Wednesday night D&D/AD&D group starting at Lake Geneva Games

I had the Powers That Be change the title of the thread - that may be why.

 

I guess they just didn't like your write-ups, eh?!

 

2011-08-17 Adventure Log [part 1 of 3]

Ram, the Lonely…………….Half-Orc, Thief, 2nd
Kemolton……………………Elf, Fighter/Thief, 1st/1st
Men-Ma’at-Re………………Half-Elf, Cleric 1st
Rayn………………………...Human, Magic-User, 1st
Gorax………………………..Dwarf, Fighter, 2nd
Thelonius……………………Human, Fighter, 1st
Otto von Grunwald………….Human, Ranger, 1st
Xander Tinks………………..Human, Druid, 1st
Sir Ryan von Krause………..Human, Paladin, 3rd
Ken H……………………….DM

Having returned to the village of Currani to deliver Seppo’s body for burial, the party met with his next of kin, Seppo’s cousin, Thelonius. Thelonius offered to join the party in order to fulfill his cousin’s mission. The party accepted him and began the trek back south the next day.

Their first day south brought them back to the base of the western cliff where they made camp amongst the rubble and brush. After setting up their tents and bed rolls, the fire was allowed to die down to embers and watches were set. During Otto and Men-Ma’at-Re’s watch in the middle of the night, Otto heard movement in the bushes some distance from camp. Unable to make out what it was by the starlight, he nudged his companion and gestured in the direction of the sound. Men-Ma’at-Re gazed out and could see several small figures moving parallel to the camp with his infravision. Then he noticed a small group breaking off and hearding toward camp. Alerting Otto, the cleric then moved about waking the fighters. Otto took up a position with his short bow. Four kobold warriors sprang shouting into camp just as Gorax, Sir Ryan and Kemolton had grabbed their weapons and shields. Otto instantly killed one with a bow shot, while Sir Ryan and Kemolton dispatched the other three just as quickly. The remainder of the humanoids, still lurking in the bushes, began to run away. The bodies were piled a distance outside of camp and the rest of the night passed uneventfully.

As the sun rose over the eastern cliffs, camp was broken and the party continued moving southward toward Grag’s verbeeg settlement. Sir Ryan, the only party member who had had dealings with Grag, suggested that the group camp early so as to arrive in the giants’ village in the morning instead of late that night. Everyone agreed that this was a sensible plan and made camp a few miles shy of their destination.

Day three of their journey brought them quickly to the edge of a cluster of very large yurts and tents. Massive figures of eight foot tall women and children no less than five feet tall could been seen performing primitive chores: tanning hides, carrying water, etc… Upon the party’s approach, a juvenile male ran off behind some tents while all the others stood quietly observing the strangers in their midst. Several awkward moments pass before a verbeeg child walked up to Gorax and, after a furtive glance back at his mother, reached out to touch the dwarf’s beard. Gorax muttered to his companions, “The boy had better not tug on it.” This caused several party members to chuckle and the child smiled then returned to his mother. A wave of relief passed through the whole gathering just as the juvenile returned with a group of adult males including, as Sir Ryan pointed out on their approach, Grag.

Grag walked up to the adventurers and spoke something in orcish. The party looked at each other, confused. Ram grinned and translated the greeting as, “Good arrival. You have message Marcus?” Ram handed over Marcus’ scroll to Grag as Sir Ryan also held out a piece of Eishnereeg, the faintly glowing mineral that verbeeg use as a spice. Grag took the offering from Sir Ryan with a nod of thanks and then touched it to his forehead and lips before putting it away. Grag next read the scroll which Xander noticed was written in a druidic script. Once he was done, Grag rolled it up then spoke again to the party. Gorax, who could also understand orcish, told the party that Grag was offering to “Share friend drink?” Ram reached into his smelly sack to retrieve a flask of ale for Grag. Grag shook his head and waved the group to follow him.

They were taken to a large tent and sat in a circle while Grag disappeared behind a curtain dividing the interior. He reemerged holding, what appeared to the party, a large bucket of some beverage. Grag sat and touched the vast tankard to his head then took a drink. He then held it out to Sir Ryan. Sir Ryan copied the motion and found to his surprise the drink was nearly pure alcohol. He sputtered a bit and Grag grinned. It was passed around the party who all copied the gesture with Gorax taking a long draft before passing it and Men-Ma’at-Re gesturing but only pretending to sip. Once the ceremony was completed, Grag put the tankard back behind the curtain and came back with a rolled up hide which in his hands appeared as a scroll. He then handed it to Xander speaking in near perfect Druidic, “Message for Marcus, please.” Xander accepted and then gave the large roll to Ram to place in the party’s bag of holding. Gorax frowned and muttered disapprovingly. Ram, sensing the dwarf’s distrust, peered at him through the holes of his mask and said, “Clan is everything.” showing his gruesome smile and bowing.

