Orcs have returned to the caverns of the Glimmervaults ...
the Goblin King and the Lord of Werewolves have renewed their ancient alliance in the dungeons beneath the Howling Tower ...
the secret treasury of the Bronding Kings is said to lie hidden behind the Brokenbrand Falls, enchanted by haunting naiads ...
Jaer the Windlord looks down on the world below from the Eyries of the Eagles atop the Greyhame Mountain itself ...
and the Stars themselves are singing an eerie, eldritch song, night after night ...
5 April's roster:
June (cleric 1)
July (half-Elf magic-user 1)
Aethelwulf (paladin 4)
Lead (cleric 4)
Blackleaf (Elf 4?)
Koko (woman-ape 2)
Little Bob (travelling-man 5)
Kord (half-orc fighter 4/cleric 4)
Ham (cleric 4)
Thaddeus (fighter 1)
and sundry mercenary hirelings, though no dogs this go-around
In town, Aethelwulf bought a bee-stinger dagger from a passing merchant (from d12 oddments table).
Little Bob hired a merchant to go south to specifically find and bring him snake-killing weasels, spending 300 gold for the service; seeing this, Kord did the same, but spent 600 gold for the fellow to seek out orc mastiffs. The merchants won't return for another two sessions at least (one week travel there, one week back, at minimum).
The party then put their heads together ... and conspired to infiltrate Oakridge Castle to kill/kidnap Morholt, the usurper-lord who had taken power after the late lord Albrecht III died--and to boot, Morholt had taken the widow of Albrecht, Lady Sonora, prisoner and held her with the intent to force marriage upon her--until our heroes put an end to that plot by freeing her!
So, their plan was to repeat the success they had had with the last infiltration mission when they rescued Sonora, except that this time the entire party was going to climb the tower to penetrate the keep. From Sonora, they learned that Morholt's chambers were "down the hall from my prison, and on the right. You can't miss it."
Okay, so the party marched their way out of town and around to the northwest to the north side of the ridge on which the castle of Oakridge overlooks the village of Brakeridge to the south. They kept to the trees; and though the treeline had been cut back from the castle's walls, it turns out that spells like sleep and hold person have a range of 240 yards when outside of dungeons, which is pretty much like a lobbed longbow shot. So the 12 guards on the two turrets of the keep, 6 on the west turret, 6 on the east, were all well within range, even with the characters lurking in the trees.
So Blackleaf cast sleep over the west group, and all of the guards fell into a magical sleep. The guards on the east tower failed to notice; Blackleaf cast another sleep spell sent 4 into a magical sleep. As the last two guards stood by, trying to figure out what just happened, Kord cast a hold person spell at them and they failed their saves.
Koko then used her ape-ness to climb up the keep's walls and cast down ropes, and the party slaughtered all the sleeping and held guards, all without alerting any of the other guards on the other turrets. On the keep, a trap door opened down into the interior; the party dropped through and found themselves in an E-W corridor with a door pretty much in front of them (and down the hall to their left was the door into Sonora's former chambers).
Blackleaf used ESP through the door and detected a human thinking about his lordship and other more alien thoughts. This must be Morholt's room, the party said, but then dithered in the hallway long enough that a hear noise check for those inside the room succeeded. The door cracked open; a large spider peeked out and whispered to Koko, "Go up the ladder and shout."
Koko failed her save against spells and immediately turned to do what was said, but Ham cast a hold person spell on her, and she failed that save too, so she was paralyzed. The party then burst through the door! But the guy on the inside was ready, and initiative was rolled ...
So as Kord burst through the door, he was met by a sword swung by the thickly-muscled arm of a consummate fighting-man, broad-shouldered and narrow hipped, hair dark, face blackened with a fighting-grimace. At his feet were two serpents that also struck out at Kord and Aethelwulf.
Over the next couple rounds, Kord took several hard hits from the man's sword; meanwhile, Kord and Aethelwulf each took a bite from a serpent, and both failed their saves. Both took an antivenin passed forward from those in the back; Kord made his second save, but Aethelwulf failed his, and as the paladin's heart began to palpitate wildly and sweat break out over his pallid skin, he fell over dead the next round.
But then Lead threw a hold person spell at the warrior, and he failed his save, and became suddenly rigid and unable to act. The serpents were both quickly slain, and the party piled into the room.
Blackleaf's ESP established that this man was indeed Morholt. The party disarmed him, and tied him up (as well as they could with him being rigidly paralyzed). Then they heard a knock at the door: "M'lord, are you okay? We heard shouting ..."
"No, no, perfectly fine!" someone in the party shouted back gruffly. "It was nothing--just knocked a desk over!"
A high reaction roll and cowed servants led to the servants slinking away, back down the hallway, leaving the party to do what they might to loot the chambers. They found themselves in a kind of antechamber with tapestries and with shelves of books. Through a second door, they found the master's chambers, with a number of obviously lootable items--a boar-hunting spear on the wall with a hunting horn, robes of fox and ermine furs, etc. etc.
The party grabbed what seemed easily movable and then headed back out to the corridor to go up the trapdoor and escape. But they heard thoughts/talking on the wall above. They almost talked themselves out of going up out of fear, but finally agreed to send someone up the ladder with Morholt and a dagger at his throat to try to get the guards above to surrender.
What ultimately happened, though, is that once the party got up onto the fighting-floor of the keep's roof, they had to fight through six guards, and try to prevent other groups of guards running to intercept them from other turret-tops. Blackleaf poured oil on the stairs and lit it on fire to prevent other guards from getting to the fighting-floor while Kord held the line against the last few guards. Six more guards were killed in the melee, but the party managed to descend their ropes while the oil-fires held the last few guards at bay.
So they had captured Morholt! They agreed to take him to Sonora; and she elected to take him and a number of her loyal fighting-men and go north to the courts of Vialar, the king of this northern kingdom, and to sue Morholt in the king's courts for his injustice in usurping the castle of Oakridge and holding Sonora hostage.
Meanwhile, other party members took Aethelwulf's body to Lailith, local cleric high enough level to raise dead. She raised him, but alas, Aethelwulf came back with heart palpitations left over from the poison's effects, so he heals at half the normal rate from his sickliness. He paid Axxl the Mask 2000 gold to research means of ending these palpitations ...
And lastly, Lead and Astia (Lead's hireling-woman) caroused, and Astia had a wild trip with some powerful drugs so that she feels like she has some kind of insight that she can call up as to the nature of reality, or something! And also, she earned her way out of normal womanness to being a full-fledged character.
------
Remembrance for the Fallen:
Clara and Ilana (normal women), Marlo and a number of dogs, Gram, Dorcas, Frida, and Johann Haybaler (normal hirelings), Hauka and Wilmerand (weasels), Blade and Boar (boarhounds), 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)
Showing posts with label osr d&d. Show all posts
Showing posts with label osr d&d. Show all posts
Friday, April 20, 2018
Thursday, March 22, 2018
Greyhame Mountain Dungeon Expedition 24
Orcs have returned to the caverns of the Glimmervaults ...
the Goblin King and the Lord of Werewolves have renewed their ancient alliance in the dungeons beneath the Howling Tower ...
the secret treasury of the Bronding Kings is said to lie hidden behind the Brokenbrand Falls, haunted by enchanting naiads ...
Jaer the Windlord looks down on the world below from the Eyries of the Eagles atop the Greyhame Mountain itself ...
and the Stars themselves are singing an eerie, eldritch song, night after night ...
15 March's roster:
Kord (half-orc fighter 3/cleric 4 ... he mislabeled levels before, I probably did too)
Ham (cleric 4)
Thaddeus (newly minted fighter 1)
Baby Face (thief 5)
Valor Justice (Elf 1)
Blackleaf (Elf 3)
Koko (woman-ape 2)
Lead (cleric 4)
Aria (Elf 1)
Little Bob (travelling-man 5, I think)
and all their hirelings and dogs
This is the week during which Morholt will force the lady Sonora to marry him, using a love potion possibly provided to him by the Elves.
But first, the characters had other business.
First, Blackleaf tested out a bunch of magic items gained from the hoard of Ulfior, undead thing, and discovered among other things a medallion of ESP and a ring of animal control along with a couple other minor things (some potions she sipped, none poisonous, including one seeming to be of strength, of invincibility, etc.). Discovering these things, Blackleaf then sought out Aldir (whom she is hoping to use to marry and thus to gain an immortal soul) while everyone else was preparing. She used her newfound medallion to read his thoughts concerning her (suspicion--is she here to tempt me with an illicit relationship again?) and then offered him a silver torc to dedicate to his god Adonai as a kind of peace-offering. He accepted it reluctantly.
Meanwhile, the party has a number of other magic items they needed to identify and which were less simple to figure out. So they sought out Axxl the Mask, semi-local sage, and for the price of 2000 gold, got him to agree to identify up to a dozen magic items over the course of the month. They gave him: 1) a scroll, 2) a scroll, 3) a helm, 4) a wand, 5) a sword, 6) a scroll, 7) a handaxe, 8) a flamberge-sword, 9) a scroll. I've been taking notes for the last twenty-three sessions, but fuck me if I remember what is what, especially when their notes don't tell them where they acquired the thing. Oh well, that's what I signed up for as referee. Four weeks from now I'll have to have identified all these things for them.
Okay, but really, Morholt is going to force Sonora to marry him. I roll ... 4 days before the deed is done. The party begins to plan ...
Send the eagle Kaaraak to reconnoiter Oakridge Castle to figure out where the lady is? Aria the Elf won't allow it (she is of Natural alignment, and playing it hardcore).
Finally, Baby Face uses his sending bone to send a message to Sonora: "We want to save you; where are you?"
The message returned is, "I don't know if I can trust you. I'm trapped in the northwest tower of the keep."
Meanwhile, Baby Face also approaches his Thieves' Guild contact Jaybird Jenny and gets a message sent to the "bandits" in the woods (who are actually the freed men-at-arms who were loyal to the former lord and who were imprisoned by Morholt before being freed by the player-characters ... and are now living as bandits). The message details the party's desire to free Sonora, will they help? "Tell us when and where to meet you and we will kill Morholt and his men," the bandits answer back.
"Meet us tomorrow night below the castle gate," the party sends the message back. Thirteen bandits show up, ready for trouble.
And so they attack the castle ...
The plan ultimately decided was to split the party. Half the party (the Extraction Team) including Koko, Blackleaf, Kord, Aria, Baby Face, and Valor Justice would have Koko the ape climb the northeast face of the keep with ropes, everyone would climb up, and they would go in an free Sonora.
Meanwhile, the Distraction Team--everyone else, including the bandits--would approach the front gates and create a distraction. Actually, the Extraction Team was supposed to wait until the distraction took place.
Anyway, the Distraction Team marched up to the castle gates. The guards hailed the large party of armed people approaching at night. "Who are you?"
"Clerics of the god Kord, come to bless the upcoming wedding!" Lead called back.
"We didn't invite you!" the guard leader calls back. "What the hell is going on?"
"If you refuse us, the god Kord's wrath will fall upon you!" Lead answered.
"I'm calling the guard captain," the guard returned.
The Distraction Team here abandoned their plan and retreated (at some point I reminded them of the secret entrance to the castle dungeons they've been through before ... was it here?). They decide to go around the castle and enter the secret door into the dungeons.
------
The Extraction Team waited in vain for a signal and finally decided to act on their own. Koko the ape climbed the keep face without a rope and noted six guards on the fighting-floor of the keep's roof. (The guards rolled a 6 on a d6 on their "notice check", the worst they could possibly roll; they're gossiping among themselves). Blackleaf then cast sleep and all six guards fell asleep. The Extraction Team then climbed up with the help of ropes thrown down by Koko. The guards were standing near a trapdoor down into the keep ...
------
The Distraction Team entered into the dungeons. The bottom level was unguarded; they immediately found a stair upward that led to a closed and locked door. With brute strength, they forced open the lock (they were there to make a distraction, after all).
Inside were six guards gambling at a table. The party charged forward and murdered all the guards before any alarum could be raised.
Continuing out into the corridors of the castle itself, the party turned south and ultimately broke into another room. There, they found five men sleeping in their beds and murdered them all mercilessly as they slept.
------
In the keep, the Extraction Team made a beeline to the west toward the door, behind which were heard two feminine voices. Baby Face failed to pick the locked lock, but then called on the unseen servant bound in his ring to open the door, and it miraculously could. Opening the door quietly, they surprised two women--one middle-aged but still beautiful, the other young, dark-haired, and very similar in face to Morholt--who were talking quietly to each other.
The party rushed in and held their mouths, telling the two women that they were there to rescue them. This worked, strangely, and the women trusted them. The older one identified herself as Sonora, the younger as Moria, daughter of Morholt, imprisoned by her father in the tower until she could be given away to the Elves of the Dwimmerholt. Once freed, the women quickly grabbed some valuables, and then agreed to be led out to the roof and carried down the wall ...
------
The Distraction Team continued a little deeper. They moved on to the next room and found another barracks with another five sleeping men whom they quickly killed. They then considered mercenary goals--what is there to loot? Between the two rooms, they had seen twelve footlockers altogether, and now split their attention opening all these lockers. In these they found a number of fine cloaks, suits of plate armor, and a number of other pieces of jewelry.
At the end of this time looting, Lead received a sending from Baby Face telling him to "Get out!" Consolidating everything, the Distraction Team then went out and back to the basement and then out through the secret door. I didn't roll any wandering inhabitants, alas.
------
Back in town, some of the party set out with the "bandits" and Sonora and Moria to their hideout in the woods north of town while others decided to remain in town and possibly spread rumors of the god Kord's wrath having befallen Morholt and his men. Rumormongering was done, much quickened by an excess of liquor as several of the characters caroused. Valor Justice and Thaddeus both saved, but Blackleaf failed her save and ran into a minor misunderstanding with the law--she happened to be in the way when the mercenaries in the "Citadel" (the only watchtower in town) were mustered out to go to the castle for an emergency, and they shook her down for 50 gp ...
------
Remembrance for the Fallen:
Gram, Dorcas, Frida, and Johann Haybaler (normal hirelings), Hauka and Wilmerand (weasels), Blade and Boar (boarhounds), 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)
the Goblin King and the Lord of Werewolves have renewed their ancient alliance in the dungeons beneath the Howling Tower ...
the secret treasury of the Bronding Kings is said to lie hidden behind the Brokenbrand Falls, haunted by enchanting naiads ...
