, Zeau leaps into the pool and changes into an octopus, searching for anything of value. At the bottom of the lake, hidden away in a small cache, she finds several crystals -- three of them are fist-sized and violet in color, which Jeau recognizes as Khyber dragonshards, and a small rose-colored prism, which Jeau identifies as an ioun stone. Zeau holds the stone in her hand for a moment and concentrates, and when she opens her fist it begins to hover around her head, glowing with a faint pink light.

Stopping to rest on the shores of the now-safe lake, the party gathers their belongings and ventures forth, continuing their journey in Khyber...



Some time after their encounter with the aboleth, the party reaches a fork in the tunnel, and Jim recognizes some strange symbols carved into the cavern walls, slightly obscured by some glowing, orange-colored moss. Using his axe to clear it away, the party sees a set of instructions written in Old Dwarven.

Jeau translates them -- apparently, at some point the group left the borders of Q'barra and ventured into the dwarven lands of the Mror Holds. One tunnel goes toward the Fist of Onatar, a great active volcano that is rumored to be filled with dangerous elemental creatures and horrifying environmental hazards but would allow the party to exit Khyber and rejoin the surface world.

The other tunnel leads to a place called "Noldrunhold" -- at the mention of the word, Jim perks up, then begins to look visibly worried.

"Noldrunhold... that's the home of my clan. Where my father is. Where I lived, before I was exiled..."

The party offers the choice to Jim -- cut through the Fist of Onatar and return to Sharn, or face his father and his clan for the first time since he was forced to leave.

Jim steels himself and grips his axe. "We go to Noldrunhold. The Fist is too dangerous, and I won't put you in that kind of danger just because I don't want to see my dad... I will get you through to the surface world -- the duergar possess an old magic elevator that will lead you back to the world above..." The party agrees, and they follow the tunnel that will lead them to the ruins of Noldrunhold and Jim's past.

(I know what you're thinking -- what if they chose the other path? Did he have an adventure ready for that route? The answer is OF COURSE I DID, I'M INSANE)

After a long hike, Jim leads the group into a humongous cavern, so massive that the ceiling is barely visible, partially obscured by haze. The cavern is very cold, and a single beam of moonlight streams through a hole in the roof, illuminating a large, ruined castle of old dwarven architecture, surrounded on all sides by the shattered remnants of a great dwarven city. Tattered purple banners hang from the towers, unmoving in the windless cave, and no lights are visible in the expansive settlement, save for a massive bonfire near the central castle.

"Welcome to Noldrunhold, everyone!", Jim says.

The party walks down a large set of natural stone steps that skirt the perimeter of the cavern, leading them eventually down to the cavern floor. Jim motions for everyone to follow behind him as they near the outskirts of the city, a guard tower looming above the ruined buildings nearby. Jim steps out into the open, axe held aloft, and shouts: "I am Jim, of Clan Noldrun -- I have come to seek passage through duergar lands for my friends!"

He prepares himself for battle with his former brethren, but there is no response -- just silence.

Finding this especially odd, he motions for the group to follow him and heads into the guard tower, climbing the ladder to the upper level and finding several duergar corpses that had been here for days. An examination by Zeau reveals no signs of trauma or injury -- the corpses do, however, appear gaunt and thin, as if they wasted away. Feeling strangely unsettled, Jim leads the party deeper into the city...



As Jim guides the adventurers through the empty streets of Noldrunhold, he comments on the lack of people, and the eerie silence. Usually, you would be able to hear warriors sparring and blacksmiths crafting from far away, but now there were almost no sounds.

Tim hears the footfalls of people in a nearby building. "I think we're being followed," he mutters, grabbing his kukri. The party looks around, but is caught off guard by a duergar seemingly materializing out of thin air next to the group, a loaded crossbow pointed at Jim's head. Several other duergar appear nearby, weapons at the ready, having used their natural invisibility to get the drop on the party. Jim immediately notices that these duergar also appear strangely gaunt and weak...

"Warrior," the crossbow-wielding duergar wheezes through gritted teeth, "you were exiled from here by King Dravik and General Rik. We should murder you right here in the streets for what you've done, traitor, but instead we will let the king pass judgement on you... Follow us, or we will cut you down where you stand..."

Jim warns the warriors that he could kill them all single-handed, but he agrees to cooperate as long as his friends are kept safe.

The group is led to Castle Noldrun, at the center of the city -- a great ruined castle with only one surviving parapet, directly beneath the hole in the cavern ceiling. Moonlight illuminates the central square, and a light dusting of snow falls on the area. As they are walked through the gates, the group passes by the great bonfire they saw from outside the city -- to their horror, they discover it to be made up of several duergar bodies that are being burned...

Inside the castle is a large antechamber, with moth-eaten purple banners hanging on all sides. Several duergar women and children huddle together in groups near the entrance, looking up with sunken, sorrow-filled eyes as the adventurers walk past, and a long carpet leads to a great throne on the opposite side of the room, draped in furs and animal bones. Sitting in the throne, barely visible amongst his fur coat, piecemeal armor, and massive white beard, is King Dravik, the leader of the duergar. Standing next to him is a well-muscled, mustachioed duergar with several prominent scars. Jim immediately recognizes him as his father, General Rik, but with one main difference since the last time he saw him -- he is missing one of his legs from below the knee, leaning on a short, stout cane.

"My gray brethren!" King Dravik rasps in Undercommon, perking up as he spots Jim, "Gaze upon the face of a traitor! Behold, Jim, exiled son of Rik, a coward who deserves a coward's death!" The duergar amassed in the room begin to hiss and curse at him. "Jim has returned to suffer punishment for his treason -- I decree that his execution will commence in one fortnight. Your King has spoken! Traitor! What have you to say for yourself?"

Jim refuses to say anything, preferring instead to glower at the King and his father.

"Very well -- guards, escort this traitor and his followers to their cells!" The guards close in, and the party reaches for their weapons, as Jim becomes infuriated that his friends have been dragged into his problems with the rest of Noldrunhold. However, his father, General Rik hobbles forward, and shouts for the guards to stand down.

"My liege, I will escort this traitor and his lackeys to the prison cells myself." He turns his gaze toward Jim and meets his eye for a moment, and Jim gets a strange vibe (Sense Motive), asking his friends to put down their weapons and comply. They are very confused, and reticent to agree at first, but eventually they are convinced and allow themselves to be manacled before slowly being led downstairs by General Rik...



Rik leads them down several flights of stairs, a wild grimace across his face the entire long, silent walk. Finally, he leads them to the prison cells and grabs a ring of keys off his belt. He turns to look over his shoulder, then unlocks Jim's manacles, sending them clattering to the floor as his son stares at him in disbelief.

"What are you doing?", Jim shouts as his father begins unlocking his allies' manacles in turn, "First you exile me, and now you're setting me free? What's going on?"

General Rik sighs. "My son. You were right. I'm so sorry." He steps forward and Jim prepares to fight him off, but the old warrior wraps his arms around Jim and pulls him into a tight hug. Jim's eyes confusedly dart around the room.

"You have become a great warrior. The ancestors smile upon you. A greater warrior that I will ever be..." He looks down at the stump where his leg once was. "You were right, Jim. We can no longer hide below the earth like rats, killing and stealing and taking whatever we want. The surface races are not our enemies. Not all of them, at least." At this, he turns to look at Jeau for a moment, before training his gaze back on his son.

"I always believe that the folk of the world above were nothing but weak little creatures for us to kill and rob. When you betrayed us on that raid and warned the half men of our attack, I was furious -- I thought you had turned you back on your clan, on your family! The King wanted you to die a coward's death, but you were still my son. As such, I chose to exile you from our lands, never to return..."

"But one day, several moons ago, we were raiding a Jjorash'tar camp in the world above. They were ready for us -- many of our warriors died a warrior's death, and I was retreating an enchanted arrow piercing through my knee. The orcs approached me, ready to send me to meet my ancestors in shame... but suddenly, battle cries rang out and the orcs were routed by strange, bladed weapons that were hurled at them from afar. My life was saved by... by a group of half men, like your friend. They fought like warriors and wrapped my wounded leg. They were healers from the village you saved that day..."

"Were it not for your supposed treason, I would have died in the mud like an animal that day."

Jim grabs his father in another big hug, before asking what has been happening to the duergar since he left.

"The Jhorash'tar orcs retaliated after our last raid. They slaughtered many of us, and their shaman placed a cruse upon our city. We are slowly wasting away, rotted from the inside by the orcs' vile magic. We are too weak to strike back against them, and King Dravik has lost all hope. However, I believe the ancestors brought you back to us for a reason. My son, I can get you to the lift back to the surface world -- once there, you can make a choice. Destroy the cowardly orcs who cursed your clan and bring glory back to the duergar, or return to your life on the world above and leave us here to wither and die. Help us, and I will find a way to ensure you are welcomed back with open arms. Leave us, and I will not blame you..."

Jim thinks long and hard about the proposition, filling the party members in on what his father has said. Finally, he decides.

"I will slay these orcs father -- not for you, but for the duergar."



General Rik leads the party to an old armory down the hall, dressing them up in dwarven armor and disguising them as warriors of Clan Noldrun. He promises to stay in the prison area for the next three days -- if anyone asks, he will lie and swear that the party is waiting in their individual prison cells.

The adventurers climb the stairs of Castle Noldrun, passing several duergar warriors who thankfully don't see through their disguise.

Jim leads them to the roof of the castle, where a large, rocky platform hovers just above the castle, old flickering green runes visible on the edges. The party jumps onto the platform and Jim speaks a word in Undercommon, causing it to lurch and slowly rise upward, toward the hole in the cavern ceiling.

Finally, they cross the threshold, greeted by a roaring, snow-covered landscape that stretches as far as their eyes can see, mountains rising and falling in waves on the horizon.

Just as the elevator clicks into place, the first rays of a sunrise crest over one of the nearby peaks, welcoming the party back to the surface, for the first time in what feels like an eternity.

"Alright," Jim says after a moment, "let's go kill some orcs..."


Ahhhhhhhh it's good to be back you guys.

See you very, very soon for another update.

Stay sexy, don't get murdered.

DJroboninja
2017-01-05, 12:29 AM
SESSION TWENTY-EIGHT: OLD ENEMIES

Hello again! In order to make up for missing six months an indeterminate amount of time, I'm going to try and crank out recaps at HYPERSPEED for the near future. We'll see how that goes?

Last time, the party escaped the Deep Vault, but was forced to wander through Khyber for several days, before happening upon an underground lake that housed an aboleth and its translucent goblin minions. The aboleth got inside Jim's head and nearly forced him to kill Tim, but the aberration was defeated with some quick thinking from Zeau.

As they continued their journey into Khyber, they came to a fork in the road -- one path would lead through a dangerous volcano, the other path would take the group through Jim's homelands, from which he was banished long ago for betraying his clan by warning a halfling village about an impending duergar raid. They chose to go through Noldrunhold and face Jim's clan if necessary.

They discovered the duergar are mysteriously wasting away, and they were brought before the King, who ordered they be executed -- Jim's father, General Rik, escorted them to their cells, but rather than locking them up, released them. He explained that he had been saved by several halfling healers from the village Jim saved, and he forgave his son, and asked that he stop the orc shaman who placed the strange wasting curse on the people of Noldrunhold...

Alright, all good? Caught up? Swag. Let's do this.


The party steps off the stone lift, their boots sinking into the thick, arctic snow of the Mror Holds. The wind is cold and crisp as it howls and whistles through the peaks around them. The party starts bundling themselves up against the cold as they set out, breathing in the fresh air of the surface world for the first time in days.

After a long trek through the ice and snow, the party finally nears the encampment of the Jhorash'tar, orcish raiders that have been longtime enemies of the duergar of Noldrunhold. Tim spots a nearby outcropping of stones and the party climbs them to get a good vantage on the camp.

A line of sharpened tree trunks forms a makeshift wall around a small camp of huts made of animal skin and furs. Several red and blue banners depicting a dwarven skull pierced by two jet black arrows hang from the wall, and several archers patrol the perimeter, arrows at the ready. Just barely visible beyond the exterior wall is a large, yawning entrance to an underground cavern -- it would seem that the visible structures merely represent the defensive buildings for the camp, with the rest of it safe inside the cave. A large gate is built into the outer wall, and several duergar heads in varying states of decomposition sit on pikes along the camp edge.

The party develops a plan, scratching a simple map of the encampment into the snow at their feet -- Jim will use his natural arcane invisibility and Tim will use his natural stealth talents to reach opposite sides of the outer wall. They will scale the wall and take out the archers on the wall while Jeau and Zeau wait at the rocky outcropping outside the camp, ready to use their magic from a distance.

Tim sneaks around the edge of the cavern while Jim goes invisible and climbs the wall with his bare hands. However, while Jim is able to easily reach the walkway surrounding the camp and snap the neck of the nearest orc, Tim has a surprising amount of difficulty getting his grappling hook to catch, and by the time he reaches the wall, he is spotted and an alarm is raised. Jim quickly dispatches two of the archers and opens the front gate while Jeau starts raining magic missiles down on the remaining guards.

Several more Jhorash'tar warriors appear from within the primitive huts inside the wall, axes and spears at the ready, and one of them sprints toward the cavern entrance. Jeau fires several magic missiles, but they don't even slow him down, and Tim hurls several throwing knives his direction but all of them miss. In a last ditch effort, Zeau wild shapes into an eagle and flies at full speed toward him, catching up to him and slowing him down long enough for Jim to finish him off. They quickly loot the bodies and check the huts, finding several clay pots of alchemist's fire and a primal-looking animal bone wand of burning hands. Properly equipped, they head into the cavern beyond the wall, looking for the orc shaman who cursed Jim's people...



The party rushes inside, weapons at the ready, and find a large natural cave chamber, the walls dotted with dozens of mismatched, ill-fitting doors. They throw one of the doors open and find an orcish woman wielding an obsidian dagger, protecting two small orc children. None of the party members speak Orc, so they do their best to explain that they mean them no harm, and leave her be, closing the door behind themselves.

In order to prevent a similar situation from turning sour, Tim uses his natural shapeshifting abilities to appear like one of the Jhorash'tar orc warriors -- he checks several other doors, finding them to be either empty or containing more non-combatants, which he tries to calm non-verbally. Jim suggests checking all the doors for possible combatants, but the rest of the group convinces him that this isn't a feasible idea and that they should continue deeper into the cavern...



The party continues past the living quarters, finding their way to another natural cavern that is bisected by a frozen river. Two rocky cliffs are connected by a rickety wooden bridge that creaks and groans with the slightest breeze. As the party approaches, they see several orcs on the other side of the ravine -- four of them appear to be archers, one a healer, and two of them are covered in red tribal tattoos and are wielding massive, saw-toothed axes.

Jeau casts an orcbane enchantment on Pickle's fangs and Zeau gives Jim a protective barkskin as the archers begin peppering them with arrows and the axe-wielding orcs start crossing the rickety bridge.

Tim experiences a moment of brilliance, stepping out onto the rope bridge and telling the rest of the party to stand back. He waits in the center of the rope bridge as Jeau and Zeau start hurling spells at the archers across the gap -- once the barbarian orcs are only a few feet away, Tim slashes his kukri through the ropes of the bridge, severing it in twain!

Tim's ring of feather fall allows him to drift harmlessly to the ground, while the two orcs both tumble to the stone below, wounded and furious. Jim climbs down to assist him and the two of them finish off the wounded berserkers while the mages defeat the last of the ranged attackers. The party uses Tim's grappling hook ([I]with which he was no longer having trouble[I]) to lower themselves into the ravine and to climb up to the other side, patching themselves up before continuing their strike against the Jhorash'tar...


Awesome! Let me know what you guys think.

NEXT TIME: A shaman! A shaplan! PANAMA!

wobner
2017-01-05, 03:56 AM
Good to see you back, i had actually given up. Glad i was mistaken.

hoping the new work schedule and hyperspeed updates don't completely eliminate the occassional artwork, though i'd understand if it does.

twas_Brillig
2017-01-05, 06:53 PM
Hip, hip, hooray! Congrats on the promotion! I'm glad the hiatus was for something like that, and not because you got mauled by a bear or something.

