Had everybody again this week, which is good =) We picked up right where we left off, with the party facing Vagra'kon and his minions.
This encounter proved to be fairly simple, as despite some early hits, the hobgoblins and their ogre pet were unable to penetrate Erik's defenses for most of the fight, and at Vagra'kon's instruction they were attempting to kill him off then pick off the others. This strategy did not succeed, and in the end the hobgoblins were slain. The party collected what loot they could (including a new set of chainmail for Aludiana) and returned to Cairnmoor to tell Mayor Lundgrave what they'd discovered.
They returned with Vagra'kon's head to prove he was dead, and were given a fine reward of 500 gold pieces and a room in the Misty Morning Inn. They questioned whether the hobgoblins were really involved with the warlocks as a result of Grugamug's lack of knowledge of any warlocks, and Lundgrave responded by suggesting that the typical goblins were largely ostracized by Vagra'kon. Satisfied, the party headed off to the inn to check out their room. Iados' paranoia continued to strengthen in this session, as he Arcana-checked the bag the gold was given to them in and became convinced it was speaking to him.
After some discussion on the wisdom of sleeping with a thief & lecher like Reed, the party finally settled down for the night. The next morning, the party found that Smolkin had arrived in town. He explained to them he had a big job in line for them, but he wanted them to do him a favor first - to check on his friend, the gravekeeper of the Cairnmoor graveyard. After being hesitant to give them any details, Smolkin was convinced to explain to them that he was originally the Cairnmoor graveyard's gravekeeper, and that this friend, Lazlow "Laz" Dirgwyn, was his apprentice. He'd been speaking regularly to Laz through correspondence, but recently the letters had stopped - between this and the troubles Cairnmoor had been going through recently, Smolkin was quite worried. The party agreed, and set off for the graveyard.
Upon arriving in the graveyard, the party first checked Laz's cottage, which they found to be choked with cobwebs and spiderwebs. They found a journal within, but had to escape quickly with it when Iados lit his lantern in the highly-flammable conditions of the cottage, causing it to quickly be set ablaze. They read through the journal, discovering that Laz had found a lost tomb while digging a fresh grave. Further entries in broken Elven suggested that there was an entrance of some kind in the mausoleum, and that Laz had decided to take care of the "young one" he had found.
Armed with this knowledge, the party headed into the graveyard - and their first encounter. They spotted a number of small amalgamations of dead matter known as tomb motes, and moved to attack - they quickly discovered that hidden within the open graves were deathjump spiders, who leaped upon them and attacked as soon as they drew close. The spiders managed to knock Iados prone, and immediately leapt upon him to feed. Most of the encounter was spent with the spiders attacking Iados & ignoring the rest of the party. In the end, the beasts were defeated, and the party moved into the mausoleum.
Inside the mausoleum, they discovered a movable sarcophagus, and descended into the tomb. They were immediately greeted by a trio of zombies covered in spider webs, and a particularly mobile gargoyle - an ambush spider eventually added himself to the encounter, sneaking through the webs to get the drop on Erik. This second encounter didn't prove to be terribly difficult, save for the fear factor of the zombies turning out to be walking egg sacs filled with spider swarms, and the gargoyle's devastating hits it made coming out of stone form. They proved to be no match for the party, however, and were defeated in what ended up being a fairly long fight.
After this fight, the party spotted a number of treasures in the room's dark fountain, a piece of Drow architecture. Reed dunked his hand in to scoop out the treasures, and immediately found himself infected with a pair of diseases - filth fever and skinrot. The party then discovered that the water was a cocktail of deadly diseases, and any sort of interaction with it would surely lead to infection. Reed seemed to have trouble grasping this concept, and moved his canteen to scoop out some water - Iados, attempting to stop him, knocked the canteen straight into the water. This made Reed awfully mad, as this was his great-great grandfather's prized canteen. Fortunately, Gwenn was able to clean it with prestidigitation, which (hopefully) cleansed the diseases from it. We stopped there for the night.
The party really seems to be getting a handle on how to handle combat, and with the exception of the Sir Cairnstone encounter and the encounter with the evistros, they haven't found themselves in any great jeopardy. In this tomb, however, they may find that will all change soon...we'll see what happens next time!
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Session #9: What Exactly Is A "Bugbear", Anyway?
We had all 5 characters for this session - Aludiana, Erik, Gwenn, Iados & Reed were all present. Sterling was unable to make it, so I played Reed this session. Seemed a bit short to me, but then again we did go long last time. Here's what happened.
