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View Full Version : Journal Vikings, Vandals, & Vagrants: A Campaign Journal



russianwizard
2020-04-27, 02:29 AM
After wrapping up our Spelljammer campaign (http://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?597128-Jenna-s-List), the group decided to move on to a Nordic campaign, set in the far northern land of Sterich. This is an attempt to catalogue the adventures of our most recent band of misfits into a coherent story.

Before hearing the fabulous tale, however, you must meet the cast:

Human Tempest Wizard
The resident "old man" of the group (he's 40, but prematurely grey), Leif decided to channel his anger issues into furiously learning instead of being a barbarian like his father wanted. Just your average temple librarian for most of his life, he was granted divine power by Thor as part of an elaborate practical joke on Astrid (more on that later).

Aasimar Battlemaster/War Cleric
The stereotypical Valkyrie. Astrid wandered the lands after the conclusion of the last civil war for a time, until she was visited by her "ancestral guardian" (who was definitely not Loki looking for some fun), who told her that a certain wizard in the nearby temple was actually the god Thor, cursed to take on mortal form by Odin, and that it was her divine mandate to protect him with her life.

Wood Elf Monk/Druid
After a hobgoblin attack, ravaging his town, Thanor was able to escape, headed to the nearby town of Koln for refuge. As an elf, Thanor struggles with the concept of time, and is particularly intrigued by humans and their short lifespans.

Mountain Elf Ranger
Another survivor of the recent hobgoblin attack, Brenda accompanied Thanor in his search for refuge, making her way to Koln with him. A bit dark-skinned for an elf, so there's probably some human blood mixed in there somewhere.

Eladrin Ancients Paladin
Still searching for her husband after many years, Patricia is a fierce and loyal warrior dedicated to making the world a better place for her son to grow up in.

Dvati Arcane Tricksters
Bright and charming, though lacking much in the way of common sense, these troublesome twins were kicked out of wizard school after stealing one too many pyromancy tomes. Mara is very much the brains of the bunch, while Mori functions more as the mouth.
———

Arriving in the town of Koln with a Ragesian trade caravan carrying metalwork and other trade goods, Geri was about to speak to the sheriff when a dozen orcs rode into town on night-black steeds. Also entering town were Brenda and Thanor, having just arrived, and Leif and Astrid, on an errand to pick up some goods for the local temple.

These orcs rode up to the door of the town ruler, having a short conversation at the door. The conversation was mostly inaudible, but Leif, through his raven, Muninn, was able to catch a mention of the god Eirithnal. Thinking back, he remembered that Eirithnal was an old god, a less-restrained counterpart to the modern goddess Hextor, and the god of goblins, ogres, gnolls, and all other evil things.

Having had enough of these heathens in his town, Leif started angrily stomping towards the orcs, while the sheriff warned Geri to stay out of any involvement. The orcs wheeled their horses around, and the leader proclaimed to the town that they had been spared by the grace of Hextor, and they would be back in three days to collect a sacrifice for Hextor. With that, the leader and half of the rest departed, while six orcs remained to encourage the townsfolk to provide an adequate tribute.

As soon as the leader was out of sight, Muninn landed on an orc's shoulder and delivered an electric shock courtesy of Leif. The orc, displeased, called to the others, advancing on Leif. While Astrid stepped in front of Leif to protect him, he attempted to pull the lead orc off of his horse with a crackling line of electricity, but the orc shrugged the spell off. However, with some well-placed words from across the square from Brenda, and a less-than-heartfelt apology from Leif, the orc agreed to back down on the condition that he was allowed to snap the neck of this "lightning bird." Leif agreed, grumbling about the ten gold piece toll he would have to pay Odin to get the bird back, and also backed off.

At that moment, Edgan, a librarian from the local temple of Odin, ran into town, shouting that the temple was under attack and there were still people trapped inside. Leif called for help before running off toward the temple with Astrid, and the rest of the party accompanied them, though reluctantly.