What are the odds that Gaius is some kind of doomsday cultist? I'll have to look over the earlier logs to see if any of their other missions had suspiciously demonic fringe benefits.

Kol Korran
2017-01-06, 04:22 AM
Glad to hear you're back on track! This is one of my favorite logs- because of the adventure, the characters, the superb writing style (Wish I could emulate that...) and the pics!

I quite like how you take various mentions in the ECS and develop them further. Also, as an Eberron fan, I think you got the right theme for it, on the lighter side. I feel almost like reading a great Indiana Jones kind of story, which was one of the inspirations for the setting.

Oh, and I'm sure Gaius was up to something. I felt that from the early start. Too convenient a patron, with far too specific knowledge. I have a feeling he (AND his butler!) are going to be quite formidable indeed! :smallamused:

Don nadie
2017-01-08, 08:37 AM
So happy this is back! :)

SZbNAhL
2017-01-08, 11:35 AM
I, too, am glad to see this back.

IntelectPaladin
2017-01-09, 06:13 PM
And everyone tends to doubt my patience.
Welcome back,
I'm looking forward to seeing this thread continue on again.
Six months. Half a year. That's a long time to wait, when you're checking the forums everyday. Let's see if it's worthwhile, which I've no doubt it will be.
Thank you for reading this, and I hope you have a better day!

DJroboninja
2017-01-09, 10:01 PM
SESSION TWENTY-NINE: OLD ENEMIES, PART TWO

Don't call it a comeback -- I've been here for years.

Previously on "To the Hilt!", the adventurers agreed to attack an orcish encampment near Jim's home city of Noldrunhold, on behalf of his father General Rik -- according to him, the high shaman of the Jhorash'tar orcs placed a wasting curse on the duergar of Noldrunhold, causing Jim's clansmen to wither away and die. While King Dravik believes that the adventurers are locked away in the dungeons of Castle Noldrun, they are actually fighting their way through a cavern complex home to the Jhorash'tar...


After facing off against the sentinels and berserkers that were waiting for the party on the rope bridge, the adventurers tighten their cloaks against the cold, their breath hanging in front of their faces as they reach a large, rickety-looking wooden ladder that descends downward, a small tunnel that opens into a much larger cavern. Tim sneaks ahead as the party devises a rope and pulley system to lower Pickle down to the cavern floor below -- as he reaches a good vantage point, he spots a large, dimly-lit natural cavern, with various wide-mouthed tunnels extending off, looking like they've been violently carved into the rock.

On a small rocky outcropping in the upper reaches of the cavern, an orcish sentry stands by, watching the cavern for any signs of life. Next to him is a massive warning horn crafted of wood and bone, starting at a small mouthpiece and enlarging to a huge, circular opening. Tim sticks to the shadows and skirts the edge of the cave, hiding behind the large stalagmites jutting upward from the floor until he reaches the tattered rope ladder that leads up to the outcropping. Tim climbs to the top and hamstrings the sentry, who shouts out in pain and makes to blow the horn in alarm, but Tim grabs him by the ankle and hurls him off the shelf, the cavern floor suddenly stopping his fall with a sickening crack.

Tim gives the rest of the party the all clear, and they can see that rough-looking tunnels spread out through the walls to the left and right, and a larger, more well-traveled tunnel continues deeper into the complex beyond. The adventurers convene and decide to explore these strange side tunnels before continuing on. Tim sneaks ahead, Zeau casting a light cantrip on his kukri to illuminate the darkness beyond. The tunnels twist and turn, roughly hewn by some unseen hand...

After a brief moment, Tim comes around a corner, and comes face to face with a gigantic face that is nothing more than a tremendous maw of dripping white fangs surrounded by thick, violet-colored chitin, a long, snaking body that must be at least 50 feet long trailing behind the hungry mouth. As soon as Tim spots the creature, it opens its mouth and lets out a low, rumbling roar that shakes the stone around the assassin -- he acts quickly, summoning up all his willpower and energy to sprint in the opposite direction as fast as possible!

(When they killed the sentry I was like, 'oh bummer, they aren't going to fight the purple worm', and then they did this and I was like 'oh cool nevermind')

The rest of the party sees Tim sprint out of the tunnel, his breath heavy and his voice filled with fear from beneath his mask. Just as he reaches the tunnel's exit, the massive worm charges out after him, its giant teeth gnashing at the changeling's heels. Jim rushes to join the beast in melee while Tim tries to get to a better position and Zeau buffs the party -- barkskin for Jim and owl's wisdom for herself.

The creature is tremendous and the fight is long and difficult, but eventually Tim is able to hack the creature's gut open, just as it is attempting to swallow Jim whole. Zeau carves some of the worm's chitin off for potential use later and the party decides to leave the other tunnels alone... just in case.



The adventurers travel down a short, downward sloping tunnel that leads them to a large chamber with a massive bonfire burning in the center. The flames burn with a strange bluish hue, and thick, acrid smoke billows up from the fire, traveling upward and disappearing up a natural stone chimney that seems to deposit the smoke outside the mountain the caverns are carved into.

Several figures stand around the fire -- four of them are tattooed in tribal designs and wear a black stripe of oil paint across their eyes, long flowing cloaks of winter wolf fur hanging from their shoulders. As the party enters, one of these adepts tosses a handful of powder onto the flames, causing them to burn with an eerie green color and causing an outburst of strange-smelling smoke to pour from the fire, which several other axe-wielding warriors breathe in, hooting and hollering like animals as they do so.

One figure towers above the rest, tall and white skin, with glowing red eyes that are especially prominent in the green glimmer of the bonfire. He wears a large cloak of wolf skin and holds a long curved scimitar that glows with a blue light in one hand and a disgustingly large centipede curling around the other arm. As the party is watching this strange ritual take place, the apparent leader of the group snaps to attention, eyes focused directly on Jim from across the cavern.

"Look, my children! Outsiders have come, just as the seers said they would -- spill their blood for me! Jhorash'tar!" The leader howls a battle cry that echoes through the chamber as the other orcs turn to face the party, their eyes glazed over and their mouths hanging slack.

Jim rushes toward the group, cutting down one of the orc warriors in a single blow with his rainbow axe. Zeau summons down a column of divine fire on several of the other warriors, burning them with primal power and illuminating the cavern with a flash. Tim starts throwing daggers from a distance, unable to get into a good flanking position, and Jeau starts blasting magic missiles at the adepts surrounding the fire.

The shaman raises his hand and shouts a curse in Druidic, summoning forth a column of black flames, like a mirror version of Zeau's own spell, calling it down onto the adventurers and causing them to scatter to safety, scorched and singed.

The shaman begins transforming the hanging smoke in the upper reaches of the cavern into a rumbling, flashing thunderhead, calling down a bolt of lightning at Jeau and splintering the stone at his feet as Jim cuts down the last of the shaman's warrior minions. He and Tim charge at the shaman with their weapons at the ready, but before they can get near him, his form begins to twist and shudder, and he collapses into a humongous carpet of writhing centipedes that climb across the duergar and his changeling ally, biting at their flesh with tiny, venomous jaws.

The shaman reforms into a physical, orcish body just as Jeau and Zeau pick off the last of the adepts. Jim rushes into melee with the spellcaster, his rainbow axe clashing with the shaman's large, glowing scimitar.

"What brings you to my lair, underdweller? Your King and I had a deal -- does he wish to renege on our arrangement?" With these words, Jim's eyes go wide and he lets out an echoing battle cry, burying his axe in the shaman's chest. He wrenches the axe free and the shaman drops to his knees, mouth wide in pain to reveal a pair of wickedly sharp canine teeth -- just as the party recognizes him for what he is, his body disperses into a cloud of smoke that rises to join the oddly-colored smoke billowing off the bonfire, drifting up the chimney.

Jim and Tim stay behind as Zeau transforms into a raven and flutters up after him, Jeau using his boots of levitation to slowly rise toward the chimney in turn...



Jeau and Zeau follow the small stone chimney, coughing and guarding their faces against the thick smoke. The pair of spellcasters notice a small hole in the stone wall, that seems to connect to a secret room beyond -- Zeau easily flits into the area beyond and Jeau is just barely able to squeeze his small halfling body through the tunnel.

Inside, they find the vampiric shaman's home -- several stone shelves hold clay jugs that are stoppered shut but apparently filled with thick blood, a pile of plundered weapons and equipment lies in the corner, and one wall of the small chamber is dominated by a ten-foot long coffin. The sides and base of the coffin are thick, rough-hewn stone, but the lid is composed of beautiful, unblemished ice -- the pair can see the shaman's body through the ice, the chest slowly knitting itself back into one piece, the ribs cracking and unbreaking themselves before their very eyes.

There doesn't appear to be a method of opening the coffin, but rather several small holes built into the sides allow the shaman to enter and exit in his misty form. Jeau uses a scorching ray spell from one of his many wands to melt the ice of the lid, and Zeau grabs her scimitar, holding it in a reverse grip and plunging it into the creature's heart -- it howls in furious pain and anger, its back arching itself upward, but suddenly it freezes in place, the flesh transforming into glittering frosty ice that, after a moment, shatters into a million pieces, like diamond dust settling into the bottom of the coffin.

Searching the shaman's chambers, Zeau takes the shaman's fur cloak (cloak of resistance) and glowing scimitar (+1 frost scimitar), while Jeau scours the pile of equipment and discovers two items of interest for his friend Jim -- a ring that will transform any weapon he holds into adamantine, and a pair of bracers that will allow him to temporarily extend his reach and hit foes from further away.

The pair also discover a map of Noldrunhold, which they grab before returning to the group. Once back together, they unfurl the map in the light of the shaman's bonfire -- the entire city is delineated into several different areas by hand drawn lines of red ink. The western half of the city reads "zombie barracks", the eastern half reads "vampire homesteads", and several other sections are designated as "ghoul graveyards" or "skeletal armories".

And the area of Castle Noldrun bears a chilling note: "will remain the home of Dravik and family".

Jim scowls and slams his fist into the stone at his feet, cracking it with the sheer force as Jeau reads the notes to him.

"He did this to the duergar. King Dravik put this curse on his own people..."


NEXT TIME: A Return to Noldrunhold! An airing of grievances! And...

THE FIRST 'TO THE HILT' CHRISTMAS SPECIAL

wobner
2017-01-10, 01:15 AM
another twist, nicely done.

DJroboninja
2017-01-16, 09:36 PM
SESSION THIRTY: OLD ENEMIES, PART THREE

Ahoy!

Continuing on, when last we left our intrepid adventurers, they had just been tasked with hunting down the shaman of a local Jhorash'tar orc tribe by Jim's estranged father, General Rik of the Duergar. A strange wasting sickness has been spreading throughout the duergar city of Noldrunhold, and the King and General Rik believe the shaman's dark magic to be the source of the plague.

After fighting through throngs of orcish warriors and a tremendous purple worm, they encountered the shaman, who they discovered to be a vampire -- the vampire was wounded and escaped back to its stone and ice coffin high in the Jhorash'tar cave. Jeau and Zeau used their magic to follow the creature, and Zeau stabbed it in the heart, destroying it once and for all. However, they discovered a map of Noldrunhold, divided up between various groups of undead, with a special place for King Dravik -- the duergar had been betrayed by their very King...


The party leaves the orc caves, walking back out into the icy, windswept peaks of the Mror Holds. The journey is long and the wind is bitter, but after an extended march through the deep snow, the adventurers return to that strange, dusty arcane lift that the duergar use to move back and forth between the surface world and Castle Noldrun, the same lift that carried them out of Khyber and into the light of the sun for the first time in a long while.

Jeau, Zeau and Tim are disheartened to have to return to the deep, dark underground, but Jim is too focused on confronting the King and laying vengeance upon him -- he slams a fist on the controls and the lift begins to shakily lower back into the massive cavern that holds the city of Noldrunhold. The adventurers do a sweep of the city from above and can see that some life seems to have returned to the duergar stronghold -- the light of several forges can be seen glowing below, and there are no pyres of bodies visible from their high vantage point. Once they get close to the top of Castle Noldrun, Jim's darkvision even spots some duergar walking the streets of the city, which just a few days prior had been empty and lifeless.

The lift rumbles to a stop and the party hops off -- before Jim can stomp downstairs, Tim and Zeau come up with a plan to keep the wanted duergar safe for the time being. Zeau uses her natural wild shaping abilities to assume the form of a field mouse, and Tim uses his racial shapeshifting abilities to twist his features into those of a stout duergar with a thick, white beard -- while Jim and Jeau remain up top, Tim heads down into the castle below, with Zeau in her mouse form riding within his cloak.

Tim returns to the jail cells, deep below the tower -- General Rik stands suddenly from a rickety stone stool, lifting himself onto his crutch and shouting at the changeling in angry Undercommon. Tim, not knowing what was just shouted at him, changes back into his normal form -- Jim's father's eyes widen, and he nods in understanding, following Tim back up the stairs as he reverts to his duergar disguise.

As soon as Jim and Rik are reunited, Rik hobbles over and wraps his powerful arms around his son. "My child, you have done well. The curse has been lifted, and already the duergar become hardy and strong once more. I will speak to King Dravik -- what you have done here today more than outweighs your supposed 'treason' so many moons ago..."

At the mention of King Dravik's name, Jim scowls -- he tells his father everything they learned in the shaman's cave, gripping his rainbow axe with white-knuckled fury.

"He sold out his own people," Rik says. "Dravik must die for this!"



The adventurers race down to the main court chamber of King Dravik, with General Rik at their side. They re-enter the massive, vaulted throne room, a once great chamber of stone columns and flowing banners that has fallen into severe disrepair. Several thin beams of sunlight trickle down into the room, the assembled duergar all avoiding them to protect their eyes.

As soon as Jim enters the room, he points an accusatory finger at King Dravik and shouts "YOU!" with the most powerful battle cry he can muster. Dozens of duergar warriors armed with crossbows and axes snap to attention, grabbing their weapons and preparing to attack as the elderly, frail King lifts himself up, his eyes wide and his crown slipping off his balding head -- "The traitor has escaped! Guards! GUARDS!" shouts the King.

Before a crossbow bolt can be fired or an axe can be swung, General Rik holds up a hand and shouts to the assembled dwarves, silencing them handily -- "LET MY SON SPEAK!"

(It is important to note, at this point, that Jim has a Charisma score of 4. Not a bonus of +4, a score of 4. When I said 'let my son speak', Jim's player laughed slightly, then stopped and turned to me -- "wait what")

Jim is a warrior and not a diplomat, but he does his best to rally the duergar rank-and-file to his cause: "King Dravik made a deal with the Jhorash'tar shaman -- HE is the one that caused the curse that swept through our city! He is the one that doomed so many of our brothers and sisters!"

King Dravik stands up, a pair of attendants rushing over and handing him a longsword and a shield. "My soldiers, don't believe this exiled traitor's lies! Take up arms and defend your King!"

(At this point, Jim and King Dravik had to roll three opposed Charisma checks to try and sway as many duergar to their side as possible -- miraculously, Jim, with his -3 penalty to Charisma, actually managed to beat the King in one out of the three checks, which I didn't expect!)

Four duergar turned to face the King, raising their weapons toward him and moving to stand next to Jim and General Rik -- the remaining warriors stand with their King, who shouts "I am King Dravik, the IMMORTAL KING OF THE DUERGAR! Any dwarf who fights at my side will LIVE BY MY SIDE FOR ETERNITY!" His voice echoes and rings out through the throne room as he uses his natural duergar arcana to double in size!

The two sides of duergar clash against each other in the center of the throne room while the King begins to chant in Undercommon, his form blurring and becoming indistinct -- however, Zeau wreathes him in faerie fire immediately after, negating the effect. The King begins hurling fireballs and lightning bolts into the melee, with little regard to his own forces, while General Rik shouts commands at the friendly warriors, Jeau begins picking off duergar minions with magic missiles, Zeau begins calling down lightning from the heavens, and Tim starts sneaking around the edge of the room, attacking enemy duergar when they leave themselves open.