After waking up, the party found that Iados had at last recovered from his injuries and was waiting for them at the Temple of Pelor. They went over, checked on him, and satisfied with his state of health they headed out of town toward the goblin camp. Their first encounter was with a scout, a hobgoblin falconer who sent his blood hawks at them. This was a fairly easy encounter, and the party rolled it pretty quickly - one of the blood hawks attempted to escape, but it was killed before it could do so. For some spice the blood hawks all were given Pokemon names - Pidgey, Farfetch'd, Spearow and Taillow. After this, the party sent Reed ahead to scout out the area - he rolled pretty badly on his Stealth check, and came back with the sound of a barking, howling wolf traveling over the hills. He gave the party a report of what he'd seen, and told them that the wolf had spotted him. They deliberated on whether to try and go around these goblins or just go straight through them; eventually they decided to go straight through.
Here the party met Grugamug, a goblin hexer, and his bugbear guards, who stood across a stream from them. Grugamug told the party to turn around - they refused, and went to attack. However, they failed to notice a number of reeds sticking out of the water which happened to be serving as snorkels for a group of goblin snipers who erupted from the water and attacked the party. These snipers failed their attack rolls, and spent most of the encounter failing in general. The bugbears, however, were more deadly; they both hit Erik on their first attack, doing a staggering 37 damage and leaving him with 4 health. They never managed any more hits this good again, though, and the rest of the encounter went pretty smoothly for the party. The snipers were quickly mopped up, and the bugbears, despite having a ton of health (and a weird name, according to certain members of our audience), went down once damage was focused on them. This left Grugamug, who spent most of his time antagonizing the party at a distance with attack penalties and his stinging hex, which did a ton of damage to any enemy who moved while it was in effect on them.
In the end, the party managed to cross the stream and force Grugamug's surrender. He told them that he knew nothing about any warlocks, or anyone his master, the hobgoblin warlord Vagra'kon, might be working with - he only knew that Vagra'kon meant to take over Cairnmoor. After some deliberation, the party decided to let Grugamug go, Iados having confidence in Grugamug's desire to simply flee the area after a solid Insight check.
The party moved ahead toward Vagra'kon's lair, following Grugamug's direction, and managed to surprise the goblins guarding it - though Erik's critical failure on the Stealth roll, a 0 due to a -1 Stealth skill, resulted in him falling on his face during the surprise round. This was a long encounter, due mostly to the large amount of enemies involved - 8 goblin snipers, 3 goblin cutthroats, another bugbear, and a hobgoblin. Reed had a brush with death due to a pair of nasty attacks from two goblin cutthroats, but no one else found themselves in any real danger during this fight. If the blood hawk had escaped, this fight could have gone much differently, as the goblins would have known the party was coming, and would have had the opportunity to hide themselves and conduct an ambush.
The guards defeated, the party moved into the cave to face Vagra'kon - and discovered to their displeasure that he happens to have a pet ogre by the name of Horpdorp. We ended the session there.
Almost all of the party is Level 3 now - Aludiana, Erik & Gwenn all reached it in previous sessions, and in this session Reed hit it. Iados shouldn't be far behind. Looking forward to having a full house again next Wednesday, August 3rd - hope to see everyone there!
After waking up, the party found that Iados had at last recovered from his injuries and was waiting for them at the Temple of Pelor. They went over, checked on him, and satisfied with his state of health they headed out of town toward the goblin camp. Their first encounter was with a scout, a hobgoblin falconer who sent his blood hawks at them. This was a fairly easy encounter, and the party rolled it pretty quickly - one of the blood hawks attempted to escape, but it was killed before it could do so. For some spice the blood hawks all were given Pokemon names - Pidgey, Farfetch'd, Spearow and Taillow. After this, the party sent Reed ahead to scout out the area - he rolled pretty badly on his Stealth check, and came back with the sound of a barking, howling wolf traveling over the hills. He gave the party a report of what he'd seen, and told them that the wolf had spotted him. They deliberated on whether to try and go around these goblins or just go straight through them; eventually they decided to go straight through.