Arriving at the temple, with Leif still ranting about "these jævlig orcs in my jævlig town," the party found the door ajar, and the sounds of movement from inside suddenly ceased. Peering through the door, some party members were able to see a goblin hiding behind a pillar. The goblin, upon realizing it had been seen, fired a crossbow at Astrid, and initiative was rolled. The goblin won initiative, and fired another round at Astrid. He then fled further into the church, and the party heard a high-pitched scream from inside.

Leif then stepped into the church, past his meat shield, and triggered the readied actions of three more goblins hiding within the church. One crossbow bolt missed his armor class of 12, one was Shielded, and one sunk into his back. Unfazed, he killed one goblin and bloodied another with a Thunderwave and finished off the bloodied one with a Spiritual Weapon. Astrid then stepped into the church and bloodied the third goblin, followed by Thanor, who missed the third goblin twice. Brenda then stepped into the church and took out the third goblin with a well-placed bowshot. The only remaining goblin fired his crossbow again, stepped around a bookshelf, and hid, but you can't hide from area-of-effect spells, and a second Thunderwave finished him off, scattering books across the room.

The party then found the source of the earlier scream, a librarian named Malira, the only other survivor of the massacre in the temple. Investigating the bodies of the goblins, they were found to have wooden holy symbols of Eirithnal. Malira informed the party of an old shrine to Eirithnal near a nearby town, and the party resolved to go and tear down the temple as soon as the current situation with the orcs was solved.

This narrative style is a departure from our last log, which we kept in list form, but you can expect the same kinds of wacky, definitely-not-well-thought-out shenanigans from this party as the last. Hope y'all enjoy the story, and we should have more for you soon!

russianwizard
2020-05-19, 05:49 AM
It's been a few weeks, and a fair bit has happened; real life has a nasty habit of interfering where it's not wanted. Expect biweekly updates after this, though. We've also had some new characters join our party, and one character get switched out.

In the morning of the next day, before our heroes were set to go tear down a certain shrine, some new faces arrived in town: Mori, Mara, and their gnome companion Wendell; Dunkin, a friendly, steadfast dwarf; and Patricia.

Going off of some information from the town sheriff, the original group, and the "helpless passersby" who got dragged into the mission, decided to pursue the other half of the orc warband along with the legate that accompanied them. The orcs had gone further past the town, towards the Tyr Falls Caverns, a well-known Resistance cache.

With the ranger of the group, the party was able to make excellent time towards the caverns, eventually taking the "high road" to save time and hopefully cut off the orcs before they reached the cavern. Along the way, the party passed above the warband, learning from their discussion that the legate was investigating the caverns because his familiar was killed nearby recently.

Also along the way, the party had a short run-in with two reanimated bodies of fallen warriors, possessed by evil spirits because they were not laid to rest.

Arriving near the caverns shortly before the orcs, the group encountered a particularly dismal swamp, which several characters recognized as being a particularly nasty magical bog which drained the life force of anyone caught in it (cue 10 minutes of OOC discussion of the Neverending Story). A rickety rope bridge stretched a hundred feet across the swamp, threatening to dip any particularly heavy party members into the bog. However, the party was able to safely cross, making it only minutes before the orcs arrived.

A plan was conceived, and the invisible Wendell and wildshaped druid remained behind to cut the ropes and buy some more time. Most of the orcs were on the bridge when the gnome reappeared and sliced one side of the bridge clean off. The other side snapped, and the orcs and legate went tumbling into the swamp. The party then quickly regrouped at the caverns, planning to ambush the orcs when they inevitably arrived.

Investigating the caverns revealed a Resistance cache with several cloaks and boots of elvenkind as well as other supplies. Also in the cavern was a strangely glowing pool. Investigating the pool, it was found to contain a quite friendly water elemental, which had been taught to speak Common by the resistance agents who sheltered here. It revealed a small hidden cavern behind the pool, and the party stashed the supplies—and themselves—there and prepared for an ambush. The pool was also identified as being highly magical, having the capacity to cast low-level illusion spells.