Jim, meanwhile, charges through the center of the melee, taking several strikes from the opposing forces along the way but getting close to King Dravik -- he uses his new greatreach bracers to extend his arm out to twice its normal length, slashing the King with his elemental axe and catching him off guard. Jim shouts to the King, asking him why he did what he did -- the King hisses "I was dying, losing my grip on this mortal world -- but the shaman promised me immortality, in exchange for the remains of this blasted city. I could rule a piece of this city for eternity, or all of it for a few more years -- I would do it all again if I had the chance!"

The battle is long and difficult, with both sides of duergar warriors suffering heavy losses, but finally, with Tim flanking the massive King, Jim is able to make one powerful swing that severs the King's head from his body, his stone crown clattering to the floor at their feet. However, a split second after the axe carves through the dwarf's neck, his entire form transmutes into a cloud of sentient fog, that creeps away, disappearing through a small hole carved into the floor behind the King's Throne!

The assembled duergar shout in surprise and shock as Jim rushes to the area where the King disappeared -- with a great roar, he slashes his axe into the stone floor repeatedly, until he has carved a hole into a secret chamber, below. Dropping down, Jim sees a large stone coffin, opening the lid with a furious shout to find the body of the King, knitting itself back together, the head reattaching itself to the empty stump. Jim raises his axe and silently buries it in the King's chest, reducing his body to nothing but ash...



Once the collected subjects have been calmed and the fight has died down, the many duergar in the chamber, some warriors, some mere citizens, look about with fear and confusion, muttering to each other about what happens next. Rik hobbles over on his crutch, putting a heavy hand on Jim's shoulder and picking up the King's stone crown.

"As you know, my son, any duergar who can slay the King can take the crown for his own. You have only been back a few days, but already you have saved us all twice over. You left here a traitor, but returned a hero. I think this belongs to you." At this point, Rik holds the crown, offering it to his son.

There is much deliberation between the adventurers of To the Hilt, and after a bit of discussion, a quorum is reached. Jim puts his hand on the crown -- and pushes it back toward his father.

"No father. I am no King -- I have too much to take care of with my friends here. You are a born ruler, but my passions are not leadership -- they are combat..." And as he begins to speak, he starts humming to himself, his feet clicking against the stone rhythmically, as if possessed by some strange, otherworldly force. He begins moving his arms in tune and spinning as he shouts "...AND DANCE!"

There, in front of Rik, the new King of the Duergar, the many citizens of Noldrunhold, and the adventurers of To the Hilt!, Jim dances in a fugue state to a silent song that only he can hear...

(At this point, Jim has earned his STORY REWARD, a special ability that is gained by the completion of the character's personal quest -- Jim can now use his dancing abilities to inspire his allies, granting him the bardic abilities of Inspire Courage and Inspire Competence!)

After a grand celebration featuring many stories of To the Hilt!s adventures across Khorvaire, the party says goodbye to King Rik, using the duergar's arcane lift to transport them back to the surface world -- back to Sharn to find out what has happened in their long absence...



While traveling through the frost-covered peaks of the Mror Holds, on their way to the dwarven city of Krona Peak where they can catch an airship back to Sharn, the sun begins to dip behind the mountains on the horizon and the temperature drops even lower. In the distance, the adventurers spot a glimmer of flickering lights, tracing the outlines of several small, stone cottages -- the icy wind bites at their skin and howls angrily around them, and they decide to stop at the village to see if they can find shelter for the night...

As they enter the small hamlet, they discover dozens of bright, glowing lights that hang in the air between the cottages, as if suspended by invisible strings. A great bonfire burns in the center of town, flanked by several large banquet tables, but there are signs of chaos and strife -- one of the tables has been overturned, surrounded by scraps of colorful paper and broken sticks of red and white sugar. No people are visible, but dozens of frantic footprints mar the snow in the village square.

Zeau spots several sets of eyes nervously peering out from behind curtains within the nearby homes, but they all seem to disappear into the darkness as soon as she meets their gaze. Jeau clears his throat and shouts that the party comes in peace, and means the people of this small village no harm -- he asks them to come out of their houses to meet them.

After a moment of reticence, a couple dozen frightened looking dwarves garbed in bright clothes of red and green walk out into the cool night air, some of the dwarven children still teary-eyes and sniffling. One old dwarf with a great white beard steps forward and introduces himself:

"Hail, strangers -- I am Elder Chargo. Welcome to the village of Northcrest. Sorry we didn't come out to greet you -- we've been having some issues as of late and didn't know if it was safe. You must be lost -- what brings you to our little community?"

Jeau explains that they are traveling to Krona Peak to catch a ride back home, then motions toward the ruined table and asks what has been going on.

Elder Chargo sighs. "We were preparing for the annual celebration of Hearthfeast -- it was set to begin at sunset, but as we were setting up... Krangle came to town. He's a grumpy old gnome that lives north of the village -- he's always hated our little holiday. In the past, he was content to wander into town and shout at us from the outskirts, or send us all angry letters. But this year, he went too far... he interrupted out preparations for the feast, clad in some sort of great red machine, flanked by several of his strange, mechanical creations! He was shouting and threatening everyone, and his little monsters took all of the Hearthfeast gifts! We don't have much, but we save and scrimp all year to make this holiday happen. There was nothing we could do to stop him..." The old dwarf hangs his head as the adventurers all meet each others' gaze.

Jeau says, "We will get your presents back from him, Elder. You have our word!"

The old dwarf's eyes light up and he shouts, "Oh great Onatar be praised! Is this true? We, we can't offer much but some lodging as thanks, but the village of Northcrest would forever be in your debt."

At that, the party once again dons their winter gear and prepares to trudge back out into the icy wind and rushing snow to hunt down the wicked Krangle...



It is a bit of a journey from Northcrest to Krangle's home, but after a bit of walking they discover what appears to be a large workshop -- the walls are a patchwork of wood and metal, and the angles of the structure don't quite match up in places, making it appear a bit lopsided. Two tremendous metal doors seem to be the only entrance, and light spills out of several small windows into the night.

The party pushes the doors open to discover a brightly lit workshop, filled with the sounds of clocks, gears, and other types of whirring, rumbling machinery. The floor is littered in places with colorful paper, bows, and unwanted toys -- strange green constructs the size and shape of gnomes are sorting the items into specific piles and throwing the boxes aside. Large, wide conveyor belts roll rapidly along, moving items from one part of the workshop to another.

As the party enters, the doors slam shut behind them, locking with a complex series of gears and metal levers. As the party looks back to the opposite end of the workshop, they see a large, mechanical construct, shaped vaguely like a rotund humanoid and twelve feet in height -- the metal monster is painted red and white, and a brown bag hangs from a black leather belt that is barely able to make it across its barrel-like stomach. A fat gnome with large green eyebrows and a wild green goatee sits inside it, his upper torso sticking out from the top of the shoulders. Before the party can react, an iron helmet slams down over him, locking him within the construct, and his voice mechanically shouts from within the monstrosity:

"OH HO HO HO! The dwarves were SO GENEROUS to get all these gifts FOR ME! And the gifts will ALL be for me, FROM NOW ON! I was hoping I could give the ol' Iron Saint here a test run -- THANKS for VOLUNTEERING!"

As the party snaps to attention, weapons at the ready, Krangle's little helper constructs cease their organization -- their eyes suddenly glow red, and they begin to stomp forward with malice. Tim and Jeau starts hacking apart the small constructs with their kukri and magic missiles, while Zeau buffs Jim with her druidic magic and sends him charging at Krangle and his Iron Saint.

The Saint's body is strong, reinforced iron, but as Jim swings his axe, his newly discovered adamantine ring flashes with a strange light, and the axe hacks into the construct like a hot knife through butter. Tim hops on one of the moving conveyor belts, rapidly moving into a flanking position, while Jim continues to hold off the giant construct, accidentally stepping into one of Krangle's strange clockwork devices and taking several scuffs and scratches for his trouble.

Jeau blasts apart the last of his little helpers and Tim cuts a deep gouge into the Saint's hide, giving Jim the opportunity to strike the last, decisive blow, sending the golem toppling to the floor, Krangle popping out and rolling across the floor of the workshop. The portly gnome stands up, grabbing a wand off his belt and launching a freezing ray at Jim, but Jeau fires a scorching ray at him in response, burning his hand and causing him to drop the wand, shouting him pain.

The little gnome, fear in his eyes, turns tail and tries to run, but Jeau is ready with one last magic missile, the volley of several blue spheres of arcane energy slamming into Krangle's back and knocking the wind out of him, sending him prone to the floor. The adventurers gather around him, and he cringes in fear -- "If you're going to kill me, just do it...", he whines.

"No", Zeau says, assertively, "that's not why we're here. You need to stay alive, because YOU need to wrap all those presents back up and bring them back to the village with us."

"And you need to say you're sorry," Jim adds.

The little gnome sits up, and agrees. "I'm sorry I took them. I just... I never get invited to Hearthfeast with them. I just wanted to be included..."

After helping Krangle get things back in order and patching up his wounds, the gnome loads all of the gifts into the bag that hung from the Iron Saint's belt -- miraculously, it is able to hold every single one of them with ease, never getting any larger or bulkier. The party leads the gnome back to the village of Northcrest and proposes a compromise -- in the future, the dwarves of Northcrest will invite Krangle to partake in the Hearthfeast celebration with them, and in exchange, Krangle will use his workshop to craft toys and gifts for the community of Northcrest. Elder Chargo and Krangle happily agree, and the portly gnome turns to the party with a wide grin.

"Thank you for everything you have done for me today, friends. I promise, my workshop will not be used for weapons anymore -- only for things that will provide merriment and enjoyment across the land!"

"Yeah, cool, give me that sweet magic bag," Jim says gruffly.

(Everyone laughs. Freeze frame. Roll credits.)


S***! That was a long one!

Thanks guys -- you all are the best, heart emoji heart emoji

The Krangle sidequest was partially adapted from a 4e adventure I found online: Krangle's Workshop (http://dungeonsmaster.com/2009/12/holiday-dungeon-contest-winner/)

NEXT TIME: A Return to Sharn! A Collection of Letters! A Myriad of Side-Quests!

Cragbeard
2017-01-17, 09:57 AM
Hi DJRN, I'm a long time lurker on this forum and I have been meaning to create an account for some time, but never get around to it for some reason or another.

I just wanted to say that your story, writing style, and art all motivated me to finally register so I could tell you to keep it up!

I am about to start a game for a group of all new players as well, and it has really been an inspiration. Thanks!

twas_Brillig
2017-01-18, 09:44 PM
"No father. I am no King -- I have too much to take care of with my friends here. You are a born ruler, but my passions are not leadership -- they are combat..." And as he begins to speak, he starts humming to himself, his feet clicking against the stone rhythmically, as if possessed by some strange, otherworldly force. He begins moving his arms in tune and spinning as he shouts "...AND DANCE!"

<Jim is taken by a fey mood!>

:O!! I am so unbelievably happy that Jim's personal growth was rewarded with the power of dance.

Inevitability
2017-01-19, 12:23 PM
<Jim is taken by a fey mood!>

This is a steel battle axe. All craftsdwarfship is of the highest quality. It is encircled with bands of peridot. It is encircled with bands of fire opal. It is encircled with bands of levin opal.

DJroboninja
2017-01-20, 06:33 PM
By the way, thanks for the love and kind words everyone! I'm happy people are still interested in this journal and it's a good motivator to keep updating as fast as I can!

Don nadie
2017-01-20, 08:13 PM
Its a really fun adventure... your players are lucky to have you!

DJroboninja
2017-01-20, 08:18 PM
SESSION THIRTY-ONE: RETURN TO SHARN

Hey guys!

Quick recap:

The party was doing a job for their old friend Gaius Anderfel, a rich nobleman from Sharn who asked them to retrieve several ancient items of power from a place known as the Deep Vault, hidden below the ruined dragon city of Hakatorvhak. They fought their way through the old demon prison, even coming face to face with a black dragon who they slew after a wild fight. However, rather than weapons, they discovered an ancient demonic entity, which was released from its bondage as they were stranded deep beneath the earth on the other side of the continent.

They traveled through Khyber, Jim happening upon his former home of Noldrunhold, where he reconnected with his father, Rik, and lifted a curse placed on the duergar by their own King Dravik, who had been transformed into an immortal vampire in exchange for killing his people. Dravik sufficiently dusted and Rik crowned the new king of Noldrunhold, the party ventured through the Mror Holds, stopping off for a brief holiday interlude in the dwarven village of Northcrest before continuing on toward Krona Peak.


After a long journey in the freezing cold and bitter winds of the Mror Holds, the party finally arrives in the city of Krona Peak, a great settlement of stout, strong stone buildings that serves as the capital of the Mror Holds. The party stops at a House Ghallanda inn on the edge of town for respite from the cold and a hot meal before heading toward the House Lyrandar airship tower in the western quarter of the city -- they gather up some gold from their stores and purchase several tickets for the next boat back to the City of Towers, and a scant few hours later they are riding aboard the Northern Star, a medium-sized airship surrounded by a brilliant ring of glimmering blue fire...

A few days later, the Northern Star docks at Lyrandar Tower, in the Dragon Towers district of upper Sharn -- a great storm is raging throughout the metropolis, plunging the city into a dark, wet haze that obscures everything except the closest towers and skybridges. The party disembarks, their winter garb happily packed away as they toss their hoods up and flag down a skycoach, several passing them by before one driver actually spots them among the downpour.

They are dropped off back in the Seventh Tower district, where they immediately head to Gaius Anderfel's penthouse apartment, just as the clock is striking midnight and a rumble of thunder shakes the stone at their very feet. They see the penthouse as they last left it, great wrought iron windows and creeping ivy, with no lights visible within. They approach the door, but decide to return in the morning, certain that Gaius is sleeping and would not appreciate being awoken.

(Yeah, I know, what?)

As such, they trek through the city, down to the Solemn Soldier Inn where their standing rooms are waiting for them. After several weeks, they are finally back to the closest thing they have to home, and they throw off their soaking wet clothes and flop onto their beds for some well-deserved rest...



The adventurers of To the Hilt! awaken late the following morning -- throwing their curtains aside they can see that the sun is still obscured by dark storm clouds and the rain continues to pour down from the sky. While the rest of the group is still getting out of bed, Jeau is already awake downstairs, enjoying a cup of tea, when the innkeeper approaches him with several letters bound in twine.

"Good morning, m'lord. We received a few letter for you and your friends while you were gone -- wasn't sure when you'd be back so I just kept 'em at the front desk. Wanted to get 'em to you right away now that you've come home!"

Jeau cuts the twine and finds three envelopes, each distinct and different from each other.

The first is a simple envelope that bears a brown tea stain on the corner, the information all hand-written in difficult to read script. Jeau opens it and reads the hand-scribed letter within:

"Greetings my friends!

I am writing you to invite you to my new shop – Kromm's Magical Menagerie! I will be buying and selling magical monsters, arcane relics, and mystical curiosities at my new storefront in The Bazaar – and it's all thanks to you. Please come visit me as soon as you are able, I need a bit of help getting everything ready! I'm sure you're busy, but do not hesitate to stop by whenever.

Can't wait to see you guys,

Kromm Thundermaw"

Jeau smiles and grabs the next envelope, which is made of gold paper and edged with greenish-silver filigree that seems to shimmer and dance in the lantern light -- Jeau's smile immediately fades, however, as he turns the envelope over to see a wax seal of the dragon dog of House Tharashk:

"Jeau d'Burrows, Scion of House Jorasco,

I have just been informed of your dreadful encounter aboard the House Lyrandar airship recently. I must say, I am very grateful that you are alive and unharmed, and rest assured, I have requested an official inquest into House Lyrandar's security protocols – for the Host's sake, you could have died!

