Wednesday, February 28, 2018
3d6 D&D ... or D&D Neat?
Has anyone written rules for D&D with just 3d6? I have a recurring curiosity to write rules just using regular dice, mostly in case I get stuck somewhere like somebody's cabin in the woods, and I want to play D&D, but the only dice to be found are in a Monopoly or Yahtze game ...
You could call it D&D Neat--like neat wine or liquor (i.e. not mixed with anything, not even water), it would be D&D with neat dice, just d6s unmixed with anything else.
My initial thought was to roll attacks as a "roll under" mechanic, i.e. STR 13, roll 3d6, 13 or lower on the dice is a hit (then roll a d6 for damage like OD&D). But that gets probabilistically weird outside the range of 9-12 STR/DEX, and makes a fighter with STR 18 unstoppable ...
Current thought is to assign an attack value starting from 11, adding STR, level, and magic bonuses to the value (i.e. fighter 4, STR 13, +1 sword has attack value 14). Roll equal to or under your attack value to hit.
Armor class could be ascending, 1 (shield or leather), 2 (shield and leather or mail), 3 (shield and mail or plate), 4 (shield and plate), add your opponent's armor class to your roll (roll a 12 on the dice attacking a fighter in plate, actual roll 15; attack roll 15 > attack value 14 = miss!).
I've done a very small amount of testing, and this latter system seems to work decently for first level play ... I'm curious about the probabilities, but not patient enough to do the math.
(Yeah, I realize I could dig up Chainmail attack tables or something, I understand they use a mere pair of dice ... but this is supposed to be a way to play D&D with fewer accouterments, not a substitution of some other chart! On the same point, I have separately created a 111-666 table that somewhat mimics the probabilities of a d20 roll, i.e. approximately 5% per entry--but again, that requires a whole chart instead of some simple arbitrary values)
And I haven't even touched Saves yet (or anything else, really) ... though I imagined assigning them arbitrary values kind of like attack values, maybe inspired by the B/X charts.
Or maybe just roll under a relevant stat.
Anyway, this is a vanity project like I said, a thought experiment as to how I'd run D&D in desperate circumstances (with only six-sided dice--or worse, a single die!)
Tuesday, February 27, 2018
Jungles of Chult Session 3
our intrepid adventurers:
Nugiri (lizardman monk)
Takashi (human magic-user)
Nebin (halfling barbarian)
Qinsela (human druid)
Iedos (tiefling paladin)
Nsi Losi (human fighting-man)
Thrice-Orphaned (goliath fighter)
with River Mist and Flask of Wine (cat-man fighter and thief) as guides
and hired slingers Olol and Benge
and hired porters Adoun and Biango
The last session ended with half the party that had originally set out dead, and the other half plus newcomer Qinsela, safely returned to Port Nyanzaru a little bit richer. Nebin and Takashi immediately blew their gains on booze and possibly hookers, and ended up in debt to merchant princes Jessamine (Nebin, for 100 gold) and Jobal (Takashi, for 400 gold). Takashi was also beaten and robbed while drunk, and had to begin this session without clothes and with a few hit points fewer.
Bumming around town for a couple days, the adventurers were able to gather a few rumors:
Firstly, while carousing, Nebin and Takashi learned of the new tavern-brothel the House of Flowers and Fruit, wherein beautiful men and women with brightly colored skin and floral petals rather than hair work as courtesans. These creatures, who call themselves the Flowers of Puljra, only appeared out of the jungle recently. Nobody has ever seen anything quite like them--they seem dryad-like, and there is a weird tree now growing in the courtyard of the House with weird fruits that almost look like fetal-position-men ...
Secondly, within the last few weeks, giant saltwater crocodiles have begun to attack the supply-ships that shuttle supplies to and from Fort Beluarian to the north east. The commander of the Fort, one Liara Portyr, has publicly offered a bounty of 100 gold for the head of each such crocodile brought to her, and a lesser bounty of 10 gold for any regularly-sized crocodile. Given their encounters with crocodiles last session, the players quickly turned their noses up at this offer--"Needs to be a lot higher bounty for us to do that!"
Thirdly, they heard of a priestess of Torm seeking passage down the Soshenstar River to Camp Vengeance, forward outpost of the Order of the Gauntlet (a militant clerical order bent on eradicating the undead menace in the jungles ... and not doing a very good job of it). When the party approached this Undril Silvertusks, half-orc priestess, they learned that she had a packet of letters and orders for Commander Niles of Camp Vengeance, but that she didn't have any money to pay for an escort--she was looking to add her skills to any expedition headed down the Soshenstar. Hearing this lack of coin, the party quickly and politely said, "Maybe next time, good luck!" and elected to seek money elsewhere.
Lastly, the adventurers were approached by a messenger from merchant-prince Wakanga (cue Black Panther jokes at the table), the only magic-user from among that illustrious number. The messenger indicated that his master would like an audience with the adventurers who traveled up the Tiryki River and returned, as he had a business offer regarding a site further up that river. Seeking him out, the party learned from him that he had heard from another expedition of a tomb dug out in the hills southeast of the swamp with the Sailback Shrine--a tomb of the Yuan-Ti, the serpent men that once filled the jungles of Chult, but which now linger only in deep places and old stories. This tomb, presumably of the Serpent-Kings, Wakanga believes to contain magical artefacts from of old, and he would dearly love to get his hands on such--if the adventurers were willing to delve into its depths and return especially with books of spells or magical manuals, Wakanga would be more than grateful and shower them with thousands of gold.
So the party elected to outfit themselves for a second expedition up the River Tiryki. I reminded them that they could hire NPC mercenaries and porters, just like our regular B/X games, and they hired two slingers and two porters, as well as retaining the services of River Mist and Flask of Wine, Tabaxi jungle-guides. They also bought a second river boat, these hirings and purchasings leaving them broke again ... and set out southeast along the river's length.
And on the first day out from Nyanzaru, rowing south for the Tiryki's estuary, someone spotted dark shapes moving under the water toward their boats. Fearing crocodiles, they began rowing furiously for shore--the boat with Thrice-Orphaned the goliath made the beach, but the second boat was still on the water when snake-like heads emerged from the water, grinning with glinting teeth. Takashi was in the second boat; he cast a sleep spell at the monsters ... and because sleep affects lowest hit point creatures first, he only managed to lay the rest of his boat under an enchanted slumber. The snake-necked water monsters took advantage of their suddenly sleeping prey and grabbed (rolling randomly) Biango the porter and Iedos the paladin into the water and away to be eaten elsewhere at their leisure.
An auspicious start for the expedition! After that, we settled into the routine of overland travel, mostly rolling no encounters for the day. Because River Mist and Flask of Wine are familiar with the Tiryki, I allowed that they don't have to make navigation rolls along its length.
Day 4 -- evening -- A party of four humans approaches the camp and asks to share shelter. They are led by Abiol. He claims that he and his comrades were out hunting, but found no quarry. When he hears the party are making for the tombs of the serpent-men, he tells them that the tombs are cursed. Come morning, Abiol and his company continue northwest for Nyanzaru while the party continues south.
Day 6 -- morning -- The party is ambushed by a large number of lizardmen. But Nugiri parlays; he learns that these are the Hsaathi Tribe, distantly related to the Hsa Hsi lizardmen near Nyanzaru (and with a random roll, Nugiri is of the Hsa Hsi himself). The leader of this group is Isaath, and he says to Nugiri, "Give us your tail, and we will give you ours. What tribute do you offer to pass through our territory?"
"I will cook for you," Nugiri offers, and the lizardmen find it acceptable when Nugiri cooks up two weeks of rations for them as a feast. Then Isaath gives Nugiri a javelin as a token of friendship, and he and his company allow the party to continue unmolested.
Day 7 -- night -- During the watch of Takashi and Nugiri, the pair notice a party of about a dozen humans attempting to sneak up on their camp. They quietly begin to awaken their comrades, starting with Nebin and Thrice-Orphaned (I think?). In the midst of shuffling around, they alert their would-be ambushers that they're awake and a battle ensues as the humans rush into the camp whooping and hollering and brandishing javelins.
It's a stiff fight, but only because the jungle-dwellers roll a couple critical hits. Otherwise they're not well enough armed to carry the battle, and so the last three left standing after a couple rounds surrender. Nebin and Qinsela interrogate the survivors, who are clearly cannibals; one is named Angim, and all of the jungle-men have teeth filed to points, and an inverted blue triangle tattooed on their foreheads. This is the mark of Ras Nsi, whom they serve, Angim explains. "Will you let us go now? You mighty warriors have defeated us, and we will trouble you no more."
But the party wasn't buying it, and they put their attackers to death. Among the bodies they find a scrollcase with a scroll of grease inside, and also a xalam, a kind of lute.
Day 8 -- mid-day -- Sprained ankle rolled on my non-monster encounter chart. Cured with a cure light spell, no trouble after that.
Day 9 -- morning -- River Mist, who is guiding the party through the jungle, reports back that she has spied an ambush of grungs ahead. "They are good to eat if well-cooked," she adds at the end, and Nugiri and Takashi both get a hungry gleam in their eyes.
The party wishes to counter-ambush the frog-men, and so they send Thrice-Orphaned and Nebin ahead as bait while the rest sneak around to flank the grungs. This plan works out perfectly, and six of the seven grung are quickly killed while the last is subdued and tied up. The party never learn his name; what they do get out of him is that he knows where "treasure" is, and he will lead them there, and says, "Then you will release me, because we will be friends, because I have shown you treasure."
"Lead on," the party responds, and so he leads them down the river a ways to the submerged altar and the idol of the hermaphroditic god/dess Olokuna that the party found in the river last expedition.
The grung indicates the altar; the party searches it and finds only a collection of arrow- and spear-heads. Much disappointed, they kill their prisoner; Nugiri hangs the corpse on the erect stone phallus of the idol, much to the disgust of Nsi Losi, who is of Good alignment.
The party then chooses to cross the river at this point--on the other bank they will head due south through the jungle and ultimately end up to the southeast of the Sailback Shrine and swamp, which is where they want to be.
Alas! in crossing the river, they manage to disturb a giant snapping turtle that was resting like a giant rock in the shallows. Fortunately, only the last two of the party disturbed it; unfortunately, that included Nsi Losi, the second character of the player who had already lost Iedos.
Rolling randomly, the turtle attacked Nugiri first, but its snapping jaws closed on air as the lizardman monk nimbly dodged away and fled to the river bank. Next, the turtle won initiative, and as Nsi Losi was the only character nearby, it snapped at him, and Nsi Losi collapsed in the water in a bleeding heap that began to dead-man's float downriver ...
The party shot missile weapons at the turtle, only serving to enrage it so that it continued out of the river toward them on the bank ... until Qinsela remembered that he can cast charm animal. So he cast it, and calmed the turtle and told it to just go back to resting, while the party fled up the bank and continued into the jungle (and while a new character was being rolled up ...)
Day 10 -- evening -- The half-Elf Vilnus arrives in camp, following a group of shiny beetles. (She?) joins the party, as the jungle is not a safe place, and perhaps they can help her in her quest to collect the myriad beetles of the jungle ...
Day 11 -- mid-day -- A roll of "no progress" on my non-monster encounter chart. At this point, I also required the party to roll for navigation to avoid getting lost, as they're moving through actual jungle rather than following the path of the river. They get back on track the following day.
Day 13 -- morning -- Just after the party breaks camp, the jungle is suddenly shaken with sound like of thunder, with the crashing of trees, and with the ground itself tremoring. The party quickly scatters--"It sounds like something's coming that you don't want to be in the way of!" Sure enough, a huge beast with an incredibly long snake-neck, elephantine legs and body, and a long whip-like tail crashes past, heading toward the river. The party wonders at its passing, and then continue on their way.
Day 14 -- mid-day -- River Mist admits that she's lost; fortunately, Nugiri has been paying attention to where they are, and thinks that they're in the general vicinity of the ridgeline with the tomb, their goal. After a fair amount of time exploring, the party is able to discover a worked entrance cut into the northwest face of the ridgeline. A stone slap used to cover the entrance, but a tree growing by the door ultimately cracked the stone and sent it tumbling away sometime in the past, allowing the cave inside to issue foetid airs.
Leaving their two slingers, their porter, and their two boats concealed in a copse of trees, the party entered the Tomb of the Serpent-Kings. (I've scattered a number of dungeons throughout the wilderness of Chult, including Skerples' tutorial dungeon from the Coins and Scrolls blog. I've been curious about it for a long time; Chult with its Yuan-Ti seemed like a perfect place to drop it in. For those of you playing--don't cheat! But even if you do, I'll probably have changed things anyway ...)
Entering the musty tunnel, the party found themselves in a corridor with four branches and one large door at the end. Each of the branches ended in a small chamber with a clay sarcophagus in the shape of a serpent-man in repose. Breaking open the first of these, the goliath Thrice-Orphaned took some damage from breathing in a gas that escaped from within. Otherwise, the party discovered a skeleton of mixed human- and serpent-bones, as well as a gold amulet formed like a serpent twisting back on itself.
Each of the other three chambers held similar sarcophagi; they dealt with the others by standing well back when they broke the seals, allowing the gas to escape without anyone being close enough to breathe it in. All in all, they found six golden amulets within the sarcophagi, as well as a silver snake-ring inside one of them.
Turning their attention to the door, the party found a huge door barred on their side with a heavy bar of stone on iron hooks set into the door. They quickly identified it as a trap, that when the stone was lifted, the hooks would rise, and a hammer would fall from the ceiling to strike anyone at the door in the back ("We need to lure the big monster inside here and set off the trap," one of them immediately quipped). To prevent the hooks rising, they tied them off with ropes set into the floor with iron spikes, and then as a further safety measure they lifted the bar up from either side, rather than from in front of the door. The ropes held and the hammer didn't fall; and opening the doors, the party found a larger room with three more sarcophagi and another chamber offset and containing the horrid statue of some grotesque serpent-man god.
These sarcophagi they approached the same way as before--but lo! they contained restless skeletons rather than poison gas! Skeletons that were quickly quashed by the party's attacks. At this point it was getting late, and one of our members had already fallen asleep briefly at the table, so we decided to wrap it up for the night with their discovery of a once-secret tunnel that was now revealed beneath the grotesque idol by the slow action of water over the ages.
What secrets does the tomb hold within its depths? Find out in approximately three weeks, the next time I'll be able to run Tomb of Annihilation ...
------
Remembrance for the Dead
Nsi Losi (human fighting-man 1), Biango (NPC porter), Iedos (tiefling paladin 1), Tehran Atzi (human cleric of Ubtao 1), Sound of Distant Rain (cat-man rogue 1), Chiratidzo (human druid 1)
Nugiri (lizardman monk)
Takashi (human magic-user)
Nebin (halfling barbarian)
Qinsela (human druid)
Iedos (tiefling paladin)
Nsi Losi (human fighting-man)
Thrice-Orphaned (goliath fighter)
with River Mist and Flask of Wine (cat-man fighter and thief) as guides
and hired slingers Olol and Benge
and hired porters Adoun and Biango
The last session ended with half the party that had originally set out dead, and the other half plus newcomer Qinsela, safely returned to Port Nyanzaru a little bit richer. Nebin and Takashi immediately blew their gains on booze and possibly hookers, and ended up in debt to merchant princes Jessamine (Nebin, for 100 gold) and Jobal (Takashi, for 400 gold). Takashi was also beaten and robbed while drunk, and had to begin this session without clothes and with a few hit points fewer.
Bumming around town for a couple days, the adventurers were able to gather a few rumors:
Firstly, while carousing, Nebin and Takashi learned of the new tavern-brothel the House of Flowers and Fruit, wherein beautiful men and women with brightly colored skin and floral petals rather than hair work as courtesans. These creatures, who call themselves the Flowers of Puljra, only appeared out of the jungle recently. Nobody has ever seen anything quite like them--they seem dryad-like, and there is a weird tree now growing in the courtyard of the House with weird fruits that almost look like fetal-position-men ...
Secondly, within the last few weeks, giant saltwater crocodiles have begun to attack the supply-ships that shuttle supplies to and from Fort Beluarian to the north east. The commander of the Fort, one Liara Portyr, has publicly offered a bounty of 100 gold for the head of each such crocodile brought to her, and a lesser bounty of 10 gold for any regularly-sized crocodile. Given their encounters with crocodiles last session, the players quickly turned their noses up at this offer--"Needs to be a lot higher bounty for us to do that!"
Thirdly, they heard of a priestess of Torm seeking passage down the Soshenstar River to Camp Vengeance, forward outpost of the Order of the Gauntlet (a militant clerical order bent on eradicating the undead menace in the jungles ... and not doing a very good job of it). When the party approached this Undril Silvertusks, half-orc priestess, they learned that she had a packet of letters and orders for Commander Niles of Camp Vengeance, but that she didn't have any money to pay for an escort--she was looking to add her skills to any expedition headed down the Soshenstar. Hearing this lack of coin, the party quickly and politely said, "Maybe next time, good luck!" and elected to seek money elsewhere.
Lastly, the adventurers were approached by a messenger from merchant-prince Wakanga (cue Black Panther jokes at the table), the only magic-user from among that illustrious number. The messenger indicated that his master would like an audience with the adventurers who traveled up the Tiryki River and returned, as he had a business offer regarding a site further up that river. Seeking him out, the party learned from him that he had heard from another expedition of a tomb dug out in the hills southeast of the swamp with the Sailback Shrine--a tomb of the Yuan-Ti, the serpent men that once filled the jungles of Chult, but which now linger only in deep places and old stories. This tomb, presumably of the Serpent-Kings, Wakanga believes to contain magical artefacts from of old, and he would dearly love to get his hands on such--if the adventurers were willing to delve into its depths and return especially with books of spells or magical manuals, Wakanga would be more than grateful and shower them with thousands of gold.
So the party elected to outfit themselves for a second expedition up the River Tiryki. I reminded them that they could hire NPC mercenaries and porters, just like our regular B/X games, and they hired two slingers and two porters, as well as retaining the services of River Mist and Flask of Wine, Tabaxi jungle-guides. They also bought a second river boat, these hirings and purchasings leaving them broke again ... and set out southeast along the river's length.
And on the first day out from Nyanzaru, rowing south for the Tiryki's estuary, someone spotted dark shapes moving under the water toward their boats. Fearing crocodiles, they began rowing furiously for shore--the boat with Thrice-Orphaned the goliath made the beach, but the second boat was still on the water when snake-like heads emerged from the water, grinning with glinting teeth. Takashi was in the second boat; he cast a sleep spell at the monsters ... and because sleep affects lowest hit point creatures first, he only managed to lay the rest of his boat under an enchanted slumber. The snake-necked water monsters took advantage of their suddenly sleeping prey and grabbed (rolling randomly) Biango the porter and Iedos the paladin into the water and away to be eaten elsewhere at their leisure.