Jaer the Windlord looks down on the world below from the Eyries of the Eagles atop the Greyhame Mountain itself ...
and the Stars themselves are singing an eerie, eldritch song, night after night ...
15 March's roster:
Kord (half-orc fighter 3/cleric 4 ... he mislabeled levels before, I probably did too)
Ham (cleric 4)
Thaddeus (newly minted fighter 1)
Baby Face (thief 5)
Valor Justice (Elf 1)
Blackleaf (Elf 3)
Koko (woman-ape 2)
Lead (cleric 4)
Aria (Elf 1)
Little Bob (travelling-man 5, I think)
and all their hirelings and dogs
This is the week during which Morholt will force the lady Sonora to marry him, using a love potion possibly provided to him by the Elves.
But first, the characters had other business.
First, Blackleaf tested out a bunch of magic items gained from the hoard of Ulfior, undead thing, and discovered among other things a medallion of ESP and a ring of animal control along with a couple other minor things (some potions she sipped, none poisonous, including one seeming to be of strength, of invincibility, etc.). Discovering these things, Blackleaf then sought out Aldir (whom she is hoping to use to marry and thus to gain an immortal soul) while everyone else was preparing. She used her newfound medallion to read his thoughts concerning her (suspicion--is she here to tempt me with an illicit relationship again?) and then offered him a silver torc to dedicate to his god Adonai as a kind of peace-offering. He accepted it reluctantly.
Meanwhile, the party has a number of other magic items they needed to identify and which were less simple to figure out. So they sought out Axxl the Mask, semi-local sage, and for the price of 2000 gold, got him to agree to identify up to a dozen magic items over the course of the month. They gave him: 1) a scroll, 2) a scroll, 3) a helm, 4) a wand, 5) a sword, 6) a scroll, 7) a handaxe, 8) a flamberge-sword, 9) a scroll. I've been taking notes for the last twenty-three sessions, but fuck me if I remember what is what, especially when their notes don't tell them where they acquired the thing. Oh well, that's what I signed up for as referee. Four weeks from now I'll have to have identified all these things for them.
Okay, but really, Morholt is going to force Sonora to marry him. I roll ... 4 days before the deed is done. The party begins to plan ...
Send the eagle Kaaraak to reconnoiter Oakridge Castle to figure out where the lady is? Aria the Elf won't allow it (she is of Natural alignment, and playing it hardcore).
Finally, Baby Face uses his sending bone to send a message to Sonora: "We want to save you; where are you?"
The message returned is, "I don't know if I can trust you. I'm trapped in the northwest tower of the keep."
Meanwhile, Baby Face also approaches his Thieves' Guild contact Jaybird Jenny and gets a message sent to the "bandits" in the woods (who are actually the freed men-at-arms who were loyal to the former lord and who were imprisoned by Morholt before being freed by the player-characters ... and are now living as bandits). The message details the party's desire to free Sonora, will they help? "Tell us when and where to meet you and we will kill Morholt and his men," the bandits answer back.
"Meet us tomorrow night below the castle gate," the party sends the message back. Thirteen bandits show up, ready for trouble.
And so they attack the castle ...
The plan ultimately decided was to split the party. Half the party (the Extraction Team) including Koko, Blackleaf, Kord, Aria, Baby Face, and Valor Justice would have Koko the ape climb the northeast face of the keep with ropes, everyone would climb up, and they would go in an free Sonora.
Meanwhile, the Distraction Team--everyone else, including the bandits--would approach the front gates and create a distraction. Actually, the Extraction Team was supposed to wait until the distraction took place.
Anyway, the Distraction Team marched up to the castle gates. The guards hailed the large party of armed people approaching at night. "Who are you?"
"Clerics of the god Kord, come to bless the upcoming wedding!" Lead called back.
"We didn't invite you!" the guard leader calls back. "What the hell is going on?"
"If you refuse us, the god Kord's wrath will fall upon you!" Lead answered.
"I'm calling the guard captain," the guard returned.
The Distraction Team here abandoned their plan and retreated (at some point I reminded them of the secret entrance to the castle dungeons they've been through before ... was it here?). They decide to go around the castle and enter the secret door into the dungeons.
------
The Extraction Team waited in vain for a signal and finally decided to act on their own. Koko the ape climbed the keep face without a rope and noted six guards on the fighting-floor of the keep's roof. (The guards rolled a 6 on a d6 on their "notice check", the worst they could possibly roll; they're gossiping among themselves). Blackleaf then cast sleep and all six guards fell asleep. The Extraction Team then climbed up with the help of ropes thrown down by Koko. The guards were standing near a trapdoor down into the keep ...
------
The Distraction Team entered into the dungeons. The bottom level was unguarded; they immediately found a stair upward that led to a closed and locked door. With brute strength, they forced open the lock (they were there to make a distraction, after all).
Inside were six guards gambling at a table. The party charged forward and murdered all the guards before any alarum could be raised.
Continuing out into the corridors of the castle itself, the party turned south and ultimately broke into another room. There, they found five men sleeping in their beds and murdered them all mercilessly as they slept.
------
In the keep, the Extraction Team made a beeline to the west toward the door, behind which were heard two feminine voices. Baby Face failed to pick the locked lock, but then called on the unseen servant bound in his ring to open the door, and it miraculously could. Opening the door quietly, they surprised two women--one middle-aged but still beautiful, the other young, dark-haired, and very similar in face to Morholt--who were talking quietly to each other.
The party rushed in and held their mouths, telling the two women that they were there to rescue them. This worked, strangely, and the women trusted them. The older one identified herself as Sonora, the younger as Moria, daughter of Morholt, imprisoned by her father in the tower until she could be given away to the Elves of the Dwimmerholt. Once freed, the women quickly grabbed some valuables, and then agreed to be led out to the roof and carried down the wall ...
------
The Distraction Team continued a little deeper. They moved on to the next room and found another barracks with another five sleeping men whom they quickly killed. They then considered mercenary goals--what is there to loot? Between the two rooms, they had seen twelve footlockers altogether, and now split their attention opening all these lockers. In these they found a number of fine cloaks, suits of plate armor, and a number of other pieces of jewelry.
At the end of this time looting, Lead received a sending from Baby Face telling him to "Get out!" Consolidating everything, the Distraction Team then went out and back to the basement and then out through the secret door. I didn't roll any wandering inhabitants, alas.
------
Back in town, some of the party set out with the "bandits" and Sonora and Moria to their hideout in the woods north of town while others decided to remain in town and possibly spread rumors of the god Kord's wrath having befallen Morholt and his men. Rumormongering was done, much quickened by an excess of liquor as several of the characters caroused. Valor Justice and Thaddeus both saved, but Blackleaf failed her save and ran into a minor misunderstanding with the law--she happened to be in the way when the mercenaries in the "Citadel" (the only watchtower in town) were mustered out to go to the castle for an emergency, and they shook her down for 50 gp ...
------
Remembrance for the Fallen:
Gram, Dorcas, Frida, and Johann Haybaler (normal hirelings), Hauka and Wilmerand (weasels), Blade and Boar (boarhounds), 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)
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"
Saturday, November 18, 2017
Play Report From Jesse Goldshear's Vymrrys 2
"Laurantha to Xanthos--a Missive
Xanthos, my companion in arms, you know, of course, that I am seeking to expand my resources for the brewing of mead, and this includes in particular the acquisition of properties in various places in which to store the barrels of fermenting brew. I have thus already acquired such a space in the strange pocket dimension around the Vaults of Vyzor, having set up both barrels and bee hives in the new gnomish quarter there; otherwise, I have also been seeking some property in the desert city of Vymrrys, down the Dreaming River and in another world--it seems a prudent place in which to brew a dry mead, perhaps to be labeled the Desert Visionary Brew ...
To this end, I sought one called Corvus Isn, a local freelancer in Vymrrys known for doing the dirty work for nobles unwilling to sully their own hands with whatever deed needed doing. He was said to have come into possession of some property that has changed hands several times recently, all under mysterious circumstances, and I imagined that this creature might have some further property for sale, or perhaps at least advice in the acquisition of such.
In my rumormongering, I had heard that Corvus Isn's last known location was in some neighborhood of the delightful moniker of 'Drunkard's Bottom'; and also, from one Ayatollah Goblini (a most peculiar goblinage who takes advantage of his fellows' servile nature in the pontificating of some strange cult of shortness), another frequenter of the Myopic Myconid tavern, I heard that Corvus had been delayed from some sort of meeting in the Dreaming Bazaar.
Therefore, I well intended to set out for Drunkard's Bottom to seek this Corvus Isn, and even as I made my preparations, I did behold Magic Meryl in her new halfling shape, accompanied by her semi-apprentice, Pitwin Spryneedle, a gnome child orphaned by the Red Hand Orcs in the Vaults of Vyzor. These two I had previously accompanied on a quest to discover the nature of the bacchanals of the Otter-Folk in Vymrrys. I hailed the twain, and after I briefly sketched my adventuring intent, the magic pair agreed to accompany me to Drunkard's Bottom. Considering the potentially dangerous nature of a neighborhood of such an eponym, Magic Meryl and Pitwin disguised themselves in local robes, and Pitwin added a special touch for himself with a spray-on-beard.
We headed east, setting sun at our backs, and before long sought further information as to the whereabouts of the neighborhood, our goal, from a street performer. This woman, wrapped from head to toe in skin-tight blue robes, was a contortionist of exceeding skill, earning her coin by seeming to wrap her limbs and herself into knots for an applauding crowd. When the other passersby had passed, we approached her, I with two coin in my hand ready to buy information; but Pitwin rushed ahead, clapping uproariously and exclaiming how amazing were her feats of flexibility.
This performer then revealed to us her moniker--Sarah the Astonishing--and when we asked for directions to Drunkard's Bottom, she suddenly seemed worried, glancing especially at Pitwin. 'It can be a dangerous place,' she said. 'Are you sure you want to go there?'
'You don't have to worry about us!' Pitwin replied, puffing up his chest. 'We're tough!' This gnomish child, luscious beard bristling out from beneath bright eyes, was excruciatingly adorable in that moment. I was myself, of course, completely immune to his charms, but Sarah the Astonishing visibly melted before his shining eyes.
'Is this your child?' Sarah asked, and while I rolled my eyes in disdain for this display of cuteness, Meryl piped up, 'Yes, he is!'
I must admit, however, that Pitwin did win Sarah over such that she offered to guide us to Drunkard's Bottom, for which service we gladly retained her. As night crept ever onward, we arrived in the neighborhood, and I asked that Sarah direct us to a good watering hole for rumormongering; to which she answered with the name of the Bell and Beetle, a place with both drink and entertainment. 'Is it age appropriate?' Meryl asked, worried for her ward; to which Pitwin piped up, 'I've seen things! I've gotten drunk, too!' Therefore, to the Bell and Beetle we went.
Within, we found the kind of cantina that seems ubiquitous in any hive of scum and villainy, filled with drunks of cosmopolitan types. 'I'm an adult!' Pitwin declared to the one-eyed, tattooed bouncer as we entered, to which he shrugged and answered, 'Sure, kid.' At the bar I and Meryl inquired as to the whereabouts of Corvus Isn, and a drunk sloppily informed us that Corvus had been seen at a pawn shop not far away. The barkeep further explained how to get to this 'Three Lanterns Pawnshop' after our local informant passed out from inebriation.
All at once, we noticed that Pitwin had vanished in the crowd (an easy feat for a gnome child barely knee-high), and though, of course, I was immune to his sickeningly adorable charms, I was nigh ready to draw steel and accost the barkeep for his disappearance when suddenly he reappeared, smiling, new gold in hand. 'I won a bet on some fighting grubs!' he declared, and regaled us in childlike detail as to what he had seen in the back of the bar, of a kind of pit where people set stinging desert caterpillars against each other; he had betted on what seemed at first to be the loser, but which ultimately came out on top.
As Magic Meryl scolded Pitwin for his irresponsible use of money, we all made our way out onto the street; and for an additional fee of 15 gold, Sarah agreed to accompany us for the night as a kind of thief-acrobat.
Up the street and down a couple blocks, following the barkeep's directions, we came upon the pawnshop marked by three lanterns out front (only one being lit at the moment). At the door, we found it not locked, but stuck, and when I knocked, we heard movement within, but got no answer. Pitwin stepped up to the door and cast ESP, and reported to us after some dire concentration that there two individuals inside worried about what they were going to do with a dead body and what 'the Patriarch' was going to do to them when he learned it hadn't been handled right.
Unable to enter through that door, we went around to an alley to look for a back entrance, and there we were jumped by a figure in black leather armor and purple robes--an Elf of the House of the Purple Sun! I drew my sword, and while the others flailed ineffectually, I hacked the wretch's arm off--though Meryl got the killing blow.
A backdoor into the pawnshop was duly discovered; opening it, we found a pair of Elves standing over a charred body, arguing, and Pitwin cast a spell of charm person on the nearer. As the fellow turned to him with the smile of a friend, Pitwin declared, 'We're here to help with the body!' After some confused argument between the two (Billy and Ted, Billy being our Elf), they ultimately accepted the story that Otter-Folk had killed their watchman outside, and that we were indeed there to help dispose of the body. Pitwin sent Ted outside to watch while Billy helped stuff the charred body into a corpse. In the course of this, we managed to investigate the body, and found that it seemed indeed to be the body of Corvus Isn, with a cryptic note: 'Property bought; bad feeling about it; do as you wish; ~Corvus Isn.'
According to Billy the Elf, he and his companions had hired a necromancer, one Orchard Ringfinger (sp?) to dispose of the body; he had said he would summon spirits that would devour the corpse in fire to leave only ash, but obviously what remained was a corpse, badly burned, perhaps, but not devoured entire.
While we ourselves helped 'dispose' of the body, Billy the Elf insisted on robbing the place while the chance remained. He discovered some loose floorboards by the customer counter, but as he ripped them open and hauled out the safe, a blue smoke overcame him and his flesh began to melt off his bones. At his screams, his associate, Ted, returned--seeing his comrade so distressed, he insisted on attacking us, and we cut his throat in response.