Here the party met Grugamug, a goblin hexer, and his bugbear guards, who stood across a stream from them. Grugamug told the party to turn around - they refused, and went to attack. However, they failed to notice a number of reeds sticking out of the water which happened to be serving as snorkels for a group of goblin snipers who erupted from the water and attacked the party. These snipers failed their attack rolls, and spent most of the encounter failing in general. The bugbears, however, were more deadly; they both hit Erik on their first attack, doing a staggering 37 damage and leaving him with 4 health. They never managed any more hits this good again, though, and the rest of the encounter went pretty smoothly for the party. The snipers were quickly mopped up, and the bugbears, despite having a ton of health (and a weird name, according to certain members of our audience), went down once damage was focused on them. This left Grugamug, who spent most of his time antagonizing the party at a distance with attack penalties and his stinging hex, which did a ton of damage to any enemy who moved while it was in effect on them.
In the end, the party managed to cross the stream and force Grugamug's surrender. He told them that he knew nothing about any warlocks, or anyone his master, the hobgoblin warlord Vagra'kon, might be working with - he only knew that Vagra'kon meant to take over Cairnmoor. After some deliberation, the party decided to let Grugamug go, Iados having confidence in Grugamug's desire to simply flee the area after a solid Insight check.
The party moved ahead toward Vagra'kon's lair, following Grugamug's direction, and managed to surprise the goblins guarding it - though Erik's critical failure on the Stealth roll, a 0 due to a -1 Stealth skill, resulted in him falling on his face during the surprise round. This was a long encounter, due mostly to the large amount of enemies involved - 8 goblin snipers, 3 goblin cutthroats, another bugbear, and a hobgoblin. Reed had a brush with death due to a pair of nasty attacks from two goblin cutthroats, but no one else found themselves in any real danger during this fight. If the blood hawk had escaped, this fight could have gone much differently, as the goblins would have known the party was coming, and would have had the opportunity to hide themselves and conduct an ambush.
The guards defeated, the party moved into the cave to face Vagra'kon - and discovered to their displeasure that he happens to have a pet ogre by the name of Horpdorp. We ended the session there.
Almost all of the party is Level 3 now - Aludiana, Erik & Gwenn all reached it in previous sessions, and in this session Reed hit it. Iados shouldn't be far behind. Looking forward to having a full house again next Wednesday, August 3rd - hope to see everyone there!
Friday, July 22, 2011
Gwenn's Backstory
Height: 5'3"
Weight: 120 lbs.
Age: 24
Eye Color: Blue
Hair Color: Blonde
Skin Color: White, Slight Tan
Body Build: Slender
Distinguishing Feature(s): Fish-hook earrings, wears a distinctive crimson-dyed outfit bearing a light blue feather from a bird native to the Crimson Fens (as shown in her token portrait), carries a letter from Johnathan in a belt pouch
Gwenn was born in the fishing village of Marshtown to former soldier Charles and the daughter of one of the prominent members of the village, Jenna. Charles, a close friend of Marshtown's war hero Mayor Sellick, set himself and his family up nicely after the Howl War, affording Gwenn a fairly opulent lifestyle. As an only child, she received the lion's share of her parents' attention. Her talent for the arcane was discovered early, and her family arranged for the Tower of Heiserrah to send one of their best pyromancers, Krasus Dragonshield, to train her in the arts of arcane fire.
She became smitten with Master Dragonshield's squire, a young man named Johnathan, during her training, and the two spent much of their formative years together. When she came of age, Johnathan asked her to become his betrothed, and she happily accepted. Their happiness was not to be, however - unbeknownst to Gwenn and Johnathan, Master Dragonshield had long struggled with demonic forces which wished to control him. On the eve of Gwenn and Johnathan's wedding, he finally lost the battle when Yeenoghu, the demon lord defeated in the Howl War, saw an opportunity for vengeance. He took possession of Master Dragonshield and forced the mage to open a demongate in Marshtown. Demons spewed forth from it, and much of Marshtown was destroyed in the chaos. The entire village may have been destroyed had it not been for Johnathan, who gave his life to seal the demongate.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Session #8: The Windmill Aflame
This session, again, did not have Iados present; it was quite a session though. We had it all in this one - demons, fires, windmills, stairs, falling through stairs, acid bomb demons...let's get to the recap!
The adventure started with the group heading to the windmill. From the top of it they saw a faint red glow; obviously nothing good, so they headed inside to investigate. Reed attempted to head up the stairs and check out the chattering noises they heard, but botched his stealth roll and drew the attention of the manes up the stairs. They began to pour down toward the group, throwing themselves onto the stairs and rolling down like barrels. They exploded when killed, throwing acid all over nearby enemies. The party avoided most of the damage here, though Erik was hit twice. Sterling briefly showed up to play Reed for a bit, but a storm caused him to lose internet and he was unable to return.