An auspicious start for the expedition! After that, we settled into the routine of overland travel, mostly rolling no encounters for the day. Because River Mist and Flask of Wine are familiar with the Tiryki, I allowed that they don't have to make navigation rolls along its length.
Day 4 -- evening -- A party of four humans approaches the camp and asks to share shelter. They are led by Abiol. He claims that he and his comrades were out hunting, but found no quarry. When he hears the party are making for the tombs of the serpent-men, he tells them that the tombs are cursed. Come morning, Abiol and his company continue northwest for Nyanzaru while the party continues south.
Day 6 -- morning -- The party is ambushed by a large number of lizardmen. But Nugiri parlays; he learns that these are the Hsaathi Tribe, distantly related to the Hsa Hsi lizardmen near Nyanzaru (and with a random roll, Nugiri is of the Hsa Hsi himself). The leader of this group is Isaath, and he says to Nugiri, "Give us your tail, and we will give you ours. What tribute do you offer to pass through our territory?"
"I will cook for you," Nugiri offers, and the lizardmen find it acceptable when Nugiri cooks up two weeks of rations for them as a feast. Then Isaath gives Nugiri a javelin as a token of friendship, and he and his company allow the party to continue unmolested.
Day 7 -- night -- During the watch of Takashi and Nugiri, the pair notice a party of about a dozen humans attempting to sneak up on their camp. They quietly begin to awaken their comrades, starting with Nebin and Thrice-Orphaned (I think?). In the midst of shuffling around, they alert their would-be ambushers that they're awake and a battle ensues as the humans rush into the camp whooping and hollering and brandishing javelins.
It's a stiff fight, but only because the jungle-dwellers roll a couple critical hits. Otherwise they're not well enough armed to carry the battle, and so the last three left standing after a couple rounds surrender. Nebin and Qinsela interrogate the survivors, who are clearly cannibals; one is named Angim, and all of the jungle-men have teeth filed to points, and an inverted blue triangle tattooed on their foreheads. This is the mark of Ras Nsi, whom they serve, Angim explains. "Will you let us go now? You mighty warriors have defeated us, and we will trouble you no more."
But the party wasn't buying it, and they put their attackers to death. Among the bodies they find a scrollcase with a scroll of grease inside, and also a xalam, a kind of lute.
Day 8 -- mid-day -- Sprained ankle rolled on my non-monster encounter chart. Cured with a cure light spell, no trouble after that.
Day 9 -- morning -- River Mist, who is guiding the party through the jungle, reports back that she has spied an ambush of grungs ahead. "They are good to eat if well-cooked," she adds at the end, and Nugiri and Takashi both get a hungry gleam in their eyes.
The party wishes to counter-ambush the frog-men, and so they send Thrice-Orphaned and Nebin ahead as bait while the rest sneak around to flank the grungs. This plan works out perfectly, and six of the seven grung are quickly killed while the last is subdued and tied up. The party never learn his name; what they do get out of him is that he knows where "treasure" is, and he will lead them there, and says, "Then you will release me, because we will be friends, because I have shown you treasure."
"Lead on," the party responds, and so he leads them down the river a ways to the submerged altar and the idol of the hermaphroditic god/dess Olokuna that the party found in the river last expedition.
The grung indicates the altar; the party searches it and finds only a collection of arrow- and spear-heads. Much disappointed, they kill their prisoner; Nugiri hangs the corpse on the erect stone phallus of the idol, much to the disgust of Nsi Losi, who is of Good alignment.
The party then chooses to cross the river at this point--on the other bank they will head due south through the jungle and ultimately end up to the southeast of the Sailback Shrine and swamp, which is where they want to be.
Alas! in crossing the river, they manage to disturb a giant snapping turtle that was resting like a giant rock in the shallows. Fortunately, only the last two of the party disturbed it; unfortunately, that included Nsi Losi, the second character of the player who had already lost Iedos.
Rolling randomly, the turtle attacked Nugiri first, but its snapping jaws closed on air as the lizardman monk nimbly dodged away and fled to the river bank. Next, the turtle won initiative, and as Nsi Losi was the only character nearby, it snapped at him, and Nsi Losi collapsed in the water in a bleeding heap that began to dead-man's float downriver ...
The party shot missile weapons at the turtle, only serving to enrage it so that it continued out of the river toward them on the bank ... until Qinsela remembered that he can cast charm animal. So he cast it, and calmed the turtle and told it to just go back to resting, while the party fled up the bank and continued into the jungle (and while a new character was being rolled up ...)
Day 10 -- evening -- The half-Elf Vilnus arrives in camp, following a group of shiny beetles. (She?) joins the party, as the jungle is not a safe place, and perhaps they can help her in her quest to collect the myriad beetles of the jungle ...
Day 11 -- mid-day -- A roll of "no progress" on my non-monster encounter chart. At this point, I also required the party to roll for navigation to avoid getting lost, as they're moving through actual jungle rather than following the path of the river. They get back on track the following day.
Day 13 -- morning -- Just after the party breaks camp, the jungle is suddenly shaken with sound like of thunder, with the crashing of trees, and with the ground itself tremoring. The party quickly scatters--"It sounds like something's coming that you don't want to be in the way of!" Sure enough, a huge beast with an incredibly long snake-neck, elephantine legs and body, and a long whip-like tail crashes past, heading toward the river. The party wonders at its passing, and then continue on their way.
Day 14 -- mid-day -- River Mist admits that she's lost; fortunately, Nugiri has been paying attention to where they are, and thinks that they're in the general vicinity of the ridgeline with the tomb, their goal. After a fair amount of time exploring, the party is able to discover a worked entrance cut into the northwest face of the ridgeline. A stone slap used to cover the entrance, but a tree growing by the door ultimately cracked the stone and sent it tumbling away sometime in the past, allowing the cave inside to issue foetid airs.
Leaving their two slingers, their porter, and their two boats concealed in a copse of trees, the party entered the Tomb of the Serpent-Kings. (I've scattered a number of dungeons throughout the wilderness of Chult, including Skerples' tutorial dungeon from the Coins and Scrolls blog. I've been curious about it for a long time; Chult with its Yuan-Ti seemed like a perfect place to drop it in. For those of you playing--don't cheat! But even if you do, I'll probably have changed things anyway ...)
Entering the musty tunnel, the party found themselves in a corridor with four branches and one large door at the end. Each of the branches ended in a small chamber with a clay sarcophagus in the shape of a serpent-man in repose. Breaking open the first of these, the goliath Thrice-Orphaned took some damage from breathing in a gas that escaped from within. Otherwise, the party discovered a skeleton of mixed human- and serpent-bones, as well as a gold amulet formed like a serpent twisting back on itself.
Each of the other three chambers held similar sarcophagi; they dealt with the others by standing well back when they broke the seals, allowing the gas to escape without anyone being close enough to breathe it in. All in all, they found six golden amulets within the sarcophagi, as well as a silver snake-ring inside one of them.
Turning their attention to the door, the party found a huge door barred on their side with a heavy bar of stone on iron hooks set into the door. They quickly identified it as a trap, that when the stone was lifted, the hooks would rise, and a hammer would fall from the ceiling to strike anyone at the door in the back ("We need to lure the big monster inside here and set off the trap," one of them immediately quipped). To prevent the hooks rising, they tied them off with ropes set into the floor with iron spikes, and then as a further safety measure they lifted the bar up from either side, rather than from in front of the door. The ropes held and the hammer didn't fall; and opening the doors, the party found a larger room with three more sarcophagi and another chamber offset and containing the horrid statue of some grotesque serpent-man god.
These sarcophagi they approached the same way as before--but lo! they contained restless skeletons rather than poison gas! Skeletons that were quickly quashed by the party's attacks. At this point it was getting late, and one of our members had already fallen asleep briefly at the table, so we decided to wrap it up for the night with their discovery of a once-secret tunnel that was now revealed beneath the grotesque idol by the slow action of water over the ages.
What secrets does the tomb hold within its depths? Find out in approximately three weeks, the next time I'll be able to run Tomb of Annihilation ...
------
Remembrance for the Dead
Nsi Losi (human fighting-man 1), Biango (NPC porter), Iedos (tiefling paladin 1), Tehran Atzi (human cleric of Ubtao 1), Sound of Distant Rain (cat-man rogue 1), Chiratidzo (human druid 1)
Friday, February 23, 2018
Greyhame Mountain Dungeon Expedition 21
Orcs have returned to the caverns of the Glimmervaults ...
the Goblin King and the Lord of Werewolves have renewed their ancient alliance beneath the Howling Tower ...
and the secret treasury of the Bronding Kings is said to lie hidden behind the Brokenbrand Falls, haunted by enchanting naiads ...
...
and Jaer the Windlord looks down on the world below from the Eyries of the Eagles on Greyhame Mountain itself ...
while the Stars themselves are singing an eerie, eldritch song, night after night ...
the Goblin King and the Lord of Werewolves have renewed their ancient alliance beneath the Howling Tower ...
and the secret treasury of the Bronding Kings is said to lie hidden behind the Brokenbrand Falls, haunted by enchanting naiads ...
...
and Jaer the Windlord looks down on the world below from the Eyries of the Eagles on Greyhame Mountain itself ...
while the Stars themselves are singing an eerie, eldritch song, night after night ...
19 February's roster:
Baby Face (thief 5)
with Frida and Alaina (normal women), Cadmus, Tyr, and Thorn (normal men), and Wallaby and Whesker (weasels)
Blackleaf (Elf 3)
with Johann Haybaler (normal man)
Koko (woman-ape 2)
Aethelwulf (paladin 3)
Our characters had several things to do in town before setting out on any adventure. First, Baby-Face tried again to smuggle for the local thieves' guild, but failed and only barely rolled above the threshold of getting caught--which is to say, he was nearly caught with the goods outside of town by Morholt's men and had to abandon the goods Han Solo style to get away. Nevertheless, the guild credited away a fraction of the debt he still owes them for throwing the wildest carousing party in Brakeridge's history.
Meanwhile, local blacksmith Aldir, Blackleaf's sometime squeeze, has almost completely lost interest in his affair with the Elf-woman. She hasn't been faithful in maintaining her side of the relationship, while he has become interested in converting to the Good cult of Adonai, Aethelwulf's god of justice.
Other than continuing his mentorship of Aldir (which really doesn't consist of much theology given Aethelwulf's less-than-mediocre mental scores ...), Aethelwulf also acquired some oddities for sale: a bottle of the mead of poetry, and a dagger fashioned from the stinger of a giant killer bee.
Finally, Baby Face hired a bunch of the mercenaries available for hire in town this week (Cadmus, Tyr, Thorn, and Alaina), and then everyone was ready to set out.
The party agreed to seek out Jaer the Windlord up on the Greyhame Mountain where the eagles have their eyries. There, they would offer the fifty orc heads they have gathered over the past few expeditions, which proof Jaer desired to see that the orcs in the Glimmervaults were diminished, and promised thence to grant the party a wish. After that, they hoped to find again a wyvern-lair that they discovered on their only other expedition to the eyries of the eagles.
To this end, Aethelwulf saddled up on his warhorse, while Baby-Face got ready his wagon and draft-horses, and with this equippage, the party moved out to the northeast toward the Greyhame Mountain's heights.
Now, at the end of this session nobody caroused, so none of the characters get blacked-out drunk and share the tales of their derring-do in excessive detail.
Nevertheless, there is no hiding the fact that the party rolled back into town bloodied but much richer, their wagon piled with the remains of two slain wyverns, a pile of treasure, and the bodies of the hirelings of Johann Haybaler and Frida.
Word gets around that the party ran into wolves on the way out--probably werewolves, according to rumors that they had to be slain with silver weapons--and Aethelwulf's possession of four wolf pelts (I think he intends to sell them) confirms an encounter with wolves at least. Johann is said to have died during this battle.
As to Jaer and the eagles, the party proudly proclaims that they found Jaer, that he accepted their offering of orc heads, and that their wish was for themselves and their friends to be haler and heartier. It's difficult to judge if that's the case; and truthfully, the woman-ape Koko looks rather haggard when she returns to town, and her wolf-bites seem sorely infected.
But, moreover, the party claims that Jaer has told them that the singing of the stars comes from star-things coming from across the sky, searching for something or someone. The Goblin King and the Lord of Werewolves have dabbled with something best not dabbled with, if Jaer is to be taken truthfully.
Finally--obviously--the party came across a pair of wyverns, probably in their lair if the lucre they've returned with is any indication of wyvern-hoards. Aethelwulf claims to have killed one by stabbing it with his bee-dagger, while Koko claims to have wrestled the other to death by finally breaking its neck in her hands. Frida died during this encounter--a black and swollen puncture wound on her neck/shoulder is gruesomely suggestive of the efficacy of the venom in the wyvern's tail-sting.
Out of the loot, Aethelwulf claimed a black sword, which he was clearly seen coveting in the bar before taking it out of town to seek the aid of the sage, Axxl the Mask, in identifying just what kind of magic dweomers are imbued in its dark blade ...
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Remembrance for the Fallen:
Frida and Johann Haybaler (normal mercenaries), Hauka and Wilmerand (weasels), Blade and Boar (dogs), Hubert the Peacock and Lysimmachus (normal men), a nameless mastiff, Livy (normal man), Orkie (orc mastiff), Fang (boarhound), Droopy and Snoopy (mastiffs), Dream Destroyer (ghosthound), Arrow (pack dog), Freyja (normal woman), a nameless cur, Hot Dog and Cross (mastiffs), Orion II (lion dog), Bacon (boarhound), Tore (half-orc fighter 1/cleric 1), Jimmy the Snitch (dog), Orion (lion dog), Harambe (man-ape 1)
and for those Enchanted Away:
Dol (fyrdman hireling)
Thursday, February 22, 2018
Jungles of Chult: Locales around Nyanzaru
Since the last session of the Chult game I've been busy populating the hex map with rules from the Welsh Piper's Hex-based Campaign Design posts. After the first session I'd already placed a few settlements around the north coast near the main port city of Nyanzaru, and several small encounter areas along the Tiryki River (since I knew that was my players' intended path), but I wanted more--so I redrew the map onto larger hex paper, added larger "atlas hexes" thirty miles across by drawing around the ten-mile hexes of the Chult map, and rolled some dice.
So here's a rough gazetteer of the human settlements along the north coast of Chult, around the main city of Nyanzaru, for the edification of my players, but also for anyone interested in seeing a different take on the Tomb of Annihilation: (the myriad monster lairs, ruins, and dungeons will have to be ferreted out through rumors or exploration, of course ...)
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Dya
While Nyanzaru is the main port and destination for foreign traders coming to make it big in Chult, Dya serves as the port and warehouse center for local trade between the towns along the north coast of Chult. Goods from Binin and Moata to the west come across the mountain pass just south of Dya, are sold to merchants and warehoused there, and thence are sold to Ngana, Nyanzaru, Fort Beluarian (and through Beluarian to inland Wtunga); and the goods from the other settlements needed in Binin, Moata or beyond naturally pass through Dya going the other way.
The population of Dya is predominantly Ido; Chultan albino dwarves own and work the tin mines in the mountains above the town. Oloya Oliha is the local Oloya/chief, and he is a good friend of the merchant prince Ekene-Afa in Nyanzaru. The mines, meanwhile, are owned and administered separately from the town, and are run by Kwaroth, chief of the albino dwarves, who is jealous of the rights of his people.
Dya lies sixty miles northwest of Nyanzaru on the eastern coast of the mountainous peninsula that forms the western boundary of the Bay of Chult.
Kilik-Ik
High in the mountains ten miles north of Dya, an ancient and abandoned monastery clings to the cliffsides. Men, dwarves, and aarakocra all shun it--the tales tell of the place being haunted by some demonic presence, and that all those who seek the riches forgotten behind its walls are killed--or worse, damned!--by the evil things that dwell within.
Kaaraa Eyrie
Further north from Kilik-Ik, high in the central mountains of the peninsula where the views stretch east over the Bay of Chult and west over the Shining Sea, a large tribe of aarakocra of the Kaaraa tribes make their eyries. They are guided by Old Kruaak, an aarakocra so old that he can no longer fly, and by the shamaness Pree'eet, who knows the ancient secrets of speaking with and summoning the winds.
The player-characters met Skir, daughter of Old Kruaak, during their brief stint as guards on a supply run to Fort Beluarian during the first session of the game, and received tokens of friendship from her for their efforts to cure her hurts, got from a skirmish with the lizardmen of Hssa Hsi.
Fana Sirroc
Due south of Dya, high over the east-west pass between Binin and Dya, the aarakocra are said to maintain a secret shrine to the fire winds of a god unknown to man's ken. Men--and even aarakocra who have not ritually purified themselves--are forbidden even to look upon the secret fane.
Iduna-So
On the west coast of the peninsula some twenty miles southwest of Dya stands the fortress Iduna-So, tower of the sorceress Ekundaya and her consort-apprentice Ziba. Iduna-So protects the coast road leading from Dya and the mountain pass under Fana Sirroc to the north down to Ngana to the south by the Soshenstar River delta.
Ekundaya is an hereditary Oloya, responsible for seeing to the defense and maintenance of the coast; but though her castle is well-manned with over a hundred men-at-arms, she is herself preoccupied with her growing age and in seeking out magical means of increasing her own longevity. She was a rival of the Nyanzaran merchant prince Wakanga when the twain were younger, and will gladly recount tales of their magical spats (though she will conveniently forget that she was more often the loser ...). Moreover, Ekundaya owns a sizable hadrosaur ranch on the banks of the Soshenstar and so has a vested interest in the dinosaur races that take place on the streets of Nyanzaru and many other Chultan settlements--and the gambling that takes place around the races.
As for Ziba, it is generally thought that he is using his handsome youth to take advantage of Ekundaya, to study from her magical libraries for the price of flattering her and her self-image.
Binin
On the western coast of the peninsula, on the shore of an inlet at its base, stands the fishing-town of Binin. Or rather, a collection of fishing towns and villages that have sprawled together over the years, all overlooked by the Golden Hall of Binin ruled by the Oloya Igo.
Alas for Igo and for the people of Binin, some evil has come over the land ... once proud with fine searovers and fighting-men, the land has been emptied of promising young men so that it seems the whole of Binin is filled only with children, women, and old men and crones. Only Igo remains in his palace, and his jalis sing him of the ancient deeds before the land was cursed.