Alas, I digress. While I was saddened to hear of the attack on your person, I was very impressed by the hearsay of how you held your own against those brutes. Thusly, I want to propose a business venture – some help with one of House Tharashk's myriad business ventures. You and your allies would be very useful in our operations – I can provide you with more information in person. Please come to the House Tharashk compound in Dragon Towers, where my cousin Alabaster Torrn can fill you in on the job.

Please stay safe.

Your friend,
Edwin d'Tharashk

Dictated but not read.”

Jeau pushes the envelope and letter away in a huff and grabs the last of the three, a charcoal great envelope that gives Jeau pause -- it bears the symbol of the Sharn Watch. Opening the envelope, he finds a simple letter, hastily handwritten with one corner torn off:

“Good day,

My name is Inspector Haradin Bolton of the Sharn Watch. I've spoken to some people down in High Walls, and they've recommended you as people who can help with an ongoing criminal investigation. Please, come visit me in Warden Towers if you find the time. The Watch can be a good friend to have in this city...

-Ins. Bolton
Sharn Watch
Warden Towers Garrison
Lower Homicide”

Jeau gathers up the letters and heads upstairs, asking the rest of his compatriots to join him in his room so he can fill them in on what the letters read and try to decide what to do next. Jeau grabs out a map of Sharn and they decide on an order of operations for their day -- a visit with their old friend Kromm at his new shop, a meeting with Gaius at his penthouse, and then a conversation with this "Inspector Bolton" of the Sharn Watch to see what he wants with them.

(I'm blown away at this point that, instead of being like "we need to talk to Gaius RIGHT F***ING NOW" they're saying "let's swing by Kromm's place and then we can go talk to Gaius, if there's time...")



The adventurers gather their belongings and grab a skycoach, heading to the Middle Dura district known as the Bazaar, a humongous open-air market of shops, kiosks, tables, and carpets, all laden with goods from across Eberron. The crowds and noise are overwhelming, even with the rain pouring down and lightning crashing overhead, and the streets are brimming with people offering goods and questionable deals. Everyone seems to have something to sell -- a gruff half-elf shouts "Vadalis beef, best in the city" while an old gnome woman screeches "fine potions, poultices, tinctures, tonics, and elixirs!" A man approaches the group in a long black trench coat, looking over his shoulder and muttering "I've got dreamlioly, absentia, and dragonblood, good quality stuff..." While the Watch seems to maintain a strong presence throughout the area, they don't seem to be doing anything to stop the illegal activities happening in plain view...

The group starts asking around about Kromm's new storefront, getting bits and pieces of information from the assembled rabble -- after an hour or so of work, they finally find the storefront, one of many in a line of permanent stone shops that ring the perimeter of one of the larger towers of the Bazaar. The front is large, plate glass windows that look out onto a sales floor of empty racks and tables, waiting to be filled with merchandise from across Khorvaire. Hanging above the front window is a beautiful carved bronzewood sign that reads "Kromm's Magical Menagerie", along with a hastily hand-painted sign that reads "OPENING SOON".

The group tests the front door and finds it unlocked -- pushing the door open, they see Kromm walking out from the back room, wiping sweat from his brow. As soon as he spots the party, his eyes widen, and he grins a huge smile, rushing over to grab Jim in a big bear hug. He does the same to Tim and Jeau, and bows before Zeau, kissing her on the hand.

Kromm thanks the party for coming by and asks where they've been -- none of them particularly want to answer, so Jeau pivots and says "That isn't important, what's important is this shop of yours. How can we help?"

Kromm smiles and motions for the party to follow him to a large, empty pedestal of fine mahogany lined with gold. An empty brass plaque, not yet engraved with anything, sits at the front, prominent and visible through the large plate glass windows at the front of the shop.

The friendly orc grins and shrugs, saying "Well, Sharn is a really big place, and as you guys can see, there's a lot of competition here in the Bazaar. I want something at the front of my shop that will make me stand out, something to catch people's attentions when they walk by. I want... a taxidermied monster!"

Jim and Tim suddenly snap to attention, their eyes going wide with excitement.

Kromm continues: "I don't want just any monster, though. I want something... legendary. Have any of you heard of the Red-Eyed Ghost of Eldeen?"

Zeau's eyes narrow and she tilts her head, saying "I heard tales of the Red-Eyed Ghost back when I lived in Eldeen, but I always assumed them to be just that -- tales." She turns to face her fellow adventurers and elaborates, saying "Supposedly, the Red-Eyed Ghost is a humungous albino owlbear -- fifteen feet tall, piercing red eyes, snow-white feathers, and razor sharp claws. Many have attempted to hunt the beast down -- it's mad and feral, and killing it would be a kindness at this point -- but no one has ever succeeded. It seems to kill just for sport, and its supposedly murdered a few farmers..."

Kromm nods and says "If anyone can take that beast down, it's you. I've seen you do amazing things that I thought no person could ever pull off, and killing this thing won't benefit just me -- it'll be a service to the Reaches as a whole. But, I need you to promise me, that if you do this and it's too dangerous, you'll get out of there. The most important thing to me is that you all are safe. What do you say -- interested?"

Tim cracks his knuckles and agrees for the rest of the group, and Kromm rushes in back to gather a dossier of notes he has prepared on the creature, passing them to the assassin so he can properly research his opponent. The adventurers say goodbye to Kromm, saying that they've got somewhere to be, but promising that they will find this 'Red-Eyed Ghost' as soon as they are able...



In the middle of the afternoon, the party returns to the Seventh Tower district, a skycoach dropping them a short walk away from Gaius' penthouse. They approach and find that, despite the darkness outside from the long-lived thunderstorm that has engulfed the city, there are still no lights visible from within the penthouse. Jim steps forward and slams his heavy fist into the wood of the door -- once, twice, three times.

The knocks ring out through the penthouse, but no one answers -- not Viktor, not Gaius.

Tim tries the handle, and finds the door to be unlocked. The adventurers all look to each other, and then silently decide to open the door. Pushing the darkwood inward with a loud, drawn-out creak, the lantern lights of the streets outside illuminate the interior of Gaius Anderfel's Penthouse -- however, everything is vastly different from the last time they saw were here.

It is completely and utterly empty. No trophies on the walls, no books on the shelves, no trinkets from far-off lands or heirloom furniture. Completely empty, as if the penthouse was just constructed and has never been lived in. The only thing visible is a small wooden box, sitting in the center of the foyer. As lightning flashes behind the group, their four names become just barely visible, lovingly burned into the lid of the box.

The group closes the door behind themselves, approaching the box with caution. Zeau casts detect magic but can't pick up any magical auras coming off the box, and Tim searches the box for traps but doesn't discover anything of note.

Finally, Jim asks everyone to stand back, and opens the box -- the lid creaks open harmlessly, revealing a ring of keys, several sheets of paper, and a hand-written note:

“Dearest friends,

Thank you so much.

I'm sure you are very confused and have many questions about what is happening around you. All I can say is, things will be made clear to you soon. Great works are in motion that will shape this world, and your heroism in the Vault has brought my compatriots and I one step closer to our goal.

My time as Gaius Anderfel has come to an end. As such, I have no need for this tiny penthouse. While it is a paltry gift for the things you have done, I want you to have it. The deed has been passed on to you and the keys are in this box.

If we never meet again, please understand that there is nothing I can do to properly thank you for everything you have done. I almost envy you for not knowing what is about to happen.

Do not attempt to find me, or I will grind you to dust and scatter you to the eight winds.

-x”

Zeau finishes reading the letter and lets go of it, letting it drift slowly to the floor.

Jeau examines the documents with a shaky hand, and discovers that "Gaius" was telling the truth -- all ownership of the penthouse has been legally passed on, Jeau, Jim, Tim, and Zeau all being named co-owners of the property.

The adventurers start examining the interior of the penthouse, finding several bedrooms on the second floor, a large study, a sitting room, a large kitchen, and a beautiful dining room, all devoid of furniture or adornment of any kind. As they are searching, they are all startled by a knock on the door. Jim draws his rainbow axe and speaks the command word to activate its bound elemental magic, Tim grabs both of his kukris and gets into a combative stance, Jeau grabs his magic missile wand and points it at the door, and Pickle growls in the direction of the front doors. The knocking rings out through the foyer once more as Zeau slowly steps toward the darkwood portal, grabbing for the handle and pulling them open.

There, standing in the pouring rain, is a hooded figure carrying an extremely heavy backpack laden with gear. The figure throws her hood back, revealing a head of wild, unkempt curls and a pair of large round glasses -- the face of Wren, the scholar who first introduced them to Gaius.

"Oh! Hello everyone! How are you all doing? Is Gaius home? Also, can I come in -- it's really raining out here, and I read that spending too much time in a cold rain like this can cause night shakes."

The party steps back and Wren walks inside, her cloak and backpack dripping wet. "Thank you so much for letting me in, it's a mess out there! So, ummm, where was I? Right, why I'm here. I've been trying to contact Gaius for almost two weeks and he hasn't responded, I wanted to ask him some questions about... interactions between... the Dhakaani Empire... Where is Gaius? And where are all of his things? What is going on?"

The party explains the entire situation, as best they are able -- Wren is incredulous. She stutters and stammers, saying "That's impossible. I've known him for over five years!" Jeau hands her the note and she reads it, here eyes tracing the lines multiple times until she finally slumps down to the floor and tosses the note away from herself.

"...that... is his handwriting. I know what his note said, about not trying to find him, but he manipulated you. And he lied to me. God only knows what these 'friends' of his are up to, but if it involves breaking a... demon out of... demon jail, it can't be good! So, I leave it up to you all -- one, we forget this whole experience ever happened, forget Gaius' name, and move one with out lives; or two, we find him, and we stop whatever he is planning. What do you say?"

The adventurers of To the Hilt! all look at each other, in silent conversation for a moment. Finally, they turn back to Wren and nod, almost in unison.

"We hunt him down."

(Thank God, cuz otherwise I would have had to write a whole new campaign...)


Whoa! Big stuff! Join us next time on To the Hilt!

NEXT EPISODE: A serial killer in Sharn?

twas_Brillig
2017-01-21, 10:19 AM
(I'm blown away at this point that, instead of being like "we need to talk to Gaius RIGHT F***ING NOW" they're saying "let's swing by Kromm's place and then we can go talk to Gaius, if there's time...")

Did they ever explain why? Wanting to chat with NPCs is a testament to how much they like those characters, I guess, but you'd think at minimum they'd think Gaius might be a little worried about the demonic terror he unleashed.


NEXT EPISODE: A serial killer in Sharn?

Given the body count adventurers leave behind, I think you can probably strike the question mark.

Inevitability
2017-01-21, 10:33 AM
Given the body count adventurers leave behind, I think you can probably strike the question mark.

Yeah, but those murders were mostly next to, below, and far away from Sharn. Their kills within the actual city weren't that many!

DJroboninja
2017-01-21, 10:40 AM
Did they ever explain why? Wanting to chat with NPCs is a testament to how much they like those characters, I guess, but you'd think at minimum they'd think Gaius might be a little worried about the demonic terror he unleashed.

Yeah I asked them after the fact and they trusted Gaius so much that they just knew in their heart of hearts that he wasn't up to anything nefarious. They assumed that he made a mistake and that he would assist them in stopping this newly released demonic force

Temperjoke
2017-01-22, 06:45 PM
Yeah I asked them after the fact and they trusted Gaius so much that they just knew in their heart of hearts that he wasn't up to anything nefarious. They assumed that he made a mistake and that he would assist them in stopping this newly released demonic force

This is a group fully invested in a campaign and your npcs! Well done!

twas_Brillig
2017-01-23, 08:28 AM
Yeah I asked them after the fact and they trusted Gaius so much that they just knew in their heart of hearts that he wasn't up to anything nefarious. They assumed that he made a mistake and that he would assist them in stopping this newly released demonic force

Man, that's adorable. What were their expressions like when you dropped the bomb?

DJroboninja
2017-01-25, 06:57 PM
Man, that's adorable. What were their expressions like when you dropped the bomb?

It was betrayal. Pure, unadulterated betrayal. Simultaneously filled me with sick joy and broke my god damn heart.

It was good though, because it put them in the exact same mindset as their characters -- they walked in expecting their old friend and were met with a note proclaiming that they had been played since day one. All of them were instantly like "Oh my god, F*** THIS GUY -- Wren, find him!"

Cyclopean
2017-01-25, 08:12 PM
Long time reader, first time commenter here. I love the journal, and if I ever get around to writing up some of the adventures I've played in, I'll be looking at your stuff as guidance.

Anyway, I have to ask--how paranoid are they now? Do you think they'll ever trust a patron NPC again?

DJroboninja
2017-01-25, 09:00 PM
SESSION THIRTY-TWO -- THE BUTCHER OF MENTHIS

Howdy y'all!

Previously on To the Hilt!, the party returned from a strange expedition to Q'barra, where they inadvertently released an imprisoned demon. After a long journey through the dark depths of Khyber and a trudge through the windswept peaks of the Mror Holds, the party finally returned to their home city of Sharn, the great City of Towers. They got a night of well-deserved rest in their permanent rooms at the Solemn Soldier Inn before checking in on their old friend Gaius Anderfel, a nobleman and member in good standing of the Wayfinder Foundation, who sent them on several adventurers, the trip to the Deep Vault in Q'barra being only the most recent. When they arrived, however, his usually well-furnished penthouse was completely empty, the only thing awaiting them a small box with their four names burned into the top.

Inside was a note from "Gaius", who revealed that he had manipulated the party into releasing the demon and thanked them for their assistance -- he gifted them his penthouse as thanks, and promised them a swift death if they chose to pursue him. Shortly thereafter, the party's old friend, Wren, the demonologist and diviner, arrived at the penthouse looking for Gaius -- when the adventurers of To the Hilt! showed her the note they found, she was filled with anger, and promised to move in and help the party find Gaius to make him pay for what he had done and stop whatever he is planning...


The adventurers help Wren move into the study on the first floor of the Penthouse, as she opens a backpack that seems to hold far more books than should be possible, based upon its size. As she starts filling the bookshelves, her emotionless homunculus, Paracelsus, flies out to meet the party and assist Wren in getting settled. The party explores the rest of the sprawling Penthouse, each of them choosing one of the large bedrooms on the second floor as their own. The knowledge of their betrayal and the emotional strain of their past few days wearing on them, each of them flops down onto their new beds and falls into a night of fitful, restless sleep...

The following morning, the group calls a team meeting in the drawing room on the first floor of the Penthouse, building a fire in the fireplace to create a semblance of a "home". Wren explains that she is going to begin working on the rituals needed to find where "Gaius" went, but that it could take some time, since she has no idea who or what he actually is. She tells the party that she and Paracelsus can work on the divinations without them -- they should spend some time shopping, crafting, or otherwise occupying themselves.

At that, Jeau grabs a sheet of parchment and a writing utensil, and the party discusses where they want to go from here. Gathering the letters they received while out of town and mulling over their previous adventures and encounters, the group makes a list of things they want to take care of:

- Find the Red Eyed Ghost for Kromm
- Meet with Inspector Bolton of the Sharn Watch
- Talk to Alabaster Torrn of House Tharashk, regarding Edwin d'Tharashk
- Find Tim/Tam's Brother, Rex
- Search for Information Regarding the Puritans

Looking over their options, they decide to contact Inspector Bolton -- whatever he wants to talk to the party about is likely time-sensitive, while the rest can wait.

Wishing Wren and Paracelsus good luck and saying good bye, the party gathers up whatever gear and provisions seem necessary, and leaves their new Penthouse...



The party steps out of the house and flags down a skycoach flying past the tower -- it pulls up to them and they hop on, asking for a ride to the Warden Towers district of Middle Menthis Plateau. As they arrive, they can see members of the Sharn Watch marching to and fro in groups, their long black coats and glimmering silver badges marking them as important. Some Watchmen stand at attention just outside the garrison, while others drill for combat in a large, open-air arena between two nearby towers. Shouted commands, marching songs, nd foul-mouthed curses from hand-cuffed criminals fill the air...