The party then met their first real test of the session: the acid-weakened stairs. Everyone but Reed fell through the stairs their first time up and took fall damage; Gwenn actually failed twice, and had to make 3 attempts to climb a rope Reed dropped to her from the upper level out of pity. The stairs conquered, the party continued upstairs to find a number of abyssal scavengers and a dimensional marauder snacking on corpses in front of a demongate - an unstable variety of portal which links to the Abyss, the realm of demons within the Elemental Chaos. The beasts immediately attacked the party. The abyssal scavengers surrounded Erik and took his health pretty low, but in the end the creatures were all defeated, leaving the party with the issue of how to seal the demongate.
They concluded they would need help from someone in Cairnmoor, and returned to "I" to seek information on who could potentially help them. "I" referred them to the Temple of Pelor. There, they found a priest who had knowledge of the appropriate ritual; he agreed to help but stated that having them pay the component cost would make things move along more quickly. The party squabbled about whether or not to pay, concerned they may be getting ripped off, but eventually agreed to pay. They met the priest and his attendants at the windmill, and the ritual began.
As they carried out the ritual, the final encounter of the night began. First, a quartet of abyssal scavengers came through and attacked. They killed the priest's attendants, and nearly bloodied the priest, but the party managed to handle them rather easily. What came through the portal next, however, was not so simple - 3 evistros, muscular humanoid demons with sharp claws and fangs, came through next. They were immediately marked by Erik, and began attacking him. This proved to be a very intense battle, as the evistros hit often and they hit hard, including a pair of crits. At one point during the battle Erik was left with a mere 1 health after a series of attacks from the evistros.
Somehow, the party managed to survive this encounter without anyone dying, and defeated the evistros - it was then that a large fire demon came through the portal, and began casting a devastating fire spell, one strong enough to likely kill the party. The priest managed to seal the portal at that moment, however, and the fire demon was sucked back into the Abyss, but not before he set the entire windmill on fire. The party had two avenues of escape: they could leap off of the windmill, taking considerable fall damage, or make Athletics checks to run out of the place in time. Aludiana and Gwenn chose to jump, Erik and Reed chose to run. Gwenn suffered serious injuries from her fall; Aludiana, on the other hand, managed a great landing and barely had a scratch on her. Erik, Reed, and the priest all managed to escape the windmill, and they watched as it burnt to the ground, sadly assuring a food shortage in Cairnmoor over the harsh winter.
With their mission complete, the party went and spoke to "I", who referred them to Halpern. They then discovered that Halpern was, in fact, "I": the peculiar dot placed over the signature "I" used was actually "H." tilted onto its side. He spoke with them on the details of their actions in the windmill. They were interrupted by Mayor Lundgrave, who asked Halpern about the events in the windmill - he denied any sort of demonic activity, and Erik did the same. His Bluff roll was rather terrible, unfortunately, and Erik was caught in his lie when the party later spoke with Lundgrave. They told him of what had happened in the windmill, and agreed to make dealing with the hobgoblin camp their latest priority. Lundgrave expressed concern that this demongate was another sign of the warlocks' designs on Cairnmoor. The session concluded with a bit of RPing of the party's downtime, Reed's womanizing in particular.
The plot continues to grow in complexity in Cairnmoor. Halpern and Lundgrave appear to both be in the business of keeping secrets, and the party may be heading toward a point at which they will have to decide which one they want to trust. We'll find out more next time; we won't be trying for a session on Saturday, so I'll see you guys at the usual time on Wednesday! Gwenn and Aludiana's backstories should be going up this week, so keep an eye out for them.
The adventure started with the group heading to the windmill. From the top of it they saw a faint red glow; obviously nothing good, so they headed inside to investigate. Reed attempted to head up the stairs and check out the chattering noises they heard, but botched his stealth roll and drew the attention of the manes up the stairs. They began to pour down toward the group, throwing themselves onto the stairs and rolling down like barrels. They exploded when killed, throwing acid all over nearby enemies. The party avoided most of the damage here, though Erik was hit twice. Sterling briefly showed up to play Reed for a bit, but a storm caused him to lose internet and he was unable to return.