And the nature of the curse is that an evil spirit seems to have come to dwell in Binin; it is widely said that the warriors who once dwelt with Igo in his halls perished in a series of bloody nights, killed in their sleep; and all their attempts to catch or to fight against the spirit were in vain, only leading to more death--and so all the warriors of Binin have fled elsewhere, leaving Igo to his empty memories ...
Moata
Twenty miles north of Binin, still on the western coast of the peninsula, the fortress of Moata rises above the waves of the Shining Sea on a high headland. Emeka is the Oloya there--or he claims to be an Oloya, despite lacking any official pedigree. He is an old seadog and sometime pirate, and he has taken in a number of Igo's former warriors who fled the evil in Binin. It is said that some wish to return to Binin, overthrow Igo, and with their young strength to cast off the evil that has befallen the land.
High along the seacliffs northwest of Moata live a tribe of aarakocra led by Kri'isa, who is friendly with Emeka. She and her fellows often fly over the ocean scouting out fish or ships for the galleys of Moata to chase. These aarakocra are related to the tribes of the Kaaraa Eyrie, but do not always see eye-to-eye with their kin.
Ngana
Back on the eastern side of the peninsula, at its base and some twenty-five or so miles west of Nyanzaru, the town of Ngana stands on the north bank of the Soshenstar River's delta. Ngana is another Ido town like Binin and Dya, and a rich one at that--the hills are dug through with copper mines worked by slaves, mines owned not by dwarves but by the Oloya of Ngana and the merchant-princes of Nyanzaru. Combined with the tin from Dya, the copper is worked into the beautiful bronze sculptures and art that have made Ngana rich.
The Oloya of Ngana is Ogano, a wealthy Ido man who is popular with the local young men because of his liberality with palm wine and because of his jalis that sing the deed-songs of the Ido. Ogano looks back to the days before the coming of the Omuans with nostalgia, and he and his cohorts long for a return to independence from the Omuan suffetes and merchant-princes of Nyanzaru.
Ngana is the center of the Cult of Gu the Iron God (or the Bronze God as he is also known in Ngana), chief of smiths, hunters, magic-users, dogs, and rum.
Palm Orchards of Enogie Ishau
But Gu is not alone in Ngana--a religious order dedicated to the brewing of palm wine and the oracle of Enogie Ishau's head has its headquarters in the orchards just south of town along the north bank of the Soshenstar. Ikenna is the chief priestess of the Priests of the Palm and Gourd, which oversees production and distribution of palm-wine.
The tale is that Ishau, an Enogie of the spirit world, was walking the world in a destructive rage, burning towns and forests and slaughtering peoples, and his wrath was only ended when he stopped to drink of palm-wine from a gourd and became so drunk that he fell asleep. And while he slept, the warrior gods Gorm and Madarua came and cut up his body and scattered the pieces all around the world--but the head they kept beside the palm tree and the gourd, and fed it wine when it called out, and asked of its wisdom when they needed advice.
So the Order of the Palm and Gourd maintain the palms, and also enjoy the prestige of possessing the oracle of the demon Ishau's head which they can feed with wine and ask things of.
Iya Afa
About thirty-five miles west of Ngana and the Palm Orchards, following a road that runs through the thin jungle along the mountains' foothills, lies the town of Iya-Afa, yet another Ido mining-town. But the mines of Iya Afa provide rich silver, a royal metal, and so the lord of Iya-Afa, one Ijayo, is allowed to retain the ancient title of Enogie.
Ijayo is friends with many men in high places, especially outdoorsmen and hunters; he often invites Ogano of Ngana, or the merchant-princes Jobal and Ifan-Talro'a out to his estates near the jungle to hunt boar, leopard, shield-heads, or even the terrible mouth-dragons.
Iya-Afa is the center of the cult of Merikka, goddess of yams, grains, and growing things, but a curse seems to have fallen over the temple--the chief priestess fell ill, spoke of fevered dreams of rotting things, and has since disappeared; and now there are rumors spreading even unto Nyanzaru that strange new forms of worship are become common in Iya-Afa with the failing of the cult of Merikka.
Hssa Hsi
North of Nyanzaru are three fingers of land that jut into the Bay of Chult; somewhere in the mangroves and estuaries and saltwater marshes of these tidelands is rumored to be Hssa Hsi, the village of the lizardmen. Several tribes of lizardmen are known to haunt the mangroves and swamps; they are allowed to remain because they offer semi-regular tribute to the suffetes and merchant-princes of Nyanzaru (and because actually hunting them down through the swamps would be a fool's errand), but rogue lizardmen and brigandage are fairly common in the swamps of the Three Fingers.
When the lizardmen get too uppity, the merchant-princes are wont to offer a small bounty for every lizardman tail brought in, until the creatures remember to send adequate tribute of pearls and woven feather cloaks ...
Fort Beluarian
A Flaming Fist outpost some sixty or so miles northeast of Nyanzaru, Beluarian was built to protect the Flaming Fists' rights to the Wtunga Mine. These rights were purchased for a large sum from the merchant-princes, and the charter is allowed to remain in the hands of the Flaming Fist Company only as long as the merchant-princes deem the relationship profitable. Supplies are run to the Fort from Nyanzaru by boat around the Three Fingers, and ingots from the mines are shipped back to Nyanzaru the same way.
Giant saltwater crocodiles have recently begun disrupting these supply-runs, and Liara Portyr, commander of Beluarian, has spread word that she is willing to offer substantial bounties for proof of these crocodiles' demise.
Wtunga Mine
Just twenty miles southeast of Fort Beluarian, the Wtunga Mines are worked by slaves purchased by the Flaming Fist. The mine had lain abandoned for a time, thought to be tapped out, when the Flaming Fist purchased rights to explore and mine it. Now it's a thriving iron mine, after Thrain Throrson a dwarf from the north explored it.
The mine head is protected by another small fort, ruled by Lady Ibasha, an Ido woman with a keen sense of tactics whom Liara Portyr sponsored to be their head-woman at the mine itself.
Not all is well at Wtunga--encounters with boars and leopards have increased in recent weeks, and rumors have begun to spread the the forest and mountain spirits are angry with the reopening of the mine--and that maybe the closing of the mine to begin with was because of a curse laid down by the forest itself.
Iya Ifa
On the coast northeast of Beluarian and Wtunga Mine lie a collection of fishing towns and villages collectively known as Iya-Ifa, ruled over by the Oloya Eweka from his coastal towers.
The fishermen of Iya-Ifa are known to be especially good sailors and well-attuned to the fickle moods of the sea--and many are the tales of them taking sea-brides, or of the women of the village seeking out octopus-husbands beneath the waves. What is certain is that the people of Iya-Ifa, though they eat scaled and finned fish in every variety and in many excellent dishes, they consider shellfish, octopus, and squid all taboo and will not eat of them, or even touch a dead specimen.
Iya-Ifa is also a main cult center for Olokuna, the hermaphroditic water god/dess sometimes counted as a consort of Ubtao, or as the spouse of warrior goddess Madarua.
Wadi Suchos
Southeast of Nyanzaru some thirty to forty miles, in the thick of the jungle, lies the settlement of Wadi Suchos. Not quite a town in the traditional sense, Wadi Suchos is a permanent waypoint for the bands of Turkana herdsman that move through the jungles and along the northern coasts of Chult, trading in all the major towns and then moving on in their nomadic way.
There is a permanent bazaar, including many Omuans and Ido who dwell there to turn a profit from the continual flow of people through the streets of the Wadi. And moreover, there are a number of saurians that live there as well, intelligent enough to live at peace among men--shield-heads, hadrasaurs, club-tails, all living in semi-partnership.
Wadi Suchos, as one might guess from the name, is also the center of the old cult of Suchos, a saurian god variously depicted with a crocodile head, a sail-back head, or even a mouth-dragon head. The temple of Suchos sits in the center of the bazaar, and the bazaar itself is surrounded by stone colossi shaped like mouth-dragons with gems for eyes. Any attack against the town or temple (be it from undead, Batiri, pterrafolk, etc.) causes the eyes to flash and a deep roar to sound over the jungle, and within minutes, a tribe of mouth-dragons arrives from their lair in the jungle nearby to wreck whatever attackers they find ...
So here's a rough gazetteer of the human settlements along the north coast of Chult, around the main city of Nyanzaru, for the edification of my players, but also for anyone interested in seeing a different take on the Tomb of Annihilation: (the myriad monster lairs, ruins, and dungeons will have to be ferreted out through rumors or exploration, of course ...)
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Dya
While Nyanzaru is the main port and destination for foreign traders coming to make it big in Chult, Dya serves as the port and warehouse center for local trade between the towns along the north coast of Chult. Goods from Binin and Moata to the west come across the mountain pass just south of Dya, are sold to merchants and warehoused there, and thence are sold to Ngana, Nyanzaru, Fort Beluarian (and through Beluarian to inland Wtunga); and the goods from the other settlements needed in Binin, Moata or beyond naturally pass through Dya going the other way.
The population of Dya is predominantly Ido; Chultan albino dwarves own and work the tin mines in the mountains above the town. Oloya Oliha is the local Oloya/chief, and he is a good friend of the merchant prince Ekene-Afa in Nyanzaru. The mines, meanwhile, are owned and administered separately from the town, and are run by Kwaroth, chief of the albino dwarves, who is jealous of the rights of his people.
Dya lies sixty miles northwest of Nyanzaru on the eastern coast of the mountainous peninsula that forms the western boundary of the Bay of Chult.
Kilik-Ik
High in the mountains ten miles north of Dya, an ancient and abandoned monastery clings to the cliffsides. Men, dwarves, and aarakocra all shun it--the tales tell of the place being haunted by some demonic presence, and that all those who seek the riches forgotten behind its walls are killed--or worse, damned!--by the evil things that dwell within.
Kaaraa Eyrie
Further north from Kilik-Ik, high in the central mountains of the peninsula where the views stretch east over the Bay of Chult and west over the Shining Sea, a large tribe of aarakocra of the Kaaraa tribes make their eyries. They are guided by Old Kruaak, an aarakocra so old that he can no longer fly, and by the shamaness Pree'eet, who knows the ancient secrets of speaking with and summoning the winds.
The player-characters met Skir, daughter of Old Kruaak, during their brief stint as guards on a supply run to Fort Beluarian during the first session of the game, and received tokens of friendship from her for their efforts to cure her hurts, got from a skirmish with the lizardmen of Hssa Hsi.
Fana Sirroc
Due south of Dya, high over the east-west pass between Binin and Dya, the aarakocra are said to maintain a secret shrine to the fire winds of a god unknown to man's ken. Men--and even aarakocra who have not ritually purified themselves--are forbidden even to look upon the secret fane.
Iduna-So
On the west coast of the peninsula some twenty miles southwest of Dya stands the fortress Iduna-So, tower of the sorceress Ekundaya and her consort-apprentice Ziba. Iduna-So protects the coast road leading from Dya and the mountain pass under Fana Sirroc to the north down to Ngana to the south by the Soshenstar River delta.
Ekundaya is an hereditary Oloya, responsible for seeing to the defense and maintenance of the coast; but though her castle is well-manned with over a hundred men-at-arms, she is herself preoccupied with her growing age and in seeking out magical means of increasing her own longevity. She was a rival of the Nyanzaran merchant prince Wakanga when the twain were younger, and will gladly recount tales of their magical spats (though she will conveniently forget that she was more often the loser ...). Moreover, Ekundaya owns a sizable hadrosaur ranch on the banks of the Soshenstar and so has a vested interest in the dinosaur races that take place on the streets of Nyanzaru and many other Chultan settlements--and the gambling that takes place around the races.
As for Ziba, it is generally thought that he is using his handsome youth to take advantage of Ekundaya, to study from her magical libraries for the price of flattering her and her self-image.
Binin
On the western coast of the peninsula, on the shore of an inlet at its base, stands the fishing-town of Binin. Or rather, a collection of fishing towns and villages that have sprawled together over the years, all overlooked by the Golden Hall of Binin ruled by the Oloya Igo.
Alas for Igo and for the people of Binin, some evil has come over the land ... once proud with fine searovers and fighting-men, the land has been emptied of promising young men so that it seems the whole of Binin is filled only with children, women, and old men and crones. Only Igo remains in his palace, and his jalis sing him of the ancient deeds before the land was cursed.
And the nature of the curse is that an evil spirit seems to have come to dwell in Binin; it is widely said that the warriors who once dwelt with Igo in his halls perished in a series of bloody nights, killed in their sleep; and all their attempts to catch or to fight against the spirit were in vain, only leading to more death--and so all the warriors of Binin have fled elsewhere, leaving Igo to his empty memories ...
Moata
Twenty miles north of Binin, still on the western coast of the peninsula, the fortress of Moata rises above the waves of the Shining Sea on a high headland. Emeka is the Oloya there--or he claims to be an Oloya, despite lacking any official pedigree. He is an old seadog and sometime pirate, and he has taken in a number of Igo's former warriors who fled the evil in Binin. It is said that some wish to return to Binin, overthrow Igo, and with their young strength to cast off the evil that has befallen the land.
High along the seacliffs northwest of Moata live a tribe of aarakocra led by Kri'isa, who is friendly with Emeka. She and her fellows often fly over the ocean scouting out fish or ships for the galleys of Moata to chase. These aarakocra are related to the tribes of the Kaaraa Eyrie, but do not always see eye-to-eye with their kin.
Ngana
Back on the eastern side of the peninsula, at its base and some twenty-five or so miles west of Nyanzaru, the town of Ngana stands on the north bank of the Soshenstar River's delta. Ngana is another Ido town like Binin and Dya, and a rich one at that--the hills are dug through with copper mines worked by slaves, mines owned not by dwarves but by the Oloya of Ngana and the merchant-princes of Nyanzaru. Combined with the tin from Dya, the copper is worked into the beautiful bronze sculptures and art that have made Ngana rich.
The Oloya of Ngana is Ogano, a wealthy Ido man who is popular with the local young men because of his liberality with palm wine and because of his jalis that sing the deed-songs of the Ido. Ogano looks back to the days before the coming of the Omuans with nostalgia, and he and his cohorts long for a return to independence from the Omuan suffetes and merchant-princes of Nyanzaru.
Ngana is the center of the Cult of Gu the Iron God (or the Bronze God as he is also known in Ngana), chief of smiths, hunters, magic-users, dogs, and rum.
Palm Orchards of Enogie Ishau
But Gu is not alone in Ngana--a religious order dedicated to the brewing of palm wine and the oracle of Enogie Ishau's head has its headquarters in the orchards just south of town along the north bank of the Soshenstar. Ikenna is the chief priestess of the Priests of the Palm and Gourd, which oversees production and distribution of palm-wine.
The tale is that Ishau, an Enogie of the spirit world, was walking the world in a destructive rage, burning towns and forests and slaughtering peoples, and his wrath was only ended when he stopped to drink of palm-wine from a gourd and became so drunk that he fell asleep. And while he slept, the warrior gods Gorm and Madarua came and cut up his body and scattered the pieces all around the world--but the head they kept beside the palm tree and the gourd, and fed it wine when it called out, and asked of its wisdom when they needed advice.
So the Order of the Palm and Gourd maintain the palms, and also enjoy the prestige of possessing the oracle of the demon Ishau's head which they can feed with wine and ask things of.
Iya Afa
About thirty-five miles west of Ngana and the Palm Orchards, following a road that runs through the thin jungle along the mountains' foothills, lies the town of Iya-Afa, yet another Ido mining-town. But the mines of Iya Afa provide rich silver, a royal metal, and so the lord of Iya-Afa, one Ijayo, is allowed to retain the ancient title of Enogie.
Ijayo is friends with many men in high places, especially outdoorsmen and hunters; he often invites Ogano of Ngana, or the merchant-princes Jobal and Ifan-Talro'a out to his estates near the jungle to hunt boar, leopard, shield-heads, or even the terrible mouth-dragons.
Iya-Afa is the center of the cult of Merikka, goddess of yams, grains, and growing things, but a curse seems to have fallen over the temple--the chief priestess fell ill, spoke of fevered dreams of rotting things, and has since disappeared; and now there are rumors spreading even unto Nyanzaru that strange new forms of worship are become common in Iya-Afa with the failing of the cult of Merikka.
Hssa Hsi
North of Nyanzaru are three fingers of land that jut into the Bay of Chult; somewhere in the mangroves and estuaries and saltwater marshes of these tidelands is rumored to be Hssa Hsi, the village of the lizardmen. Several tribes of lizardmen are known to haunt the mangroves and swamps; they are allowed to remain because they offer semi-regular tribute to the suffetes and merchant-princes of Nyanzaru (and because actually hunting them down through the swamps would be a fool's errand), but rogue lizardmen and brigandage are fairly common in the swamps of the Three Fingers.
When the lizardmen get too uppity, the merchant-princes are wont to offer a small bounty for every lizardman tail brought in, until the creatures remember to send adequate tribute of pearls and woven feather cloaks ...
Fort Beluarian
A Flaming Fist outpost some sixty or so miles northeast of Nyanzaru, Beluarian was built to protect the Flaming Fists' rights to the Wtunga Mine. These rights were purchased for a large sum from the merchant-princes, and the charter is allowed to remain in the hands of the Flaming Fist Company only as long as the merchant-princes deem the relationship profitable. Supplies are run to the Fort from Nyanzaru by boat around the Three Fingers, and ingots from the mines are shipped back to Nyanzaru the same way.
Giant saltwater crocodiles have recently begun disrupting these supply-runs, and Liara Portyr, commander of Beluarian, has spread word that she is willing to offer substantial bounties for proof of these crocodiles' demise.
Wtunga Mine
Just twenty miles southeast of Fort Beluarian, the Wtunga Mines are worked by slaves purchased by the Flaming Fist. The mine had lain abandoned for a time, thought to be tapped out, when the Flaming Fist purchased rights to explore and mine it. Now it's a thriving iron mine, after Thrain Throrson a dwarf from the north explored it.
The mine head is protected by another small fort, ruled by Lady Ibasha, an Ido woman with a keen sense of tactics whom Liara Portyr sponsored to be their head-woman at the mine itself.
Not all is well at Wtunga--encounters with boars and leopards have increased in recent weeks, and rumors have begun to spread the the forest and mountain spirits are angry with the reopening of the mine--and that maybe the closing of the mine to begin with was because of a curse laid down by the forest itself.
Iya Ifa
On the coast northeast of Beluarian and Wtunga Mine lie a collection of fishing towns and villages collectively known as Iya-Ifa, ruled over by the Oloya Eweka from his coastal towers.
The fishermen of Iya-Ifa are known to be especially good sailors and well-attuned to the fickle moods of the sea--and many are the tales of them taking sea-brides, or of the women of the village seeking out octopus-husbands beneath the waves. What is certain is that the people of Iya-Ifa, though they eat scaled and finned fish in every variety and in many excellent dishes, they consider shellfish, octopus, and squid all taboo and will not eat of them, or even touch a dead specimen.