Magic Meryl and Pitwin thence suggested taking the body of Corvus back to Vyzor to be reincarnated by Pete Loudly, if possible, or at least to get a speak with dead spell cast over the body, a thing I well agreed with, and we quickly took up the chest containing the charred body and returned to the Myopic Myconid posthaste.
As for the pawnshop, I have since heard that it was robbed that self-same night, the safe completely disappearing, along with the books, and several valuable trinkets removed from the shelves. Clearly, dastardly thieves took advantage of the night's chaos to enrich their own pockets! And I have heard that they left behind a spray-painted tag that 'Dougal Lives'--the nerve of some criminals.
Well, Xanthos, such is the extent of my attempt to acquire property within Vymrrys--an attempt ending with an even greater mystery, and no clear possibility of easy property. Such is the life of adventure.
My efforts will, of course continue. I hope before long to earning gold hand over fist with these brews--you must try them, my friend!
Your companion-in-arms under the Black Dragon,
Laurantha Akala"
Xanthos, my companion in arms, you know, of course, that I am seeking to expand my resources for the brewing of mead, and this includes in particular the acquisition of properties in various places in which to store the barrels of fermenting brew. I have thus already acquired such a space in the strange pocket dimension around the Vaults of Vyzor, having set up both barrels and bee hives in the new gnomish quarter there; otherwise, I have also been seeking some property in the desert city of Vymrrys, down the Dreaming River and in another world--it seems a prudent place in which to brew a dry mead, perhaps to be labeled the Desert Visionary Brew ...
To this end, I sought one called Corvus Isn, a local freelancer in Vymrrys known for doing the dirty work for nobles unwilling to sully their own hands with whatever deed needed doing. He was said to have come into possession of some property that has changed hands several times recently, all under mysterious circumstances, and I imagined that this creature might have some further property for sale, or perhaps at least advice in the acquisition of such.
In my rumormongering, I had heard that Corvus Isn's last known location was in some neighborhood of the delightful moniker of 'Drunkard's Bottom'; and also, from one Ayatollah Goblini (a most peculiar goblinage who takes advantage of his fellows' servile nature in the pontificating of some strange cult of shortness), another frequenter of the Myopic Myconid tavern, I heard that Corvus had been delayed from some sort of meeting in the Dreaming Bazaar.
 |
| Jesse Goldshear's drawing, I believe |
Therefore, I well intended to set out for Drunkard's Bottom to seek this Corvus Isn, and even as I made my preparations, I did behold Magic Meryl in her new halfling shape, accompanied by her semi-apprentice, Pitwin Spryneedle, a gnome child orphaned by the Red Hand Orcs in the Vaults of Vyzor. These two I had previously accompanied on a quest to discover the nature of the bacchanals of the Otter-Folk in Vymrrys. I hailed the twain, and after I briefly sketched my adventuring intent, the magic pair agreed to accompany me to Drunkard's Bottom. Considering the potentially dangerous nature of a neighborhood of such an eponym, Magic Meryl and Pitwin disguised themselves in local robes, and Pitwin added a special touch for himself with a spray-on-beard.
We headed east, setting sun at our backs, and before long sought further information as to the whereabouts of the neighborhood, our goal, from a street performer. This woman, wrapped from head to toe in skin-tight blue robes, was a contortionist of exceeding skill, earning her coin by seeming to wrap her limbs and herself into knots for an applauding crowd. When the other passersby had passed, we approached her, I with two coin in my hand ready to buy information; but Pitwin rushed ahead, clapping uproariously and exclaiming how amazing were her feats of flexibility.
This performer then revealed to us her moniker--Sarah the Astonishing--and when we asked for directions to Drunkard's Bottom, she suddenly seemed worried, glancing especially at Pitwin. 'It can be a dangerous place,' she said. 'Are you sure you want to go there?'
'You don't have to worry about us!' Pitwin replied, puffing up his chest. 'We're tough!' This gnomish child, luscious beard bristling out from beneath bright eyes, was excruciatingly adorable in that moment. I was myself, of course, completely immune to his charms, but Sarah the Astonishing visibly melted before his shining eyes.
'Is this your child?' Sarah asked, and while I rolled my eyes in disdain for this display of cuteness, Meryl piped up, 'Yes, he is!'
I must admit, however, that Pitwin did win Sarah over such that she offered to guide us to Drunkard's Bottom, for which service we gladly retained her. As night crept ever onward, we arrived in the neighborhood, and I asked that Sarah direct us to a good watering hole for rumormongering; to which she answered with the name of the Bell and Beetle, a place with both drink and entertainment. 'Is it age appropriate?' Meryl asked, worried for her ward; to which Pitwin piped up, 'I've seen things! I've gotten drunk, too!' Therefore, to the Bell and Beetle we went.
Within, we found the kind of cantina that seems ubiquitous in any hive of scum and villainy, filled with drunks of cosmopolitan types. 'I'm an adult!' Pitwin declared to the one-eyed, tattooed bouncer as we entered, to which he shrugged and answered, 'Sure, kid.' At the bar I and Meryl inquired as to the whereabouts of Corvus Isn, and a drunk sloppily informed us that Corvus had been seen at a pawn shop not far away. The barkeep further explained how to get to this 'Three Lanterns Pawnshop' after our local informant passed out from inebriation.
All at once, we noticed that Pitwin had vanished in the crowd (an easy feat for a gnome child barely knee-high), and though, of course, I was immune to his sickeningly adorable charms, I was nigh ready to draw steel and accost the barkeep for his disappearance when suddenly he reappeared, smiling, new gold in hand. 'I won a bet on some fighting grubs!' he declared, and regaled us in childlike detail as to what he had seen in the back of the bar, of a kind of pit where people set stinging desert caterpillars against each other; he had betted on what seemed at first to be the loser, but which ultimately came out on top.
As Magic Meryl scolded Pitwin for his irresponsible use of money, we all made our way out onto the street; and for an additional fee of 15 gold, Sarah agreed to accompany us for the night as a kind of thief-acrobat.
Up the street and down a couple blocks, following the barkeep's directions, we came upon the pawnshop marked by three lanterns out front (only one being lit at the moment). At the door, we found it not locked, but stuck, and when I knocked, we heard movement within, but got no answer. Pitwin stepped up to the door and cast ESP, and reported to us after some dire concentration that there two individuals inside worried about what they were going to do with a dead body and what 'the Patriarch' was going to do to them when he learned it hadn't been handled right.
Unable to enter through that door, we went around to an alley to look for a back entrance, and there we were jumped by a figure in black leather armor and purple robes--an Elf of the House of the Purple Sun! I drew my sword, and while the others flailed ineffectually, I hacked the wretch's arm off--though Meryl got the killing blow.
A backdoor into the pawnshop was duly discovered; opening it, we found a pair of Elves standing over a charred body, arguing, and Pitwin cast a spell of charm person on the nearer. As the fellow turned to him with the smile of a friend, Pitwin declared, 'We're here to help with the body!' After some confused argument between the two (Billy and Ted, Billy being our Elf), they ultimately accepted the story that Otter-Folk had killed their watchman outside, and that we were indeed there to help dispose of the body. Pitwin sent Ted outside to watch while Billy helped stuff the charred body into a corpse. In the course of this, we managed to investigate the body, and found that it seemed indeed to be the body of Corvus Isn, with a cryptic note: 'Property bought; bad feeling about it; do as you wish; ~Corvus Isn.'
According to Billy the Elf, he and his companions had hired a necromancer, one Orchard Ringfinger (sp?) to dispose of the body; he had said he would summon spirits that would devour the corpse in fire to leave only ash, but obviously what remained was a corpse, badly burned, perhaps, but not devoured entire.
While we ourselves helped 'dispose' of the body, Billy the Elf insisted on robbing the place while the chance remained. He discovered some loose floorboards by the customer counter, but as he ripped them open and hauled out the safe, a blue smoke overcame him and his flesh began to melt off his bones. At his screams, his associate, Ted, returned--seeing his comrade so distressed, he insisted on attacking us, and we cut his throat in response.
 |
| Billy the Elf melting, except imagine it with a cloud of blue gas |
Magic Meryl and Pitwin thence suggested taking the body of Corvus back to Vyzor to be reincarnated by Pete Loudly, if possible, or at least to get a speak with dead spell cast over the body, a thing I well agreed with, and we quickly took up the chest containing the charred body and returned to the Myopic Myconid posthaste.
As for the pawnshop, I have since heard that it was robbed that self-same night, the safe completely disappearing, along with the books, and several valuable trinkets removed from the shelves. Clearly, dastardly thieves took advantage of the night's chaos to enrich their own pockets! And I have heard that they left behind a spray-painted tag that 'Dougal Lives'--the nerve of some criminals.
Well, Xanthos, such is the extent of my attempt to acquire property within Vymrrys--an attempt ending with an even greater mystery, and no clear possibility of easy property. Such is the life of adventure.
My efforts will, of course continue. I hope before long to earning gold hand over fist with these brews--you must try them, my friend!
Your companion-in-arms under the Black Dragon,
Laurantha Akala"
Sunday, November 12, 2017
Greyhame Mountain Dungeon Expedition 8
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 ancient Bronding Kings is said to lie somewhere behind the Brokenbrand Falls, haunted by enchanting naiads ...
the Goblin King and the Lord of Werewolves have renewed their ancient alliance beneath the Howling Tower;
and the secret treasury of the ancient Bronding Kings is said to lie somewhere behind the Brokenbrand Falls, haunted by enchanting naiads ...
...
and Jaer the Windlord is said to look down on the world below from the Eyries of the Eagles on Greyhame Mountain itself ...
today's roster:
Aethulfwulf (fighter 1)
Kord (half-orc fighter 1/cleric 1)
with Dog 1 (a mastiff)
Little Bob (traveling-man 1)
with Marlo (a cur), Panzer (orc-mastiff), and Orion II (lion dog)
Rendorsheeg (Elf 2)
plus, a party of Elf tourists led by Elrohir and including the other Elves Cymbria, Hylen, and Alanora, further followed by a couple of charmed humans and a group of six goblin slaves packing the Elves' things for them
While Aethulwulf's player put his character together, Kord looked around town for local work and managed to get a gig laboring with the construction at the new Shrine of St. Ursula the Bear. He made 6 gold (must have been doing some heavy lifting!), bit his chaotic tongue at the lawful imagery, and put his wages toward his debt with the thieves' guild.
At that point I still only had the two players; I gave them "the pitch" (orcs in the glimmervaults, etc), but added that a party of Elves had come into town a week ago and were loitering around, looking for people willing to escort them into the Glimmervaults. They were on a pilgrimage to look upon the Ancient Stars that glimmer beneath the earth, but having heard of the troubles with the orcs, they wanted some extra muscle in their party.
Kord enthusiastically agreed to join the Elves, hoping for 60 gold for the job; the Elves responded, no, we were thinking something more along the lines of 50 gold per person. That sold the rest of the party, which now included Little Bob. Before setting out, Little Bob and Kord bought the three dogs for sale, which included an orc mastiff, a huge blue-black beast of a dog trained to murder orcs.
Thus outfitted, the party accompanied the Elves through the wilderness toward the caverns of the Glimmervaults. Fortunately, because the Elves were excellent woodsmen and passed quietly through the world, they needed roll no wilderness encounters; so they arrived at the entrances to the Glimmervaults on the north slope of a spur of the Greyhame Mountain. To the east is a worked entrance surrounded by heads impaled on spikes (including humans, Elves, and many orcs); to the west, a stone grotto that descends deeper into the slope before becoming a cold cavemouth into the underworld.
The Elves led the party to the grotto and into the caverns beyond. They then basically led the party on a long walk/tour ever to the southeast through a series of natural caverns, passing through a large number of chambers, but almost always in the same direction, south east, south east, etc. Along the way, they pointed out some interesting features, or stopped to sing or make obeisance to their own idols.
First, pointing to a formation of flowstone in one of the first few chambers, the Elves remarked on how the Galad tribe used to rule the surrounding lands as loyal vassals of the Bronding Kings, and how their dead are buried in the stone there behind; the last time Elrohir and his companions came through, the Galad tribe were not yet at their end, for the Bronding Kingdom had not yet fallen apart.
Continuing on, the party shortly came upon a large stalactite-stalagmite column carved to resemble a man coming down from above, reaching out to the image of a woman below, while the ceiling of the cave around them glittered with stones in the shapes of constellations. Here, the Elves stopped for a time and sang an ancient song in an old Elvish dialect little remembered now; and as they sang, their noise attracted the attention of some orcs and wolves! (This was also the moment when Rendorsheeg's player showed up, so I guess Rendorsheeg kind of stumbled out of the shadows at that point, out of breath from running ahead of the orcs)
Six orcs and six wolves came down the corridors from the northwest, back whence the party had come; they were armed and ready for combat, and gave a warshout as they charged into melee. What followed was a short combat in which the dogs showed their value by mauling the orcs, while the party stayed behind throwing and shooting missiles at the orcs. Two wolves and an orc went down in the first round; in the second, the party got initiative and took out two more orcs. At that point, the orcs and wolves failed morale and turned to flee, and two more orcs went down, pulled down by the vicious dogs.
Searching the bodies produced a mere 16 gp, but Kord managed to find and claim for himself a golden torc on the biggest orc before anyone else could get it.
Continuing on from there, the party went south-east, and ultimately ended up (in the second "level" of the Glimmervaults) in a vast room with two stalactite-stalagmite columns, the larger of which was carved to represent the World-Tree; and its stone "branches" above seemed not to meet the stone ceiling, but to spread into the night sky, as some kind of magic made the ceiling seem in fact to be open to the stars (strangely, for the party had entered the caves during the day). Moreover, there were two sets of double doors, one to east, one to the north, both of which were set with heavy metal bars. These doors were both marked, "These halls are polluted with the miasma of death; Galad has sealed these doors," or some such. Elrohir remarked that behind them lay an ancient shrine dedicated to Astora, Goddess-Queen of Elves, but that the halls were polluted with death in ancient times, and abandoned by the deathless Elves who do not care to look upon death.