The party then met their first real test of the session: the acid-weakened stairs. Everyone but Reed fell through the stairs their first time up and took fall damage; Gwenn actually failed twice, and had to make 3 attempts to climb a rope Reed dropped to her from the upper level out of pity. The stairs conquered, the party continued upstairs to find a number of abyssal scavengers and a dimensional marauder snacking on corpses in front of a demongate - an unstable variety of portal which links to the Abyss, the realm of demons within the Elemental Chaos. The beasts immediately attacked the party. The abyssal scavengers surrounded Erik and took his health pretty low, but in the end the creatures were all defeated, leaving the party with the issue of how to seal the demongate.
They concluded they would need help from someone in Cairnmoor, and returned to "I" to seek information on who could potentially help them. "I" referred them to the Temple of Pelor. There, they found a priest who had knowledge of the appropriate ritual; he agreed to help but stated that having them pay the component cost would make things move along more quickly. The party squabbled about whether or not to pay, concerned they may be getting ripped off, but eventually agreed to pay. They met the priest and his attendants at the windmill, and the ritual began.
As they carried out the ritual, the final encounter of the night began. First, a quartet of abyssal scavengers came through and attacked. They killed the priest's attendants, and nearly bloodied the priest, but the party managed to handle them rather easily. What came through the portal next, however, was not so simple - 3 evistros, muscular humanoid demons with sharp claws and fangs, came through next. They were immediately marked by Erik, and began attacking him. This proved to be a very intense battle, as the evistros hit often and they hit hard, including a pair of crits. At one point during the battle Erik was left with a mere 1 health after a series of attacks from the evistros.
Somehow, the party managed to survive this encounter without anyone dying, and defeated the evistros - it was then that a large fire demon came through the portal, and began casting a devastating fire spell, one strong enough to likely kill the party. The priest managed to seal the portal at that moment, however, and the fire demon was sucked back into the Abyss, but not before he set the entire windmill on fire. The party had two avenues of escape: they could leap off of the windmill, taking considerable fall damage, or make Athletics checks to run out of the place in time. Aludiana and Gwenn chose to jump, Erik and Reed chose to run. Gwenn suffered serious injuries from her fall; Aludiana, on the other hand, managed a great landing and barely had a scratch on her. Erik, Reed, and the priest all managed to escape the windmill, and they watched as it burnt to the ground, sadly assuring a food shortage in Cairnmoor over the harsh winter.
With their mission complete, the party went and spoke to "I", who referred them to Halpern. They then discovered that Halpern was, in fact, "I": the peculiar dot placed over the signature "I" used was actually "H." tilted onto its side. He spoke with them on the details of their actions in the windmill. They were interrupted by Mayor Lundgrave, who asked Halpern about the events in the windmill - he denied any sort of demonic activity, and Erik did the same. His Bluff roll was rather terrible, unfortunately, and Erik was caught in his lie when the party later spoke with Lundgrave. They told him of what had happened in the windmill, and agreed to make dealing with the hobgoblin camp their latest priority. Lundgrave expressed concern that this demongate was another sign of the warlocks' designs on Cairnmoor. The session concluded with a bit of RPing of the party's downtime, Reed's womanizing in particular.
The plot continues to grow in complexity in Cairnmoor. Halpern and Lundgrave appear to both be in the business of keeping secrets, and the party may be heading toward a point at which they will have to decide which one they want to trust. We'll find out more next time; we won't be trying for a session on Saturday, so I'll see you guys at the usual time on Wednesday! Gwenn and Aludiana's backstories should be going up this week, so keep an eye out for them.
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Reed's Backstory
Height: 4'0"
Weight: 81 lbs.
Age: 17
Eye Color: Brown
Hair Color: Black
Skin Color: Reddish White
Body Build: Athletic
Distinguishing Feature(s): Bronze rings in hair creating a series of six "tails"; small gold rings in ear piercings; tattoo of a black half of a crest depicting the bottom of a tree on left upper arm; affixes a white half of a crest depicting the top of the same tree to the left breast of his armor; carries a loaded six-sided die marked on all sides with the 3-line symbol of Avandra
Reed Halfcrest was born in the town of Kinderwood, several years after the downfall of House Halfcrest. The son of Ferrel Halfcrest and his late wife Darella, Reed was not taught of his family history until his 13th year. It was then that his uncle Merric, leader of the Underwood Thieves' Guild, came to visit. With Darella's recent passing, Ferrel felt unable to care for his son in his state of grief, and agreed to allow Merric to take care of Reed for a time.