Iya-Ifa is also a main cult center for Olokuna, the hermaphroditic water god/dess sometimes counted as a consort of Ubtao, or as the spouse of warrior goddess Madarua.
Wadi Suchos
Southeast of Nyanzaru some thirty to forty miles, in the thick of the jungle, lies the settlement of Wadi Suchos. Not quite a town in the traditional sense, Wadi Suchos is a permanent waypoint for the bands of Turkana herdsman that move through the jungles and along the northern coasts of Chult, trading in all the major towns and then moving on in their nomadic way.
There is a permanent bazaar, including many Omuans and Ido who dwell there to turn a profit from the continual flow of people through the streets of the Wadi. And moreover, there are a number of saurians that live there as well, intelligent enough to live at peace among men--shield-heads, hadrasaurs, club-tails, all living in semi-partnership.
Wadi Suchos, as one might guess from the name, is also the center of the old cult of Suchos, a saurian god variously depicted with a crocodile head, a sail-back head, or even a mouth-dragon head. The temple of Suchos sits in the center of the bazaar, and the bazaar itself is surrounded by stone colossi shaped like mouth-dragons with gems for eyes. Any attack against the town or temple (be it from undead, Batiri, pterrafolk, etc.) causes the eyes to flash and a deep roar to sound over the jungle, and within minutes, a tribe of mouth-dragons arrives from their lair in the jungle nearby to wreck whatever attackers they find ...
Wednesday, February 21, 2018
The Goblin King has a Name
... and his name is Danohir the Mirk.
But really, I just wanted to say that I love it when ideas suddenly (finally!) cohere. I've been running my Greyhame Game for four and a half months now (since 1 October last year), and my starting pitch included the Goblin King and his alliance with the Lord of Werewolves ... but I never was certain just who the Goblin King was.
Several times I've had players ask captured goblins the name of their King, and where is he? And lo! though I hate it as a player when I ask for but do not receive a Name, I did that very thing to my players, evading their queries or hemming and hawing until they got bored and just killed the poor goblins (they did always learn that the King was "further below", at least).
I was sorely tempted to just let his name be Jarred and look just like David Bowie in Labyrinth, but I couldn't quite bring myself to do it. Especially not when I already have a character named Jaer, stolen from another medium ...
But, today I figured it out. The Goblin King has a name and a backstory, and I'll be regaling the players of my Greyhame Game with it soon enough, and posting it in full here on this blog.
And it's funny how much of what I figured out was inspired by a random roll that occurred during the game this week (on 19 February ... I have yet to write up that 21st expedition), a wilderness roll that indicated an encounter with a party of Elves. We didn't even roleplay it beyond a snooty Elf making fun of the party and then continuing on ... but even just that little piece of information, lodged in the back of my mind as I was worrying the Name of the Goblin King like a piece of fatty gristle, ultimately produced the entire rest of the backstory.
------
So this isn't really much of a post, other than to remark on how one can run a game for a long while without knowing all the little details (four months without knowing a main antagonist's name for me), and also about how great it is when little details suddenly cohere in a moment of inspiration.
As a Joesky tax, here's a Free Goblin spell:
Steal Shadow
Free Goblin, Elf, magic-user level 4
duration: permanent (until/unless the shadow is released)
target: one creature's shadow
range: touch (insofar as one can "touch" a shadow)
materials: two silver nails, each worth 50 gold or more
This spell must be cast while standing in another creature's shadow, and is completed by driving the enchanted nails into one's boots, thus nailing the shadow to them.
When you walk away, the victim is left without a shadow, causing them slowly to fade away into nothingness themselves, losing one level of life energy for every week without a shadow. If they can find another shadow somehow, the fading will cease wherever it left off. (the Unnameable Monastery might be a place to start looking for a new shadow)
As for the shadow nailed to your boots--it acts as a monstrous shadow, acting on your initiative and at your direction and draining strength just like the monster does. It can be released by pulling the nails from your shoes, but beware! It will probably attack you first, and then seek to reunited itself with its body--or, if that's impossible, it will wander the world's dungeons as a free shadow, creating more of its kind through its strength drain ...
But really, I just wanted to say that I love it when ideas suddenly (finally!) cohere. I've been running my Greyhame Game for four and a half months now (since 1 October last year), and my starting pitch included the Goblin King and his alliance with the Lord of Werewolves ... but I never was certain just who the Goblin King was.
Several times I've had players ask captured goblins the name of their King, and where is he? And lo! though I hate it as a player when I ask for but do not receive a Name, I did that very thing to my players, evading their queries or hemming and hawing until they got bored and just killed the poor goblins (they did always learn that the King was "further below", at least).
I was sorely tempted to just let his name be Jarred and look just like David Bowie in Labyrinth, but I couldn't quite bring myself to do it. Especially not when I already have a character named Jaer, stolen from another medium ...
But, today I figured it out. The Goblin King has a name and a backstory, and I'll be regaling the players of my Greyhame Game with it soon enough, and posting it in full here on this blog.
And it's funny how much of what I figured out was inspired by a random roll that occurred during the game this week (on 19 February ... I have yet to write up that 21st expedition), a wilderness roll that indicated an encounter with a party of Elves. We didn't even roleplay it beyond a snooty Elf making fun of the party and then continuing on ... but even just that little piece of information, lodged in the back of my mind as I was worrying the Name of the Goblin King like a piece of fatty gristle, ultimately produced the entire rest of the backstory.
------
So this isn't really much of a post, other than to remark on how one can run a game for a long while without knowing all the little details (four months without knowing a main antagonist's name for me), and also about how great it is when little details suddenly cohere in a moment of inspiration.
As a Joesky tax, here's a Free Goblin spell:
Steal Shadow
Free Goblin, Elf, magic-user level 4
duration: permanent (until/unless the shadow is released)
target: one creature's shadow
range: touch (insofar as one can "touch" a shadow)
materials: two silver nails, each worth 50 gold or more
This spell must be cast while standing in another creature's shadow, and is completed by driving the enchanted nails into one's boots, thus nailing the shadow to them.
When you walk away, the victim is left without a shadow, causing them slowly to fade away into nothingness themselves, losing one level of life energy for every week without a shadow. If they can find another shadow somehow, the fading will cease wherever it left off. (the Unnameable Monastery might be a place to start looking for a new shadow)
As for the shadow nailed to your boots--it acts as a monstrous shadow, acting on your initiative and at your direction and draining strength just like the monster does. It can be released by pulling the nails from your shoes, but beware! It will probably attack you first, and then seek to reunited itself with its body--or, if that's impossible, it will wander the world's dungeons as a free shadow, creating more of its kind through its strength drain ...
Monday, February 19, 2018
Greyhame Mountain Dungeon Expedition 20
Orcs have returned to the caverns of the Glimmervaults ...
the Goblin King and the Lord of Werewolves have renewed their ancient alliance beneath the Howling Tower ...
and the secret treasury of the Bronding Kings is said to lie hidden behind the Brokenbrand Falls, haunted by enchanting naiads ...
...
and Jaer the Windlord looks down on the world below from the Eyries of the Eagles on Greyhame Mountain itself ...
while the Stars themselves are singing an eerie, eldritch song, night after night ...
12 February's roster:
Kord (half-orc fighter /cleric )
with Gram and Thaddeus (normal men)
and Saint One and Saint Two (St. Bernards)
Ham (cleric )
Aethelwulf (paladin 3)
with Hauka (snake-killing weasel)
Little Bob (traveling-man )
with Rolf Rolfson (normal man)
and Marlo and Panzer (dogs)
and later,
Blackleaf (Elf 2)
with Johann Haybaler (normal man)
Koko (woman-ape 2)
Before getting to the adventure proper, the townsfolk of Brakeridge threw a big celebration for the heroes that saved their children from the horrors of the goblin-dungeons beneath the Howling Tower. Everyone was allowed to "carouse" for experience without ill effects, the villagers slaughtered swine and oxen and roasted them in a great barbecue and shared out mead and beer in abundance; and even Morholt, usurper though he is, had to admit the heroism of the adventurers and sent gifts for them. Kord, Ham, and Aethelwulf each received a shield painted with heroic deeds to hang at their shrines; Little Bob, Koko, and Blackleaf each received a silver torc; and even Baby-Face received a letter of pardon forgiving him for the insult to Morrow Morholtson way back on the first adventure.
In town, Kord paid 1500 gold to build a granary on the second plot of land he purchased beside his new church to his god Kord (Chaotic Good god of strength). The church, meanwhile, is finished though rather spare in furniture.
Kord bought the two St. Bernards available in town and then took Aethelwulf under his wing and led him off to the Howling Tower, promising wealth but otherwise being rather cryptic about everything.
Attrition on the way out included a broken shield, axe, and javelin, lost during a brief skirmish with orcs. Then they arrived at the Tower and observed three baboons hanging out on the steps that lead up to the door into the tower, chattering and picking lice off of each other. Rather than go through them, Kord led Aethelwulf around to the north slope of the ridge and showed him a hole in the ground and said, "I hope you're not claustrophobic, 'cause we're going in there!"
They sent the weasel Hauka in first and then everyone else followed, Aethelwulf carrying his lit lantern ahead of him as he squirmed after his weasel through the narrow earthen tunnel.
After bending back and forth for a ways, the tunnels opened into a wider chamber--but it was little relief, because an insectoid horror surged up out of the darkness and attacked Hauka the weasel with writhing tentacles. The tentacles struck and Hauka's muscles seized and locked up, and then the insect-thing began to drag the paralyzed weasel away into the darkness.
Aethelwulf and Kord's dogs attempted to kill the horror before it could escape with Hauka, but they weren't quick enough in the confined space, and the horror disappeared down a side-tunnel, weasel in tow. Kord directed the party to the main tunnel and with a little more caution, they continued downwards.
Eventually, the tunnel opened into an area of worked stone with burial niches along the wall--Little-Bob (who was totally along with the party the whole time and definitely didn't just show up out of the blue) recognized the area on his map, and Kord showed the other two a secret door that they had missed on earlier expeditions. But he cautioned them not to bring any light into the corridor beyond, because the shadows created would animate and attack.
Everyone entered the short corridor beyond in total darkness; then Kord went ahead, and the others could hear him picking things up, moving them around, and he started to hand back sacks filled with treasure. Ultimately, they gathered three sacks filled with coin and a variety of other treasures including an incense box and incense, silver armbands, a painted canopic jar, etc. These they hauled back up through the earthen tunnel they had entered to begin with, all without dealing with any other monsters, and made their way back to town with only another brief skirmish against orcs.
Back in town, they divided their loot (not a small haul) and Aethelwulf paid a thousand gold for a fine liturgy of the Good cult in order to restore himself to Paladinhood.
The party, now joined by Blackleaf and Koko, then decided to venture to the Glimmervaults to collect the last nine orc heads required in their quest for a wish from Jaer the Windlord.
The journey to the Glimmervaults was uneventful. Faced with the choice between the western entrance through the natural grotto or the eastern entrance of worked stone fronted with heads and limbs on pikes, the party opted for the latter--reasoning that they were more likely to find orcs that way.
And lo! they immediately ran into a group of six orcs guarding the entrance just inside. These put up a brief fight, just long enough that one of their number could escape down the eastern corridor to warn his fellows. Meanwhile, the party took their time cutting off heads before they gave chase, and by the time they pursued the last guard, he had delivered his message about invaders and called on a number of other orcs and large lumbering creatures the party quickly identified as ogres.
Retreating down the corridor a bit, the party filled a 10'x10' square with oil and then lit the pool on fire when the orcs and company charged them. Both ogres and about half the orcs made it through, the other half were driven back, but most took damage from the flames. A general melee ensued; Blackleaf slept one ogre, making it easy prey, and then the other ogre and orcs quickly fell to the party's massed attacks.
They gathered the heads of the dead orcs into a bloody sack and then made their way back to town, triumphant and ready to seek out Jaer to deliver the orc heads to him for some magic.
Kord and Ham both caroused on their return, and held their liquor well. Everyone else, meanwhile, is a little gunshy about carousing after some of the mishaps they've seen.
------
Remembrance for the Fallen:
Hauka and Wilmerand (weasels), Blade and Boar (dogs), Hubert the Peacock and Lysimmachus (normal men), a nameless mastiff, Livy (normal man), Orkie (orc mastiff), Fang (boarhound), Droopy and Snoopy (mastiffs), Dream Destroyer (ghost hound), Arrow (pack dog), Freyja (normal woman), a nameless cur, Hot Dog and Cross (mastiffs), Orion II (lion dog), Bacon (boarhound), Tore (half-orc fighter 1/cleric 1), Jimmy the Snitch (dog), Orion (lion dog), Harambe (man-ape 1)
and for those Enchanted Away:
Dol (fyrdman hireling)
the Goblin King and the Lord of Werewolves have renewed their ancient alliance beneath the Howling Tower ...
and the secret treasury of the Bronding Kings is said to lie hidden behind the Brokenbrand Falls, haunted by enchanting naiads ...
...
and Jaer the Windlord looks down on the world below from the Eyries of the Eagles on Greyhame Mountain itself ...
while the Stars themselves are singing an eerie, eldritch song, night after night ...
12 February's roster:
Kord (half-orc fighter /cleric )
with Gram and Thaddeus (normal men)
and Saint One and Saint Two (St. Bernards)
Ham (cleric )
Aethelwulf (paladin 3)
with Hauka (snake-killing weasel)
Little Bob (traveling-man )
with Rolf Rolfson (normal man)
and Marlo and Panzer (dogs)
and later,
Blackleaf (Elf 2)
with Johann Haybaler (normal man)
Koko (woman-ape 2)
Before getting to the adventure proper, the townsfolk of Brakeridge threw a big celebration for the heroes that saved their children from the horrors of the goblin-dungeons beneath the Howling Tower. Everyone was allowed to "carouse" for experience without ill effects, the villagers slaughtered swine and oxen and roasted them in a great barbecue and shared out mead and beer in abundance; and even Morholt, usurper though he is, had to admit the heroism of the adventurers and sent gifts for them. Kord, Ham, and Aethelwulf each received a shield painted with heroic deeds to hang at their shrines; Little Bob, Koko, and Blackleaf each received a silver torc; and even Baby-Face received a letter of pardon forgiving him for the insult to Morrow Morholtson way back on the first adventure.
In town, Kord paid 1500 gold to build a granary on the second plot of land he purchased beside his new church to his god Kord (Chaotic Good god of strength). The church, meanwhile, is finished though rather spare in furniture.
Kord bought the two St. Bernards available in town and then took Aethelwulf under his wing and led him off to the Howling Tower, promising wealth but otherwise being rather cryptic about everything.
Attrition on the way out included a broken shield, axe, and javelin, lost during a brief skirmish with orcs. Then they arrived at the Tower and observed three baboons hanging out on the steps that lead up to the door into the tower, chattering and picking lice off of each other. Rather than go through them, Kord led Aethelwulf around to the north slope of the ridge and showed him a hole in the ground and said, "I hope you're not claustrophobic, 'cause we're going in there!"
They sent the weasel Hauka in first and then everyone else followed, Aethelwulf carrying his lit lantern ahead of him as he squirmed after his weasel through the narrow earthen tunnel.
After bending back and forth for a ways, the tunnels opened into a wider chamber--but it was little relief, because an insectoid horror surged up out of the darkness and attacked Hauka the weasel with writhing tentacles. The tentacles struck and Hauka's muscles seized and locked up, and then the insect-thing began to drag the paralyzed weasel away into the darkness.
Aethelwulf and Kord's dogs attempted to kill the horror before it could escape with Hauka, but they weren't quick enough in the confined space, and the horror disappeared down a side-tunnel, weasel in tow. Kord directed the party to the main tunnel and with a little more caution, they continued downwards.
Eventually, the tunnel opened into an area of worked stone with burial niches along the wall--Little-Bob (who was totally along with the party the whole time and definitely didn't just show up out of the blue) recognized the area on his map, and Kord showed the other two a secret door that they had missed on earlier expeditions. But he cautioned them not to bring any light into the corridor beyond, because the shadows created would animate and attack.
Everyone entered the short corridor beyond in total darkness; then Kord went ahead, and the others could hear him picking things up, moving them around, and he started to hand back sacks filled with treasure. Ultimately, they gathered three sacks filled with coin and a variety of other treasures including an incense box and incense, silver armbands, a painted canopic jar, etc. These they hauled back up through the earthen tunnel they had entered to begin with, all without dealing with any other monsters, and made their way back to town with only another brief skirmish against orcs.
Back in town, they divided their loot (not a small haul) and Aethelwulf paid a thousand gold for a fine liturgy of the Good cult in order to restore himself to Paladinhood.
The party, now joined by Blackleaf and Koko, then decided to venture to the Glimmervaults to collect the last nine orc heads required in their quest for a wish from Jaer the Windlord.
The journey to the Glimmervaults was uneventful. Faced with the choice between the western entrance through the natural grotto or the eastern entrance of worked stone fronted with heads and limbs on pikes, the party opted for the latter--reasoning that they were more likely to find orcs that way.
And lo! they immediately ran into a group of six orcs guarding the entrance just inside. These put up a brief fight, just long enough that one of their number could escape down the eastern corridor to warn his fellows. Meanwhile, the party took their time cutting off heads before they gave chase, and by the time they pursued the last guard, he had delivered his message about invaders and called on a number of other orcs and large lumbering creatures the party quickly identified as ogres.
Retreating down the corridor a bit, the party filled a 10'x10' square with oil and then lit the pool on fire when the orcs and company charged them. Both ogres and about half the orcs made it through, the other half were driven back, but most took damage from the flames. A general melee ensued; Blackleaf slept one ogre, making it easy prey, and then the other ogre and orcs quickly fell to the party's massed attacks.
They gathered the heads of the dead orcs into a bloody sack and then made their way back to town, triumphant and ready to seek out Jaer to deliver the orc heads to him for some magic.
Kord and Ham both caroused on their return, and held their liquor well. Everyone else, meanwhile, is a little gunshy about carousing after some of the mishaps they've seen.
------
Remembrance for the Fallen:
Hauka and Wilmerand (weasels), Blade and Boar (dogs), Hubert the Peacock and Lysimmachus (normal men), a nameless mastiff, Livy (normal man), Orkie (orc mastiff), Fang (boarhound), Droopy and Snoopy (mastiffs), Dream Destroyer (ghost hound), Arrow (pack dog), Freyja (normal woman), a nameless cur, Hot Dog and Cross (mastiffs), Orion II (lion dog), Bacon (boarhound), Tore (half-orc fighter 1/cleric 1), Jimmy the Snitch (dog), Orion (lion dog), Harambe (man-ape 1)
and for those Enchanted Away:
Dol (fyrdman hireling)
Friday, February 16, 2018
Play Report from Jeff Rients' Vaults of Vyzor 5
(the expedition to rescue Kat Eumeleia from captivity in the prisons of the Elf-King following the last expedition in which we faced off against the Elf-King himself and were driven back ...)