Sure enough, before too long, the priest entered the cavern to investigate. The party burst from concealment and brutally finished him off, ending with a throat-stomp by the muscle wizard. Mori and Leif were then both disguised as the legate, as a result of a miscommunication, and Leif went out to speak to the orcs. A short conversation in Orcish ensued, which Leif understood none of, and the orc captain entered the cavern, catching sight of both the dead body and Mori also disguised as the legate. A tense battle then occurred, involving some... interesting tactics, but the party emerged victorious. The hidden supplies, and magical items, were then returned to their place, and the party returned to town somewhat victorious.

It was then decided that the better decision was to allow the orcs in town to escape with their "offering," rather than risk bringing more wrath down upon the village. The party instead set off for Kurgan Falls, Wendell and Dunkin's shared destination, and planned to take a short detour to deface a particular shrine. Arriving there after a few days, they discovered an elf by the name of Silke, who Wendell and Dunkin were each separately tasked to escort towards the dwarven stronghold of Durgas Rock.

Resting at Kurgan Falls, the party was attacked in the early morning by a group of bugbears, accompanied by a large stone golem with Eirithnal's likeness carved into it. The stone golem broke through the ice on top of a stream, falling through and allowing the party to quickly dispose of the bugbears, though in their hurry to leave they forgot to behead the corpses.

Heading directly north, the party found the shrine to Eirithnal, and after a short fight with two icy gargoyles, they were able to successfully reduce it to rubble. However, nearby, there were tracks of a large force of Eirithnal's servants—goblins, hobgoblins, bugbears, giants—heading in the direction of Durgas Rock. After persuading Dunkin not to march off immediately, the party took a quick rest and headed off in that direction.

Approaching Durgas Rock, the party began to hear orcish war cries, though they ended soon after they began. (Information here: the orcs are not allied with either the dwarves and elves or the servants of Eirithnal.) Close to the stronghold, the party found a mortally wounded orc, covered in the blood of orcs, dwarves, and goblins in equal measures.

Entering the stronghold, the party found a grim scene: the dead bodies of hundreds of dwarves and orcs, being piled and burned by hill giants. Several goblins were chaining dwarf women and children in a line. Faced with this, the party wasn't entirely sure what to do, but Dunkin proposed that the party might find some survivors in the catacombs under the city. Wendell and Silke remained behind to cause a distraction, and Dunkin remained at the mouth of the tunnel to watch the party's back. In the dungeons under the city, the party encountered a band of orcs and the bodies of many fallen dwarven warriors.

The resulting battle was much too close to a TPK for anyone's comfort, but the party came out on top. They found that one of the dwarven bodies, somehow still alive, was the dwarf chieftain, though he had been poisoned enough to kill ten men and would not live much longer. He pressed a dragon-embossed case into Astrid's hands as she gave him back his greataxe, and with his last words bade the party see it safely delivered to the elven queen in the hands of Silke.

Exhausted but thirsting for vengeance, the party emerged aboveground to find that the distraction had been much more successful than they anticipated. Wendell and Silke had scared off most of the giants and slain two, and the dwarven women were free and busy slitting the necks of the goblins. However victorious they were, the party had lost; only seventeen dwarves, women and children, remained alive. Among the bodies, however, were valuable finds: a matched pair of magical battleaxes for Patricia, a finely-crafted and oddly reminiscent warhammer for Leif, and the chieftain's adamantine greataxe, which the party unanimously presented to Dunkin.

Setting out towards the nearby dwarven town of Silvervein, the party were ambushed by the reanimated bodies of the bugbears they had slain earlier—a lesson in cleaning up after yourselves. However, they were able to arrive unharmed.

Just before arriving in Silvervein, the party received two pieces of information. Leif was informed, by one of the dwarf women, that among the invading force was a magic-user of some kind, wearing the holy symbol of Hextor (the god of the Holy Empire of Zounah, the orcs' country of allegiance) and accompanied by two dire wolves. Thanor also overheard a rather uncreative dwarven nursery rhyme, having to do with many orcs and many axes.