The party searched ineffectually while the Elves sang their star-songs, and then everyone continued south-east. In the next chamber, they surprised a pair of many-legged insectoid horrors with tentacle-faces, both engrossed in a feast of two dead orcs; on these the party sicced their dogs, and also cast missiles at them, and rather quickly dispatched them, with Aethulfwulf pretty well killing one with a strong cast of a javelin.
Further yet, the Elves led the party into yet another large chamber, this one opening onto a large underground lake, preternaturally still in the windless deeps. The glassy water reflected the ceiling perfectly, and because of this, it seemed as if they had walked to the edge of the world and looked into a field of stars, as the ceiling, again, seemed to be filled with the stars of the night sky. The Elves began to sing a weird and ancient song in memory of the stars, and into this eerie serenity, Rendorsheeg flicked a rock into the lake, and the ripples destroyed the symmetry of the lake's mirror. The Elves gave him reproving glances, but continued their song.
Rendorsheeg, ever the one for foolhardy antics, then decided to throw poor Orion II into the water. He picked the dog up and kind of tossed him into the water, causing quite a splash and a bunch of thrashing and whining as the dog landed in the cold water; then Orion II disappeared beneath the surface, pulled down by something pale beneath the water. The Elves gave Rendorsheeg the evil eye, and as Little Bob fumed at his companion, Rendorsheeg sheepishly gave the traveling-man 50 gold in recompense.
There was another "shoreline" on the north side of the lake, on which was banked a black boat; the party briefly considered a scheme to haul it across, but when they heard that the Elves were done with their song and moving on, they followed them instead.
The Elves then led the party mostly south (through the third "level" of the Glimmervaults). They went quickly and without wandering monsters, and ultimately stepped out into sunlight once again, on the southern slope of the spur off the Greyhame Mountain. Elrohir and his companions intended to return west and north, back to town, and offered to pay the characters the second half of their fee, to which the party agreed. Then, as the Elves continued on their way, the party returned back through the caves they had just traversed to the large cavern with the World Tree and the sealed doors.
Inspecting the eastern of the doors, they determined that they could spend a turn to pry off the iron bar that sealed the door; Kord did this, and opened the door onto an east-leading corridor that further opened onto a long pillared hall. On the floor of that hall lay three desiccated corpses, which had clearly lain among the pillars for a long time. Rendorsheeg tossed a torch at one, afraid of evil fungus and spores, but nothing happened--until they stepped into the room, of course, at which point the corpses arose, and the air in the room became noticeably colder.
These corpses reached to their waists as if drawing swords, but drew only blades of shadow, and then advanced across the hall. Kord attempted to turn them, but as he held up his holy symbol and said a prayer to the good gods, the corpses only continued advancing, implacably and silently. Seeing this, the party turned tail and fled back into the hall beyond; and then decided to call it a day, and returned to town.
I don't want to deal with any more of that supernatural shit! Little Bob declared, already in a foul temper after losing a dog to the things in the water, and mindful of the terrible keening spirit in the Howling Tower.
On the way back they suffered a brief skirmish with orcs that broke one shield, a spear, expended 12 ammunition, and in the confusion left behind a backpack with one week's rations (a wilderness attrition encounter).
Back in town, Kord discovered that the torc he had grabbed was worth 400 gold, and refusing to share it with the party, he used the reward to pay off his debt to the thieves' guild in full.
Meanwhile, Rendorsheeg drank himself to full wine-madness while regaling the guests of the Black Dragon's Meed with tales of the adventure, and ultimately got himself into some trouble with the law. He doesn't remember what happened, but he is now jailed in the dungeon of Oakridge Castle (the castle of local lord Morholt), with a debt of 4000 gold, which must be paid before he is released. One gets the impression that he might have said some unwise things to an already touchy son of Morholt ...
------
Remembrance for the Fallen
Orion II (lion dog), Bacon (boar hound), Tore (half-orc fighter 1/cleric 1), Jimmy the Snitch (dog), Orion (lion dog), Harambe (man-ape 1)
today's roster:
Aethulfwulf (fighter 1)
Kord (half-orc fighter 1/cleric 1)
with Dog 1 (a mastiff)
Little Bob (traveling-man 1)
with Marlo (a cur), Panzer (orc-mastiff), and Orion II (lion dog)
Rendorsheeg (Elf 2)
plus, a party of Elf tourists led by Elrohir and including the other Elves Cymbria, Hylen, and Alanora, further followed by a couple of charmed humans and a group of six goblin slaves packing the Elves' things for them
While Aethulwulf's player put his character together, Kord looked around town for local work and managed to get a gig laboring with the construction at the new Shrine of St. Ursula the Bear. He made 6 gold (must have been doing some heavy lifting!), bit his chaotic tongue at the lawful imagery, and put his wages toward his debt with the thieves' guild.
At that point I still only had the two players; I gave them "the pitch" (orcs in the glimmervaults, etc), but added that a party of Elves had come into town a week ago and were loitering around, looking for people willing to escort them into the Glimmervaults. They were on a pilgrimage to look upon the Ancient Stars that glimmer beneath the earth, but having heard of the troubles with the orcs, they wanted some extra muscle in their party.
Kord enthusiastically agreed to join the Elves, hoping for 60 gold for the job; the Elves responded, no, we were thinking something more along the lines of 50 gold per person. That sold the rest of the party, which now included Little Bob. Before setting out, Little Bob and Kord bought the three dogs for sale, which included an orc mastiff, a huge blue-black beast of a dog trained to murder orcs.
Thus outfitted, the party accompanied the Elves through the wilderness toward the caverns of the Glimmervaults. Fortunately, because the Elves were excellent woodsmen and passed quietly through the world, they needed roll no wilderness encounters; so they arrived at the entrances to the Glimmervaults on the north slope of a spur of the Greyhame Mountain. To the east is a worked entrance surrounded by heads impaled on spikes (including humans, Elves, and many orcs); to the west, a stone grotto that descends deeper into the slope before becoming a cold cavemouth into the underworld.
The Elves led the party to the grotto and into the caverns beyond. They then basically led the party on a long walk/tour ever to the southeast through a series of natural caverns, passing through a large number of chambers, but almost always in the same direction, south east, south east, etc. Along the way, they pointed out some interesting features, or stopped to sing or make obeisance to their own idols.
First, pointing to a formation of flowstone in one of the first few chambers, the Elves remarked on how the Galad tribe used to rule the surrounding lands as loyal vassals of the Bronding Kings, and how their dead are buried in the stone there behind; the last time Elrohir and his companions came through, the Galad tribe were not yet at their end, for the Bronding Kingdom had not yet fallen apart.
 |
| An example of flowstone |
Six orcs and six wolves came down the corridors from the northwest, back whence the party had come; they were armed and ready for combat, and gave a warshout as they charged into melee. What followed was a short combat in which the dogs showed their value by mauling the orcs, while the party stayed behind throwing and shooting missiles at the orcs. Two wolves and an orc went down in the first round; in the second, the party got initiative and took out two more orcs. At that point, the orcs and wolves failed morale and turned to flee, and two more orcs went down, pulled down by the vicious dogs.
Searching the bodies produced a mere 16 gp, but Kord managed to find and claim for himself a golden torc on the biggest orc before anyone else could get it.
Continuing on from there, the party went south-east, and ultimately ended up (in the second "level" of the Glimmervaults) in a vast room with two stalactite-stalagmite columns, the larger of which was carved to represent the World-Tree; and its stone "branches" above seemed not to meet the stone ceiling, but to spread into the night sky, as some kind of magic made the ceiling seem in fact to be open to the stars (strangely, for the party had entered the caves during the day). Moreover, there were two sets of double doors, one to east, one to the north, both of which were set with heavy metal bars. These doors were both marked, "These halls are polluted with the miasma of death; Galad has sealed these doors," or some such. Elrohir remarked that behind them lay an ancient shrine dedicated to Astora, Goddess-Queen of Elves, but that the halls were polluted with death in ancient times, and abandoned by the deathless Elves who do not care to look upon death.
 |
| Like this, except the tree is a flowing stalagmite, and in its roots are carved images of Elves and other animals |
The party searched ineffectually while the Elves sang their star-songs, and then everyone continued south-east. In the next chamber, they surprised a pair of many-legged insectoid horrors with tentacle-faces, both engrossed in a feast of two dead orcs; on these the party sicced their dogs, and also cast missiles at them, and rather quickly dispatched them, with Aethulfwulf pretty well killing one with a strong cast of a javelin.
Further yet, the Elves led the party into yet another large chamber, this one opening onto a large underground lake, preternaturally still in the windless deeps. The glassy water reflected the ceiling perfectly, and because of this, it seemed as if they had walked to the edge of the world and looked into a field of stars, as the ceiling, again, seemed to be filled with the stars of the night sky. The Elves began to sing a weird and ancient song in memory of the stars, and into this eerie serenity, Rendorsheeg flicked a rock into the lake, and the ripples destroyed the symmetry of the lake's mirror. The Elves gave him reproving glances, but continued their song.
 |
| Not colored like this, but the reflection on the water is a good example of the glassy mirror of the lake reflecting the stars |
Rendorsheeg, ever the one for foolhardy antics, then decided to throw poor Orion II into the water. He picked the dog up and kind of tossed him into the water, causing quite a splash and a bunch of thrashing and whining as the dog landed in the cold water; then Orion II disappeared beneath the surface, pulled down by something pale beneath the water. The Elves gave Rendorsheeg the evil eye, and as Little Bob fumed at his companion, Rendorsheeg sheepishly gave the traveling-man 50 gold in recompense.
There was another "shoreline" on the north side of the lake, on which was banked a black boat; the party briefly considered a scheme to haul it across, but when they heard that the Elves were done with their song and moving on, they followed them instead.
The Elves then led the party mostly south (through the third "level" of the Glimmervaults). They went quickly and without wandering monsters, and ultimately stepped out into sunlight once again, on the southern slope of the spur off the Greyhame Mountain. Elrohir and his companions intended to return west and north, back to town, and offered to pay the characters the second half of their fee, to which the party agreed. Then, as the Elves continued on their way, the party returned back through the caves they had just traversed to the large cavern with the World Tree and the sealed doors.
Inspecting the eastern of the doors, they determined that they could spend a turn to pry off the iron bar that sealed the door; Kord did this, and opened the door onto an east-leading corridor that further opened onto a long pillared hall. On the floor of that hall lay three desiccated corpses, which had clearly lain among the pillars for a long time. Rendorsheeg tossed a torch at one, afraid of evil fungus and spores, but nothing happened--until they stepped into the room, of course, at which point the corpses arose, and the air in the room became noticeably colder.
These corpses reached to their waists as if drawing swords, but drew only blades of shadow, and then advanced across the hall. Kord attempted to turn them, but as he held up his holy symbol and said a prayer to the good gods, the corpses only continued advancing, implacably and silently. Seeing this, the party turned tail and fled back into the hall beyond; and then decided to call it a day, and returned to town.
I don't want to deal with any more of that supernatural shit! Little Bob declared, already in a foul temper after losing a dog to the things in the water, and mindful of the terrible keening spirit in the Howling Tower.
On the way back they suffered a brief skirmish with orcs that broke one shield, a spear, expended 12 ammunition, and in the confusion left behind a backpack with one week's rations (a wilderness attrition encounter).
Back in town, Kord discovered that the torc he had grabbed was worth 400 gold, and refusing to share it with the party, he used the reward to pay off his debt to the thieves' guild in full.
Meanwhile, Rendorsheeg drank himself to full wine-madness while regaling the guests of the Black Dragon's Meed with tales of the adventure, and ultimately got himself into some trouble with the law. He doesn't remember what happened, but he is now jailed in the dungeon of Oakridge Castle (the castle of local lord Morholt), with a debt of 4000 gold, which must be paid before he is released. One gets the impression that he might have said some unwise things to an already touchy son of Morholt ...
------
Remembrance for the Fallen
Orion II (lion dog), Bacon (boar hound), Tore (half-orc fighter 1/cleric 1), Jimmy the Snitch (dog), Orion (lion dog), Harambe (man-ape 1)
Monday, November 6, 2017
Golden Bones and the Chained Guard: two new Skeletons
I told myself not to publish too many "play reports" in quick succession, so I'm posting these couple of monster-write-ups today, and I'll post the Greyhame Mountain Dungeon Expedition 7 tomorrow. So, without further ado, a couple of variant skeletons for use in any dungeon:
 |
| A particularly well-dressed skeleton |
The Red Priests, a Chaotic sect of clerics and magic-users who more than dabbled in necromantic magics, created undead servants for themselves that were more than mere skeletons. Some were formed from the corpses of favored slaves; some from the bodies of guardians, sacrificed in tandem to create yet more effective guardians; and others were bodyguards duped by gifts of magic items that did more than promised upon the wielder's death (in the best tradition of Sauron granting the Nine Rings to the Ringwraiths!)
------
Firstly, the Gilded Slaves (or Golden Bones):
No. appearing 1-6 && 2-20 regular skeletons
HD 2
AC 5
THAC0 18
Damage by weapon (1-4 usually, sometimes 1-6, rarely 1-8) (on a d6, results 1-3/4-5/6)
Morale -- (they're skeletons)
Turned as zombies (i.e. as HD 2 undead)
Gilded with decorations to please the Red Priests who created them. Each skeleton comes decorated with (roll a single d6 to determine):
1) 2 gems for eyes (roll once for both gems)
2) silvered bones worth 10-60 gp
3) gilt bones worth 100-600 gp
4) one piece of jewelry worth 200-1200 gp set into the sternum
5) silver death mask worth 20-80 gp
6) scrimshaw imagery on major bones (sternum, skull, femurs, etc.) worth 50 gp, OR 300-1800 to the right buyer
------
the Chained Guard
No. appearing 4-9 (d6+3)
HD 1
AC 7
THAC0 19, +1 per skeleton killed (well, -1 ... bonus +1 "to hit" per skeleton killed)
Damage 1-6, +1 per skeleton killed
Morale -- (again, they're skeletons--undead servitors have no morale)
Turned together as a single undead creature equal to the number of hit dice that remain in the group (i.e. 7 skeletons encountered on the first round are turned as a 7 HD monster; if after 3 rounds the skeletons are reduced to 4 and then turned, count the group as a 4 HD monster)
the Chain -- the entire group of skeletons is chained together at the ankles by either a silver chain (worth 10 gp/individual) or a gold chain (worth 50 gp/individual); moreover, this chain magically links the members of the group (4 to 9 skeletons) together, so that the death of any one skeleton in the group increases the "to hit" and damage rolls of each other member by +1.