Walking up the great, marble staircase that serves as the entry-point to the garrison, the party walks into a grand foyer, with large staircases leading up and down from the main dimly-lit chamber, several criminals standing around awaiting processing. Tim looks around as he enters, and feels a sense of unease wash over him. The adventurers approach an ornate darkwood desk, where a pair of dirty-looking half-elves in tattered rags of clothing are arguing with a young female Watch officer as they close in.

"For the last time, I don't choose what happens, to you, I--shut the hell up for a second. What do you want?"

Jeau clears his throat and says "We, um, we're here to meet with Inspector Bolton?"

The Watch officer nods her head to the side and says "That door over there, three floors down, Lower Homicide. He's the desk in the back corner. Anyway...", she says to the half-elves as she resumes her argument. The warriors of To the Hilt! all look at each other, shrug, and follow her instructions.

A short walk leads the group downstairs to the bullpen of Lower Homicide -- in the back corner, they see a bald dwarf in a long, black coat standing over a pile of parchments, drawings, and maps, taking a deep, long swig from a metal flask and whispering a short curse under his breath. His coat is stained and torn in places, and the armor underneath looks like it hasn't been maintained in years, nor does the bastard sword strapped across his back. The dwarf's nose looks to have been broken more than once, and a large, circular scar mars his upper brow.

He coughs and says "Dol Dorn, took ye long enough! Sit down, I don' have all day. As I'm sure ye've gathered by now, I'm Haradin Bolton, and I need yer help. Those refugees down in High Walls have been singing yer praises for weeks now, and I've got some friends down there who figured I could use your help on this case here. Can I get ye anything before we get started? I've got, umm..." He slides open a drawer from his desk and looks up, shrugging "...half a bottle of whiskey?/"

The adventurers politely decline and Bolton nods -- "There's a serial killer on the loose here in Menthis. So far, he's got five vics under his belt, and I'm sure the sixth can't be far behind. All the evidence I have is right here in front of us. Violent crime has been on the upsurge down in Lower Menthis lately, and we're stretched too damn thin as it is -- I was wondering if you could give it a look and tell me what you see..."

The party organizes the information in front of them, including several graphic drawings of the bodies found at the various crime scenes. From what they can see, five victims have indeed been slain in Lower Menthis -- all of them were killed in the same way, their throats slit by an extremely sharp blade, and, disgustingly, a piece of each victim's body was missing when they were discovered, removed with surgical precision.

Two male victims had strips of skin flayed from their bodies, two female victims had their upper and lower lips removed, and one female victim had one of her eyes removed.

(Every single player was staring at me at this point with a face that clearly, concisely said "dude, what the actual f***")

The party expresses an interest in checking out each of the crime scenes first hand -- Inspector Bolton rifles through one of the drawers of his desk, metal clanging against metal as he does so. He draws out four bronze stars from the drawer, handing one to each of the adventurers -- "Works fer me, for the remainder of this investigation, ye are official temporary deputies of the Sharn Watch. Don't make me regret it..."



The newly christened Watch deputies head down to the Firelight district of Sharn, the den of debauchery where the Burning Ring fight club operates. They follow Bolton's notes to the scene of the most recent murder, behind Savia's Bordello -- according to the crime scene report, a broken crossbow bolt and a trail of blood was found here, along with the body of victim #5, a woman named Lycia.

Discovering the alleyway behind the bordello, the scene is so fresh that the Watch still has warning ropes set across its width. Stepping under them, the group does a thorough search, with Jeau and Zeau working together to determine that someone other than the killer or the victim was shot with a crossbow bolt in this location -- based on the location of the trail and the chalk outline of the crossbow bolt, it would seem that someone happened upon the crime and took a bolt fired by the killer for their trouble. Zeau imagines that such a person would likely have sought after medical attention, and Jeau is able to remember the location of the nearest House Jorasco Hospital.

The healers at the Hospital are extremely busy, patching up some thugs who look like they lost a fight. Jeau uses his status as a dragonmarked member of the house to get some information from their records -- they find out that three men have come in recently with crossbow-related injuries, including a human named Llewellyn, a half-elf named Tomas, and a half-orc named Gruk. Jeau copies down he information, and thanks them for their time.

Searching through the other crime scenes, the party finds several pieces of evidence that the Watchmen who examined the locations of the murders seemingly missed, including a rusty straight razor with a white bone handle found in a dumpster at scene #2, a ring finger that appears to have been bitten off as part of a struggle from scene #1, and a familiar-looking bone-handled straight razor hidden behind a bookshelf at scene #4, an apartment in Center Bridge.

The party speaks with the neighbors of the man murdered in Center Bridge, and finds that on the night in question, they heard several voices and a struggle. The party realizes at this point that they aren't looking for just one killer...



Deciding that the men with the crossbow injuries are likely their best course of action, the party meets with Inspector Bolton once more the following morning and asks him to look into the criminal records of the three men, if any. Bolton disappears into the records room for what seems like an eternity, before returning with some information for the party -- the human man, Llewellyn, has been arrested multiple times in Firelight on drug charges, the half-elf, Tomas, was charged with petty theft twice in the Downstairs district, and the half-orc, Gruk, has only ever been arrested for public intoxication, each time in the Torchlight district.

Deciding that Llewellyn was their most likely candidate for the witness, they return to Firelight and start asking around at the local brothels and bordellos about this man, discovering that he is a tall, lanky vagrant with a pretty severe addiction to Absentia. Exploring some of his usual haunts, Tim eventually spots the lanky Llewellyn in a crowd near the Platinum Piece Tavern -- however, as soon as he meets eyes with the adventurers and spots their bronze deputy stars, he sprints away from them!

The party gives chase, rushing after the man and shouting for him to "come back" and "stop resisting" -- Tim cuts down a nearby alleyway, ducking around a group of Boromar Clan thugs that appear to be loading crates onto a stolen skycoach; Zeau wild shapes into an eagle and takes to the skies for a better vantage point; Pickle and Jim start stomping forward at top speed, Jeau riding on Pickle's back and shouting to passersby, asking which direction the vagrant went.

Zeau gets a good view of their target, returning to her shifter form to shout his location to her allies -- Tim heads the man off at the pass, leaping at him from an alleyway to try and tackle him to the ground, but missing just barely. However, Tim's leaping attack gives Pickle the advantage -- Jim points out the target, and the great wolfhound and his frightened halfling rider bound forward, leaping onto Llewellyn's back and slamming him to the cobblestones with a heavy thud.

Jim grabs the thin man by the scruff of his shirt and shouts "Why did you run!?" Llewellyn appears visibly shaken, and explains that he's had difficult dealings with the Sharn Watch in the past, and didn't want to catch another beating "just for, like, carrying a couple dozen vials of Absentia."

The adventurers question him about the night of the most recent killing -- according to him, he wandered into the alleyway to sleep off a bad batch he took when he saw a guy dressed in rags and bandages slitting a girl's throat with a razor. He shouted at him, but the man drew a hand crossbow and shot him in the leg, Llewellyn pulling his pant leg up to show the scar. Llewellyn recognized the killer as an insane vagrant named Milton who hangs around the old condemned Ash Tower Apartments in the Forgelight Towers district -- "look, man, whatever you do, don't go there -- I've heard about some crazy, freaky sh** going on there, dead bodies and knives and stuff..."



The deputies head toward the Ash Tower apartments, finding a row of brick apartment buildings that have fallen into complete disrepair -- nearly every window in the buildings has been shattered, some replaced with rotted wooden planks, and large cracks are visible among the walls. Four vagrants, all dressed in rags and bandages that cover nearly their entire body, save their eyes, stand out front, their faces glazed over and emotionless.

The party approaches, keeping a hand on their weapons as they walk up the stairs. The vagrants make no aggressive moves, but as Jim starts ascending the steps, one of them turns to face him and says "Can't you hear her?", his voice distant and dream-like. They continue up the stairs, shaken and confused, as another of the derelicts says "She's singing, you can hear it right?" Just as they open the door to the building beyond, the closest vagrant sighs: "It's so beautiful, isn't it?"

Stepping into the structure, the party is met by a frightening sight -- a rickety wooden door falling off its hinges that apparently leads to the basement has been painted with a hastily-made black symbol, an open eye peering out from within a feminine mouth. Jeau recognizes it as the symbol of the Black Mother, the mysterious matron of the cult of aberrations plaguing High Walls a few months prior. Realizing that must be the place to go, the party takes a few reticent steps down into the dusty basement, several strange odors hitting their nostrils as they begin their descent -- strange incense, alchemical reagents, and the scent of rot.

As they enter the basement, they can see several figures praying before a massive shrine, several candles burning on altars before a humongous mural of the Black Mother's personal sigil. Four of them are dressed almost identically to the derelicts standing in front of the building, while the fifth looks different.

"In the name of the Sharn Watch, show yourselves!" Jim shouts, just before speaking the command word to activate his rainbow axe. As he says this, the central figure starts laughing.

"The Mother of Madness is singing. Her voices are so brilliant... she told me to do this. She told me to do all of this..."

The figure turns, revealing a human man dressed in the tattered garb of a nobleman. His face is obscured by a mask -- as the party looks closer, they discover a horrifying sight. What at first appeared to be a mask of leather is actually tanned human flesh, both eye holes flanked by a pair of severed feminine lips stitched to the surrounding skin. The man's right eye is wide and wild, the iris glowing with a faint crimson light, and the flesh around it scarred and pink...

http://68.media.tumblr.com/4bd54d50fc6990ee2452738fc0680dd5/tumblr_o2vw0qDRwj1rcd8pvo1_500.jpg

Before the party can comprehend the horrifying sight before them, they hear the sound of the front door closing, several sets of feet shuffling down the hall toward them. The vagrants in the basement all reach into their rags, drawing out rusted, bone-white handled straight razors that look identical to the ones found at the crime scenes. The man in the bizarre flesh mask draws no weapons -- instead, he begins to chant, and actually rises several inches off the floor, his hands glowing with dark, foggy energy!

The party rushes into the basement, trying to get into a good combat position as they draw their weapons and begins preparing magical defenses -- the vagrants all charge forward at the party, slashing at them with rusted razors and doing their best to keep them away from their apparent leader. The man in the mask begins hurling balls of dark energy across the basement toward the adventurers, the clouds of darkness striking against their flesh and blackening it, flashes of sharp pain creeping through their bodies.

Several more vagrants begin stomping down the stairs, all of them chanting variations on "can't you hear her?" and "can't you see her?" and "isn't she beautiful?". The party doesn't want to harm the derelicts, but after suffering several deep gashes from their razors, decides they have no other option, cutting them down with blades and spells.

After some work, all of the masked man's followers are slain -- Zeau uses her primal magic to dispel the man's levitation effect while Jeau peppers him with magic missiles and Tim and Jim rush in to engage him in melee. Tim catches him off-guard and slashes his kukri across the man's back, causing him to drop to one knee in pain and giving Jim the perfect chance to end things -- however, he looses his grip on his axe, and instead socks the man across the jaw. "You're under arrest..."

Some time later, Inspector Bolton looks up from his overwhelming caseload to spot the adventurers of To the Hilt! walking into the bullpen of the Lower Homicide division, carrying a stumbling, mumbling man, covered in blood and bound and gagged.

"Inspector Bolton, I would like to present to you, the Butcher of Menthis..."


This was a really fun adventure to run -- there were tons of different directions the party could have gone with their investigation, and it was their first chance to dip a toe into sandbox gaming. I presented them with the evidence and then said "What do you do?"

It took a little getting used to, but I think it was super fun, and the twisted sh** in the basement really caught them off guard.

NEXT TIME: Caravans! Owlbears! Proud Bears!

DJroboninja
2017-01-25, 09:04 PM
Long time reader, first time commenter here. I love the journal, and if I ever get around to writing up some of the adventures I've played in, I'll be looking at your stuff as guidance.

Anyway, I have to ask--how paranoid are they now? Do you think they'll ever trust a patron NPC again?

Thank you!

I think paranoia is an extremely important part of Eberron, as a setting -- with changelings everywhere and so many shadowy, evil organizations pulling strings from behind the scenes, the PCs shouldn't trust anyone. Ever.

SPOILER ALERT - This won't be the last time being overly trusting will bite them in the ass!

twas_Brillig
2017-01-27, 11:41 PM
SPOILER ALERT - This won't be the last time being overly trusting will bite them in the ass!

Please tell me it was the owl bear.

DJroboninja
2017-02-02, 09:31 PM
SESSION THIRTY-THREE -- THE RED-EYED GHOST

Yo!

Previously, on To the Hilt!, the party returned from an adventure to discover that their former patron, Gaius Anderfel, was manipulating them and was not what he seemed. Their diviner friend, Wren, arrived at the Penthouse, which "Gaius" recently signed over to the adventurers, and the group decided to hunt down the man who betrayed them. However, Wren admits that he will likely be difficult to find, so the party has some free time to deal with any loose threads (read: sidequests).

After helping hunt down an infamous serial killer targeting people in the lower reaches of Sharn, the party has returned to their new Penthouse to plan their next objective...


Having just stopped a strange cult and thwarted a killing spree, the adventurers of To the Hilt! return to their well-appointed estate near the Ivy Towers district, walking through the large darkwood front doors to discover that Wren has fully moved in -- large dusty tomes are open all across the main foyer, some sitting in the middle of the floor, others resting on chairs, and the bookshelves of the study are mostly filled with books of various sizes. Wren pops her head out of the study, her curly hair unkempt and wild as usual, to apologize for the mess before disappearing back into her work, muttering to herself.

After a few days' rest to recover from their battle with the Butcher of Menthis, the party meets to discuss their next course of action -- after looking over their options, they decide to hunt down the rabid albino owlbear known as the Red-Eyed Ghost, far to the north in the Eldeen Reaches. Zeau wants to stop the creature from wreaking havoc throughout her homeland (and to claim the creatures skin so it can be taxidermied into an eye-catching display inside Kromm's new shop), and she also plans to meet with her adoptive father, the aging Gatekeeper druid known as Zim Beau Bim (because as much as I love my players, they like to make my job as difficult as humanly possible) regarding the strange sect of the Church of the Silver Flame known as the Puritans.

That afternoon, the party heads to the outer wall of Sharn to board a House Orien caravan heading north toward the Eldeen Reaches -- as the head driver of the caravan calls out for everyone heading north to board before the wagons leave, the adventurers of To the Hilt! jump aboard one of the farthest back wagons, all settling in for a long, slow voyage north, taking the scenic route for once.

The caravan follows the Orien trade roads north, through the northern section of Breland before crossing the border into Aundair, a nation of farms, orchards, and vineyards dotting the countryside between many small, close-knit communities. The ride is pleasant and uneventful, and after a leg of the journey takes them around the shores of the massive Lake Galifar, the party is finally dropped off in the community of Greenheart, in the heart of the Towering Wood of Eldeen -- great forests of massive, ancient trees sprawl out in every direction, as far as the eye can see, and Zeau waves her hand to point out a small town of little more than a thousand people, the houses rustic and made of stone and unpainted wood.

"Welcome to Greenheart -- our capital city!"



Once the party gets their bearings, they nominate Zeau to be the face of the party while in Greenheart -- she may not be from the actual town of Greenheart, but she was raised in the woods of Eldeen, near the community, so she is likely the best method of communication with the locals. However, Zeau's local pride is trumped by her lack of social graces -- the farmers, druids, and rangers that call the town home are all extremely stand-offish and unwilling to relay any information regarding the Red-Eyed Ghost or the Puritans (she rolled three Gather Information checks and all three managed to come up 5 or less, sad face). Getting little help from the locals of Greenheart, the group decides to venture into the Towering Wood to find Zim Beau Bim's house and talk to him about their twin objectives.