"Laurantha the Unbeautiful to the Sorcerer of the Blue Mask, and to Companions at the Jarrod Memorial Library,
"O! puissant one, comrades, Kat is free again and my honor restored, for though she was lost following in my employ, she has been delivered from captivity thanks to the efforts of myself and a fine fighting crew. This is my account:
"During our escape from the collapsing throne room of the Elf-King, wherein we had confronted him and learned of just what adamant he is made, Kat Eumeleia was captured by the coming reinforcements of lion-men come to guard the body of their king, and dragged bodily down into the darkness while we fled upward to the light. I myself was in little shape to help, my left hand mangled by a fell creature's claw and myself badly wounded.
"When we arrived on the surface, I found I must needs do three things; firstly, restore my hand and its ability to weave spells; secondly, discover from Laurela, estranged niece of the Elf-King and now guest of the Blue Sorcerer, just where Kat might be imprisoned; and finally, gather a company to descend into the dungeons once more.
"The first deed was done by Pete Loudly, resident wizard of power; using a magical silver dagger long in my possession, he fashioned new fingers for my left hand from its dweomers, fingers dextrous and deadly.
"Secondly, in going to Laurela, I purchased for her a mobile of brass bees for her child, which I heard she had recently delivered into the world. Thanking me for this gift (and worried for Kat no doubt, as Kat was the first to coax her from hiding in the Blue Sorcerer's tower), Laurela informed me that prisoners of import are typically held on the sixth level of the Azure Vaults--not far from where I myself have traversed before. I thanked her for this information and then went forth into the streets to collect a comitatus for adventure.
"These were the four: a human fighting-man called Colonel Kaffshyth; the owlman fighter and demon-slayer Lars Hootman; and my sometime companions, Mario de Parma, fighting-man, and Frigga the Witch. From the boldness of their hearts they agreed to accompany me seeking out Kat, and so we entered the Azure Vaults and quickly descended through the levels.
"Thanks to the number of good maps in our community (some of them my own), we made good time. The arena on the second level was filled with cheering and the sound of combat, but we hurried past on our way ever down. Finally, we arrived on the sixth level, followed Laurela's directions to the prison, and were confronted with a large ooze in the vague shape of a man. He did not see us--rather, Kaffshyth tied an animated talking skull ("Doctor Cranios" he called it) to a poll-axe and stuck it around the corner, which Cranios then reported the presence of the ooze-man.
"Frigga opined an excellent plan here: that I should become invisible, known and wanted as I am by the Elf-King's goons, while the others pretended to be torturers come to collect and torture a prisoner, namely Kat. Here it was that we realized that Mario was destitute and completely lacking equipment--he had followed along gamely into the dungeon, and here he was, essentially naked (I'm not sure just what he intended to do if a fight had developed ...). So Kaffshyth wore Cranios as a disguise, his own face swathed in a cowl, while Frigga played her creepy self, and Lars remained an owl-man, and the lot roped Mario up and led him in, dagger at his back, and the ooze-man took the charade in full swing.
"The Colonel declared that they had come to requisition the most wanted criminal of the lot for torture, and the ooze-man gamely unlocked a cell containing ... some assassin who had been hired by others to try to kill the Elf-King--not Kat. We duly collected him, but the ooze-man would not give us the keys to unlock other doors. When it seemed like things might finally require violence, Kaffshyth finally hit on the point that the ooze-man greatly desired to see what was happening in the arena above--he had money on some Gorgoro the Two-Headed, or some such, and Kaffshyth declared that Gorgoro was no longer two-headed, and the ooze-man pressed the keys into our hands and took off for the upper levels.
"Keys in hand, we quickly located Kat--much the worse for wear, poor creature--and just as quickly as we had descended, we returned to the surface, delivering Kat into safety and the assassin, Thoreg, to the Sorcerer of the Blue Mask.
"So easily was this deed accomplished that we resolved to return into the depths, this time seeking treasure. Therefore, some days later, we convened again and again descended, and behold, we found the ooze-man trapped in the menagerie of Agony-Machines on the first level. He begged to be let go, and Kaffshyth took pity on him, promising to free him if he would tell us where treasure might be.
"This the ooze-man readily agreed to, and told us to seek the crypt of the Elf-King's son on the third level, the sarcophagus of which contained not the body, but great valuables. Following this advice, we descended to the third level; and continuing east past the throne room, we found a south-branching corridor that opened into a great temple with a statue of the Elf-King, entirely of adamantium, backed by a tapestry depicting his ancient (and exaggerated) deeds. The tapestry we took down to sell, and lo! there was a door behind it. And through that door we discovered through the northeast door a crypt containing a sarcophagus for the Elf-King's son.
"I looked carefully and discovered a brown residue around the seam as if something had leaked out partially from inside; fearing to open the sarcophagus directly, Lars, Mario, and myself looped a rope around an extruding part of the effigy and hauled the thing open from the doorway--and indeed! a brown gas poured forth and filled the room while we waited in safety in the corridor. Finally, the gas settled, and we could enter and look into the sarcophagus, and there we discovered a suit of Elfin plate, a sword, and glinting jewelry worth many thousands of gold. All this was quickly stowed in sacks, and despite my protestations to look in the other door, my companions prevailed that we must leave immediately.
"Returning out to the temple, we interrupted an active service with strange communicants before the altar--a dozen floating spheres, shaggy with fur, central eyeballs surrounded by three tentacles. Before they could react, I cast a lightning bolt forth and incinerated eleven of the twelve, so that only the priest-thing remained, festooned in a ridiculous miter. This final shaggy thing was surrounded by the party and stabbed to death by the weapons of Lars, Mario, Kaffshyth, and Frigga; and Frigga, witch that she is, insisted on taking the corpse out of the dungeon to make some kind of fetish or spirit-trap.
"Back on the first floor, the Colonel was much aggrieved to discover that none of us had any means to free the ooze-man from his plight, and chastised me for attempting to blow past him without real acknowledgment. But really, I cannot understand the empathy of these human creatures--why care suddenly for a thing that one had just as easily cut down in the depths of the dungeon, a thing that was gleeful at the prospect of torturing others, just because that thing is now trapped? Bah! What a fool thing to have an empathetic soul.
"From here, we again made our way out of the Vaults without scathe, and much the richer for our haul. My account has grown overlong; no doubt the tales will be told drunkenly in the Drooling Thoule and around the town.
"Your lieutenant in the War Against the Elf-King,
"Laurantha Akala"
"Laurantha the Unbeautiful to the Sorcerer of the Blue Mask, and to Companions at the Jarrod Memorial Library,
"O! puissant one, comrades, Kat is free again and my honor restored, for though she was lost following in my employ, she has been delivered from captivity thanks to the efforts of myself and a fine fighting crew. This is my account:
"During our escape from the collapsing throne room of the Elf-King, wherein we had confronted him and learned of just what adamant he is made, Kat Eumeleia was captured by the coming reinforcements of lion-men come to guard the body of their king, and dragged bodily down into the darkness while we fled upward to the light. I myself was in little shape to help, my left hand mangled by a fell creature's claw and myself badly wounded.
"When we arrived on the surface, I found I must needs do three things; firstly, restore my hand and its ability to weave spells; secondly, discover from Laurela, estranged niece of the Elf-King and now guest of the Blue Sorcerer, just where Kat might be imprisoned; and finally, gather a company to descend into the dungeons once more.
"The first deed was done by Pete Loudly, resident wizard of power; using a magical silver dagger long in my possession, he fashioned new fingers for my left hand from its dweomers, fingers dextrous and deadly.
"Secondly, in going to Laurela, I purchased for her a mobile of brass bees for her child, which I heard she had recently delivered into the world. Thanking me for this gift (and worried for Kat no doubt, as Kat was the first to coax her from hiding in the Blue Sorcerer's tower), Laurela informed me that prisoners of import are typically held on the sixth level of the Azure Vaults--not far from where I myself have traversed before. I thanked her for this information and then went forth into the streets to collect a comitatus for adventure.
"These were the four: a human fighting-man called Colonel Kaffshyth; the owlman fighter and demon-slayer Lars Hootman; and my sometime companions, Mario de Parma, fighting-man, and Frigga the Witch. From the boldness of their hearts they agreed to accompany me seeking out Kat, and so we entered the Azure Vaults and quickly descended through the levels.
"Thanks to the number of good maps in our community (some of them my own), we made good time. The arena on the second level was filled with cheering and the sound of combat, but we hurried past on our way ever down. Finally, we arrived on the sixth level, followed Laurela's directions to the prison, and were confronted with a large ooze in the vague shape of a man. He did not see us--rather, Kaffshyth tied an animated talking skull ("Doctor Cranios" he called it) to a poll-axe and stuck it around the corner, which Cranios then reported the presence of the ooze-man.
"Frigga opined an excellent plan here: that I should become invisible, known and wanted as I am by the Elf-King's goons, while the others pretended to be torturers come to collect and torture a prisoner, namely Kat. Here it was that we realized that Mario was destitute and completely lacking equipment--he had followed along gamely into the dungeon, and here he was, essentially naked (I'm not sure just what he intended to do if a fight had developed ...). So Kaffshyth wore Cranios as a disguise, his own face swathed in a cowl, while Frigga played her creepy self, and Lars remained an owl-man, and the lot roped Mario up and led him in, dagger at his back, and the ooze-man took the charade in full swing.
"The Colonel declared that they had come to requisition the most wanted criminal of the lot for torture, and the ooze-man gamely unlocked a cell containing ... some assassin who had been hired by others to try to kill the Elf-King--not Kat. We duly collected him, but the ooze-man would not give us the keys to unlock other doors. When it seemed like things might finally require violence, Kaffshyth finally hit on the point that the ooze-man greatly desired to see what was happening in the arena above--he had money on some Gorgoro the Two-Headed, or some such, and Kaffshyth declared that Gorgoro was no longer two-headed, and the ooze-man pressed the keys into our hands and took off for the upper levels.
"Keys in hand, we quickly located Kat--much the worse for wear, poor creature--and just as quickly as we had descended, we returned to the surface, delivering Kat into safety and the assassin, Thoreg, to the Sorcerer of the Blue Mask.
"So easily was this deed accomplished that we resolved to return into the depths, this time seeking treasure. Therefore, some days later, we convened again and again descended, and behold, we found the ooze-man trapped in the menagerie of Agony-Machines on the first level. He begged to be let go, and Kaffshyth took pity on him, promising to free him if he would tell us where treasure might be.
"This the ooze-man readily agreed to, and told us to seek the crypt of the Elf-King's son on the third level, the sarcophagus of which contained not the body, but great valuables. Following this advice, we descended to the third level; and continuing east past the throne room, we found a south-branching corridor that opened into a great temple with a statue of the Elf-King, entirely of adamantium, backed by a tapestry depicting his ancient (and exaggerated) deeds. The tapestry we took down to sell, and lo! there was a door behind it. And through that door we discovered through the northeast door a crypt containing a sarcophagus for the Elf-King's son.
"I looked carefully and discovered a brown residue around the seam as if something had leaked out partially from inside; fearing to open the sarcophagus directly, Lars, Mario, and myself looped a rope around an extruding part of the effigy and hauled the thing open from the doorway--and indeed! a brown gas poured forth and filled the room while we waited in safety in the corridor. Finally, the gas settled, and we could enter and look into the sarcophagus, and there we discovered a suit of Elfin plate, a sword, and glinting jewelry worth many thousands of gold. All this was quickly stowed in sacks, and despite my protestations to look in the other door, my companions prevailed that we must leave immediately.
"Returning out to the temple, we interrupted an active service with strange communicants before the altar--a dozen floating spheres, shaggy with fur, central eyeballs surrounded by three tentacles. Before they could react, I cast a lightning bolt forth and incinerated eleven of the twelve, so that only the priest-thing remained, festooned in a ridiculous miter. This final shaggy thing was surrounded by the party and stabbed to death by the weapons of Lars, Mario, Kaffshyth, and Frigga; and Frigga, witch that she is, insisted on taking the corpse out of the dungeon to make some kind of fetish or spirit-trap.
"Back on the first floor, the Colonel was much aggrieved to discover that none of us had any means to free the ooze-man from his plight, and chastised me for attempting to blow past him without real acknowledgment. But really, I cannot understand the empathy of these human creatures--why care suddenly for a thing that one had just as easily cut down in the depths of the dungeon, a thing that was gleeful at the prospect of torturing others, just because that thing is now trapped? Bah! What a fool thing to have an empathetic soul.
"From here, we again made our way out of the Vaults without scathe, and much the richer for our haul. My account has grown overlong; no doubt the tales will be told drunkenly in the Drooling Thoule and around the town.
"Your lieutenant in the War Against the Elf-King,
"Laurantha Akala"
Wednesday, February 14, 2018
Greyhame Mountain Dungeon Expedition 19
Orcs have returned to the caverns of the Glimmervaults ...
the Goblin King and the Lord of Werewolves have renewed their ancient alliance beneath the Howling Tower ...
and the secret treasury of the Bronding Kings is said to lie hidden behind the Brokenbrand Falls, haunted by enchanting naiads ...
...
and Jaer the Windlord looks down on the world below from the Eyries of the Eagles on Greyhame Mountain itself ...
while the Stars themselves are singing an eerie, eldritch song, night after night ...
5 February's roster:
Kord (half-orc fighter 3/cleric 3)
with Blade and Boar (wolfhound and boarhound), and Gram and Thaddeus (normal men)
Ham (cleric 3)
Baby-Face (thief 5)
with Whesker, Wilmerand, and Wallaby (weasels) and St. Bb (st. bernard), and Frida (normal woman)
Aethelwulf (disgraced paladin 3)
with Hauka (weasel)
Little-Bob (traveling man 4)
with Marlo and Panzer (cur and orc mastiff), and Rolf Rolfson (normal man)
Blackleaf (Elf 2)
with Johann Haybaler
Koko (woman-ape 2)
The last time Kord adventured into the Greyhame dungeon, he emerged with a huge haul of treasure after a desperate fight with goblins, but when he caroused, he and his companion Ham got involved in some kind of an Evil ritual--they were both badly drunk and don't remember who or what instigated it, or what the nature was exactly--and both were consequently denied their spells by their Good god, Kord.
Going to Lailith, local high level Good cleric, Kord and Ham each received a quest spell from her to go and save the children that remain the captives of the goblins beneath the Howling Tower. Further, when that deed is done they will have to pay 500 gold for a small Good liturgy, and then they will be restored to their cult and their spells regained.
So that was the purpose of this expedition, but first preparations had to be made. Kord threw his weight around with his new won gold, buying a dog for himself and hiring two mercenaries, Gram and Thaddeus, and then buying a weasel for Baby-Face (who is broke from the last time he caroused and threw the biggest party ever seen in Brakeridge--he owes several thousand gold now to the thieves' guild ...). Kord fully equipped his new hirelings, and then continued throwing money about as he bought two plots of land, one on which he ordered the construction of a new temple to Kord, his good god of strength, and the other for eventual farming plans. Lastly, he acquired 3 healing potions from Lailith, at a whopping 300 gold each. And I believe he still has money left over.
Aethelwulf, meanwhile, is disgraced in his paladinhood while he was carousing, he acquired a slave--Hastia, a young woman--whom he promptly freed, of course, but being Good, the acquisition of a slave in the first place was very bad. So he may no longer act as a paladin until he atones, for which Lailith has commanded him to pay for a 2000 gold liturgy for the Good cult.
And Baby-Face, as mentioned, is badly in debt to the thieves' guild. In an attempt to start paying it off, he took on a job attempting to smuggle goods for them (using the monthly hijinks from Adventurer Conqueror King System)--but alas, he failed at his task, and was unable to meet the contact who would transfer the goods to him.
So ... with Kord, Ham, and Aethelwulf all clamoring to free the captive children, the party set off through the wilderness seeking the Howling Tower. On the way out, attrition destroyed another axe chapping firewood (they must be poor quality), and lost a dozen arrows in a poor attempt at hunting.
Arriving on the ridge where the tower stands, the party observed a much larger pyre beside Begor's pyre, the new one filled with small crooked bodies about the size of goblins--Baby-Face laughed, recalling the expedition on which he and the company slaughtered dozens of goblins.
Entering the tower, the party almost immediately ran into Okok the Ape King and seven of his baboon minions tearing apart the corpses of another couple goblins and eating. As Koko was with the party, they were able to communicate with Okok, who declared that his fire had gone out and that he was very disappointed. By promising to give him a tinderbox, flint and tinder, and more torches, the party enticed him into joining their attack on the goblins below, and he sent his baboons away to follow with the party.
Moving quickly through familiar territory, the party spooked the goblin guards at the head of the stair down to the dungeon, but they chose not to pursue the half a dozen creatures that scrambled quickly down the stairs. Maintaining their order, they descended more slowly and found themselves again in familiar territory in the catacombs. Little Bob pointed out that the western part of the dungeon was unexplored, and so the party looked into a couple of empty tombs before the group complained that they might have a better shot at finding the children if they explored nearer where they knew the goblins dwelt.
So they backtracked that way and entering into a large pillared hall, they surprised about a dozen goblins on guard outside a door. Battle ensued, and the goblins were killed, but they put up a decent fight, hurling missiles from the back rank that managed to kill Wilmerand the weasel and St. Bb the Saint Bernard. The goblins were led by one of their kind who seemed more capable and perhaps a little magical, but she was killed by an arrow to the eye.
The last goblin the party captured. This Nogg as it called itself pointed out that the children were behind the door--those that hadn't yet been taken down to the next level by the Goblin King. As this was all the party wanted to know, they killed Nogg and then went through the door to find two doors, one to the right, one to the left. The right door was locked; Baby-Face unlocked it and opened it and behold, seven miserable children were revealed in the torchlight, scrawny and malnourished and crying from the sudden torchlight. The other door turned out to be storage and a larder.
The party debated what to do next--take these children out now, or leave them under guard and explore deeper, seeking the other children? The question was made moot, however, when they opened the outer door and found a small army of goblins and wolves had filled the pillared hall behind them.
Goblin arrows thudded into the door as the party closed it to consider their options. As they continued to dither, more goblins showed up ... eventually they decided just to charge in.