That is, assuming a group of 5 skeletons, each rolls to hit with a THAC0 19 and 1-6 damage on the first round. If one is killed on the second round, the remaining 4 skeletons attack at THAC0 18 and with 2-7 damage. On the next round, if 2 more are killed, the remaining 2 skeletons attack at THAC0 16 and with 4-9 damage.
I've never bothered with the "dimensions/length" of the chain, but I'm a mean/lazy referee who wants to attack with all the skeletons regardless. If you want, you could come up with the actual line of the chain and let the Chained Guard get tangled up in their own fetters if too ambitious ...
 |
| Think these guys, except they're chain-ganged at the ankles --and they'll hit you harder for every one that's re-killed! |
Credit for this idea goes to Lloyd Alexander of The Chronicles of Prydain, in which the (living) Huntsmen of Arawn are linked together by evil magic, and all grow stronger for each one of their comrades who is slain. I've always loved that idea, and plagiarized it for several games; this is my favorite version of my own plagiarisms.
------
As for a third type, the Bodyguard of the Ring, I'll let imagination stew for a time. I've used them in one dungeon yet, and to good effect! It's true that there are no rumors of any of these particular skeleton-creations lurking in the Greyhame Mountain Dungeon--but then again, one never really knows what lies in store for oneself in the deep places of the world ...
Sunday, November 5, 2017
Play Report from Josh Rapp's Kalaetha
"Laurantha to Xanthos--a Missive
On the rooftop of the inn was an ooze of the same kind as wandered the streets, though a little smaller. I suggested we launch a volley of arrows into it, and the Ayatollah Goblini mentioned that he had a brace of six pistols. While he set up a goblin firing squad, everyone else used their own missile weapons ... unfortunately, the goblins only managed to divide the ooze into many smaller ones; but the silver bullets fired by Hildi's rifles, and the arrows launched by my own magical longbow managed to destroy the miniscule oozes.
Magic Meryl then scouted across the street for us, and found it largely safe (though with some ooze coming up behind us not to far off).
Xanthos, my companion-in-arms, I thought you might find this expedition edifying:
As you know, the Dreaming River and its environs are a strange place. Not only have I found myself the lieutenant of the Sorcerer of the Blue Mask in his war against the ancient Elf-king Elexus the Starchild, but I have also discovered a strange side-way into the city of Vymrrys; and only now have I been whisked away to yet another strange world, the underground city of Kalaetha!
It all started with a strange itching at the back of my neck, which distinctly grew into a 'pulling' one might say, 'pulling' me to prepare myself for some adventure. And lo! when I had done so, I found myself suddenly transported through transdimensional bizarreries and deposited in a simple single-bed inn-room, on top of an unfortunate halfling. I was there in the midst of unfamiliar companions, one Hildi (a young girl), one Frigga (a witch, apparently), and a halfling woman who claimed to be Magic Meryl, reincarnated after the return of her corpse to the Jarod Memorial Library. Alas for Meryl to be halfling-ized and stripped of her magic!
 |
| I imagine it was something like traveling through the portal in 2001 A Space Odyssey |
I rolled off him ungracefully--curse this poor dexterity of mine!--and then the halfling stood up, holding a sheet of parchment like a town cryer, and declared,
'I Elanveril, seek the aid of heroes to complete a task--let them come and hear, and if they decide "yea" reward is offered, and they will seek to complete the task, thence to be returned to their home plane. The initial offer is 100 gold pieces on arrival, and they may return whence come if they refuse, plus said 100 gp.'
We all said, 'yea!' and he continued, 'The task set is to help the captain of the guard, one Dudegrin,' (a dwarf), 'return to the barracks where his troops are stationed, the completion of which task will render a further 300 gold pieces to each hero.'
Further questioning of said Dudegrin revealed that he had come from the barracks to the inn through a secret tunnel built as a contingency, but that he had since collapsed it to prevent monsters following him. Moreover, the city of Kalaetha was in some dire straits, what with weird black oozes that had rained down from the ceiling (the city being underground, it has a ceiling), and thence devoured everyone on the streets--and beyond that, there was rumor of undead horrors and such monsters roaming the streets as well. Dudegrin had fled the barracks because of an ooze's entrance into said building, but now wished to return, hoping to find the remnants of his city guard gathered there.
Ere leaving the inn (the Comely Crock, apparently), Magic Meryl, asked for some biscuits of the proprietors, and received several pieces of hard tack; meanwhile, Frigga summoned up a demonic monstrosity of wolf-heads all kind of jammed together into a semi-coherent form, which she called Fenris.
As for leaving the inn, it turned out that the door opened onto a street, but not the street where the inn ought to be--it opened onto a street some other place in the city! Good thing for us, Dudegrin still knew where we were and where to go.
Up the street, Meryl detected a sound kind of like the slow running of water and alerted us; assuming an ooze, we moved into an alley and Hildi climbed up to the roof; with a rope thrown up by myself, she fastened it to a chimney, and we all clambered up, and none too soon as the ooze came down the street where we had been.
On the rooftops, we continued toward our destination finding the city to be constructed in concentric rings of buildings, and at its center a great glass and crystalline tower with globes full of 'lighted' rocks, a spire held up by huge chains connected to the ceiling.
Ultimately, the city being circles, we found ourselves unable to continue 'inward' without crossing a street. At this point, the Ayatollah Goblini appeared, with 14 goblins in tow. After some discussion of building a goblin-bridge, instead, Hildi used a magic tattoo to fly across the way and set up two lengths of ropes as a kind of bridge (one above, one below, across which a person could shuffle). We used this same technique to cross a second street, and found ourselves finally across from the roof of the barracks, but at that point Hildi's magical flight was close to expired.
'I Elanveril, seek the aid of heroes to complete a task--let them come and hear, and if they decide "yea" reward is offered, and they will seek to complete the task, thence to be returned to their home plane. The initial offer is 100 gold pieces on arrival, and they may return whence come if they refuse, plus said 100 gp.'
We all said, 'yea!' and he continued, 'The task set is to help the captain of the guard, one Dudegrin,' (a dwarf), 'return to the barracks where his troops are stationed, the completion of which task will render a further 300 gold pieces to each hero.'
Further questioning of said Dudegrin revealed that he had come from the barracks to the inn through a secret tunnel built as a contingency, but that he had since collapsed it to prevent monsters following him. Moreover, the city of Kalaetha was in some dire straits, what with weird black oozes that had rained down from the ceiling (the city being underground, it has a ceiling), and thence devoured everyone on the streets--and beyond that, there was rumor of undead horrors and such monsters roaming the streets as well. Dudegrin had fled the barracks because of an ooze's entrance into said building, but now wished to return, hoping to find the remnants of his city guard gathered there.
Ere leaving the inn (the Comely Crock, apparently), Magic Meryl, asked for some biscuits of the proprietors, and received several pieces of hard tack; meanwhile, Frigga summoned up a demonic monstrosity of wolf-heads all kind of jammed together into a semi-coherent form, which she called Fenris.
As for leaving the inn, it turned out that the door opened onto a street, but not the street where the inn ought to be--it opened onto a street some other place in the city! Good thing for us, Dudegrin still knew where we were and where to go.
Up the street, Meryl detected a sound kind of like the slow running of water and alerted us; assuming an ooze, we moved into an alley and Hildi climbed up to the roof; with a rope thrown up by myself, she fastened it to a chimney, and we all clambered up, and none too soon as the ooze came down the street where we had been.
 |
| At some point, I asked if the ooze was like the death ooze from the end of Princess Mononoke --Josh Rapp laughingly agreed that it was |
On the rooftops, we continued toward our destination finding the city to be constructed in concentric rings of buildings, and at its center a great glass and crystalline tower with globes full of 'lighted' rocks, a spire held up by huge chains connected to the ceiling.
Ultimately, the city being circles, we found ourselves unable to continue 'inward' without crossing a street. At this point, the Ayatollah Goblini appeared, with 14 goblins in tow. After some discussion of building a goblin-bridge, instead, Hildi used a magic tattoo to fly across the way and set up two lengths of ropes as a kind of bridge (one above, one below, across which a person could shuffle). We used this same technique to cross a second street, and found ourselves finally across from the roof of the barracks, but at that point Hildi's magical flight was close to expired.
On the rooftop of the inn was an ooze of the same kind as wandered the streets, though a little smaller. I suggested we launch a volley of arrows into it, and the Ayatollah Goblini mentioned that he had a brace of six pistols. While he set up a goblin firing squad, everyone else used their own missile weapons ... unfortunately, the goblins only managed to divide the ooze into many smaller ones; but the silver bullets fired by Hildi's rifles, and the arrows launched by my own magical longbow managed to destroy the miniscule oozes.
Magic Meryl then scouted across the street for us, and found it largely safe (though with some ooze coming up behind us not to far off).
Therefore Hildi used her last flight ability to fly to the other roof, while the rest of us followed Meryl down and to the doors of the barracks.
Alas! the doors opened onto a chamber unfamiliar to Dudegrin (i.e. not part of the barracks); and Hildi opened a trapdoor from above that proved to be magically linked to the same room (she dropped some shot through the trap, which fell from the solid ceiling of the room we were looking into at the same time ...). When Frigga pushed Dudegrin into the new chamber, he turned back and started mouthing at us, but we couldn't hear him; when we followed, we found that we had gone through a door into a chamber with no door whence we had come. We were trapped within some diabolical dungeon!
A single torch illuminated the room; picked up, it shed no heat, and seemed some kind of 'light' spell. Through the singular exit to the north, we found a corridor that forked, NW and NE, and I with the torch in hand spied a chest on a pillar where the point of the walls should have been. It proved not trapped, and contained but a single a cloudy potion.
To the left (NW) we found a room filled with thorns (like giant acacia thorns); turning back, to the NE we found a room with a high pillar in its center, and a door to the west that led back to the thorn room. The pillar was studded with gemstones, of which we pried out four of the most valuable (under Dudegrin's appraising dwarven eye). The pillar had bridges leading out from its top, but we didn't feel up for a free climb, so we went back to the thorn room and managed to make our way through without any trouble (my plate armor saved me here).
Beyond that, to the north, lay a room I don't know how to describe. It was large and basically empty, filled with the sound of grinding stone, and apparently containing a series of moving stone platforms (I had given the torch to Frigga at this point, and she reported the nature of the otherwise invisible stone platforms).
There was a secret door to the west that we opened, inside of which was a room with bones and a single nice dagger. Magic Meryl entered and was immediately oozed with some kind of blue suffocating ooze; but due to the skill with my sword, Frigga's demon-wolf-thing Fenris, and the heroic strengths of Meryl and Hildi, we managed to save Meryl from second certain doom, and destroy the ooze. Frigga nabbed the dagger from the wall.
Back into the vast strange hall, Hildi managed to find a secret door that led (east?) to a platform that connected with the pillar and its bridges. An initial examination of a room on the other side of the pillar's bridge found it empty, but when Dudegrin inadvertently shut the door, reality subtly shifted, and we found a safe in the middle of the room.
It was Dudegrin's safe! Usually kept in his office. And when he turned the locks and shot the bolt back, he opened it onto a kind of portal back into his office, through his safe. Through this odd portal we piled, face first onto the floor, and each of us received our 300 gp reward for delivering Dudegring safely back to the barracks.
After that, Dudegrin handed out onyx stones which are a kind of magical gate-way back to Kalaetha whenever we wish to return--and then we vanished, each of us back to where we had been before we left (or so I presume--I returned to my rooms in the inn at Merripond, whence I had intended to return to Vymrrys to search for some Corvus Isn).
I shall keep you apprised of other such adventures, Xanthos, my friend. I hope that you find them edifying; and I hope too, ultimately to spread the Chaos of the Black Dragon to realms beyond ours.
Your comrade-in-arms,
Laurantha Akala"
Alas! the doors opened onto a chamber unfamiliar to Dudegrin (i.e. not part of the barracks); and Hildi opened a trapdoor from above that proved to be magically linked to the same room (she dropped some shot through the trap, which fell from the solid ceiling of the room we were looking into at the same time ...). When Frigga pushed Dudegrin into the new chamber, he turned back and started mouthing at us, but we couldn't hear him; when we followed, we found that we had gone through a door into a chamber with no door whence we had come. We were trapped within some diabolical dungeon!
A single torch illuminated the room; picked up, it shed no heat, and seemed some kind of 'light' spell. Through the singular exit to the north, we found a corridor that forked, NW and NE, and I with the torch in hand spied a chest on a pillar where the point of the walls should have been. It proved not trapped, and contained but a single a cloudy potion.
To the left (NW) we found a room filled with thorns (like giant acacia thorns); turning back, to the NE we found a room with a high pillar in its center, and a door to the west that led back to the thorn room. The pillar was studded with gemstones, of which we pried out four of the most valuable (under Dudegrin's appraising dwarven eye). The pillar had bridges leading out from its top, but we didn't feel up for a free climb, so we went back to the thorn room and managed to make our way through without any trouble (my plate armor saved me here).
Beyond that, to the north, lay a room I don't know how to describe. It was large and basically empty, filled with the sound of grinding stone, and apparently containing a series of moving stone platforms (I had given the torch to Frigga at this point, and she reported the nature of the otherwise invisible stone platforms).
 |
| At this point, Frigga the witch asked if we had been somehow teleported into Super Mario World, beating me to that very question |
There was a secret door to the west that we opened, inside of which was a room with bones and a single nice dagger. Magic Meryl entered and was immediately oozed with some kind of blue suffocating ooze; but due to the skill with my sword, Frigga's demon-wolf-thing Fenris, and the heroic strengths of Meryl and Hildi, we managed to save Meryl from second certain doom, and destroy the ooze. Frigga nabbed the dagger from the wall.
Back into the vast strange hall, Hildi managed to find a secret door that led (east?) to a platform that connected with the pillar and its bridges. An initial examination of a room on the other side of the pillar's bridge found it empty, but when Dudegrin inadvertently shut the door, reality subtly shifted, and we found a safe in the middle of the room.