For the next 3 years, Reed lived with Merric and the Underwood thieves, learning the trade and learning of his family's complex and dubious history. He learned how Ferrel and Merric had ended up on different sides of the civil war which destroyed the house, and how they had only returned to speaking terms recently. He learned of the family's history as the representative of all halflings in Titanian affairs, and he learned of their distinct symbol - the black and white halves of a crest depicting a tree, held by the two eldest males of the family.
Himself a bachelor, Merric took to raising Reed as his own son. Reed came to admire his uncle greatly, and took after the man's roguish ways, even as Merric sent him back to Ferrel shortly before his 16th birthday. Having tasted the excitement and allure of the thieving life, Reed became quite a handful for Ferrel. Now a man in the eyes of halfling society at 16, Reed rarely engaged in the sedentary lifestyle his father had taken on, and became known throughout Kinderwood as a "thieving scoundrel of a boy".
Unable to control his son, Ferrel instead sought to imbue him with some qualities to counteract those Merric had imprinted upon him. To that end, Ferrel passed down the White Half-crest - his half of the legendary symbol of House Halfcrest. Despite his penchant for skirting the word of law, Reed could not help but be grateful for this - he always wears the half-crest upon his armor as a symbol of his pride in his heritage.
Reed is very much a child of two worlds, unlike most halflings. After the fall of House Halfcrest and the end of the civil war, nearly every halfling took one of two available paths - they either settled down into a trader's lifestyle in Kinderwood, or took up the mantle of a thief's lifestyle in Underwood. Reed sees roots in both communities, and he dreams of uniting the halflings once more and restoring the honor of the Halfcrest name - if he can find time between thieving and chasing skirts, that is...
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Session #7: Ahhh - Fresh Meat!
Iados was not present for this session; instead we made use of a fill-in character who may become a more permanent character in the future. Moving on with the recap...
During the party's short rest outside the tower, Iados was grabbed by a mysterious individual inside the tower. The party chased them inside, getting around the locked door (note for players in attendance: this is retconned in order for this section of the story to make sense), but found no trace of Iados or his mysterious abductor. They gave the tower a thorough examination; eventually they resigned themselves to give up on finding Iados until Erik had an epiphany to see if the mentions of "the butcher" literally referred to Cairnmoor's butcher (in other words, the DM all but told them this was what they should check -_-).
At the butcher's shop, Erik broke in through a window, and found that a number of zombies were being kept in the shop's meat locker. They moved to attack Erik, who hurried to the door to unlock it before the massive hulking zombie among the group smashed him to bits. He managed to get the door open, and the party went into action. The hulking zombie was mercifully inaccurate, only managing to connect with one attack - the one attack he hit with, though, did a staggering 21 damage and left Gwenn at 2 health. The zombies proved to be easy pickings, however, especially when the party was joined in combat by a halfling thief who lopped off the heads of two of the three horrors. This thief had appeared earlier, apparently trying to break into the butcher's shop during the fight, then sheepishly excusing himself when he saw what was going on inside - he later explained that he had done this to get the drop on the hulking zombie from behind.
This thief introduced himself as Reed, a "treasure hunter extraordinaire and all-around good-looking fellow". Reed explained he'd seen a number of rich travelers disappear into this shop, and he was here to recover what he could of the loot. After agreeing on a split, the party and Reed searched the shop and found a trap door leading to the cellar, from which a horrible smell was wafting. They headed down and found the shop's proprietor, Rolf, along with a cadre of zombies and their apparent leader, a particularly intelligent type of ghoul known as an Adept of Orcus. The adept had been conducting some sort of ritual with Iados' body - fortunately, Iados had not yet been harmed as far as the party could see. Harm was certainly intended, however, and the fiends were quick to attack the party.
This combat proved far more intense as Rolf and the Adept levied a number of devastating attacks upon the party, particularly on Reed. By the end of the fight, Reed was dead. In the aftermath of combat, the party helped themselves to the loot - only to find their coin purses had been absconded with, and Reed's body was nowhere in sight. They handed Iados over to the Temple of Pelor for healing, and set off after Reed (after a crit roll to find tracks). They followed Reed's tracks to the halfling town of Kinderwood to the southeast, only to find it mostly deserted.