This battle was going poorly for the party--the goblins and wolves killed the dogs Blade and Boar, and got in a few good hits on characters--and there seemed to be more goblin leaders in the back ranks, getting ready to throw spells--but at this point we were out of time (as summarily decided by our venue), and we had to wrap up. Fortunately, as the first of the wolves had just gone down, I rolled a morale check, and it failed--so reasonably fairly, the wolves' rout became the goblins' rout, and the werewolves that were with the group elected for discretion rather than valor.
So the party made it out of the dungeon with the children saved and in tow, and proceeded back to town without any incident.
------
Remembrance for the Fallen:
Wilmerand (weasel), Blade and Boar (dogs), Hubert the Peacock and Lysimmachus (normal men), a nameless mastiff, Livy (normal man), Orkie (orc hound), Fang (boarhound), Droopy and Snoopy (mastiffs), Dream Destroyer (ghost hound), Arrow (pack dog), Freyja (normal woman), a nameless cur, Hot Dog and Cross (mastiffs), Orion II (lion dog), Bacon (boarhound), Tore (half-orc fighter 1/cleric 1), Jimmy the Snitch (dog), Orion (lion dog), Harambe (man-ape 1)
and for those Enchanted Away:
Dol (fyrdman mercenary)
the Goblin King and the Lord of Werewolves have renewed their ancient alliance beneath the Howling Tower ...
and the secret treasury of the Bronding Kings is said to lie hidden behind the Brokenbrand Falls, haunted by enchanting naiads ...
...
and Jaer the Windlord looks down on the world below from the Eyries of the Eagles on Greyhame Mountain itself ...
while the Stars themselves are singing an eerie, eldritch song, night after night ...
5 February's roster:
Kord (half-orc fighter 3/cleric 3)
with Blade and Boar (wolfhound and boarhound), and Gram and Thaddeus (normal men)
Ham (cleric 3)
Baby-Face (thief 5)
with Whesker, Wilmerand, and Wallaby (weasels) and St. Bb (st. bernard), and Frida (normal woman)
Aethelwulf (disgraced paladin 3)
with Hauka (weasel)
Little-Bob (traveling man 4)
with Marlo and Panzer (cur and orc mastiff), and Rolf Rolfson (normal man)
Blackleaf (Elf 2)
with Johann Haybaler
Koko (woman-ape 2)
The last time Kord adventured into the Greyhame dungeon, he emerged with a huge haul of treasure after a desperate fight with goblins, but when he caroused, he and his companion Ham got involved in some kind of an Evil ritual--they were both badly drunk and don't remember who or what instigated it, or what the nature was exactly--and both were consequently denied their spells by their Good god, Kord.
Going to Lailith, local high level Good cleric, Kord and Ham each received a quest spell from her to go and save the children that remain the captives of the goblins beneath the Howling Tower. Further, when that deed is done they will have to pay 500 gold for a small Good liturgy, and then they will be restored to their cult and their spells regained.
So that was the purpose of this expedition, but first preparations had to be made. Kord threw his weight around with his new won gold, buying a dog for himself and hiring two mercenaries, Gram and Thaddeus, and then buying a weasel for Baby-Face (who is broke from the last time he caroused and threw the biggest party ever seen in Brakeridge--he owes several thousand gold now to the thieves' guild ...). Kord fully equipped his new hirelings, and then continued throwing money about as he bought two plots of land, one on which he ordered the construction of a new temple to Kord, his good god of strength, and the other for eventual farming plans. Lastly, he acquired 3 healing potions from Lailith, at a whopping 300 gold each. And I believe he still has money left over.
Aethelwulf, meanwhile, is disgraced in his paladinhood while he was carousing, he acquired a slave--Hastia, a young woman--whom he promptly freed, of course, but being Good, the acquisition of a slave in the first place was very bad. So he may no longer act as a paladin until he atones, for which Lailith has commanded him to pay for a 2000 gold liturgy for the Good cult.
And Baby-Face, as mentioned, is badly in debt to the thieves' guild. In an attempt to start paying it off, he took on a job attempting to smuggle goods for them (using the monthly hijinks from Adventurer Conqueror King System)--but alas, he failed at his task, and was unable to meet the contact who would transfer the goods to him.
So ... with Kord, Ham, and Aethelwulf all clamoring to free the captive children, the party set off through the wilderness seeking the Howling Tower. On the way out, attrition destroyed another axe chapping firewood (they must be poor quality), and lost a dozen arrows in a poor attempt at hunting.
Arriving on the ridge where the tower stands, the party observed a much larger pyre beside Begor's pyre, the new one filled with small crooked bodies about the size of goblins--Baby-Face laughed, recalling the expedition on which he and the company slaughtered dozens of goblins.
Entering the tower, the party almost immediately ran into Okok the Ape King and seven of his baboon minions tearing apart the corpses of another couple goblins and eating. As Koko was with the party, they were able to communicate with Okok, who declared that his fire had gone out and that he was very disappointed. By promising to give him a tinderbox, flint and tinder, and more torches, the party enticed him into joining their attack on the goblins below, and he sent his baboons away to follow with the party.
Moving quickly through familiar territory, the party spooked the goblin guards at the head of the stair down to the dungeon, but they chose not to pursue the half a dozen creatures that scrambled quickly down the stairs. Maintaining their order, they descended more slowly and found themselves again in familiar territory in the catacombs. Little Bob pointed out that the western part of the dungeon was unexplored, and so the party looked into a couple of empty tombs before the group complained that they might have a better shot at finding the children if they explored nearer where they knew the goblins dwelt.
So they backtracked that way and entering into a large pillared hall, they surprised about a dozen goblins on guard outside a door. Battle ensued, and the goblins were killed, but they put up a decent fight, hurling missiles from the back rank that managed to kill Wilmerand the weasel and St. Bb the Saint Bernard. The goblins were led by one of their kind who seemed more capable and perhaps a little magical, but she was killed by an arrow to the eye.
The last goblin the party captured. This Nogg as it called itself pointed out that the children were behind the door--those that hadn't yet been taken down to the next level by the Goblin King. As this was all the party wanted to know, they killed Nogg and then went through the door to find two doors, one to the right, one to the left. The right door was locked; Baby-Face unlocked it and opened it and behold, seven miserable children were revealed in the torchlight, scrawny and malnourished and crying from the sudden torchlight. The other door turned out to be storage and a larder.
The party debated what to do next--take these children out now, or leave them under guard and explore deeper, seeking the other children? The question was made moot, however, when they opened the outer door and found a small army of goblins and wolves had filled the pillared hall behind them.
Goblin arrows thudded into the door as the party closed it to consider their options. As they continued to dither, more goblins showed up ... eventually they decided just to charge in.
This battle was going poorly for the party--the goblins and wolves killed the dogs Blade and Boar, and got in a few good hits on characters--and there seemed to be more goblin leaders in the back ranks, getting ready to throw spells--but at this point we were out of time (as summarily decided by our venue), and we had to wrap up. Fortunately, as the first of the wolves had just gone down, I rolled a morale check, and it failed--so reasonably fairly, the wolves' rout became the goblins' rout, and the werewolves that were with the group elected for discretion rather than valor.
So the party made it out of the dungeon with the children saved and in tow, and proceeded back to town without any incident.
------
Remembrance for the Fallen:
Wilmerand (weasel), Blade and Boar (dogs), Hubert the Peacock and Lysimmachus (normal men), a nameless mastiff, Livy (normal man), Orkie (orc hound), Fang (boarhound), Droopy and Snoopy (mastiffs), Dream Destroyer (ghost hound), Arrow (pack dog), Freyja (normal woman), a nameless cur, Hot Dog and Cross (mastiffs), Orion II (lion dog), Bacon (boarhound), Tore (half-orc fighter 1/cleric 1), Jimmy the Snitch (dog), Orion (lion dog), Harambe (man-ape 1)
and for those Enchanted Away:
Dol (fyrdman mercenary)
Monday, February 12, 2018
Expedition to the Shrine of Aesclepius-Apollo 2
During a showdown against the Elf-King who dwells in the dungeons beneath the Azure Tower of Vyzor, in his own throne room, Barnabus Sleet was attacked by the Elf-King's guardian creatures and had his right foot ripped off and a life-energy level drained from him before the throne room collapsed and the battle ended as both sides retreated. Laurantha also had her left hand mangled, and you can read her account of the battle here.
Because of these grievous hurts, Barnabus Sleet gathered a small company with him to go and seek out the Shrine of Aesclepius-Apollo where, on another expedition, his apprentice Emma Brighteyes had been cured of her malaise from a lost life-energy level.
the Party:
Barnabus Sleet (muscle wizard)
Jaina, Son of Folg (thief)
with Dale (fighting-man valet)
Magic Meryl (halfling, formerly magic-user)
with Tiberius (normal mercenary) and Galahad (orc mastiff)
Frigga (a witch)
Fulvia (NPC cleric of St. Ursula)
Laurantha (B/X Elf, my own character, but she was just along for the ride)
various livestock being taken to the shrine to be sacrificed
and some lackwits formerly enslaved by a lamia
The party started off in the city of Calpurnia, because IRL the plan had been to go to the Old Forest Keep, until the battle with the Elf-King happened and Barnabus needed healing. In Calpurnia, they acquired what they needed for the sacrifice to Aesclepius--Barnabus spent 1000 gold on flawless oxen, good wine, and fine incense, as well as a little bronze foot and another token to represent what needed healing. Frigga purchased a sheep and a chicken because she was interested in sacrificing them to Apollo and divining places to learn more arcana.
They then set out for Sweetwater, a town south west of Calpurnia on the King's Highway, and the town nearest the abandoned shrine. This journey took a week, so I rolled once on my On the Road table ... and in the middle of the week as the party was traveling along, they were suddenly attacked by insectoid horrors that burst out of the ground to attack Tiberius and Laurantha. But the attacks missed, and Meryl cast phantasmal force to create illusions of more party members with the intent that the illusions be attacked by the insects and the party could flee. But I rolled a morale for the insects being suddenly confronted with so many more things than expected, and they actually started digging themselves back into the earth. And so the company continued on their way.
In Sweetwater, Barnabus hired Fulvia from the local shrine to St. Ursula, as the sacrifice to Aesclepius requires a cleric of Good alignment to do it; they also picked up the lackwits left at the shrine last time, intending to take them to the shrine and have them healed of their lost wisdom (lost from the lamia's touch). The party then set out for the shrine; and immediately discovered that two weeks of their rations had spoiled (it was a random roll on one of my wilderness encounters charts), so they had to go back to Sweetwater to pick up more rations. They also considered casting a curse on the merchant who sold them the bad rations, one Thidrek of Calpurnia.
The only other encounter I rolled on the way was with hippogriffs, which meant merely that the party happened to see a herd of the creatures cavorting in the air over the hills to the east.
I did also mention the dragon that dwells in those eastern hills and mountains, which they glimpsed at a great distance only as a shadow of a serpent soaring through the air on great wings.
What I failed to mention was that the stars are singing--even this far south of Brakeridge and the Greyhame mountain, people can still hear the stars singing at night, though it is fainter.
Anyway, the party arrived at the shrine without trouble and looked on the old ruin of the shrine above ground, which is essentially a shell of classical-style columns and carvings, with a stair down in the far east wing where is depicted a man bearing a snake-twined staff; and another stair down in the far west wing, where are carved images of a handsome young man with a lyre charming birds and beasts or riddling with sphinxes and old gods.
There was some confusion as to which stair to take, but Fulvia ultimately pointed out that Aesclepius is the healing god, and that his accouterments include the snake-twined staff. So down the eastern stair they went. Meryl had a map from the last expedition, and so they quickly traversed the first rooms to the great hot spring pool where supplicants incubate to receive healing from Aesclepius. To the east of the hot spring is a smaller room wherein stands the altar and idol of Aesclepius; but looking into this room, the party discovered that another idol had been erected behind the altar, a crude idol carved from a great tree trunk with one thick limb in particular jutting up with a clear resemblance of an erect phallus.
Barnabus took down the new idol and had it chopped up to burn (to use in the fires required for burning the sacrifices), and then Fulvia took over and began the sacrifices. These are like any classical sacrifice, with the oxen slaughtered, their thigh bones, entrails, and fat burned on the altar while their steaks are cooked up and eaten by the supplicants and priest. Wine is poured out over the fire and then drunk in great quantity, while incense is burned and its smoke blown over the idol to please the god. All this takes a while, so I rolled a few wandering monster checks--alas! nothing came by to check out all this noise.
After the sacrifice was completed, Barnabus, Laurantha, and the lackwits still needed to incubate at the hot spring for a while, and so the rest of the company took their leave--Frigga, Meryl, and Jaina all set out back for the stairs to head down the west side and seek out the divining room of Apollo. Meryl had some trouble reading her map and took the party into a room labeled as having an Apolline statue, only for the party to find themselves confronted with a giant and his cronies and a large pack of wolves.
"What are you doing in here, man-things?" the giant boomed at them. "Come to raid this place, eh? Well get out, before I crush you!"
But as the giants approached to do just that, Frigga piped up, declaring herself a witch of the north, come to look for lore in the divinations through entrails.
"You know some lore, then, do you?" the giant asked, and a light came into his eyes. "Well--perhaps you can divine something for me then, too?" The party agreed--Frigga had brought an extra animal just in case she needed extra entrails--and the giant introduced himself as Vargir, son of Vanr, and then started leading the way to the proper chamber (not the one Meryl had just led them to). Along the way, some of the wolves peeled off and went in another direction, boding ill ...
Soon enough, the giant showed them into a room with an altar and an idol to another god, the handsome young man with the lyre, and a ceiling set with glittering stones in the shapes of the constellations at night. The giants gathered along the west wall and eagerly awaited to see some sacrificing and entrails-reading. "Tell us how to slay Yamir," Vargir ordered Frigga (who then had Fulvia do the sacrifices).
The answer to that question was, Fulvia declared, "A sword of truth." To which answer the giants fumed and stamped their feet. "We already knew that! That is his doom--but what is it?"
Frigga then stepped up and tried to read the entrails for more information, but found nothing. But she agreed to "read the entrails" of the other animal for the giants while secretly telling Fulvia to answer her question, which was, "Where can I find more witch-arcana to learn?"
So Fulvia did the whole ritual again, with Frigga "helping" and ultimately Frigga declared that a sword of truth must be made from the teeth of the dragon in the mountains that they had seen, as dragons are very ancient and powerful, and because of their ancientness closer to the truth at the moment of creation, or some such humbuggery. "Eklereath's teeth?" Vargir grumbled. "He seems rather a young dragon for such a thing ... still, if that's what you say ..."
Meanwhile, Fulvia whispered to Frigga that she had read something about "nine eyes" and "crows in the forest" and "an old castle", from which clues the party came to the conclusion that Frigga could learn her crow-summoning arcana from the crows that dwell on or around the Old Forest Keep.
Now, while all of this was happening, Jaina son of Folg was pickpocketing Vargir. She (yes, she, I don't remember the particulars as to why Folg's son is a girl, but so she is) pulled out a couple handfuls of gold with successful checks and but then decided to go big, because Vargir's bag looked like it contained quite a lot of coin. So she started emptying her own backpack and large sacks in the background, comedia dell'arte style, while everyone else was paying attention to the sacrifices. She then slit the bottom of Vargir's bag and, with another successful check, managed to gather 5000 gold in her sacks.
A great howling began to ring through the stone corridors of the dungeon at this point, and Vargir pricked his ears and then declared, "Sounds like Navitnir has got wind of your presence. You'd best be out before he catches you." Because the party had done him a good deed, he allowed them to flee out the door--and just in time, as a huge pack of wolves came surging out of the darkness to the west. The party fled, wolves panting at their heels; at the top of the stair, Meryl used her halfling stealthiness to hide nearby while the party fled down the eastern staircase. Then, as the wolves boiled up, howling, Meryl cast phantasmal force creating illusions of the party fleeing down the hill, out into the wilderness ... and the wolves howled and went straight for them. Meryl then fled down the east staircase after her fellows.
Returning to the hot springs, the party found more than just Barnabus, Laurantha, and the lackwits--with them now, was a great turtle, its shell mossy but with glittering gold inlaid below the growths, pontificating about esoteric metaphysics and turtlian dialectics; and interrupting the lecture constantly with crude jokes or bad faith arguments, and shrieking with weird laughter at the turtle's discomfiture, were a gang of yellow-eyed hyena-headed creatures--obviously gnolls.
The party was confused by the presence of these things: "You guys weren't here last time!" Meryl said to the gnolls, to which they laughed and responded, "Sure we were!" It came out that the idol that the party had destroyed was theirs, and now they needed a new one, so they sent their human slaves out to collect a tree and drag it back in, down the stairs to the hot springs. The party was content to wait and kind of play along, but when they saw that the slaves were just going to hack out a crude image, taking even more time, Meryl decided to try to scare the gnolls off. With another casting of phantasmal force, she created an image of Melodeia, the scorpion-lamia from the last expedition, rising from the hot springs.
In response to this, the gnolls got spooked, but rather than running turned menacing. Their laughter became eerie and forced morale rolls for NPCs (who all failed and started to try to flee), but the party got the drop on the gnolls with high initiative and Barnabus leapt to the attack. He and his floating fists (he has two or three that follow him around anymore) killed four gnolls in his round alone, while Meryl cast sleep over another four gnolls. These losses were enough to scatter the gnolls, and the party then elected to depart the dungeon, as their healing was complete, and they had managed to acquire a fair amount of loot.
Through the use of invisibility 10' they returned back through the wilderness without incident, and that was that--Barnabus had a new foot and had regained his level, the lackwits were (mostly) restored from their idiocy, and Laurantha was healed of her wounds (though her lost fingers she actually replaced with magic fingers created by powerful wizard Pete Loudly).
Because of these grievous hurts, Barnabus Sleet gathered a small company with him to go and seek out the Shrine of Aesclepius-Apollo where, on another expedition, his apprentice Emma Brighteyes had been cured of her malaise from a lost life-energy level.
the Party:
Barnabus Sleet (muscle wizard)
Jaina, Son of Folg (thief)
with Dale (fighting-man valet)
Magic Meryl (halfling, formerly magic-user)
with Tiberius (normal mercenary) and Galahad (orc mastiff)
Frigga (a witch)
Fulvia (NPC cleric of St. Ursula)
Laurantha (B/X Elf, my own character, but she was just along for the ride)
various livestock being taken to the shrine to be sacrificed
and some lackwits formerly enslaved by a lamia
The party started off in the city of Calpurnia, because IRL the plan had been to go to the Old Forest Keep, until the battle with the Elf-King happened and Barnabus needed healing. In Calpurnia, they acquired what they needed for the sacrifice to Aesclepius--Barnabus spent 1000 gold on flawless oxen, good wine, and fine incense, as well as a little bronze foot and another token to represent what needed healing. Frigga purchased a sheep and a chicken because she was interested in sacrificing them to Apollo and divining places to learn more arcana.