It was Dudegrin's safe! Usually kept in his office. And when he turned the locks and shot the bolt back, he opened it onto a kind of portal back into his office, through his safe. Through this odd portal we piled, face first onto the floor, and each of us received our 300 gp reward for delivering Dudegring safely back to the barracks.
After that, Dudegrin handed out onyx stones which are a kind of magical gate-way back to Kalaetha whenever we wish to return--and then we vanished, each of us back to where we had been before we left (or so I presume--I returned to my rooms in the inn at Merripond, whence I had intended to return to Vymrrys to search for some Corvus Isn).
I shall keep you apprised of other such adventures, Xanthos, my friend. I hope that you find them edifying; and I hope too, ultimately to spread the Chaos of the Black Dragon to realms beyond ours.
Your comrade-in-arms,
Laurantha Akala"
EDIT: I originally misspelled the city's name as Calaitha (getting it only aurally), but the correct spelling is Kalaetha. If I missed any instances, Calaitha=Kalaetha
Friday, November 3, 2017
Turtle Philosophers
 |
| Morla, alas, came to the ultimate conclusion that nihilism is the only true philosophy |
(thanks to Arnold K. at Goblin Punch with his Tortoise Tsardoms for some inspiration here)
Turtles can live for quite a long time (or more particularly tortoises, I suppose, but whatever), and the longest lived can survive for many centuries, especially those in fey or magical environments. Those that live for such a time have a penchant for long, deep thinking, and ancient memories, and put together can become philosophers of the highest order.
No particular turtle species necessarily produces such philosophers--ancient snapping turtles in the swamps, thousand-year-old tortoises on a desert island, sea turtles grown so old and large that they resemble islands, perhaps even dragon turtles! can all become philosophers--but those grown from the lesser species of turtle have the following stats:
------
Turtle Philosopher
HD 6
AC 2
THAC0 14 (for those who use it)
Attack 2-8
Morale 6 (they don't generally like violence)
Philosophize -- Turtle Philosophers obviously have a deep and abstruse understanding of the world and of philosophy, and to make their particular systems of thought even more esoteric, they often inherit or invent recondite terminologies for the various phenomena of philosophy (from long-remembered conversations with errant magic-users and Elves, perhaps). By making a great speech of these arcane understandings, a Turtle Philosopher may choose to confuse, put to sleep, or even charm characters (according to the rules for those spells, confuse, sleep, or charm person).
This ability may be used 3/day, OR without limit so long as the referee continues to spout semi-coherent philosophical arguments, explanations, or minutiae. Characters save against petrification (of thought--so a wisdom or will save for later systems), and must save at -2 if the referee manages to scrounge up something of an actual philosophical oration. But IF a player/character responds by actually engaging with the diatribe, perhaps nitpicking terms or drawing out implications, that character saves automatically, and grants a +2 on his or her comrades' saves.
Sagacity -- Furthermore, if some kind of a rapport can be developed with a Turtle Philosopher (what do they want?--new philosophies to ponder, answers to old philosophical problems, maybe something so mundane as the banishment of a nasty old troll from the local swamp-neighborhood), the Philosopher can act as a kind of sage for the player/characters. That means that for 1-6 questions per favor granted it, the Philosopher can deeply ponder and delve into memories, and produce a reasonable sagacious answer for each within 1-4 weeks. This includes identifying magic items, another thing sages do in my game.
------
Alas for some of the swamps inhabited by such a creature, the turtle becomes a Turtle Philosopher-King, obsessed with its own vision of an ideal society, which it attempts to foist onto its fellow citizens of the swamp (or desert island, or what have you). The Philosopher might also have a strange obsession with universal ur-shapes, geometry, or mathematics.
 |
| You all know how it ends when Yertle envisions himself as the philosopher-king of his swamp ... |
Turtle Philosopher-Kings have the same stats as their merely philosophizing kin, but they invariably attract some kind of following:
1) a School of 2-12 would-be Turtle Philosophers who are all HD 3, cannot yet spout philosophy, and who follow their Philosopher-King's commands absolutely
2) a Republic, somewhat along the lines laid out by the Philosopher-King, with 1-6 would-be Turtle Philosophers (as above), 4-16 lizardmen or bullywug Guardians, 2-12 Craftsmen, possibly forest gnomes, and 5-30 slaves, likely goblins, gripplis, etc.
3) a Cult of 5-30 lizardmen or bullywugs who worship the Philosopher-King as a reptile god and who offer semi-regular tribute
4) a Circle of 20-200 myconids whose "King" has found a deep rapport and companionship with the Turtle Philosopher-King
5) a Dragon (or Dragon Turtle) who has taken the Philosopher-King on as a kind of "court philosopher" in its lair, and to entertain its own ancient memory
6) an Imp who literally plays "Devil's Advocate" for the Philosopher-King's arguments; their cantankerous rapport is like two old men who regularly argue for argument's sake
------
Regardless as to whether it is a mere Philosopher or Philosopher-King, Turtle Philosophers sometimes attract semi-regular petitioners as a kind of oracle--or as a sage, approached by individuals seeking knowledge. Such petitioners might include:
1) peasants come seeking some kind of oracle from the Turtle-Philosopher
2) a magic-user (or an apprentice of some greater wizard-lord) come asking for advice concerning a spell, a magic-item's formula, or a magical component
3) an adventuring party seeking sagacious advice, about a dungeon or a monster, say
4) a troupe of Elves come to pay respects to an old friend, swapping old in-jokes, treading out old gossip, and sharing new rumors
5) a congress of the local animals--baboons, or finches, or a school of trout--come to ask advice about some dispute in their own affairs
6) a cleric looking for old dirt on a rival cult
------
Lastly, for the Greyhame Dungeoneers, there is an old legend that the Bronding kings and their naiad friends invited a Turtle-Philosopher to the waters above the Brokenbrand Falls to dwell there as a kind of court philosopher. The legends tell of a gem-and-gold-encrusted shell bequeathed by gracious sovereigns, and quibble about whether Brondr himself or one of his successors brought the dubiously named philosopher "Chelonius" to the falls.
Legends differ as to whether this particular Turtle-Philosopher preferred playing chess against the kings, or expounding on epistemology.
Saturday, October 28, 2017
Greyhame Mountain Dungeon Expedition 5
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 ancient Bronding Kings is said to lie somewhere behind the Brokenbrand Falls, haunted by enchanting naiads ...
the Goblin King and the Lord of Werewolves have renewed their ancient alliance beneath the Howling Tower;
and the secret treasury of the ancient Bronding Kings is said to lie somewhere behind the Brokenbrand Falls, haunted by enchanting naiads ...
...
and Kaaraak the Eagle speaks to the Elves in the party of the Eyries of the Eagles ...
tonight's roster:
Eden Littlethorpe (halfling druid 1, name pronounced "e-DEN"; also, brother of Enzo Littlethorpe of Galtshire, an as yet little known halfling artist who's greatest work so far is an intriguing image of the lizardman eye-licking ritual of homage)
Foz (free goblin 1, has been to the Glimmervaults once before)
with Proz (a boar hound dressed in armor)
Okuda (bushi 1, bushi being from the Oriental Adventures book)
with Shield (another boar hound pet in armor)
Roland (dwarf cleric 1, got a spell at first level because of AD&D)
As noted above, the party acquired two dogs while also acquiring equipment (Eden and Roland needing to equip themselves as newly minted characters).
They decided to head for the Glimmervaults, because Foz had been there before (and had acquired a musty old map, apparently, from some other adventurers from years before, which indicated the presence of great treasure behind a "fire tornado of doom" as the map seemed to indicate).
Nothing molested them on the way there; there are two entrances to the Glimmervaults, an eastern entrance higher on the slope, with myriad humanoid heads on spears outside the doorway--and Foz spied rather more heads than before, many of the new ones being orc heads; and a western entrance through a natural stone grotto that leads into a kind of cave network.
There was some confusion as to which entrance the party was using, some electing for orcs, others saying the western entrance, and because I started describing the cave features, that's where the party ultimately ended up. They passed through several chambers and corridors already familiar to Foz (behind a secret door in a flowstone formation), and went to check doors left unchecked on that previous expedition.
In the room with the several defaced statues and the plaque on the wall reading a curse, "Galad's tribe is destroyed root and branch ... may this place be accursed," the party was surprised by ... a wandering troupe of cave locusts. These semi-docile creatures were startled by a thrown rock and started leaping every which way in their panic, and one struck Roland, but his stolid dwarfness allowed him to just shove off the large locust without injury. Beyond that, the creatures simply retreated back up the corridors.
Continuing on, the party first opened an eastern door, which led into a semi-long east-zagging corridor with two southern doors and a dead end to the south east.
Behind the first door, the party found three sarcophagi, labeled ALDARES, GALADON, and BALEARES. Inside the first sarcophagus (ALDARES), which they had to unseal by prying plaster away with a dagger, the group found a gold torc, a ring, and a nice chain of office. When they opened the second tomb, however, marked GALADON, they got only a glimpse of a gold deathmask, inlaid with wonderful jewelry, before a second horde of locusts burst through the door, creaking and sawing and making a great din. Because of the danger from their leaping all around and running into things, the party fled back into the corridor and further along.
The next door opened onto another tomb, this one labeled HORUS, a great sarcophagus dominating the room's center and decorated with carvings on every side, all of battles against phalanxes of spearmen, war elephants, and chariots. Inside, the group found a pair of scrimshawed elephant tusks with further images of battle.
In another tomb leading off the chamber with the defaced statues, the party also discovered walls depicting a gathering of semi-barbarous Getae under their kings, one crowned with red, the other with black; while on the other wall was a bas-relief of Brondr, first Bronding King, being acclaimed by being lifted on a shield by the people, wearing a white crown.
In the dead end corridor, the party found a secret door leading back out into a cave system; Foz, sticking his head out first, saw a half a dozen figures passing by in darkness beyond, and quickly hushed the party and dimmed their light; after some conversation and waiting by the party, the figures passed silently on into the darkness north, and the way was clear. Down the stairs on the other side of the door, the party discovered an ancient stalactite/stalagmite column carved to show an Elfin male descending from a ceiling glinting with reflections like stars down toward a human female.
Several side passages included one to the south that leads to the second level of the Glimmervaults; and one to the east that breathes a colder air than even the cave is naturally heir to.
But, D&D character that he is, Foz eyed the glimmering ceiling and took up a rope, and climbed the column Mulan-style.
From the top of the column, he managed to pry out from the ceiling several of what were indeed ultimately gemstones, cut to reflect light and seem like stars. With these pieces of loot in hand, Foz suggested a return to town, and the party agreed--they seemed to have gathered enough loot.
On the way back, they stopped to pick up the elephant tusks (they'd left them behind as fragile things, meaning to return to pick them up), and listening to the door from that tomb, they heard a horrible skittering of insectile legs. Out of an abundance of prudence, the party waited; listened again; heard nothing, and found the corridor beyond empty. But at the next door, to the statue-room, they heard the same creepy skittering. This time they braced the door as they waited, and briefly felt pressure from inside attempting to get out; but this subsided, and the party retreated to another tomb to wait. When they returned back that way, heading again for the entrance/exit, the source of the weird skittering was gone.
Beyond that, the way back out and back to town was free and clear (again, no wilderness encounters, alas).
The party did manage to find a merchant especially interested in artefacts from the Glimmervaults. He bought the tusks and a signet ring for far more than their market value, and furthermore offered a bounty, collectible by anyone, for rubbings or drawings of the battle-tomb of Horus, some hundred to several thousand gold, depending on the quality of the product returned. His name is Kors Langbard (he's also a little bit racist against short people like halflings, goblins, dwarves, etc).
Lastly, the party must needs go carousing! At the newly established local drinking hole, the Black Dragon's Meed, Roland spent exorbitantly and hit on a woman at the bar, only to find too late that she was in fact a witch--fortunately for Roland, the hex she attempted to curse him with failed to affect him. Eden got into a bit of a scuffle with the law, and ended up having to pay a small fine for attempting to free a tree from the confines of downtown back to its true home in the woods; and poor Foz, well, he fell in love with a brief romantic dalliance--one Rosy Nettlebrer, a halfling woman already engaged to an upstanding halfling from Hopshire.
And thus ends a prudent adventure, well rewarded for caution.
Eden Littlethorpe (halfling druid 1, name pronounced "e-DEN"; also, brother of Enzo Littlethorpe of Galtshire, an as yet little known halfling artist who's greatest work so far is an intriguing image of the lizardman eye-licking ritual of homage)
Foz (free goblin 1, has been to the Glimmervaults once before)
with Proz (a boar hound dressed in armor)
Okuda (bushi 1, bushi being from the Oriental Adventures book)
with Shield (another boar hound pet in armor)
Roland (dwarf cleric 1, got a spell at first level because of AD&D)
As noted above, the party acquired two dogs while also acquiring equipment (Eden and Roland needing to equip themselves as newly minted characters).
They decided to head for the Glimmervaults, because Foz had been there before (and had acquired a musty old map, apparently, from some other adventurers from years before, which indicated the presence of great treasure behind a "fire tornado of doom" as the map seemed to indicate).
Nothing molested them on the way there; there are two entrances to the Glimmervaults, an eastern entrance higher on the slope, with myriad humanoid heads on spears outside the doorway--and Foz spied rather more heads than before, many of the new ones being orc heads; and a western entrance through a natural stone grotto that leads into a kind of cave network.
There was some confusion as to which entrance the party was using, some electing for orcs, others saying the western entrance, and because I started describing the cave features, that's where the party ultimately ended up. They passed through several chambers and corridors already familiar to Foz (behind a secret door in a flowstone formation), and went to check doors left unchecked on that previous expedition.
In the room with the several defaced statues and the plaque on the wall reading a curse, "Galad's tribe is destroyed root and branch ... may this place be accursed," the party was surprised by ... a wandering troupe of cave locusts. These semi-docile creatures were startled by a thrown rock and started leaping every which way in their panic, and one struck Roland, but his stolid dwarfness allowed him to just shove off the large locust without injury. Beyond that, the creatures simply retreated back up the corridors.
 |
| This, but giant-sized ... like labrador dog sized |
Continuing on, the party first opened an eastern door, which led into a semi-long east-zagging corridor with two southern doors and a dead end to the south east.