The journey takes the greater part of a day, and by the time the adventurers arrive at Zeau's childhood grove, the sun has set and the moons are glowing high in the sky, illuminating a clearing with a large, partially rotted tree in the center, several oblong windows cut into its hide with lights visible within. A green-painted front door provides entrance to the massive tree, and a small garden sits just outside, several plants growing to above-average size. As the adventurers approach Zeau's familial treehouse, they walk past a small stone that audibly hums and glows with a green Druidic rune -- Jeau looks at it with a concerned face, but Zeau smiles and promises that it's "not going to do anything to a halfling..."

Zeau knocks on the door, and after a moment, it swings open to reveal a middle-aged man with a long white beard, leaning slightly on a twisting, natural branch that still grows small leaves in places -- he is draped in a sap green cloak and wears a suit of heavily worn leather armor that bears dozens of small surface scratches. As he looks at the woman standing before him, his stern expression gives way to a large smile and he throws his walking stick to the side, holding his arms out for a hug and shouting "Proud Bear! What brings you to this old man's tree at such a late hour?"

(No, Zeau's player did not know she would have a cutesy nickname from her adoptive father, and the eye-roll that occurred when I called her that happened in-character and out-of-character -- the others still call her Proud Bear when they want to piss her off...)

The rest of the group chuckles and snickers as the old man wraps his arms around Zeau, her eyes darting around in visible embarrassment. "Hi dad. Sorry to barge in on you, I know it's late but we-"

Zim interrupts her, shushing her and saying "Oh please, it's no bother, come in, come in, I'll put on some tea. Who are your friends, Proud Bear?"

The group takes seats around a large, irregular table, seemingly crafted from a natural slice of one of the massive trees that make up the Towering Wood, and Zim makes sure everyone is properly served before continuing the conversation. Zeau mentions that they are here for two reasons -- one, the Red-Eyed Ghost's rampages across the area, and two, their attack by the Puritan group in Sharn.

Zim's smile fades slightly, and his age becomes apparent as his face becomes more stern. "Yes, terrible business on both accounts. Let me see what I can provide..." He grabs a large leaf, using it like a piece of parchment to draw out a map of the surrounding area for the party. The old Gatekeeper points to five farms, stating that they were the sites of the most recent attacks by the Red-Eyed Ghost -- he asks Zeau in a pleading voice to put the beast out of its misery. "It is afflicted with a cursed mind -- druids from all the different sects have tried to cure the creature, but their magic fails every time. At this point, killing it would be a kindness..." Zeau nods in agreement, the party all silently deciding not to mention their true motivation for killing the creature.

On another leaf, he points out a clearing where a local shifter was attacked by Puritans in white masks identical to the ones Zeau decribed a few weeks prior. The man was beaten mercilessly before being driven off by a group of druids belonging to the Wardens of the Wood. "It's the only thing I know of from recently -- I doubt those bigots would be stupid enough to try something again. Proud Bear... they're like the people from... that night, aren't they?"

Zeau sighs. "Yes."

The group exchanges pleasantries and embarrassing stories about Zeau with Zim Beau Bim, spending the night sleeping in the loft in the upper floor of his large tree house...



The following morning, Zeau hugs Zim Beau Bim once more, promising to say goodbye before the group returns to Sharn. The group sets out, preparing to investigate the most recent farms where the creature attacked. Along the way, Tim uses his knowledge of anatomy and wilderness survival to warn the party about proper tactics for their upcoming fight, mentioning that they need to bring the creature down carefully so as not to damage its coat, otherwise the journey will have been for nothing.

"...we'll be saving lives though", Zeau says.

"Well, you get what I mean."

Examining the farms, the party finds evidence of a massive creature, traveling with several smaller creatures -- all of them appear to be traveling on four legs, the hands and feet wickedly clawed. Zeau takes some time between farmhouses to stop and commune with nature, the spirits of Eldeen explaining that the creature recently killed several cows on a nearby farm, along with a stag farther west -- the nature spirits parting words mention that a large concentration of owlbears can be found due west of their current position, so the party continues onward.

They speak with the farmer who lost his cattle to the monster, the old dwarf describing how viciously the owlbear tore through his animals. "He weren't eatin' them or nothin'. He was just killin' for the sake of killin'." The farmer also mentions firing on it with his prized hunting crossbow, but the bolts "just seemed to bounce clear off!"

After an extended track, the adventurers find their way to an abandoned farmhouse built on top of a hill that juts up between the forests that cover Eldeen -- the farm appears to have been unused for several years, and Tim spots flattened, bloodstained grass that suggests something was dragged here. Looking at the area from a safe distance, the party spots four creatures, walking on all fours -- they are the size of a normal brown bear, but their bodies are covered in brown feathers, and their faces are akin to a massive great horned owl.

http://68.media.tumblr.com/9dfe94d70f3388ca0a9feaad71206431/tumblr_mp30zhNg9e1rcd8pvo1_500.jpg

However, Tim notices that the owlbears seem underfed and weakened, and Zeau notes that none of them appear to be especially large or suffering from albinism. However, the tracks undeniably lead toward the property, so the group decides to get closer and investigate further. As they get near the house, the weaker owlbears hiss and stand up on their hind legs, trying to look imposing but taking no aggressive actions. After a moment, a low rumble can be heard from within the dilapidated structure, and suddenly, with a loud, ear-piercing screech, the front doors are smashed outward, slamming into the yard between the house and the adventurers. The owlbears all cower in fear as a massive owlbear steps out of the farmhouse -- its feathers are all stark white, some flecked with dots of crimson, and its eyes are a bright pink that almost seems to glow in the twilight of the setting sun. The beast stands nearly fifteen feet in height, but is hunched over, froth dribbling from its beak and several arrows and swords sticking out of its thick, scarred hide.

The Red-Eyed Ghost howls in fury, and the other owlbears begin lumbering forward to attack...

Jim and The Ghost both charge toward each other, the two swinging with fury at each other -- on the way, Jim speaks a command word to turn off the acid and fire of his rainbow axe, to do his best not to damage the beast's hide. Tim slinks around to the side, trying to get behind the creature and catch it off-guard, knowing that his kukri couldn't possibly puncture the beast's hide without finding a weak point first. Meanwhile, Zeau and Jeau try to deal with the other owlbears, who seem to be obedient to the Ghost -- Zeau pleads with Jeau not to kill any of them, since they are merely hungry and afraid, and the mages agree to the terms, Jeau using a disused wand of shocking grasp to try and scare them off, and Zeau transforming into a large black bear to try and intimidate them away.

The Ghost slashes at Jim with a pair of powerful talons, the claws rending his flesh with every strike, but he continues to fight on, keeping the creature's attention long enough for Tim to get into a good position, the wiry changeling leaping into battle and slashing his kukri across the monster's back, causing it to squeal in pain. The beast turns to face the rogue, tearing at him with his claws and nearly causing him to black out. However, the two warriors together are able to hit the creature with a pincer attack, Jim slamming his axe into its chest with a powerful blow and Tim climbing its back and tracing his blades across its neck, causing its furious, rage-filled life to spill from its body.

As the Ghost is felled by the warriors, the remaining owlbears all run away in fear, disappearing into the Towering Wood...



The party spends the night at the abandoned farmhouse, Tim and Zeau spending the evening carefully skinning their kill, doing their best not to damage its plumage or hide in the process -- once the task is completed, they stuff the hide into their newly acquired bag of holding for safe-keeping.

As the light breaks the following morning, they gather their belongings and walk back through the Towering Wood toward Zeau and Zim's old treehouse -- however, as soon as they set foot into the clearing, Zim Beau Bim rushes out of his home, stumbling to regain his footing as he runs with his walking stick. His eyes are wide and wild, and before Zeau can ask what is going on, he shouts:

"Proud Bear! Those Puritan bastards struck last night! Three shifters were kidnapped from their homes -- you have to find them, before it's too late!"


NEXT TIME: Jim commits an act that will haunt him for the rest of his life. Also, religious zealotry!

Kol Korran
2017-02-03, 12:06 AM
Nice one, however... most of your adventures had little twists near the end of them. Something that the PCs didn't expect. I was sure the Red-Eyed Ghost would prove to be... not JUST an owlbear... A maddened druid, a lycanthrope, something possessed by an aberration or so... Did the party miss the twist, or was there none?

How did you build this monstrosity, mechanics wise? A normal owlbear is far too low a CR for this group, so I'm wondering how did you upgrade it! :smalltongue:

Great writing, and I loved the "Proud Bear!" comment! Nice detail! :smallwink:

DJroboninja
2017-02-03, 12:21 AM
Nice one, however... most of your adventures had little twists near the end of them. Something that the PCs didn't expect. I was sure the Red-Eyed Ghost would prove to be... not JUST an owlbear... A maddened druid, a lycanthrope, something possessed by an aberration or so... Did the party miss the twist, or was there none?

How did you build this monstrosity, mechanics wise? A normal owlbear is far too low a CR for this group, so I'm wondering how did you upgrade it! :smalltongue:

Great writing, and I loved the "Proud Bear!" comment! Nice detail! :smallwink:

I had a little something prepared for if the players wanted to look into why the owlbear was acting so crazy, but the party wasn't too interested, especially since the whole "let's go talk to Zim Beau Bim" thing came up and seemed much more important. Even though I knew she was from Eldeen, I honestly didn't even think about them going to him, but I loved her working in her backstory so I ran with it.

Behind the curtain fun fact - the next adventure was supposed to take place a little later in the Kings Forest, but since Zeau's player had already brought in her backstory on her own, I wanted to keep the momentum going - I downplayed the backstory on the Red-Eyed Ghost and moved the adventure to Eldeen, tweaking a few things to make it fit!

Plus, the extras on the Ghost, in hindsight, just kept the party away from Sharn and didn't do anything -- at this point in the game, post-Gaius reveal, I wanted every adventure to either pertain to the overarching plot, bolster a relationship with an NPC, or tie into a PC backstory, and the mystery surrounding it did none of those things

The Red-Eyed Ghost itself used mythic rules from Pathfinder, which provides a bunch of crazy super powered templates to boost a creature to challenge "mythic" PCs - I stripped the templates of anything based on the mythic sub-rules and used them to make a beefy, Huge-sized owlbear with DR and wicked rend damage.

DJroboninja
2017-02-10, 08:55 PM
SESSION THIRTY-FOUR -- THE PURITY CEREMONY, PART ONE

Yo!

Previously on To the Hilt!, the party ventured into the Eldeen Reaches, Zeau's homeland, to hunt down a humongous, feral, albino owlbear known as the Red-Eyed Ghost. After spending some time talking to Zeau's adoptive father, the Gatekeeper druid Zim Beau Bim, they ventured forth into the Towering Wood, encountering the mythic beast on an old, abandoned farm -- after a length fight, the party was able to fell the monster and take its hide for their friend, Kromm the Merchant. However, upon returning to Zim's tree house, the party was informed that several shifters were kidnapped in the wee hours of the morning, presumably by the Silver Flame fanatics that call themselves the Puritans...

Let's jump in!


After speaking with the frightened Zim Beau Bim regarding the kidnapped Shifters, the party decides they need to act fast -- Jeau taps into his religious knowledge and begrudgingly informs the group that, during the original Lycanthropic Purge committed by the Church of the Silver Flame decades ago, Thranish inquisitors would often execute lycans and their offspring at midnight, when the light of the many moons of Eberron would be at its apogee. The adventurers realize they have just over twelve hours to save the missing Reachers before they are killed by the fanatics, so they get the locations of the victims' residences and head out, saying a quick goodbye to Zim Beau Bim before disappearing into the Towering Wood.

The adventurers of To the Hilt! first return to the community of Greenheart, finding several armed rangers patrolling the streets, longbows at the ready and blades drawn in a state of high alert. Asking around, they learn that the rangers act as a local militia, enforcing the peace between the various druidic sects that make up the Reaches -- they attempt to talk to the militia members, but once again find them stand-offish and distrustful, despite recognizing Zeau as a former citizen of Eldeen.

Speaking to the people of the community, they discover that only one man living in Greenheart identifies as a member of the Church of the Silver Flame -- a small house on the edge of town bears a slightly tarnished symbol of the Church hanging in the window, the light glinting off it as the party approaches. As they approach, Zeau's carefully-trained eyes catch a glimpse of movement from within the house -- a curtain moves ever-so-slightly, as if someone within the house is watching through the window.

Jim steps forward, clears his throat, and bangs a powerful fist against the door, causing the wood to audibly creak as he shouts "Flamer! Get out here right now! WE NEED TO TALK."

There is a noticeable pause, and just as Jim activates the enchantments on his rainbow axe and raises it to swing at the entrance, the lock clicks open, and the door creaks inward, revealing a middle-aged Thranish man with a dark mustache flecked with strands of white. Jim gets directly in his face, causing the man to nearly tumble over backward in fear: "Three shifters were kidnapped overnight -- we know it was Puritans that took them. WHERE DID THEY TAKE THEM!? TALK!"

The man mutters: "P, please, sir -- though I worship the eternal Silver Flame, I do not support the Puritans. They are trapped in the past. I swear to you, I have nothing to do with them."

Jim looks to Zeau, and she thinks for a moment before nodding toward her barbaric ally (Sense Motive), and Jim steps back, letting Jeau take over. "Sir, we understand that you do not support them, but do you have any idea where they would have taken these locals?"

The man nods, saying "They meet at a clearing in the Towering Wood -- I don't know the exact location, but it's a large clearing, with a massive, old tree in the center, and it's definitely to the north."

Thanking the man and apologizing for any inconvenience they may have caused him, the party sets out to examine the homesteads of the people kidnapped -- all three of the homes are isolated, and according to information gathered in Greenheart, the shifters who live at each of the addresses all live alone. Examining the various homes, the group finds signs of a struggle in each -- the first home has several bloodstains on the floor, the second has a broken table and a broken chair just inside the door, and the third home features a broken window, the glass shards stained with blood...

Looking at a map of the surrounding area and comparing the locations of the three homes, the party finds four different clearings to the north of Greenheart that could match the description the local Silver Flame believer gave them. In an effort to cover as much ground as possible, the party decides to split up (D&D rule #1 -- NEVER SPLIT THE PARTY!), each of them taking a different clearing, using their speaking shards to communicate to the rest of the group when one of them finds the correct one...



Each of the adventurers decides to examine a different forest clearing, heading off in slightly different northerly directions, their paths diverting as they head deeper and deeper into the Towering Wood. Zeau, Tim, and Jeau all find empty clearings, speaking into their speaking shards and letting the others know that they don't see anything. Jim, however, cuts through the vegetation and discovers a large, open expanse of grass surrounding a mighty tree that reaches several stories into the air, surrounded by several man-made structures -- small towers on the edges of the glade are manned by soldiers dressed in white Puritan hoods and armed with longbows, and at the base of the tree stands a long, low building of wood, emblazoned with several symbols and emblem of the Church. A large wooden staircase has been crafted into the side of the humongous tree in the center, climbing up toward several wooden walkways and outcroppings built into the side of the trunk. The sun is just beginning to set, and in the twilight, Jim's eyes, accustomed to the dark, spot the glint of silver at the top of the tree -- near the edge of a large platform topping off the tree stands a shifter woman, arms and legs bound by silver manacles, standing above a metal plate covered in a pile of kindling.

Jim quickly and quietly speaks into his shard, letting the rest of the group know where he is and to meet him as fast as possible. Jim decides to dance quietly to himself to pass the time (Jim's player randomly rolled a 20 for this Perform [dance] check, and we all shouted "CRITICAL DANCE"!).

By the time the rest of the group has arrived, the sun has fully set below the horizon, the light of the moons beginning to fill the glade with an eerie glow. The group does a scan of the area, spotting two archers at each guard tower, and a pair of silver-clad knights atop mighty steeds doing regular sweeps of the perimeter. Jim and Tim decide to take point, telling the rest of the party to wait at the edge of the clearing -- once the nearest knight passes them by, Jim and Tim both head toward the nearest guard tower, trying to take them out quietly. Tim sneaks across the glade like a shadow, hiding in the tall grass and reaching the wall of the tower, but before Jim can get all the way to the structure, the clanking of his armor is heard by one of the archers, who takes aim and fires a pair of arrows Jim's direction -- Jim deftly dodges, and Tim takes advantage of the distraction, climbing up the side of the tower and slitting the throat of one of the Puritan archers, kicking the other one down to Jim, who knocks him unconscious with the handle of his axe.