They then set out for Sweetwater, a town south west of Calpurnia on the King's Highway, and the town nearest the abandoned shrine. This journey took a week, so I rolled once on my On the Road table ... and in the middle of the week as the party was traveling along, they were suddenly attacked by insectoid horrors that burst out of the ground to attack Tiberius and Laurantha. But the attacks missed, and Meryl cast phantasmal force to create illusions of more party members with the intent that the illusions be attacked by the insects and the party could flee. But I rolled a morale for the insects being suddenly confronted with so many more things than expected, and they actually started digging themselves back into the earth. And so the company continued on their way.
In Sweetwater, Barnabus hired Fulvia from the local shrine to St. Ursula, as the sacrifice to Aesclepius requires a cleric of Good alignment to do it; they also picked up the lackwits left at the shrine last time, intending to take them to the shrine and have them healed of their lost wisdom (lost from the lamia's touch). The party then set out for the shrine; and immediately discovered that two weeks of their rations had spoiled (it was a random roll on one of my wilderness encounters charts), so they had to go back to Sweetwater to pick up more rations. They also considered casting a curse on the merchant who sold them the bad rations, one Thidrek of Calpurnia.
The only other encounter I rolled on the way was with hippogriffs, which meant merely that the party happened to see a herd of the creatures cavorting in the air over the hills to the east.
I did also mention the dragon that dwells in those eastern hills and mountains, which they glimpsed at a great distance only as a shadow of a serpent soaring through the air on great wings.
What I failed to mention was that the stars are singing--even this far south of Brakeridge and the Greyhame mountain, people can still hear the stars singing at night, though it is fainter.
Anyway, the party arrived at the shrine without trouble and looked on the old ruin of the shrine above ground, which is essentially a shell of classical-style columns and carvings, with a stair down in the far east wing where is depicted a man bearing a snake-twined staff; and another stair down in the far west wing, where are carved images of a handsome young man with a lyre charming birds and beasts or riddling with sphinxes and old gods.
There was some confusion as to which stair to take, but Fulvia ultimately pointed out that Aesclepius is the healing god, and that his accouterments include the snake-twined staff. So down the eastern stair they went. Meryl had a map from the last expedition, and so they quickly traversed the first rooms to the great hot spring pool where supplicants incubate to receive healing from Aesclepius. To the east of the hot spring is a smaller room wherein stands the altar and idol of Aesclepius; but looking into this room, the party discovered that another idol had been erected behind the altar, a crude idol carved from a great tree trunk with one thick limb in particular jutting up with a clear resemblance of an erect phallus.
Barnabus took down the new idol and had it chopped up to burn (to use in the fires required for burning the sacrifices), and then Fulvia took over and began the sacrifices. These are like any classical sacrifice, with the oxen slaughtered, their thigh bones, entrails, and fat burned on the altar while their steaks are cooked up and eaten by the supplicants and priest. Wine is poured out over the fire and then drunk in great quantity, while incense is burned and its smoke blown over the idol to please the god. All this takes a while, so I rolled a few wandering monster checks--alas! nothing came by to check out all this noise.
After the sacrifice was completed, Barnabus, Laurantha, and the lackwits still needed to incubate at the hot spring for a while, and so the rest of the company took their leave--Frigga, Meryl, and Jaina all set out back for the stairs to head down the west side and seek out the divining room of Apollo. Meryl had some trouble reading her map and took the party into a room labeled as having an Apolline statue, only for the party to find themselves confronted with a giant and his cronies and a large pack of wolves.
"What are you doing in here, man-things?" the giant boomed at them. "Come to raid this place, eh? Well get out, before I crush you!"
But as the giants approached to do just that, Frigga piped up, declaring herself a witch of the north, come to look for lore in the divinations through entrails.
"You know some lore, then, do you?" the giant asked, and a light came into his eyes. "Well--perhaps you can divine something for me then, too?" The party agreed--Frigga had brought an extra animal just in case she needed extra entrails--and the giant introduced himself as Vargir, son of Vanr, and then started leading the way to the proper chamber (not the one Meryl had just led them to). Along the way, some of the wolves peeled off and went in another direction, boding ill ...
Soon enough, the giant showed them into a room with an altar and an idol to another god, the handsome young man with the lyre, and a ceiling set with glittering stones in the shapes of the constellations at night. The giants gathered along the west wall and eagerly awaited to see some sacrificing and entrails-reading. "Tell us how to slay Yamir," Vargir ordered Frigga (who then had Fulvia do the sacrifices).
The answer to that question was, Fulvia declared, "A sword of truth." To which answer the giants fumed and stamped their feet. "We already knew that! That is his doom--but what is it?"
Frigga then stepped up and tried to read the entrails for more information, but found nothing. But she agreed to "read the entrails" of the other animal for the giants while secretly telling Fulvia to answer her question, which was, "Where can I find more witch-arcana to learn?"
So Fulvia did the whole ritual again, with Frigga "helping" and ultimately Frigga declared that a sword of truth must be made from the teeth of the dragon in the mountains that they had seen, as dragons are very ancient and powerful, and because of their ancientness closer to the truth at the moment of creation, or some such humbuggery. "Eklereath's teeth?" Vargir grumbled. "He seems rather a young dragon for such a thing ... still, if that's what you say ..."
Meanwhile, Fulvia whispered to Frigga that she had read something about "nine eyes" and "crows in the forest" and "an old castle", from which clues the party came to the conclusion that Frigga could learn her crow-summoning arcana from the crows that dwell on or around the Old Forest Keep.
Now, while all of this was happening, Jaina son of Folg was pickpocketing Vargir. She (yes, she, I don't remember the particulars as to why Folg's son is a girl, but so she is) pulled out a couple handfuls of gold with successful checks and but then decided to go big, because Vargir's bag looked like it contained quite a lot of coin. So she started emptying her own backpack and large sacks in the background, comedia dell'arte style, while everyone else was paying attention to the sacrifices. She then slit the bottom of Vargir's bag and, with another successful check, managed to gather 5000 gold in her sacks.
A great howling began to ring through the stone corridors of the dungeon at this point, and Vargir pricked his ears and then declared, "Sounds like Navitnir has got wind of your presence. You'd best be out before he catches you." Because the party had done him a good deed, he allowed them to flee out the door--and just in time, as a huge pack of wolves came surging out of the darkness to the west. The party fled, wolves panting at their heels; at the top of the stair, Meryl used her halfling stealthiness to hide nearby while the party fled down the eastern staircase. Then, as the wolves boiled up, howling, Meryl cast phantasmal force creating illusions of the party fleeing down the hill, out into the wilderness ... and the wolves howled and went straight for them. Meryl then fled down the east staircase after her fellows.
Returning to the hot springs, the party found more than just Barnabus, Laurantha, and the lackwits--with them now, was a great turtle, its shell mossy but with glittering gold inlaid below the growths, pontificating about esoteric metaphysics and turtlian dialectics; and interrupting the lecture constantly with crude jokes or bad faith arguments, and shrieking with weird laughter at the turtle's discomfiture, were a gang of yellow-eyed hyena-headed creatures--obviously gnolls.
The party was confused by the presence of these things: "You guys weren't here last time!" Meryl said to the gnolls, to which they laughed and responded, "Sure we were!" It came out that the idol that the party had destroyed was theirs, and now they needed a new one, so they sent their human slaves out to collect a tree and drag it back in, down the stairs to the hot springs. The party was content to wait and kind of play along, but when they saw that the slaves were just going to hack out a crude image, taking even more time, Meryl decided to try to scare the gnolls off. With another casting of phantasmal force, she created an image of Melodeia, the scorpion-lamia from the last expedition, rising from the hot springs.
In response to this, the gnolls got spooked, but rather than running turned menacing. Their laughter became eerie and forced morale rolls for NPCs (who all failed and started to try to flee), but the party got the drop on the gnolls with high initiative and Barnabus leapt to the attack. He and his floating fists (he has two or three that follow him around anymore) killed four gnolls in his round alone, while Meryl cast sleep over another four gnolls. These losses were enough to scatter the gnolls, and the party then elected to depart the dungeon, as their healing was complete, and they had managed to acquire a fair amount of loot.
Through the use of invisibility 10' they returned back through the wilderness without incident, and that was that--Barnabus had a new foot and had regained his level, the lackwits were (mostly) restored from their idiocy, and Laurantha was healed of her wounds (though her lost fingers she actually replaced with magic fingers created by powerful wizard Pete Loudly).
Saturday, February 10, 2018
Play Report from Jeff Rients' Vaults of Vyzor 4
(my 4th report, not the 4th session ... go to Jeff's Gameblog to find the preceding 30+ sessions)
"Laurantha the Unbeautiful to the Sorcerer of the Blue Mask,
"O! puissant one! We, your lieutenants and servants, have confronted the Elf-King, Elexus Starchild, in his own throne room and come away without victory and badly scathed for our troubles. This is my account:
"I write this missive in great pain, only barely dulled by the strength even of my own mead--for my left hand has been mangled, leaving only a bloody mess without fingers. It throbs without end, and I fear as to my future spell-casting faculties; and Barnabus Sleet, muscle-wizard unparalleled, has returned from the depths with a stump where his right foot once firmly trod the earth; and Kat Eumeleia, a companion on the delve, has not even returned, but was captured by the Elf-King's lion-men during our headlong flight.
"I tell you, the company we gathered was good. Barnabus had with him his manservant Dale, as well as the wolf-demon Astonac; Pitwin Spryneedle was with us, a sapling who has grown as proud in prowess even as Magic Meryl, and he commanding the mushroom-demon Xasu; and Lobat the Laserer was with us, accompanied by trusted gnomes-at-arm Jade and Blondie. For myself, I had heard the Kat Eumeleia, cleric of the Star Goddess was considered a Champion of Vyzor, and so I enlisted her as my henchwoman, much to her ill fortune. Rose Royce, said to be kin to the Elf-King was also intended to accompany us, but alas was unable to join our ill venture ...
"And lastly, the creature Man-Rider was with us. [Man-Rider is weird. ~Ed.] This thing, said once to be a goblin--and now a weird blue thing with tentacles and too many eyes and a door in its breast--proclaimed itself a tracker faultless through its own eldritch faculties, and so we enlisted its aid to seek out the Elf-King in his dungeons below the Azure Tower. For this we required an article once possessed by the Elf-King himself, and Kat Eumeleia, after wooing Laurela--the estranged niece of the Elf-King, freed by the deeds of Kat and others--that is, Kat received from Laurela a dress she had once gotten as a gift from Elexus, which Man-Rider took (and wore himself, a most hideous sight), and declared that he knew where the Elf-King was.
"Therefore, Barnabus took the Man-Rider upon his shoulders (as was only appropriate), and we set out into the depths beneath the Azure Tower, following the directions of the misbegotten Man-Rider. On the first level we dithered for a while, finding orcs and goblins captive in the Elf-King's Agony-Machine cages. Suffice to say that the goblins were freed and the orcs all slain, save one charmed by Sleet.
"Thence we descended through the second level down to the third, and unto the very bronze doors of the Elf-King's throne room, those doors emblazoned with his ancient deeds of wonder. 'Through there,' Man-Rider indicated, and Barnabus Sleet hesitated not a moment before he burst open the great doors. Not a moment even to plan ...
"And there was Elexus, seated formally upon his throne, eyes like black holes, face made up in full Starchild makeup, wearing a robe of lucky charms and a cloak of the still-living-and-grimacing faces of inept servants--and attended by a host of lion-men! Without a thought, Barnabus leapt across the throne room to confront the Elf-King himself with but his fists, leaving the rest of us behind to fend off the lion-men.
"And this we did! Pitwin slew many with a wave of acid; Man-Rider, thrown into the melee by Lobat, incinerated others with his fiery burps; Blondie and Jade threw a tube of hair gel into the midst of the guards and shot it with their lasers, causing the tube to explode; and myself, I sent a line of lightning crackling through their ranks. Many died.
"Meanwhile, Barnabus's own lightning spell, cast through his connecting fist, was merely caught in the hand of the Elf-King, ready to throw back at us. Only good fortune saved us, in that Lobat then turned his laser rifle on the Elf-King and blasted a hole in his right arm, causing the lightning to ricochet around the room (incinerating one of his own guards). Still, the Elf-King lived--
"--and summoned an elemental of earth from the floor of the chamber! And the eight pillars around the room smoked and then transformed into horrid creatures with ebon skin, terrible claws, and red-burning eyes!
"Lobat rolled a keg of black powder at the elemental and shot it, causing the powder to explode and the room to shake, but failing to destroy the creature. Man-Rider sought to inject new strangeness into the melee, first by growing a great shell, and then by summoning a serpent-demon which proceeded to attack and dominate him; and while Barnabus continued to rain fists upon the Elf-King to little avail, I advanced to attack one of the pillar-demons with my sword. It should be noted of Pitwin that he showed conspicuous gallantry in throwing an interdimensional knife at Elexus, which he followed through the planar gap to stand beside the Elf-King himself, and to stab Elexus in the posterior with his knife, literally enacting the thing he had intended merely to spraypaint upon the throne room's walls.
"But this is where the tide turned against us. The pillar-demons struck out, and their attacks against myself and Barnabus Sleet caused grievous bodily harm. And here the Elf-King drew his sword, which I am to understand was forged from a single hair stolen from an angel, and stabbed at Barnabus--and only the sudden collapsing of the chamber's roof and the mutual surprise of everyone involved interrupted his incipient death!
"As the chamber shuddered, weakened by the explosions within, and the Elf-King hesitated, wondered at the shivering walls, we all fled headlong, uncertain of aught but that our doom lay within if we remained there. In the flight, Kat was lost and captured by a new contingent of lion-men coming to reinforce the first bodyguard, and one of the gnome lasses following Lobat was smashed in the hip, ever after to walk with a limp--but otherwise carried to safety out of the deeps.
"So it was that we, your lieutenants and servants, assaulted the Elf-King on his own ground, and were badly repulsed. For myself, I fully intend to return to the dungeon as soon as I am able and recovered of my wounds, thereby to deliver Kat Eumeleia from captivity, and to redeem my honor as the one who enlisted her aid ...
"Your lieutenant in the War Against the Elf-King,
"Laurantha Akala"
"Laurantha the Unbeautiful to the Sorcerer of the Blue Mask,
"O! puissant one! We, your lieutenants and servants, have confronted the Elf-King, Elexus Starchild, in his own throne room and come away without victory and badly scathed for our troubles. This is my account:
"I write this missive in great pain, only barely dulled by the strength even of my own mead--for my left hand has been mangled, leaving only a bloody mess without fingers. It throbs without end, and I fear as to my future spell-casting faculties; and Barnabus Sleet, muscle-wizard unparalleled, has returned from the depths with a stump where his right foot once firmly trod the earth; and Kat Eumeleia, a companion on the delve, has not even returned, but was captured by the Elf-King's lion-men during our headlong flight.
"I tell you, the company we gathered was good. Barnabus had with him his manservant Dale, as well as the wolf-demon Astonac; Pitwin Spryneedle was with us, a sapling who has grown as proud in prowess even as Magic Meryl, and he commanding the mushroom-demon Xasu; and Lobat the Laserer was with us, accompanied by trusted gnomes-at-arm Jade and Blondie. For myself, I had heard the Kat Eumeleia, cleric of the Star Goddess was considered a Champion of Vyzor, and so I enlisted her as my henchwoman, much to her ill fortune. Rose Royce, said to be kin to the Elf-King was also intended to accompany us, but alas was unable to join our ill venture ...
"And lastly, the creature Man-Rider was with us. [Man-Rider is weird. ~Ed.] This thing, said once to be a goblin--and now a weird blue thing with tentacles and too many eyes and a door in its breast--proclaimed itself a tracker faultless through its own eldritch faculties, and so we enlisted its aid to seek out the Elf-King in his dungeons below the Azure Tower. For this we required an article once possessed by the Elf-King himself, and Kat Eumeleia, after wooing Laurela--the estranged niece of the Elf-King, freed by the deeds of Kat and others--that is, Kat received from Laurela a dress she had once gotten as a gift from Elexus, which Man-Rider took (and wore himself, a most hideous sight), and declared that he knew where the Elf-King was.
"Therefore, Barnabus took the Man-Rider upon his shoulders (as was only appropriate), and we set out into the depths beneath the Azure Tower, following the directions of the misbegotten Man-Rider. On the first level we dithered for a while, finding orcs and goblins captive in the Elf-King's Agony-Machine cages. Suffice to say that the goblins were freed and the orcs all slain, save one charmed by Sleet.
"Thence we descended through the second level down to the third, and unto the very bronze doors of the Elf-King's throne room, those doors emblazoned with his ancient deeds of wonder. 'Through there,' Man-Rider indicated, and Barnabus Sleet hesitated not a moment before he burst open the great doors. Not a moment even to plan ...
"And there was Elexus, seated formally upon his throne, eyes like black holes, face made up in full Starchild makeup, wearing a robe of lucky charms and a cloak of the still-living-and-grimacing faces of inept servants--and attended by a host of lion-men! Without a thought, Barnabus leapt across the throne room to confront the Elf-King himself with but his fists, leaving the rest of us behind to fend off the lion-men.
"And this we did! Pitwin slew many with a wave of acid; Man-Rider, thrown into the melee by Lobat, incinerated others with his fiery burps; Blondie and Jade threw a tube of hair gel into the midst of the guards and shot it with their lasers, causing the tube to explode; and myself, I sent a line of lightning crackling through their ranks. Many died.
"Meanwhile, Barnabus's own lightning spell, cast through his connecting fist, was merely caught in the hand of the Elf-King, ready to throw back at us. Only good fortune saved us, in that Lobat then turned his laser rifle on the Elf-King and blasted a hole in his right arm, causing the lightning to ricochet around the room (incinerating one of his own guards). Still, the Elf-King lived--
"--and summoned an elemental of earth from the floor of the chamber! And the eight pillars around the room smoked and then transformed into horrid creatures with ebon skin, terrible claws, and red-burning eyes!
"Lobat rolled a keg of black powder at the elemental and shot it, causing the powder to explode and the room to shake, but failing to destroy the creature. Man-Rider sought to inject new strangeness into the melee, first by growing a great shell, and then by summoning a serpent-demon which proceeded to attack and dominate him; and while Barnabus continued to rain fists upon the Elf-King to little avail, I advanced to attack one of the pillar-demons with my sword. It should be noted of Pitwin that he showed conspicuous gallantry in throwing an interdimensional knife at Elexus, which he followed through the planar gap to stand beside the Elf-King himself, and to stab Elexus in the posterior with his knife, literally enacting the thing he had intended merely to spraypaint upon the throne room's walls.