Reed's tracks led them into a shop run by one Ferrel Halfcrest - a name Erik recognized as the once-great name of the sole Halfling noble house, the former rulers of all halflings before a civil war within the house tore it apart and left their name meaningless outside of antiquated loyalties some halflings still hold. Halfcrest revealed that Reed was his son, and a bit of a scoundrel at that - Ferrel forced Reed to return the party's gold, and explained that Reed had learned these thieving ways from his (Reed's) uncle Merric - Ferrel had tried to teach Reed to put these powers to use for noble causes, but had failed, as evidenced by his choice of lifestyle. Ferrel proposed that the party take Reed on as an indentured servant, in line with halfling custom, to repay his debt - he would still receive a cut as a member of their adventuring party to cover his living expenses, but would put his skills to use for them. If he were to steal from them again, Ferrel gave the party permission to kill Reed - a task Aludiana gleefully accepted to be her own as the party accepted Ferrel's proposal.
With that, Ferrel (revealing himself as the town mayor) granted the party free rooms at Kinderwood's inn to show his thanks. Heading over to the inn, the party found a very familiar halfling running it - this, they discovered, was Ferrel in a disguise. He revealed that, due to this being a halfling town, most of the halflings were out traveling during the warm months, and as such he stayed behind and ran all their establishments for them. He gave them their rooms, and after a night's rest they returned to Cairnmoor, Reed along with them, and checked on Iados. They found him to be recovering nicely, just needing to rest before he'd be ready to go again. They then spoke with Halpern about what they'd found in the butcher's shop - he seemed quite shocked that they'd discovered this, and when he asked them their source, he seemed to know who "I" was. He also suggested they investigate the windmill granary before returning to "I".
The session ended here. Reed's fate is indeterminate at the moment; the party wishes to keep him around as a regular character, since his acuity in Dex-based skills would be a significant boon to the group. We may find a player to take his reins, as he was a DM-run character in this session, or failing that I may continue to play him for the time being. I'll update you guys on this as I decide. Either way, I have a small working backstory for Reed, and I will look to post that in the next couple days for you all to read. Thanks for reading.
Remember, we are going to try and run a 2nd session this week during the usual Saturday timeslot - noon Pacific/2 PM Central start, running until 4 PM Pacific/6 PM Central. Let me know if you can't make this so I can get the message out to everyone else!
During the party's short rest outside the tower, Iados was grabbed by a mysterious individual inside the tower. The party chased them inside, getting around the locked door (note for players in attendance: this is retconned in order for this section of the story to make sense), but found no trace of Iados or his mysterious abductor. They gave the tower a thorough examination; eventually they resigned themselves to give up on finding Iados until Erik had an epiphany to see if the mentions of "the butcher" literally referred to Cairnmoor's butcher (in other words, the DM all but told them this was what they should check -_-).
At the butcher's shop, Erik broke in through a window, and found that a number of zombies were being kept in the shop's meat locker. They moved to attack Erik, who hurried to the door to unlock it before the massive hulking zombie among the group smashed him to bits. He managed to get the door open, and the party went into action. The hulking zombie was mercifully inaccurate, only managing to connect with one attack - the one attack he hit with, though, did a staggering 21 damage and left Gwenn at 2 health. The zombies proved to be easy pickings, however, especially when the party was joined in combat by a halfling thief who lopped off the heads of two of the three horrors. This thief had appeared earlier, apparently trying to break into the butcher's shop during the fight, then sheepishly excusing himself when he saw what was going on inside - he later explained that he had done this to get the drop on the hulking zombie from behind.
This thief introduced himself as Reed, a "treasure hunter extraordinaire and all-around good-looking fellow". Reed explained he'd seen a number of rich travelers disappear into this shop, and he was here to recover what he could of the loot. After agreeing on a split, the party and Reed searched the shop and found a trap door leading to the cellar, from which a horrible smell was wafting. They headed down and found the shop's proprietor, Rolf, along with a cadre of zombies and their apparent leader, a particularly intelligent type of ghoul known as an Adept of Orcus. The adept had been conducting some sort of ritual with Iados' body - fortunately, Iados had not yet been harmed as far as the party could see. Harm was certainly intended, however, and the fiends were quick to attack the party.
This combat proved far more intense as Rolf and the Adept levied a number of devastating attacks upon the party, particularly on Reed. By the end of the fight, Reed was dead. In the aftermath of combat, the party helped themselves to the loot - only to find their coin purses had been absconded with, and Reed's body was nowhere in sight. They handed Iados over to the Temple of Pelor for healing, and set off after Reed (after a crit roll to find tracks). They followed Reed's tracks to the halfling town of Kinderwood to the southeast, only to find it mostly deserted.