Tim whispers down to Jim that one of the knights seems to have heard their scuffle, and is coming over to investigate -- Tim ducks down behind the lip of the tower wall and Jim steps behind the tower, planning to leap out and strike at the knight once he is close enough.

(Jim's player tells the group that he readies an action to attack the knight once he gets close, but after a moment of thought, decides to instead strike at his horse, to try and get the horse to buck him off and bring him down to equal footing)

The knight and his steed trot over toward the tower, a voice calling out saying "Is everyone okay here? I heard something...". As he nears the structure, Jim pops out of hiding, swings his rainbow axe...

(Jim's player rolls a natural 20 and confirms the critical with his battleaxe, a weapon with a x3 critical modifier...)

...and beheads the knight's horse in a single swing! The body falls to the side, the dead weight pinning the knight's leg as he groans in pain and tries to draw his sword forth.

(Everyone start's looking at B, Jim's player, sending forth cries of "Jesus, dude!" and "what the f***?" and "his horse!?" -- we have never, and will never let this go. In fact, Tim's character sheet features a special section entitled "horses that Jim has beheaded")

Tim leaps downward, slashing both of his kukri across the knight's throat before he can call out to his brethren. He looks up at Jim and whispers: "Nine Hells, man, did you have to kill his horse?" After a moment, they call the spellcasters toward them, grouping up at the tower and sneaking toward the tree...



The group quickly scuttles across the Glade toward the mighty tree at the center, thankfully far enough away from the other guard towers to avoid being spotted, at least for the time being. Tim does a quick examination of the long building at the base of the tree, discovering it to be a Silver Flame Church, with several darkwood pews and a pulpit at the front, holding a prayer book and a small lockbox filled with Church donations. Tim swipes the box, muttering "racists don't deserve money", before meeting the rest of the party. (There's like 130gp and some silver in the box, chump change for them at this point, but it's about the principle...)

They quickly start climbing the wooden staircase built along the outer bark of the tree, climbing up toward one of the tiered wooden platforms that ring the tree trunk. A pair of archers sit on an outstretched tree limb, their bows slung over their shoulders, watching a group of young Puritan warriors sparring with rapiers, raucously shouting and boasting about their skills with a blade. Tim attempts to creep up the tree limb to catch the archers off-guard, but one of them spots his approach and shouts out to the others, grabbing his bow as the sparring warriors take up their weapons and prepare to enter into real combat.

Jim rushes forward and slashing his axe across the chest of one of the warriors, sending him dropping backward onto the wooden platform, blood gushing from the wound as the others become visibly shaken, their fear obvious even through their cloth masks. Tim carefully walks up the branch and slashes his kukri at the closest archer, hitting him in the side and sending him hurtling out of the boughs of the tree and down to the ground far below. Jeau quickly produces his wand of magic missile and fires out five bolts of arcane energy that slam into the other archer, knocking him off his perch and throwing him into a long, fatal fall (before you ask, yes, I am rolling Perception checks for the other Puritans in the glade and they are rolling HORRIBLY).

Zeau joins Jim in combat, slashing her frost scimitar and carving through the remaining warriors with her duergar ally's assistance. Looking upward, the stairs continue further toward the top of the tree -- the party finds themselves only halfway up the height of the tremendous tree where the Puritans have made their base, and can see the moons rising high into the sky above, midnight closing in fast...


Woohoo! Dead horses!

NEXT TIME -- Climbing a tree! Building a bonfire! Other fun camping activities!

Inevitability
2017-02-11, 08:20 AM
I'm going to guess the white hoods aren't coincidental. :smalltongue:

twas_Brillig
2017-02-11, 11:40 AM
I really enjoy that they're successfully pulling off a commando-style stealth raid...completely by accident. Like, this is some seriously Benny Hill (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZapELQXx9LM) stuff.

Kol Korran
2017-02-11, 12:31 PM
Hey again! A few thoughts and questions:
1- It just occurred to me: At the start of the campaign you bemoaned that the PCs names will be confusing. I guess it's a testament to the quality of your writing, that even after the long hiatus, I (And I guess many others) Immediately recognized who Jeau, Zeau, Jim and Tim were, simply by name. Yeah, I guess they are memorable! (Not a small feat!)

2- The characters if I remember correctly are around 11/12 level by now? How are they taking their high level? In Eberron, where the leaders of nation usually top around 9/10, they are very high caliber by now! They seem quite happy following the odd adventure, and be "adventurers on the hire" for the most part, or did they expect some rank and status with their capabilities?

3- A general question- the party member seem on very good terms with each other, immensely friendly and great people to hang with. Have you all known each other before? Or did you do something to make it work? Can you tell us a bit about the formation of the party, and what makes it work?

4- A question about Jeau: You keep mentioning him using the magic missile wand(s?). I've never played with artificers, but I've heard they are immensely adaptable and versatile. I remember him crafting some stuff at times, yet does he use any other specific tactics?

I'm not quite sure how you're doing it, but this is a very un and entertaining read! I wish I could do the same. Good stuff, thanks for sharing! :smallbiggrin:

DJroboninja
2017-02-11, 03:30 PM
I'm going to guess the white hoods aren't coincidental. :smalltongue:

Sometimes it's fun to be subtle, and other times, it's nice to just be like "I want to make absolutely certain my PCs hate these guys and recognize them as racists"


Hey again! A few thoughts and questions:
1- It just occurred to me: At the start of the campaign you bemoaned that the PCs names will be confusing. I guess it's a testament to the quality of your writing, that even after the long hiatus, I (And I guess many others) Immediately recognized who Jeau, Zeau, Jim and Tim were, simply by name. Yeah, I guess they are memorable! (Not a small feat!)

2- The characters if I remember correctly are around 11/12 level by now? How are they taking their high level? In Eberron, where the leaders of nation usually top around 9/10, they are very high caliber by now! They seem quite happy following the odd adventure, and be "adventurers on the hire" for the most part, or did they expect some rank and status with their capabilities?

3- A general question- the party member seem on very good terms with each other, immensely friendly and great people to hang with. Have you all known each other before? Or did you do something to make it work? Can you tell us a bit about the formation of the party, and what makes it work?

4- A question about Jeau: You keep mentioning him using the magic missile wand(s?). I've never played with artificers, but I've heard they are immensely adaptable and versatile. I remember him crafting some stuff at times, yet does he use any other specific tactics?

I'm not quite sure how you're doing it, but this is a very un and entertaining read! I wish I could do the same. Good stuff, thanks for sharing! :smallbiggrin:

1.) Thankfully, the players have all done a really good job of giving their characters distinctive personalities. That being said, two years into the campaign I am still mixing up "Jeau" with "Zeau" and "Jim" with "Tim". One of the first rules I established for the next game -- no rhyming names!

2.) Thankfully, the entire party is good-aligned (*cough*except Tim*cough) and are using their powers responsibly, cuz Spider-Man. They have definitely used their status and experience to their advantage in the past, however -- I use a Renown system in my games, where PCs can call on past accomplishments to gain bonuses in social encounters, and there have been many times where someone will say "Well what price would the VICTORS OF THE CHAMPIONS' GAMES get?" or "Oh, you're not afraid of me? Well would you be afraid of someone who has SLAIN A GREAT BLACK DRAGON?"

3.) The best thing about this campaign is that we've all been friends for years before it began, so going in we knew we would be a good group. I think that's what has made it such an amazing game over time.

4.) He always has a large collection of wands on hand, for various situations, but his go-to ability is to use his wand of magic missile -- they are cheap to craft and reliable, and he uses the artificer ability to apply Metamagic feats to those magic missiles on the fly, Empowering them and Maximizing them by spending more charges. Often, he works to buff Jim and Tim with bane abilities, energy resistance, or other powers, but that stuff isn't as exciting and we often don't take notes on it. And, he's a team player -- whenever there is crafting time for the group, he makes himself a wand or two if he's running out of charges and then asks the group what they need, allowing Jim to run around with his rainbow axe and Tim to enter into combat swinging a pair of enchanted kukri.

DJroboninja
2017-02-11, 03:32 PM
I really enjoy that they're successfully pulling off a commando-style stealth raid...completely by accident. Like, this is some seriously Benny Hill (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZapELQXx9LM) stuff.

We have a D&D playlist that we play while gaming, and I think if we slipped "Yackety Sax" into the mix, no one would even notice because there's a good chance it would fit whatever is happening at the time.

DJroboninja
2017-02-26, 02:34 PM
SESSION THIRTY-FIVE -- THE PURITY CEREMONY, PART TWO

Hey guys! Sorry for the delay -- been VERY busy!

Previously, on To the Hilt!, our intrepid adventurers were hunting down an owlbear in the Eldeen Reaches when Zeau's adoptive father informed the group that several shifters had been kidnapped from the local area by the members of the Puritan movement of the Church of the Silver Flame -- zealots who believe that the Purge of lycanthropy needs to be revived, starting with the lycanthropes' ancestors, the shifters. Asking around the community of Greenheart and examining the crime scenes, the party discovered that the Puritans were planning a ceremony atop a great old tree in the middle of the Towering Wood -- the adventurers split up and discovered their encampment. Jim and Tim fought their way through scouts and guards, Jim brutally murdering a horse along the way, and the party began to climb the hastily made stairways and wooden platforms ringing the perimeter of the tree, in a race against time...


After dealing with a group of inattentive young Puritan warriors on the way to the top of the tree, the adventurers gather themselves and continue rushing upward toward the site of the impending shifter sacrifices. Tim takes point once again, scouting ahead of the rest of the group -- a short trip up the side of the tree takes him to another small wooden viewing platform. Several men wearing Puritan hoods stand on the platform, chuckling to each other in front of a horrific scene -- several corpses in various states of rot and decay hanging by their neck from one of the large tree limbs above. In between the hanging bodies is a small iron cage with a figure inside -- a creature, roughly the size of a halfling, its body covered in white fur, its face rodent-like with large red eyes, and a long, snaking tail trailing behind it. As Tim watches, one of the Puritans kicks the hanging cage, causing the were-rat within to let out a squeal of terror and issuing forth an uproarious laugh from the men standing before it.

Tim explains the situation to the group and Jim makes a decision -- he charges forward and lets out a battle cry, causing the Puritans to turn and face him just in time for a heavy stone boot to strike the central warrior in the ribs, sending him hurtling off the tower with a wheeze of pain. The other Puritans are visibly shaken, drawing rapiers and preparing to fight as the caged were-rat hisses behind them -- suddenly, the rest of the adventurers are on them, weapons at the ready. Zeau wades into combat swinging her scimitar in a fit of rage, Jim shoulders another of the Puritans off the tower, Tim hamstrings one of the warriors with his kukri, and Jeau hits the wounded Puritan with a scorching ray that pushes him off the platform.

The fight is quick and brutal, and as the party watches, they can see guards on the ground gathering around the bodies thrown down to the base of the tree and raising an alarm. The party quickly goes into high gear -- as Jim and Tim charge up toward the top of the great tree, Jeau quickly picks the locks on the were-rat's cage, setting the small creature free as Zeau tells it to run and get away from the area as fast as he can. The small rodent-person nods and hisses, scuttling down the stairs as she and Jeau head upward...



The group reaches the top of the tree, which has been hastily cut away, the boughs and trunk replaced with a large wooden walkway supported by iron struts. The sky is clear and beautiful, several moons glowing in the air above the great tree and illuminating the scene in twilight. On the opposite edge of the platform are three metal plates affixed to the wood, with an iron pole jutting from the center of each. A shifter stands on each plate, their arms and legs bound by glittering silver manacles attaching them to the central pole -- a pile of firewood sits at the feet of each of them, and the three locals all appear beaten and battered, barely holding themselves up.

Six men in Puritan hoods stand at the ready, a torch in one hand and a rapier in the other, and a pair of knights in Puritan hoods and gleaming silver armor stand at the center of the platform, next to a man dressed in the robes of a preacher -- in one hand he holds a small holy book of the Church, and in the other he carries a heavy flanged mace, his face obscured by a well-crafted cloth Puritan hood, red glamerweave stitching flowing from one of the eye holes that seems to move and flow like liquid.

"Brothers and sisters!" the preacher shouts, "our forefathers gave their very lives to protect the men and women of Khorvaire from these MONSTERS, and yet their offspring live on, POISONING the world with their feral minds!" He raises the mace and points it toward the party. "Light the fires and take up arms, brothers! These HEATHENS have come to disrupt our holy work!"

The Puritans act quickly (winning initiative), lighting the kindling at the shifters' feet and setting it ablaze, causing the wounded shifters to shout out in pain and fear. The party quickly formulates a battle plan -- Jim will take on the knights and the preacher, Tim will take out the minions, and Jeau and Zeau will set the wounded shifters free and keep them safe.

Jim charges forward toward the knights, but before he can reach them, the preacher speaks to the duergar in a reverberating voice, shouting "Lay down your arms and leave this place, heathen!" Jim stops in his tracks, his jaw going slack as the priest's suggestion washes over him, dropping his axe and turning to leave. Zeau sees this happen and shouts a Druidic word, her hand flashing with green light and radiating out a shockwave that strikes Jim and frees his mind from the preacher's words -- he returns to his senses just in time for the knights to be upon him, stabbing him with their longswords and keeping him away from their holy preacher.

Tim skirts around the central melee, rushing toward the Puritan minions and hacking at them with his blades, dropping two of them in rapid succession, with Zeau's dog Pickle at his side. Zeau begins the complex hand motions and Druidic chants of a summoning spell while Jeau and Jango head around, trying to get close to the nearest shifter, blasting one of the Puritan minions with a volley of blue magic missiles on the way, Jango running forward and finishing the zealot off. As Jim grabs his rainbow axe off the ground, Zeau completes her summoning spell, conjuring forth a large elemental composed of clear blue water in a vaguely humanoid shape -- the elemental steps forth, dousing the flames of the closest shifter and preparing to move toward the next one.

Jeau grabs out his thieves tools, unlocking the manacles of the first shifter while Tim, Pickle, and Jango work together to bring down the last of the unnamed Puritan minions. Meanwhile, as Jim is swinging his axe at the knights, the preacher uses his divine magic to cast multiple protective spells on himself and Zeau calls forth a flame strike, a column of glittering white flames that washes over the two knights, killing one of them outright and wounding the other enough that Jim can easily finish him off.

The water elemental continues dousing the fires and Jeau keeps unlocking the captured shifters while the rest of the adventurers surround the preacher. Tim rakes his kukri across his back, Jim strikes him in the face with the haft of his axe, and Pickle grabs him by the ankle, yanking him off his feet with a thud. Zeau steps over the man and rips his hood off -- under the hood is a mustached old man with a silver tooth and a whited-out left eye. She looks to her compatriots and says "It isn't him," putting her scimitar up to the man's throat and shouting "where is Ser Dalton ir'Karrd!?"

The old man, now visibly afraid, shouts that Ser Dalton has left the Eldeen Reaches, and traveled south -- he has moved his operations to Sharn, the City of Towers, in an effort to gather more soldiers to their cause. The group discusses whether or not to kill the man while Pickle holds him in place, and they cannot come to a decision. Tim says "We need to get these shifters home. You guys go ahead... I'll take care of it."

Zeau casts some healing magic on the captured shifters to get them in a position to walk down the steps themselves, and the group leaves Tim and the Puritan preacher behind, Tim catching up to them halfway down the tree, wiping his kukri down with a cloth. As they are heading down the tree, they can see that the surviving Puritans have all abandoned the glade in the wake of the preacher's defeat...



The adventurers escort the wounded shifters back to Greenheart, where the captured farmers thank them profusely, saying that if they ever need anything they are always welcome in Greenheart. Before returning to Sharn, the group says goodbye to Zeau's adoptive father, Zim Beau Bim, returning to his treehouse for one last round of hugs and goodbyes. Zim provides Zeau with a few scrolls of animal messenger, saying "should you ever need to reach me, use these..."