Behind the first door, the party found three sarcophagi, labeled ALDARES, GALADON, and BALEARES. Inside the first sarcophagus (ALDARES), which they had to unseal by prying plaster away with a dagger, the group found a gold torc, a ring, and a nice chain of office. When they opened the second tomb, however, marked GALADON, they got only a glimpse of a gold deathmask, inlaid with wonderful jewelry, before a second horde of locusts burst through the door, creaking and sawing and making a great din. Because of the danger from their leaping all around and running into things, the party fled back into the corridor and further along.
The next door opened onto another tomb, this one labeled HORUS, a great sarcophagus dominating the room's center and decorated with carvings on every side, all of battles against phalanxes of spearmen, war elephants, and chariots. Inside, the group found a pair of scrimshawed elephant tusks with further images of battle.
 |
| This is the Tomb of Maria Theresa of Austria and her husband, Francis I Holy Roman Emperor; this image doesn't really do justice to the grandiosity of the thing, which as I recall depicts a naval battle on one side (on my sojourn in the Imperial Crypts); anyway, Horus' sarcophagus is like this |
In another tomb leading off the chamber with the defaced statues, the party also discovered walls depicting a gathering of semi-barbarous Getae under their kings, one crowned with red, the other with black; while on the other wall was a bas-relief of Brondr, first Bronding King, being acclaimed by being lifted on a shield by the people, wearing a white crown.
In the dead end corridor, the party found a secret door leading back out into a cave system; Foz, sticking his head out first, saw a half a dozen figures passing by in darkness beyond, and quickly hushed the party and dimmed their light; after some conversation and waiting by the party, the figures passed silently on into the darkness north, and the way was clear. Down the stairs on the other side of the door, the party discovered an ancient stalactite/stalagmite column carved to show an Elfin male descending from a ceiling glinting with reflections like stars down toward a human female.
Several side passages included one to the south that leads to the second level of the Glimmervaults; and one to the east that breathes a colder air than even the cave is naturally heir to.
But, D&D character that he is, Foz eyed the glimmering ceiling and took up a rope, and climbed the column Mulan-style.
 |
| Especially when you have an 87% climb skill as a thief, +10% because the referee likes your idea |
From the top of the column, he managed to pry out from the ceiling several of what were indeed ultimately gemstones, cut to reflect light and seem like stars. With these pieces of loot in hand, Foz suggested a return to town, and the party agreed--they seemed to have gathered enough loot.
On the way back, they stopped to pick up the elephant tusks (they'd left them behind as fragile things, meaning to return to pick them up), and listening to the door from that tomb, they heard a horrible skittering of insectile legs. Out of an abundance of prudence, the party waited; listened again; heard nothing, and found the corridor beyond empty. But at the next door, to the statue-room, they heard the same creepy skittering. This time they braced the door as they waited, and briefly felt pressure from inside attempting to get out; but this subsided, and the party retreated to another tomb to wait. When they returned back that way, heading again for the entrance/exit, the source of the weird skittering was gone.
Beyond that, the way back out and back to town was free and clear (again, no wilderness encounters, alas).
The party did manage to find a merchant especially interested in artefacts from the Glimmervaults. He bought the tusks and a signet ring for far more than their market value, and furthermore offered a bounty, collectible by anyone, for rubbings or drawings of the battle-tomb of Horus, some hundred to several thousand gold, depending on the quality of the product returned. His name is Kors Langbard (he's also a little bit racist against short people like halflings, goblins, dwarves, etc).
Lastly, the party must needs go carousing! At the newly established local drinking hole, the Black Dragon's Meed, Roland spent exorbitantly and hit on a woman at the bar, only to find too late that she was in fact a witch--fortunately for Roland, the hex she attempted to curse him with failed to affect him. Eden got into a bit of a scuffle with the law, and ended up having to pay a small fine for attempting to free a tree from the confines of downtown back to its true home in the woods; and poor Foz, well, he fell in love with a brief romantic dalliance--one Rosy Nettlebrer, a halfling woman already engaged to an upstanding halfling from Hopshire.
And thus ends a prudent adventure, well rewarded for caution.
Thursday, October 26, 2017
Wilderness Encounters as Attrition
Earlier this month, as I was contemplating running a public game focused on the dungeon, I was wondering how best to deal with the wilderness. For myself, though I'm glad to play in them, I have a tough time wanting to run a game in which the dungeon is right there in town (like Jeff Rients' Vyzor; or my own local friend's dungeon, the entrance to which is in the inn's basement). I have my own idiom, into which I've fallen every time I've started a new group--a long north-south corridor, bounded to west and east by mountains, with wilderness over the eastern mountains, and civilization back over the western mountains. The dungeon is near--not more than a week away--but still must lie somewhere in the eastern mountains, on the border between civilization's final frontier, and the beginning of the true wilderlands.
(and the drive in Idaho, between the poles of Boise and Moscow, definitely exerts a kind of of influence over this vision)
I use this both as a means of separation (the characters still must travel away from civilization to find adventure), and as a means to make sure time passes in-game (the local game run by my friend has maybe progressed a couple weeks, and we've been playing for months; for me, if I were refereeing, that would feel stultifying, in that I like a session to be a week at minimum, but his game is his game).
But if the game is dungeon-focused, wilderness encounters will draw attention away from that dungeon. Case-in-point, during the last session of the Greyhame Mountain Dungeon that I ran, perhaps a quarter of the session was spent just dealing with an orc warband encountered on the way to the dungeon. It wasn't a bad encounter (actually, the players took it quite in stride and shone in it); nevertheless, it took a lot of time that might have been differently spent inside the dungeon.
(and just for the record, that encounter occurred because I couldn't remember these very "attrition" rules I'd tried to formulate, and it was easier to just do a monster encounter; and yet for the dungeon-game, it could have been quicker into the dungeon if I'd had my "attrition" notes before me).
So:
When I roll for encounters, I roll 3d6, one black, one white, one red:
black -- encounter chance
white -- party surprise chance
red -- monster surprise chance
I ignore the red and white dice if black comes up nothing.
For attrition in the wilderness, rather than rolling up a full encounter on a positive result from the black die, I look to the other dice:
If the red die comes up 1 or 2, there is still no encounter/attrition, because the "monster/encounter" was "surprised" by the party, and they can avoid it.
But the white die determines "attrition dice" inversely to the number rolled on the die, e.g. 1 is 6d6, 2 is 5d6, 3 is 4d6, 4 is 3d6, etc.
An "attrition die" is 1d6 of damage allocated to one party member, by lot or by choice. In any singular "encounter", an "attrition die" may be negated by breaking 1 shield, 1 suit of armor, 1 weapon, by losing 1 week of rations, or by expending 1 dozen ammunition (arrows, bolts, bullets, etc. via the commensurate missile weapon, e.g. bow, crossbow, sling), but no negation may be duplicated (i.e. once a shield is broken, no other shields may be used to negate "attrition dice" in a given "encounter").
You may note that a roll of 1 on the white die (6d6 "attrition") creates an absolute necessity of 1d6 damage somewhere in the party, volunteered or by lot (because a maximum of 5d6 "attrition" can be negated in any one "encounter"). I could further add that this damage may not be cured by clerics during the course of an adventure, representing instead of wounds, fatigue, starvation, mild disease, or what have you--or perhaps not, if I don't feel inclined.
I envision this option as a means to resolve wilderness encounters quickly, yet without simply bypassing the fact that the D&D wilderness can be dangerous. Stakes remain, even up to damage to characters or the possible destruction of equipment. And yet, the game will be allowed to move quickly to the dungeon that is its real focus without dwelling overlong on the wilderness chance encounter.
Given the abstraction, I wouldn't use rules like this at a "regular" game, where I would much rather just run a wilderness encounter as-is, and let the consequences be what they may. But games like that imply a continuity that extends beyond the dungeon; whereas if your pick-up game relies on getting to the dungeon--but wants to touch on the danger of the wilderness--"attrition" could be a fast way to convey that.
All said, you could just start the game "at the dungeon". I just ... still want the travel time, and the possibility of some minor disaster. And this is my rough draft for an "in-between" version.
(and the drive in Idaho, between the poles of Boise and Moscow, definitely exerts a kind of of influence over this vision)
 |
| It's surprisingly hard to find Google images of the mountains rising on either side, which is much of what one sees on the north-south drive through Idaho; my D&D games have wider valleys, but a similar bifurcation |
I use this both as a means of separation (the characters still must travel away from civilization to find adventure), and as a means to make sure time passes in-game (the local game run by my friend has maybe progressed a couple weeks, and we've been playing for months; for me, if I were refereeing, that would feel stultifying, in that I like a session to be a week at minimum, but his game is his game).
But if the game is dungeon-focused, wilderness encounters will draw attention away from that dungeon. Case-in-point, during the last session of the Greyhame Mountain Dungeon that I ran, perhaps a quarter of the session was spent just dealing with an orc warband encountered on the way to the dungeon. It wasn't a bad encounter (actually, the players took it quite in stride and shone in it); nevertheless, it took a lot of time that might have been differently spent inside the dungeon.
(and just for the record, that encounter occurred because I couldn't remember these very "attrition" rules I'd tried to formulate, and it was easier to just do a monster encounter; and yet for the dungeon-game, it could have been quicker into the dungeon if I'd had my "attrition" notes before me).
So:
When I roll for encounters, I roll 3d6, one black, one white, one red:
black -- encounter chance
white -- party surprise chance
red -- monster surprise chance
I ignore the red and white dice if black comes up nothing.
For attrition in the wilderness, rather than rolling up a full encounter on a positive result from the black die, I look to the other dice:
If the red die comes up 1 or 2, there is still no encounter/attrition, because the "monster/encounter" was "surprised" by the party, and they can avoid it.
But the white die determines "attrition dice" inversely to the number rolled on the die, e.g. 1 is 6d6, 2 is 5d6, 3 is 4d6, 4 is 3d6, etc.
An "attrition die" is 1d6 of damage allocated to one party member, by lot or by choice. In any singular "encounter", an "attrition die" may be negated by breaking 1 shield, 1 suit of armor, 1 weapon, by losing 1 week of rations, or by expending 1 dozen ammunition (arrows, bolts, bullets, etc. via the commensurate missile weapon, e.g. bow, crossbow, sling), but no negation may be duplicated (i.e. once a shield is broken, no other shields may be used to negate "attrition dice" in a given "encounter").
You may note that a roll of 1 on the white die (6d6 "attrition") creates an absolute necessity of 1d6 damage somewhere in the party, volunteered or by lot (because a maximum of 5d6 "attrition" can be negated in any one "encounter"). I could further add that this damage may not be cured by clerics during the course of an adventure, representing instead of wounds, fatigue, starvation, mild disease, or what have you--or perhaps not, if I don't feel inclined.
I envision this option as a means to resolve wilderness encounters quickly, yet without simply bypassing the fact that the D&D wilderness can be dangerous. Stakes remain, even up to damage to characters or the possible destruction of equipment. And yet, the game will be allowed to move quickly to the dungeon that is its real focus without dwelling overlong on the wilderness chance encounter.
Given the abstraction, I wouldn't use rules like this at a "regular" game, where I would much rather just run a wilderness encounter as-is, and let the consequences be what they may. But games like that imply a continuity that extends beyond the dungeon; whereas if your pick-up game relies on getting to the dungeon--but wants to touch on the danger of the wilderness--"attrition" could be a fast way to convey that.
All said, you could just start the game "at the dungeon". I just ... still want the travel time, and the possibility of some minor disaster. And this is my rough draft for an "in-between" version.
Tuesday, October 24, 2017
Play Report from Jesse Goldshear's Vymrrys
"Laurantha to Xanthos--a Missive
Xanthos, my companion-in-arms, I thought you might find record of a certain strange incident amusing. This is my account:
Out of some curiosity as to what lay along the Dreaming River alongside the environs of the strange Vaults of Vyzor, I chartered a small boat from one Stonk, a dock-troll, and let myself wander the water, river-rat style.
I soon found myself drowsy and dreaming ... and when I awakened from said strange dreams, found myself in the midst of a great desert city on the coast of a vast ocean, with the docks hemmed in by the city walls, thus to form a strong breakwater and means of defense against outside attack. ((This being Jesse Goldshear's Vymrrys, from the "Smash the Dungeon" blog))
Wandering somewhat into this strange city out of curiosity, I happened upon a drug den from whence I heard certain familiar voices--those of Ilse Sleet-ne-Raagenkompf, and of Sapphean Grachit. Entering this establishment, named appropriately the Myopic Myconid, I found it run by ten clones of an identical Fungus-man; and as for the voices, there indeed were Ilse and Sapphean, with whom I have adventured in the vaults of Vyzor. They were accompanied by individuals unknown to me, but presently introduced, one Taimo (an "honorable" thief), and ultimately one Magic Meryl (a fellow Vyzorian, whose repute has preceded her to my ears, though this was the first true meeting between us). With Meryl were her companions Pitwin, a mournful gnomish child, and Arthur, a dungeon terrier.
Before introductions were quite complete, we heard a banging of tamburs and of drums, and plucking of citharas, from the streets outside, and looking therein, descried a procession of Otter-folk making their way along the street with a great din from their instruments.
My own inquiries as to the nature of this procession were met with derision by the locals, but Sapphean successfully finagled a reward of lucre from one inhabitant of the neighborhood who informed us that though these Otter-bacchanals came only twice a year, they lasted a week, and drove the neighbors nearly to madness with their incessant banging and merry-making. This strange individual (who had glass orbs for eyes) offered each of us precisely 87 gold (that being a lucky number thereabouts?) and a reading of our fortunes if we should seek out the reason for and/or attempt to stop the Otter-bacchanals.
These conditions were acceptable, and we promptly set out to follow the processing Otter-folk, and just as presently lost them further up the street. Turning down an alley in an attempt to cut them off, Taimo and myself were enthralled by a vision of the sky in which the sun and the moon were transposed many times, and which seemed clearly a result of our enjoyment of the drug den, but we were jostled along by our companions to continue the chase. Sapphean in particular had "spider climbed" a tower and seen the procession of the Otter-folk to the north east, and so we made haste in that direction.