Reed's tracks led them into a shop run by one Ferrel Halfcrest - a name Erik recognized as the once-great name of the sole Halfling noble house, the former rulers of all halflings before a civil war within the house tore it apart and left their name meaningless outside of antiquated loyalties some halflings still hold. Halfcrest revealed that Reed was his son, and a bit of a scoundrel at that - Ferrel forced Reed to return the party's gold, and explained that Reed had learned these thieving ways from his (Reed's) uncle Merric - Ferrel had tried to teach Reed to put these powers to use for noble causes, but had failed, as evidenced by his choice of lifestyle. Ferrel proposed that the party take Reed on as an indentured servant, in line with halfling custom, to repay his debt - he would still receive a cut as a member of their adventuring party to cover his living expenses, but would put his skills to use for them. If he were to steal from them again, Ferrel gave the party permission to kill Reed - a task Aludiana gleefully accepted to be her own as the party accepted Ferrel's proposal.
With that, Ferrel (revealing himself as the town mayor) granted the party free rooms at Kinderwood's inn to show his thanks. Heading over to the inn, the party found a very familiar halfling running it - this, they discovered, was Ferrel in a disguise. He revealed that, due to this being a halfling town, most of the halflings were out traveling during the warm months, and as such he stayed behind and ran all their establishments for them. He gave them their rooms, and after a night's rest they returned to Cairnmoor, Reed along with them, and checked on Iados. They found him to be recovering nicely, just needing to rest before he'd be ready to go again. They then spoke with Halpern about what they'd found in the butcher's shop - he seemed quite shocked that they'd discovered this, and when he asked them their source, he seemed to know who "I" was. He also suggested they investigate the windmill granary before returning to "I".
The session ended here. Reed's fate is indeterminate at the moment; the party wishes to keep him around as a regular character, since his acuity in Dex-based skills would be a significant boon to the group. We may find a player to take his reins, as he was a DM-run character in this session, or failing that I may continue to play him for the time being. I'll update you guys on this as I decide. Either way, I have a small working backstory for Reed, and I will look to post that in the next couple days for you all to read. Thanks for reading.
Remember, we are going to try and run a 2nd session this week during the usual Saturday timeslot - noon Pacific/2 PM Central start, running until 4 PM Pacific/6 PM Central. Let me know if you can't make this so I can get the message out to everyone else!
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Session #6: New Faces
In this latest session, Iados conducted some interviews for new members of the party to replace Mika & Adrie. Erik slept off his drunken depression while Iados conducted the interviews - in the end, Gwenn bought herself a role on the party by paying Iados' outstanding tab, and Aludiana fought her way on by showing off her healing skills. The party then decided to investigate the corruption in the town guard - they spoke to Vilner, a former guard, and found themselves in combat when they asked him about corruption.
After defeating Vilner and his flunkies handily, they discovered that the Night Watch of the town guard was responsible for causing travelers coming in through the northern gate to disappear. They also learned after pressing him of an individual called "the butcher" who the corrupt guards were particularly afraid of.
The party investigated the northern guard tower, and were pressed into battle with a quartet of corrupt town guards and a mage who appeared to be working with them. This proved a difficult battle, and the guards nearly dragged the unconscious bodies of Iados & Aludiana into the tower to an unknown fate (though according to the mage's orders to "Take them to the butcher", it involved this feared individual). The party was victorious in the end, however, and the session stopped there for the time being.
Our session will be on for the usual time - 6 PM Pacific/8 PM Central tomorrow, Wednesday the 13th of July.
After defeating Vilner and his flunkies handily, they discovered that the Night Watch of the town guard was responsible for causing travelers coming in through the northern gate to disappear. They also learned after pressing him of an individual called "the butcher" who the corrupt guards were particularly afraid of.
The party investigated the northern guard tower, and were pressed into battle with a quartet of corrupt town guards and a mage who appeared to be working with them. This proved a difficult battle, and the guards nearly dragged the unconscious bodies of Iados & Aludiana into the tower to an unknown fate (though according to the mage's orders to "Take them to the butcher", it involved this feared individual). The party was victorious in the end, however, and the session stopped there for the time being.
Our session will be on for the usual time - 6 PM Pacific/8 PM Central tomorrow, Wednesday the 13th of July.
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