The party uses one of Zeau's newer tricks, walking up to a large oak tree near Zim's cottage -- the druid presses her hand against the tree, chanting and causing the tree to glow with a faint green light. The bark begins to crack and pop, wrenching itself open until a hole is visible in the trunk of the large tree -- looking through the hole in the tree, which is large enough for even Jim to squeeze through, the party can see the glittering lights of Sharn. They all quickly step through, walking out of an almost identical oak tree in Skysedge Park in Sharn, turning to watch the tree closing itself up, Old Zim visibly waving to them through the crack before it closes.

The adventurers walk back to their penthouse, arriving the evening after their fight with the Puritans. As they step through the door, they see Wren standing there, with a crazed look in her eye, her glasses slightly askew.

"Oh! Hi! Hello! You're home! How was your trip? ... Mmhmmm, that's good, that's good. So, remember how I've been on the lookout for that demon you guys set free? Well... I might have some information for you. Ummm... but you have to promise not to be mad."

The adventurers look at each other with confusion, before Jeau finally says "It's okay, Wren, we won't be mad. What did you find out?"

Wren slowly walks them over to one of the side rooms of the Penthouse, a storage room underneath the staircase that the adventurers never even noticed before. She breathes a sigh, and opens the door, which loudly creaks to reveal a man with a bloody nose, his mouth gagged and his arms and legs tied to a wooden dining room chair. His flesh is covered in tattoos depicting open maws filled with teeth and wide, crazed eyeballs along with Abyssal scripture that twists and turns around his limbs. He is shouting inaudible words through his gag, and his eyes are filled with fury.

"...Wren, what the fu-"


Yeah! Dungeons! Dragons!

NEXT TIME: Interrogation! Communication! Teleportation!

twas_Brillig
2017-02-26, 09:01 PM
Wren slowly walks them over to one of the side rooms of the Penthouse, a storage room underneath the staircase that the adventurers never even noticed before. She breathes a sigh, and opens the door, which loudly creaks to reveal a man with a bloody nose, his mouth gagged and his arms and legs tied to a wooden dining room chair. His flesh is covered in tattoos depicting open maws filled with teeth and wide, crazed eyeballs along with Abyssal scripture that twists and turns around his limbs. He is shouting inaudible words through his gag, and his eyes are filled with fury.

"...Wren, what the fu-"

All evidence to the contrary, I still choose to believe this is a housewarming gift "Gaius" left them and they were just too rude to check the storage room.

DJroboninja
2017-02-28, 07:33 PM
All evidence to the contrary, I still choose to believe this is a housewarming gift "Gaius" left them and they were just too rude to check the storage room.

F***, is it too late for me to change it?

...

...yeah it definitely is.

DJroboninja
2017-03-29, 05:25 PM
SESSION THIRTY-FIVE -- CHAOS IN SIGILSTAR

Hey guys! Sorry, busy couple weeks, but I'll make it up to you soon, cool?

Alright, so, previously on To the Hilt!, the party finished up their adventures in the Eldeen Reaches, hunting down a massive owlbear known as the Red-Eyed Ghost and fighting against the religious Silver Flame zealots known as the "Puritans". Having just arrived back at their newly-acquired Penthouse in Upper Sharn, they were greeted at the door by their divining demonologist friend Wren, who had a surprise waiting for them -- a tattooed man, gagged and bound to a chair, who she claims may have information about the demon they released beneath Q'barra...


Jim grabs the chair with the strange tattooed man tied to it, dragging it into the center of the foyer as Jeau locks the door, just to be safe.

Wren begins excitedly talking, her words spilling out at a breakneck pace: "Okay, so, I was waiting for you guys to get back, but you were in Eldeen for, I mean, a really long time? Well, I couldn't find that demon with my spells, he must be protected from divinations in some way, so I bought some scrolls and searched for sources of really, really concentrated evil within the city. Umm, fun fact, Sharn is kind of a dark place? Well, anyway, after lots of searching I found... our new friend here."

The man begins shouting against his gag, his eyes wide with anger, darting back and forth between the assembled adventurers. Under her breath, Zeau wonders how Wren was able to capture this man, but Tim shakes his head and assures her that it's probably best they don't know.

Jim walks up to the man and undoes his gag, and he immediately tries to bite the gray dwarf's fingers like a feral animal, causing the barbarian to jump back slightly.

"Lord Dakkenrath will consume you, he will devour your mind from within and hurl your empty husk into the depths of Khyber!"

Jim looks to the rest of the group, and Jeau nods. The duergar then turns and hits the man hard enough to knock him and the chair he is tied to down to the floorboards.

Jeau walks over and crouches next to the cultist. "That punch was nothing. It would be a really good idea to answer my questions. Where is the Claw of Chaos?"

The man fights at his bindings, his cheek rubbing against the floor as he growls like a madman. Finally, he answers: "Lord Dakkenrath has traveled to the crossroads, to the North. He has assembled a troupe of great warriors from Khyber and re-discovered his arsenal, and the city is being devoured from within... Nothing can stop the Claw of Chaos! Noth-"

He is cut off by Jim's heavy boot to his face.

The group discusses what his crazed ramblings could mean, and Jeau is confident he is referring to the trade city of Sigilstar, northeast of Breland, a tourist destination known as "the Crossroads of Thrane" due to its position on both the Orien Lightning Rail line and the Orien Trade Road.

At this point, Wren audibly gulps. "Sigilstar? Oh that's not good." The adventurers all turn to face her and she continues:

"You probably haven't heard but something bad is happening in Sigilstar right now. Some sort of strange... disease? People have been... attacking each other in the streets and just acting... crazy. I didn't think it would be in any way connected to the Claw of Chaos, but he's probably what's doing this. From what I've heard, the Church of the Silver Flame has imposed martial law in the town and the entire city has been quarantined -- no one allowed in or out..."

The man on the floor starts chuckling. "Their minds have felt the caress of Chaos! Soon, it will spread to envelop this entire misbegotten world!"

Tim grumbles: "I don't like this guy -- do we have any other questions for him?"

The adventurers agree that they seem to have gotten what they came for, so Tim drags the chair back to the closet -- after a moment, the man's babbling abruptly stops.

Tim rejoins the group, wiping off his kukri and promising to a horrified Wren that 'someone will be by later to take care of him'. The adventurers, anxious to stop the demon they inadvertently released, decide to speak with their contacts within the City of Towers and find a way into Sigilstar.

Wren sheepishly waves goodbye to the group, looking over her shoulder toward the closet as Paracelsus flaps over to her shoulder. "I'll... be here then. I'll see if I can find out anything else for you?"

(I had lots of answers to lots of questions prepared, but these guys have been thirsty for vengeance ever since I sprung the reveal on them in the Deep Vault, so they were like 'Sigilstar? Cool! Tim, kill that guy, everyone, let's go, Wren, we'll be back, sorry about the mess' and it was immediately on to the next scene. I was like 'oh, okay...')



The adventurers spread out throughout the city of Sharn, looking to speak with their allies and contacts in the city about how to get into the walled off city of Sigilstar.

Tim heads down into the depths of Sharn, spending some gold to get a couple of local thugs to disappear the cultist's body on the down-low. In addition, he heads to the Golden River Inn, one of the many gambling dens of lower Sharn, heading to a Dragon's Bluff table near the back of the establishment. He takes a seat next to his friend Janus, the gambler and Wayfinder Foundation member the group met when they first arrived in Sharn.

Tim buys a few chips and speaks to his ally about finding a way into the quarantined city, and learns about a wizard, formerly of House Orien, who could transport them into the heart of the city -- for a hefty sum.

Meanwhile, Jim also wanders through lower Sharn, finally happening into an alleyway behind the derelict Orange Tree Theater -- as he is approaching, he hears the sound of fist striking against skull as a gnome is crouched above a halfling, hammering his fists into the man's face until the two are pulled apart and the emcee announces the gnome as the victor.

Jim approaches Hot Irons, the warforged brawler they first met upon their arrival in Sharn. "Well hello there, Jim! Come to fight in the Burning Ring again? I'm already a few bouts deep, so I can't do our rematch tonight..."

Jim explains what they need (pronouncing Sigilstar with a hard 'G' because he's adorable) and Hot Irons mulls it over for a bit as the next match is beginning.

"I know a guy, by the name of Shanolo Argano. He has a small junker of an airship that can get you into town -- he charges for his services, but not too much. Of course, it might be dangerous if the Church has actually taken over..."

As this is happening, Zeau and Jeau head to High Walls to visit Jeau's uncle, Jaxon d'Jorasco, at his House Jorasco healing clinic. As is common in the refugee district, the clinic is bustling with displaced Cyrans, some sick, others wounded.

Weaving through the crowds, Jeau eventually finds his uncle tending to a man with a broken leg. "Oh, hello Jeau! It's good to see you, as usual, but I'm quite busy at the moment. Can it wait?"

Jeau and Zeau explain the situation at hand, getting only a short bit in before Jax cuts them off, healing the Cyran's wound and setting his leg with a brace. As the man leaves, Jax locks the door behind him and sits down, asking them to explain, in detail.

After a bit, Jax wipes his brow and gulps. "I may be able to get you into the city -- I could call in a favor for you with the House, get you research credentials. If you are there on Dragonmarked business to research the sickness spreading through the community, I'm sure they will let you in..."

Communicating via their speaking shards, the adventurers of To the Hilt! discuss their options and decide to go with the House Jorasco plan, Jeau calling in one of the favors he earned from defeating the aberrations besieging High Walls to do so...



Late that night, the party is enjoying a cup of tea with Wren when they hear a knock on their door. Jeau opens it to see his uncle standing in the seemingly omnipresent rain of the City of Towers, clutching a scroll case marked with the sigil of House Jorasco.

"Here you go -- it took some doing, but I go the credentials you'll need. I can't promise anything, but these should get you through the gates. I need to be getting to bed -- take care of yourselves, okay?"

Jeau thanks his uncle, and sends him on his way with a hug, and as he closes the door, the adventurers confirm that they are ready for travel.

Jeau unfurls a long parchment scroll purchased in the Sharn Bazaar earlier in the day -- reading the arcane writings on the scroll, he and the rest of the group are engulfed in green smoke, the sound of Wren shouting "Good luck!" barely audible over the roar surrounding them. Their stomachs lurch and they feel briefly weightless before their feet once again touch solid ground...

Looking around as the green smoke clears from their view, the party finds themselves on a short hillock just outside of the city of Sigilstar. A wide, paved trade road leads down the hill toward a small city, which is bisected by a straight line of shimmering blue crystals set into the earth. From what they know of the community, it is a city of tourism, culture, and commerce, but the city is dark and seems almost lifeless.

As they begin walking toward Sigilstar, Zeau's keen eyes spot something for a brief second -- a large winged creature flying in front of one of the glowing moons in the sky, above the city...

They walk up to the city gates, normally open to allow travelers in and out, they now sit closed and barred. Several archers in silver armor stand atop the wall above the gate, arrows nocked at the ready -- strangely, they are facing toward the inside of the city, rather than the outside.

A Thranish knight dressed in glimmering silver plate mail and draped in the blue and silver of the Church approaches, one thumb partially removing his longsword from its scabbard.

"Excuse me, but the city of Sigilstar is under quarantine at the moment. Please vacate the premises immediately, by the holy order of the Church of the Silver Flame."

Jeau approaches the knight, hands raised above him to show that he means no harm. "I am a researcher for House Jorasco, and these are my bodyguards. I have an official document from House Jorasco permitting me entrance into the city, for the purpose of researching the strange disease afflicting the people within..."

The knight opens the scroll case and takes out the document, reading it over silently for what feels like an eternity.

Finally, the man speaks again: "You may enter, Mister Burrows. However, a few ground rules -- one, you are to immediately report any findings about stopping or preventing this affliction to the Church. Two, we have several units of inquisitors sweeping the city -- you are to stay out of their way. Third, should anything happen to you within the city, the Church will bear no burden -- you are entering of your own volition, against my advice. Do you agree?"

Upon acceptance of the terms, the knights open the gates of Sigilstar and allow the party to enter, closing the outer gate behind them as the archers stand above them, bows at the ready.

While Sigilstar, the Crossroads of Thrane, is normally a central travel hub for the nation, no tourists walk the streets at this time, as an ominous wind blows through the streets and alleyways, piercing the silence that has filled the city. A nearby street cafe has been completely trashed, its tables overturns and its windows shattered, while across the street a shop has had its windows and doorway boarded shut, the words 'KEEP OUT' scrawled on them in dripping red paint. The wind blows paper and trash past their feet, and their eyes spot several humanoid bodies nearby, riddled with blue-fletched arrows...

The party heads into the city, checking a nearby sign to find that there is a House Jorasco healing house on the outskirts of the city, near their current location -- the adventurers decide that would be a good place to start, and begin walking through the eerily empty streets, the silence broken only by the whistling wind and the occasional sound of far-off screaming...



Following the street layout as best as they are able, the adventurers venture around the outer edge of the community toward the Jorasco healing house.

Just down the street, the party spots the Griffon of House Jorasco on a wooden shingle hanging out over the reinforced door to he House of Healing. However, standing outside the structure are several figures, all of them huddled in a circle around a pile of burning garbage in the middle of the street. Several of them appear wounded, and they are speaking in hushed tones...

Tim skulks away into a nearby alley to get a better look as the rest of the party deliberates on what to do for a bit before Jeau finally shouts to the men and women:

"Hello? Do you need assistance?"

The people appear to be locals, dressed in traditional Thranish fashion. However, there is something visibly wrong with each of them -- all of them have bloodshot eyes, the irises a bright red that almost seems to glow in the early morning darkness. One of them is muttering rapidly under her breath, the language indistinct and incomprehensible. Another is frothing at the mouth and seizing, and a third is slashing at his bicep with a shard of glass, laughing uproariously as he does so. The people are severely unhinged, and they being advancing on the party, each of them carrying makeshift weapons -- broken bottles, loose rocks, poles from street signs, and other implements...

Tim patiently waits as the rest of the party prepares for combat. Jeau shouts a final warning: "If you come any closer, we will use lethal force!"

Finally, one of the crazed individuals shouts out in fury, charging toward the group with a crowbar in hand -- before he can reach the party, however, Tim darts out from the shadows and swings his blades, slashing through the man's throat and sending him collapsing down to the cobblestones at their feet and causing the others to begin shouting and charging toward the group. All of them make noise with their voices, but the noises vary -- some are shouting in rage, others are laughing like madmen, and some are weeping like children.

Jim and Tim join the crazed locals in melee in the middle of the street, while Jeau starts firing scorching rays into those that get past the warriors and Zeau channels primal magic into Pickle, sending him into combat.

The men and women fight like people possessed, rushing into melee and rapidly attacking, slashing and bludgeoning Jim and Tim with a freakish rapidity, covering their arms with dozens of small wounds. However, they do not appear to have been vastly toughened by whatever affliction is affecting them, and they are able to easily cut them all down.

As the last of them is falling dead in the street, however, several shouts emanate from down the way, as another group of armed, insane men and women are rushing toward the party at an extreme speed.

Just as they are preparing for another fight, the door to the House of Healing swings open, revealing a short humanoid, their face obscured by a pair of goggles and a bandana.

"Quick! Get inside, while you still can!"


Whoa! What's going on?

NEXT TIME: We Gotta Get Out of This Place! It's a City on Flame with Rock and Roll! And whatever you do, Don't Fear the Reaper!

WaFwRaP
2017-07-11, 04:45 PM
As much as I love Eberron and eager for the official 5e Eberron version, I am totally hooked by your campaign journal; well written and totally worthy for my reading pleasures. Likewise, amazed by your drawings; too bad I failed to see your changeling "Tim" drawing. Hopefully I can see it someday.

Finding your journal, the narrative and the effort being made, is indeed a worthwhile search and a treasure I am eager updating myself for further updates.