Arriving, the party was welcomed quickly after their company was seen. Dunkin went to speak to the town chief, and returned with good news and bad news. The bad news was that he would be staying in Silvervein, at least for a while, though he promised to reunite with the party if they succeeded in the current mission. The good news was that the town chief was willing to take the dragon case off of the party's hands. However, it was decided that the party needed to follow the chieftain's dying wishes, as Astrid told the town chief in not so many words. Wendell offered to guide the party the rest of the way to where Silke needed to go, and they departed the next morning.

Nearby, the party encountered an overturned cart and dead horse, surrounded by four white reptilian forms which Thanor identified as twisted winter cousins of kobolds. Some members were able to approach stealthily, but the party's position was given away by the rest. However, the weak reptilians were easily eliminated. The cart was found to have belonged to two pilgrims bearing holy symbols of Thor, bringing valuable items to Leif and Astrid's temple. Also in the cart were a few scrolls and potions.

On the way downstream, the party came to a small pool where three grubby, thin, disheveled children were sitting and trying to fish. Approaching them caused them to run away from the stream and up a small game trail. Scouting ahead on that trail with the two familiars of the group, the party discovered a camp of about 30 humans, all in very poor conditions, with tents made of cloaks and clothing not at all suited to the climate.

The party approached the camp, and introduced themselves to the denizens. They learned that the camp was what remained of the village of Orrin, destroyed by orc raids. The party stayed the night, learning that the legate with the direwolves was nearby. In the morning, they provided the villagers with a generous supply of food, goodberries, and spare weapons, giving them directions upstream to Silvervein.

Heading downstream again, Leif and Thanor began noticing dwarven waymarkers, indicating that a holdfast was nearby. Pointing this out to Wendell, he claimed that finding the holdfast was a very good idea and they were lucky to have a guide like him. Traveling to the marked location, they found a cleverly hidden tunnel in the cliff face, leading inwards. At the end of the tunnel was a round room with what looked like a puzzle on the wall, written in Dwarven and reminiscent of a certain nursery rhyme that children often repeated.

Leif stepped back from the puzzle, claiming that he was tired and would leave it to Wendell's genius intellect to solve it. Wendell promptly touched the runes and triggered a trap in the ceiling, raining iron darts on the party. Thankfully, everyone survived, and Leif solved the puzzle after several angry glares at Wendell. Behind a secret door, the party found a complex of four rooms carved from stone, with the upper half of a dwarf's skeleton and a staircase leading downwards. Additionally, in a chest was an adamantine dagger, which was tested by stabbing a wall and given to Mara. The party decided to take a short rest before going downwards, and heard the thunderous sound of a group of nearly a hundred goblins, giants, and hobgoblins passing overhead.

Pressing downwards, the party traversed a 5-foot wide bottomless chasm, and came upon the body of a dead umber hulk, ripped apart by others of its kind. Mori explored a little too enthusiastically, stumbled upon a nest containing three strange green eggs, and was promptly ambushed by two umber hulks. However, they were finished off quickly and the party was able to rest safely.

russianwizard
2020-06-04, 05:15 AM
Slightly behind schedule, because writing is only fun when you don't have time to do it, but here are some more escapades of this wacky bunch:

After the short incident with the umber hulks, the party was in a hurry to get through the catacombs as fast as possible. After a couple uneventful days of travel, the scouting familiars heard the sounds of battle down a side passage, and the party went to investigate.

Down the side passage, the party found a bloody battlefield, in a cavern that looked on the battle map like a bad game of Tetris. Two dwarves stood back-to-back in an ankle-deep pool of blood, barely managing to fend off nearly a dozen orcs surrounding them. The pitched battle that ensued took the life of one of the dwarves, but the other one survived, unlike the orcs. While the party wisely beheaded the corpses of the deceased, the surviving dwarf introduced himself as the titular Golan, having come from Pardrum Holdfast. The holdfast was a stop on the party's way, being about halfway through the tunnels.