"But this is where the tide turned against us. The pillar-demons struck out, and their attacks against myself and Barnabus Sleet caused grievous bodily harm. And here the Elf-King drew his sword, which I am to understand was forged from a single hair stolen from an angel, and stabbed at Barnabus--and only the sudden collapsing of the chamber's roof and the mutual surprise of everyone involved interrupted his incipient death!
"As the chamber shuddered, weakened by the explosions within, and the Elf-King hesitated, wondered at the shivering walls, we all fled headlong, uncertain of aught but that our doom lay within if we remained there. In the flight, Kat was lost and captured by a new contingent of lion-men coming to reinforce the first bodyguard, and one of the gnome lasses following Lobat was smashed in the hip, ever after to walk with a limp--but otherwise carried to safety out of the deeps.
"So it was that we, your lieutenants and servants, assaulted the Elf-King on his own ground, and were badly repulsed. For myself, I fully intend to return to the dungeon as soon as I am able and recovered of my wounds, thereby to deliver Kat Eumeleia from captivity, and to redeem my honor as the one who enlisted her aid ...
"Your lieutenant in the War Against the Elf-King,
"Laurantha Akala"
Thursday, February 8, 2018
Jungles of Chult: River Mist and Flask of Wine
Using the "Into the Unknown" ruleset from +Anders H, which is a Basic hack of 5e D&D, for running WotC's Tomb of Annihilation.
Of course, I screwed up the above "boxed text" because the published book of ToA contradicts itself. Jobal is described on the one hand as giving out information including the whereabouts of River Mist and Flask of Wine; while their descriptions (later on) contradict that information flatly. Alas, because Jobal was the first of these characters that the players interacted with (and I was several beers in and blithely trusted the book), I had Jobal citing River Mist and Flask of Wine as employees of his. Fortunately, this "situation" resolved itself somewhat when the players did something else before returning to Jobal for a guide, so by then Jobal and the Tabaxi could have had a "break" and terminated their relationship. And my players elected to hire the twain specifically because Jobal said they were untrustworthy ...
Anyway, I'm writing these NPCs up because the "stock" 5e NPCs are bags of enormous hps but worthless skills (9 hit dice, but +2 to hit, i.e. the same as a 1 hit die first level character? why don't bonuses scale with hit dice??). I'd rather they have a fair chance of dying, but also of being useful--and I'm going to give them to the players as "characters" for them to run for the duration of the expedition, to lessen my load (and if their player characters die, maybe they take over as the guides).
------
River Mist
STR 11
INT 7
WIS 12
DEX 16
CON 14
CHA 12
Fighter (Deadeye) 4
hp 26
AC 15 (2 studded leather, 3 dex)
proficiency +2
equipment: studded leather, longbow, handaxe, shortsword, backpack
referee fiat abilities: herbalist -- has a nose for useful/valuable flora in the jungle (subject to further fiat for what precisely that means); track -- double proficiency bonus for tracking creatures through a wilderness
River Mist is a tabaxi female who wears an eyepatch over her right eye. She is evasive about the cause of her missing eye, sometimes alluding to a long-ago accident. River and her brother, Flask of Wine, have been acting as jungle guides for those leaving Port Nyanzaru and its environs for an expedition into the jungle for several years. Mostly, they act as guides for those wishing to hunt or capture large jungle beasts like shield-heads or dagger-backs, but they have also led several expeditions up the River Tiryki all the way to its source in Ataaz Ahiya, the Weeping Gorge.
River (as you might call her for short) is the face of the twain, the one actually willing to converse with strangers and to put herself out there. Nevertheless, she is at home in the wilderness, and is happy to be out among the trees, seeing and smelling new things, and hunting strange new creatures.
------
Flask of Wine
STR 10
INT 13
WIS 12
DEX 16
CON 9
CHA 8
Rogue (Thief) 3
hp 8
AC 15 (2 studded leather, 3 dex)
proficiency +2
equipment: studded leather, shortbow, handaxe, machete, backpack, deck of cards
referee fiat abilities: gambling -- double prof for games of chance; trackless step -- double prof for being stealthy in forest
Flask of Wine is a tabaxi male, brother of River Mist. The twain have acted as guides in the jungles of Chult for several years, and feel they have a general grasp of the dangers in the jungles.
Flask (as he is known for short) is a laconic creature who rarely utters more than a sentence at a time, if he speaks. He isn't shy, per se, and is more than glad to join in a bout of drinking and carousing, going mug-for-mug of palm wine with any others--though palm wine doesn't make him any more lugubrious, and perhaps rather quieter--he just doesn't offer much verbally. Perhaps he heard the old Viking advice that those who say nothing, though they know nothing, may seem to be wise; while those who say much, though they know much, will certainly seem foolish.
Flask of Wine had taken a liking to Sound of Distant Rain to play card games with him, gambling small amounts as they traveled. Alas, their games were cut short by the death of Sound in the Sailback Shrine, killed by a mysterious psychic emanation from the creepy monkeys they battled in the catacombs. On return to Nyzanzaru, he took much of the wages paid him by the players and paid with them for a small sacrifice to the Cat Lord for the spirit of dead Sound ...
Of course, I screwed up the above "boxed text" because the published book of ToA contradicts itself. Jobal is described on the one hand as giving out information including the whereabouts of River Mist and Flask of Wine; while their descriptions (later on) contradict that information flatly. Alas, because Jobal was the first of these characters that the players interacted with (and I was several beers in and blithely trusted the book), I had Jobal citing River Mist and Flask of Wine as employees of his. Fortunately, this "situation" resolved itself somewhat when the players did something else before returning to Jobal for a guide, so by then Jobal and the Tabaxi could have had a "break" and terminated their relationship. And my players elected to hire the twain specifically because Jobal said they were untrustworthy ...
Anyway, I'm writing these NPCs up because the "stock" 5e NPCs are bags of enormous hps but worthless skills (9 hit dice, but +2 to hit, i.e. the same as a 1 hit die first level character? why don't bonuses scale with hit dice??). I'd rather they have a fair chance of dying, but also of being useful--and I'm going to give them to the players as "characters" for them to run for the duration of the expedition, to lessen my load (and if their player characters die, maybe they take over as the guides).
------
River Mist
STR 11
INT 7
WIS 12
DEX 16
CON 14
CHA 12
Fighter (Deadeye) 4
hp 26
AC 15 (2 studded leather, 3 dex)
proficiency +2
equipment: studded leather, longbow, handaxe, shortsword, backpack
referee fiat abilities: herbalist -- has a nose for useful/valuable flora in the jungle (subject to further fiat for what precisely that means); track -- double proficiency bonus for tracking creatures through a wilderness
River Mist is a tabaxi female who wears an eyepatch over her right eye. She is evasive about the cause of her missing eye, sometimes alluding to a long-ago accident. River and her brother, Flask of Wine, have been acting as jungle guides for those leaving Port Nyanzaru and its environs for an expedition into the jungle for several years. Mostly, they act as guides for those wishing to hunt or capture large jungle beasts like shield-heads or dagger-backs, but they have also led several expeditions up the River Tiryki all the way to its source in Ataaz Ahiya, the Weeping Gorge.
River (as you might call her for short) is the face of the twain, the one actually willing to converse with strangers and to put herself out there. Nevertheless, she is at home in the wilderness, and is happy to be out among the trees, seeing and smelling new things, and hunting strange new creatures.
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Flask of Wine
STR 10
INT 13
WIS 12
DEX 16
CON 9
CHA 8
Rogue (Thief) 3
hp 8
AC 15 (2 studded leather, 3 dex)
proficiency +2
equipment: studded leather, shortbow, handaxe, machete, backpack, deck of cards
referee fiat abilities: gambling -- double prof for games of chance; trackless step -- double prof for being stealthy in forest
Flask of Wine is a tabaxi male, brother of River Mist. The twain have acted as guides in the jungles of Chult for several years, and feel they have a general grasp of the dangers in the jungles.
Flask (as he is known for short) is a laconic creature who rarely utters more than a sentence at a time, if he speaks. He isn't shy, per se, and is more than glad to join in a bout of drinking and carousing, going mug-for-mug of palm wine with any others--though palm wine doesn't make him any more lugubrious, and perhaps rather quieter--he just doesn't offer much verbally. Perhaps he heard the old Viking advice that those who say nothing, though they know nothing, may seem to be wise; while those who say much, though they know much, will certainly seem foolish.
Flask of Wine had taken a liking to Sound of Distant Rain to play card games with him, gambling small amounts as they traveled. Alas, their games were cut short by the death of Sound in the Sailback Shrine, killed by a mysterious psychic emanation from the creepy monkeys they battled in the catacombs. On return to Nyzanzaru, he took much of the wages paid him by the players and paid with them for a small sacrifice to the Cat Lord for the spirit of dead Sound ...
Monday, February 5, 2018
Jungles of Chult Session 2
Beware the crocodiles of the Tiryki River ...
---
 |
| The crocodiles will eat you |
our intrepid heroes:
Sound of Distant Rain (cat-man rogue)
Terahn Atzi (human priest)
Nugiri (lizardman monk)
Takashi Kaga (human magic-user)
Nebin (halfling barbarian)
Chiratidzo (human druid)
with River Mist and Flask of Wine (cat-man guides)
The last session ended just into the expedition up the River Tiryki, after five days of travel following the river, the characters led by River Mist and Flask of Wine and porting a rowboat with them through the jungle (despite the river being right there ...)
Picking up where we left off, on the morning of the sixth day, Chira noticed a strange little creature at the edge of camp as everyone else was breaking things down. The thing looked like a root knotted into a six-inch high humanoid form, with pebbles for eyes and mouth, eagerly watching the party. It was sitting on a mess kit. Chira informed the party as to its presence, and Takashi, miffed as he realized that the thing had taken his mess kit, mage handed the kit up and as it rose through the air, the little creature jumped off and ran away.
Takashi discovered an empty wasp nest left in his bag in the mess kit's place; and Chira informed everyone that the thing was a Chwinga, a kind of nature spirit that is generally harmless though sometimes mischievous.
Continuing on, through the evening, the characters noticed eyes watching them from the river--insectile eyes from rocky carapaces. Asking their guides after these sightings, River Mist informs the party that these must be Aldani, the lobster-men the haunt the waters of Chult. "Don't take what's theirs, and they won't bother you," she says, and then continues the hike.
Day 8 -- morning -- Chiratidzo heads down to the river as camp is breaking to wash his face. As he crouches there, he gives a shout--"There's something in the water!"--as what looks like a waterlogged tree drifts toward him and the rest of the party comes nearer. Then the log surges out of the water with a huge splash, and a giant crocodile's jaws close around Chira, snap his back, and the crocodile beings to drag his body back into the river. The rest of the party threw missile weapons at the crocodile, but to no avail, and the reptile and its prey both disappear under the waters of the lake ...
River Mist and Flask of Wine shrug. "The jungle is dangerous," River Mist says, and then she and Flask continue to lead everyone on.
Day 9 -- diseased bite -- Sound of Distant Rain saves
Day 10 -- morning -- the party comes across Quinsela, or "Quin", another druid, now out hunting alone. He agrees to accompany the party, knowing that the crocodiles along the River Tiryki are deadly things to contend with ...
Later, the party comes across a kind of idol rising out of a series of rocks in a kind of calm area of the river. The idol is an obelisk, vaguely carved, dedicated to Olokuna, other than a maze-like vulva and stone phallus rising from near the water line. An altar of flat stone lies just under the water, covered at the moment with worked stone offerings (stones with carvings of hands, crabs, phalluses, mazes, vulvas, etc.); Sound of Distant Rain deposits a flask of palm wine on the altar for deceased Chiratidzo, further offering a prayer to the Cat Lord for the man's dead soul ...
Day 11 -- physical barrier -- the party runs into a cliff blocking their path; they decide to backtrack for a day rather than attempt to climb or circumvent it
Day 13 -- morning -- Flask of Wine calls Sound of Distant Rain forward to look at something--it's a dead body, half-eaten by a mouth-dragon and now abandoned in the bole of mighty tree-roots.
Day 14 -- morning -- The party enters a small mango grove and Flask of Wine (from scouting ahead) comes back with broken fruit on his shoulders. "There are mad apes ahead," he says and brushes himself off; he is immediately backed up by the sound of screaming apes from behind and another thrown fruit. Nugiri steps out and catches some thrown fruit, and also grins broadly at the two apes he can see.
The apes interpret that as a threat and charge into combat. One runs all the way forward while the other throws rocks from behind; but Sound of Distant Rain hates monkeys, as do the rest of the party, and they quickly kill both apes (though one does knock Nugiri out with its fists before dying from other melee attacks)
River Mist then points out that the swamp containing the Sailback Hill/Shrine is within a day's travel, if anyone were interested in checking it out. Everyone agrees that it sounds interesting, and so the party moves to the east bank of the river (they've been hiking down the west bank), and they find a wide swamp with both stork-men and sail-backs lurking in its midst.
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| The stork-men with the evil-eyes |
Almost immediately, the party spies a group of stork-men between them and the sail-back hill; Sound of Distant Rain and Flask of Wine sneak out to (bag?) them, but Sound decides to talk instead. Fortunately, one of the several stork-men speaks the Common tongue, though hissing like a swan; "These are our swamps! What do you offer to move through them? Give us shiny things!" The party gave a mirror and a disassembled mess-kit, and I rolled an 11 for reactions, so that was enough. "I am Sssra," the lead stork-man declared. "You may travel our swamp. And let me say, the best place to rest is beneath the banyan outside the mouth of the sailback shrine," it adds.
---
The party deposited the boat in the banyan "grove" matching Sssra's description; they felt a supernatural sense that it would be "good" to camp there, indeed; then they headed for the dungeon in the open mouth of the sailback hill.
The mouth opened onto a stairway down (the gullet); this led down to a three-way fork; the party went west and found themselves in a stairway that ended in water. Nugiri checked under the water and didn't seem to find anything. The party then glanced down the east way, but ultimately went down the south way into a large chamber with stone pillars rising up that look like they support the stone spines of the hill that make it resemble a sailback. There were pit traps around these pillars; then entering the main chamber, the party saw a ruby, pulsing slowly, in the jaws of a small stone sailback on top of an altar against the south wall; the other walls were carved to resemble up-curving ribs. The altar was dedicated to SUCHOS, a god like an animal-headed Egyption god, but with a dimetrodon head.
A small swarm of mosquito-bats attacked the party here, but were easily dispatched ...
Furthermore, there were four other exits from the room ... the party checked one and found a collapsed corridor; checked another and found a closed door; but looking down the south west corridor, they found a series of natural caverns, of which one held a crevice in its floor filled with glittering coin. The party went for the coin, but were surprised by a "nest" of creepy monkeys with blood-red hands hanging from the stalactites on the ceiling of the chamber. Sound of Distant Rain was foremost in the party seeking the coin in the crevice, and he suddenly keeled over dead, clutching his head; Takashi also fell over, blood pooling from his nose, but not quite dead.
 |
| The creepy-monkeys with blood-red hands |
While Nugiri saved Takashi and Flask of Wine ran forward to save his friend's (Sound's) body, the party elected (after a first intuition to run), to fight--and because they killed one monkey and injured two others with a variety of spells and attacks, the creepy monkeys fled deeper into the cave after failing a morale check.
"Let's loot this thing and get the hell out of here!" Nebin cried, and then the party quickly grabbed what they could of the coin (including 2 scrolls) and then fled back to the large room with the pulsing ruby-heart. They pitoned the little sailback statue's mouth open and took the ruby, but heard the grinding of stone nevertheless--the mouth of the cave had closed! Placing the ruby back re-opened the closed jaws. The cat-men thought they might be able to run fast enough to grab the gem and then make it out ahead of the jaws, but the party balked in the end and elected to return later.
So deciding, they checked one more room and found a tomb filled with sarcophagi for sailbacks. Opening the most ornate one, Teran forced open the sarcophagus and breathed in a poisonous cloud, but lived ... inside they found a sailback skeleton plated with gold, which they took ...
With a couple thousand coin (from the monkeys) and a gold-plated skeleton in their possession, the party went straight for the river with their rowboat and began to row their way back down the River Tiryki toward Nyanzaru. On the river, flowing downstream, their movement doubled to 10 miles per day (one hex per day).
---
Day 16 -- evening -- rare plants, zabou, 4 "doses" of zabou mushrooms which the party collects (Quin as an herbalist can pick them without trouble)
Day 20 -- evening -- croaking of giant frogs ahead--the party decides to accept another roll on the encounter die in the future to avoid the frogs now ...
Day 21 -- morning -- as Teran hauls the boat down into the water of the river, a giant crocodile surges out of the water with a high initiative and snaps Teran up in its huge jaws. Teran is instantly killed and dragged away into the water, leaving the party bereft of a third member ...
 |
| Except the hindquarters are Tehran's, not a zebra .... |
Day 22 -- back in town! (now everyone can get XPs)
In Nyanzaru, the party went to Jobal, whom they know collects hunting trophies, to sell the gold-plated skeleton to him. Jobal is sad to hear of Chira's death, but is glad to buy the skeleton off of them for 250 gold. During this conversation, Nebin brings up the mosquito-bats they killed (and the bodies they saved) trying to sell them to him too, but Jobal shows his colors, racist against "lesser" folk by "belittling" Nebin. "What, did you step on that? How cute!"
The party then also sold their 4 "doses" of zabou to Jessamine, who has been interested in rare plants.
And in the end, Nebin and Takashi caroused. Nebin ended up in debt to Jessamine 100 gold and in love with Talara, halfling wife of a local halfling merchant, Haban Widewater; and Takashi ended in debt to Jobal for 400 gold, and furthermore beaten and robbed so that he starts the next adventure slightly injured ...
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Remembrance for the Dead
Tehran Atzi (human cleric of Ubtao 1), Sound of Distant Rain (cat-man rogue 1), Chiratidzo (human druid 1)
The party then also sold their 4 "doses" of zabou to Jessamine, who has been interested in rare plants.
And in the end, Nebin and Takashi caroused. Nebin ended up in debt to Jessamine 100 gold and in love with Talara, halfling wife of a local halfling merchant, Haban Widewater; and Takashi ended in debt to Jobal for 400 gold, and furthermore beaten and robbed so that he starts the next adventure slightly injured ...
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Remembrance for the Dead
Tehran Atzi (human cleric of Ubtao 1), Sound of Distant Rain (cat-man rogue 1), Chiratidzo (human druid 1)
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