At a crossroads, Ilse sought information from passersby, and managed by chance to ask the ringleader of a gang of thieves on the street (identified for us as a gang by Taimo's sharp eyes). This thief attempted to draw a knife on Ilse, but her quick action to step in and check his movement, and her stern words, do nothing stupid, prevented further attempt at violence. The other thieves stepped back, and Ilse's man relayed that the Otter-folk lived north of the port.
Then we continued down the streets east, through a market of myriad marvels, and further, past an alley in which we witnessed a beggar devouring a live cat, entire. In the port itself, Magic Meryl questioned a longshoreman, and learned again that the otters' enclave lay to the north, but also that sometime a few years ago, during one of their bacchanals, a friend of his had joined and disappeared forevermore.
The evening was growing late; we hit upon a plan to find an inn for ourselves, but also a tavern of longshoremen who might know rumors, and who might also have loosened tongues. And yet, before finding any such establishment, we observed a number of lights receding down an alley. An investigation found the lights receding further, and three bodies left in their wake--three Elves, each disemboweled and quite dead.
Ilse determined little about them other than that they were slain by puncturing weapons, while the rest of the party looked out, suspicious of city-watchmen. None came, and we investigated the bodies, and discovered a small amount of gold and possible drug-powders on their persons.
Then Arthur, Meryl's dog, pointed north at the same time that "spiderclimbing" Sapphean indicated lights still moving north of us, and we continued along the alley after them.
Presently, we came upon a party of three Otters, two clearly slain, the last crawling, wounded, trailing blood. Ilse found that the ground was holding the Otter-man's guts in, and that she could do nothing; Magic Meryl offered her potion of healing to the Otter to cure his ails, and as his wounds knit up, he thanked us heartily. After a moment collecting himself, this Otter informed us of a recurring war between the local Elves and Otters that flares up every bacchanal-season; these were victims of said war, caught too late outside the Otter enclave. He thanked us for our aid; we offered to escort himself and his fallen comrades back to the Otter enclave, and he heartily agreed.
We made good time and soon ended up in a dead-end courtyard, where the Otter began an exceedingly complicated series of knocks on a sandstone wall, presumably summoning his fellows beyond; unfortunately, because of the complexity and length of his signal, there was plenty of time for a party of Elves who had come up behind us to rush in and engage us.
Taimo hid in the shadows of one corner; Meryl and her henchcreatures ducked behind the other corner; and I stood brazenly in front, doffed my helm to reveal my ears, and awaited these Elves. They were hesitant at first, seeing myself; but seeing the Otter-man behind me, they crowed victory at having finally discovered the secret entrance to the Otter-enclave, and attacked.
Now, the combat was confused; but I can tell you that Ilse cast some kind of strange spell that made rain fall upward from the ground in the first instant, and seemed to do nothing else; Magic Meryl had an "unseen servant" present, which she commanded to go and flip the cloak over one of the Elves' heads; Sapphean used his presence above to surprise one of the Elves with a "magic missile" and kill the offender with a stroke to the head; and Taimo bravely leapt from the shadows to cleave the bow of an Elf who was otherwise certain to shoot myself through the middle.
As for myself, I cast a spell of "sleep" (forgetting that the Elves of other worlds are generally immune to such things, as I am not)--nevertheless, the fellow in front of me fell over, dead asleep, and I calmly slit his throat with my sword and demanded the surrender of the two remaining Elves. They surrendered; Ilse nevertheless eviscerated the fellow in front of her; and the last was tripped by his own bowstring (dropped at his feet when the bow was cleft by Taimo) when the unseen servant wrapped it around his ankles.
By this time, a strange rain of crabs with pale human hands was falling from the bizarre cloud summoned above by Ilse, and as I ran forward to seize the one living prisoner, the Otter behind us finally got a response from below and a secret door opened onto a descending stair. We all piled down the stair, doing our best to avoid the eldritch crabs, and ultimately found ourselves in a vast underground space filled with tidepools, hovels, and reveling Otter-men.
Our Otter--and now he revealed his name to us as Ottarwankenoby--agreed to lead us to his chief, and amongst the festivities we witnessed Otter-folk singing from a stage to a great crowd, all of their furs dyed with fantastic colors and patterns; and also a fountain of fish blood (it stank terribly) through which cavorted a number of nubile Otters that seemed vaguely feminine in a mustelid sense.
Thence we entered the pavilion of the great Ottarmuspryme, the chief of the Otter-folk, reclining on a sofa and cracking clams with a stone before slurping them down. He seemed a veritable cliche of pompous barbarian chiefs--an utterly likable fellow.
This Ottarmuspryme was grateful for the return of his living subject, and also of the two dead bodies; he offered to let us carouse with the Otters and enjoy ourselves (of which offer we meant fully to take advantage); and yet, he was irritable about our report that the folks of the city were unhappy concerning the Otter-bacchanals, because of the excess noise and merriment that ensued. Indeed, he mentioned that the excesses of merriment were meant as revenge against the other races of the city because of their poor treatment of the Otter-folk! We suggested perhaps a compromise could be found, if only the Otters and the other city-folk could agree to something. Lastly, we offered up the prisoner, a poor pathetic Elf who begged for us to spare him--fool!--and he was picked up and broken upon the bench by the very Ottarmuspryme himself (whom I had not guessed capable of such a feat for his smallish size, yet relative girth).
And that was that. Already offered the enjoyment of this mammalian bacchanal, I myself enjoyed it thoroughly, and perhaps a little to bestially. Much was done that cannot be clearfully remembered. Alas! And yet, when I awoke from this drug-stupor, I found myself drifting down the Dreaming River, once again beside Stonk's dock underneath the Azure Tower of the Sorcerer of the Blue Mask.
I tell you, Xanthos, I have found myself in strange straits--the Dreaming River is no place for timid folk.
Your companion-in-arms under the Black Dragon,
Laurantha Akala"
Xanthos, my companion-in-arms, I thought you might find record of a certain strange incident amusing. This is my account:
Out of some curiosity as to what lay along the Dreaming River alongside the environs of the strange Vaults of Vyzor, I chartered a small boat from one Stonk, a dock-troll, and let myself wander the water, river-rat style.
I soon found myself drowsy and dreaming ... and when I awakened from said strange dreams, found myself in the midst of a great desert city on the coast of a vast ocean, with the docks hemmed in by the city walls, thus to form a strong breakwater and means of defense against outside attack. ((This being Jesse Goldshear's Vymrrys, from the "Smash the Dungeon" blog))
Wandering somewhat into this strange city out of curiosity, I happened upon a drug den from whence I heard certain familiar voices--those of Ilse Sleet-ne-Raagenkompf, and of Sapphean Grachit. Entering this establishment, named appropriately the Myopic Myconid, I found it run by ten clones of an identical Fungus-man; and as for the voices, there indeed were Ilse and Sapphean, with whom I have adventured in the vaults of Vyzor. They were accompanied by individuals unknown to me, but presently introduced, one Taimo (an "honorable" thief), and ultimately one Magic Meryl (a fellow Vyzorian, whose repute has preceded her to my ears, though this was the first true meeting between us). With Meryl were her companions Pitwin, a mournful gnomish child, and Arthur, a dungeon terrier.
Before introductions were quite complete, we heard a banging of tamburs and of drums, and plucking of citharas, from the streets outside, and looking therein, descried a procession of Otter-folk making their way along the street with a great din from their instruments.
 |
| I felt a strong reminiscence of my old love for Brian Jacques' Redwall series and its bad-ass otters; I loved that there were Otter-people |
My own inquiries as to the nature of this procession were met with derision by the locals, but Sapphean successfully finagled a reward of lucre from one inhabitant of the neighborhood who informed us that though these Otter-bacchanals came only twice a year, they lasted a week, and drove the neighbors nearly to madness with their incessant banging and merry-making. This strange individual (who had glass orbs for eyes) offered each of us precisely 87 gold (that being a lucky number thereabouts?) and a reading of our fortunes if we should seek out the reason for and/or attempt to stop the Otter-bacchanals.
These conditions were acceptable, and we promptly set out to follow the processing Otter-folk, and just as presently lost them further up the street. Turning down an alley in an attempt to cut them off, Taimo and myself were enthralled by a vision of the sky in which the sun and the moon were transposed many times, and which seemed clearly a result of our enjoyment of the drug den, but we were jostled along by our companions to continue the chase. Sapphean in particular had "spider climbed" a tower and seen the procession of the Otter-folk to the north east, and so we made haste in that direction.
At a crossroads, Ilse sought information from passersby, and managed by chance to ask the ringleader of a gang of thieves on the street (identified for us as a gang by Taimo's sharp eyes). This thief attempted to draw a knife on Ilse, but her quick action to step in and check his movement, and her stern words, do nothing stupid, prevented further attempt at violence. The other thieves stepped back, and Ilse's man relayed that the Otter-folk lived north of the port.
Then we continued down the streets east, through a market of myriad marvels, and further, past an alley in which we witnessed a beggar devouring a live cat, entire. In the port itself, Magic Meryl questioned a longshoreman, and learned again that the otters' enclave lay to the north, but also that sometime a few years ago, during one of their bacchanals, a friend of his had joined and disappeared forevermore.
The evening was growing late; we hit upon a plan to find an inn for ourselves, but also a tavern of longshoremen who might know rumors, and who might also have loosened tongues. And yet, before finding any such establishment, we observed a number of lights receding down an alley. An investigation found the lights receding further, and three bodies left in their wake--three Elves, each disemboweled and quite dead.
Ilse determined little about them other than that they were slain by puncturing weapons, while the rest of the party looked out, suspicious of city-watchmen. None came, and we investigated the bodies, and discovered a small amount of gold and possible drug-powders on their persons.
Then Arthur, Meryl's dog, pointed north at the same time that "spiderclimbing" Sapphean indicated lights still moving north of us, and we continued along the alley after them.
Presently, we came upon a party of three Otters, two clearly slain, the last crawling, wounded, trailing blood. Ilse found that the ground was holding the Otter-man's guts in, and that she could do nothing; Magic Meryl offered her potion of healing to the Otter to cure his ails, and as his wounds knit up, he thanked us heartily. After a moment collecting himself, this Otter informed us of a recurring war between the local Elves and Otters that flares up every bacchanal-season; these were victims of said war, caught too late outside the Otter enclave. He thanked us for our aid; we offered to escort himself and his fallen comrades back to the Otter enclave, and he heartily agreed.
We made good time and soon ended up in a dead-end courtyard, where the Otter began an exceedingly complicated series of knocks on a sandstone wall, presumably summoning his fellows beyond; unfortunately, because of the complexity and length of his signal, there was plenty of time for a party of Elves who had come up behind us to rush in and engage us.
Taimo hid in the shadows of one corner; Meryl and her henchcreatures ducked behind the other corner; and I stood brazenly in front, doffed my helm to reveal my ears, and awaited these Elves. They were hesitant at first, seeing myself; but seeing the Otter-man behind me, they crowed victory at having finally discovered the secret entrance to the Otter-enclave, and attacked.
Now, the combat was confused; but I can tell you that Ilse cast some kind of strange spell that made rain fall upward from the ground in the first instant, and seemed to do nothing else; Magic Meryl had an "unseen servant" present, which she commanded to go and flip the cloak over one of the Elves' heads; Sapphean used his presence above to surprise one of the Elves with a "magic missile" and kill the offender with a stroke to the head; and Taimo bravely leapt from the shadows to cleave the bow of an Elf who was otherwise certain to shoot myself through the middle.
As for myself, I cast a spell of "sleep" (forgetting that the Elves of other worlds are generally immune to such things, as I am not)--nevertheless, the fellow in front of me fell over, dead asleep, and I calmly slit his throat with my sword and demanded the surrender of the two remaining Elves. They surrendered; Ilse nevertheless eviscerated the fellow in front of her; and the last was tripped by his own bowstring (dropped at his feet when the bow was cleft by Taimo) when the unseen servant wrapped it around his ankles.
By this time, a strange rain of crabs with pale human hands was falling from the bizarre cloud summoned above by Ilse, and as I ran forward to seize the one living prisoner, the Otter behind us finally got a response from below and a secret door opened onto a descending stair. We all piled down the stair, doing our best to avoid the eldritch crabs, and ultimately found ourselves in a vast underground space filled with tidepools, hovels, and reveling Otter-men.
Our Otter--and now he revealed his name to us as Ottarwankenoby--agreed to lead us to his chief, and amongst the festivities we witnessed Otter-folk singing from a stage to a great crowd, all of their furs dyed with fantastic colors and patterns; and also a fountain of fish blood (it stank terribly) through which cavorted a number of nubile Otters that seemed vaguely feminine in a mustelid sense.
 |
| I definitely envisioned the Otter-folk on stage doing a Ke$ha song, e.g. "Take it Off" |
Thence we entered the pavilion of the great Ottarmuspryme, the chief of the Otter-folk, reclining on a sofa and cracking clams with a stone before slurping them down. He seemed a veritable cliche of pompous barbarian chiefs--an utterly likable fellow.
This Ottarmuspryme was grateful for the return of his living subject, and also of the two dead bodies; he offered to let us carouse with the Otters and enjoy ourselves (of which offer we meant fully to take advantage); and yet, he was irritable about our report that the folks of the city were unhappy concerning the Otter-bacchanals, because of the excess noise and merriment that ensued. Indeed, he mentioned that the excesses of merriment were meant as revenge against the other races of the city because of their poor treatment of the Otter-folk! We suggested perhaps a compromise could be found, if only the Otters and the other city-folk could agree to something. Lastly, we offered up the prisoner, a poor pathetic Elf who begged for us to spare him--fool!--and he was picked up and broken upon the bench by the very Ottarmuspryme himself (whom I had not guessed capable of such a feat for his smallish size, yet relative girth).
And that was that. Already offered the enjoyment of this mammalian bacchanal, I myself enjoyed it thoroughly, and perhaps a little to bestially. Much was done that cannot be clearfully remembered. Alas! And yet, when I awoke from this drug-stupor, I found myself drifting down the Dreaming River, once again beside Stonk's dock underneath the Azure Tower of the Sorcerer of the Blue Mask.
I tell you, Xanthos, I have found myself in strange straits--the Dreaming River is no place for timid folk.
Your companion-in-arms under the Black Dragon,
Laurantha Akala"
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)