Arriving at the holdfast, the party was greeted frostily by the dwarves therein, though they avoided death by having Golan accompanying them. Golan left, and the party was escorted to a holding cell, though they were well fed and watered—or rather, aled. A few hours later, they were released from holding and escorted to the council room, where they received a much warmer greeting from the council, whom Golan was a favorite of.

The council agreed to provide some amount of supplies—crossbow bolts particularly were in short supply—to the heroes in order to aid their journey. The party was encouraged to spend the night in the holdfast, and a guide would be found for them in the morning. Happy to accept, the heroes spent a night in drink, merriment, and companionship, winning significant amounts of gold off of dwarves who were clearly outclassed in terms of gambling games.

Leif was approached during the night by an old dwarven woman, missing an eye and an arm, and told to bring his "friends" to her shop the next morning for some "useful advice." The next morning, gathering there, she issued each party member a grim, yet perhaps hopeful, prophecy. The heroes were then found a guide, a dwarven scout named Callia, and sent off, the children of the holdfast bidding them a fond farewell. The children gave the party several small gifts; of particular note was a recently dead pixie in a jar, which the wizard immediately cast Gentle Repose on and promised to return to life at some later date.

Leaving the holdfast, the party promptly walked directly into a goblin ambush, which quickly turned near-deadly as reinforcements—duergar and particularly nasty giant spiders—arrived. However, through some amazing luck, the party survived, and was told that they needed to keep track of hitpoints and spell slots between this and next session, because random encounters just happen sometimes.

Starting the next session immediately after last, with a rough party total of 60 hitpoints, we were attacked by a stone golem/flesh golem combination with a holy symbol of Hextor burned into its chest. Somehow, again, we survived, and were able to long-rest (Put down the random encounter die now,DM!) afterwards.

Fast-forward a couple days, and the party was woken mid-rest by screaming and the twins' familiar. Silke, on watch with the twins, had been grabbed by some hideous mass of brains and tentacles (later identified as what happens when mindflayers experiment on grell) and swept off into the night. The party gave chase, and was able to rescue Silke just in time, slaying the monstrosity.

Another couple days later, and the party emerged from the cleverly disguised tunnel onto a snowy plain, dotted here and there by trees. Callia bid farewell, and promised to warn the holdfast of the mindflayer issue. Wendel then confessed what he actually had no clue how to get to where he was supposed to go from the tunnel, but luckily the ranger was able to assist. However, midway through the journey, the party noticed carrion birds circling a few miles off the trail—a bad sign. Investigating, a grim scene was discovered: the remnants of a halfling camp raided by orcs, several dead halflings and wardogs, and one unconscious wardog. The dog was healed, and also among the wreckage was discovered the unconscious body of an orc, lashed to a bundle of tent poles and whipped within an inch of his life.

The orc was healed, and introduced himself amid heavy suspicion as Sardrek, a follower of the Grey Mother (a small faction of orcs who covertly resisted the influence of Hextor and the Zounan Empire). He explained that his ideologies had come into conflict with those of the (non-Grey Mother) orcs he was traveling with during the raid, and he had been left for dead. Suspicious but trusting him, the party set him free and took up the trail, hunting the orcs and their halfling prisoners.

Five days of hard travel later, the party caught up to the orcs, sleeping in a camp with a small contingent guarding them—a full dozen orcs in total, with 37 halfling prisoners. Failing to approach stealthily, initiative was rolled, and Leif took the chance to call upon the divine fury of (Thor? Odin? Both?) and conjure a storm above the encampment. Striking several sleeping orcs with the first bolt of lightning, but not felling them, combat was engaged. Midway through the tense battle, allies arrived—Sardrek and the halfling wardog, angry and ready to tear some orcs a new one.

Through yet more amazing luck, the battle was won sans casualties, and the imprisoned halflings were freed. In gratitude, the party were made honorary tribe members, and Sardrek was made a full member after the halflings had seen his honorable deeds in battle. With nowhere else to go, he accepted, and the party set off once more into the snowy fields, hoping to finally get somewhere before having to fight more orcs.

*some exceptions apply