 

[part2]

The party was lead from the ceremonial yurt to a massive open air dining tent. Stump-like cross-sections of trees were provided for seating around bulky wooden tables. Virtually the entire settlement joined the group sitting in near silence around the party as juveniles served immense portions to each person seated, including the adventurers. Sir Ryan explained through gestures that he and his companions had been served far too much food. Gorax admonished, “Speak for yourself!” But the servants understood Sir Ryan’s gesticulations and split each adventurer’s portion in half with a thin plank of wood. The half portions were then shared among the party. Grag quietly explained through Ram that they must serve what they had been blessed with, no less. With no further explanation, the verbeeg leader went quietly back to eating. When the group was again served giant-sized drinks of ale, Men-Ma’at-Re politely refused and instead used his clerical magic to summon forth a draught of pure water which he shared with Sir Ryan.

Once the meal had concluded and cleared away, Grag began to ask questions of Xander. He inquired if the party were also going to investigate the “Man caves” nearby. Xander replied, “We can if you would like us to do so.” Grag indicated that he thought the “caves” might be of interest to us since he knew that Marcus was interested in such things. He also said that while his people knew where the “caves” were, he didn’t know much else beside the fact that they had been abandoned for a very long time. The party decided to investigate and left the same day since it was only lunch time and, according to Grag’s directions, the party could reach their destination within about nine hours of travel.

Thanking Grag and his people heartily, the party set out right away. They travelled swiftly; breaking only once at sundown for Men-Ma’at-Re to perform his daily rituals. Arriving at what should be the “abandoned man caves” long after dark, the party found they were still in the open of the valley with only low hills and overgrown rubble around them. Searching the ground for any track which might lead to a cave, Otto notices that the rubble is actually weed covered flagstones. Others in the group then noticed too that the rock formations around them were in fact outlines of foundations and overgrown bits of stone walls. Suddenly, Otto stopped the party’s searching and said, “Something’s out there.” as he drew his bow. With no other warning, a group of nine skeletons rushed out of the ruins to attack. Immediately, Men-Ma’at-Re and Sir Ryan raised their holy symbols. The combined power of their faith drove the undead creatures fleeing into the blackness from whence they came. Thelonius said, “We should seek some kind of shelter.” Ram agreed and began searching for a ruined church or temple. The largest heap visible turned out to be a once impressive, but now tumbled down church. Quickly the group went to it.

Adorning the façade were several weather-worn statues whose features had long been lost to time. However, they were curious in that they all had three arms and three legs. The archway over the doorway was also inscribed with a strange script in an alphabet none of the party could recognize. Sir Ryan turned his concentration on the doors and whatever may be behind them but did not sense any dark influences as Ram quickly copied down the inscription with his pencil and parchment. Gorax and Otto entered the sanctuary first to find the entryway hall flanked by more odd statues. Along one wall were more of the large, three-armed statues; this time with features intact revealing they had three eyes as well. Along the other wall were human-like statues but only about three to four feet tall. The hall lead to the roof-less sanctuary. The party all moved in to investigate. In the center of the room they discovered a rectangular outline on the floor roughly the size of a table. It was outlined by the remains of candle wax. On either side of the room were doorways that lead to smaller rooms each containing a single, large three armed statue but this time these were both set in aggressive poses facing the sanctuary. Ram and Gorax examined the pugilist statue in one of the side rooms as the rest of the party set up camp in the main hall. No fire was lit and the group settled down after assigning watches.

Again during the second watch, Otto heard a clicking sound from near the entrance doors. He alerted Men-Ma’at-Re who began waking the other fighters. Otto took a step or two toward the door and could just make out a half dozen humanoid shapes slowly approaching through the darkness. Bow in hand, Otto called out, “Halt!” But the figures rushed forward gibbering wickedly. The ranger managed to hit with a bow shot and call out, “Ghouls!” before being overtaken and paralyzed by his foes. The rest of the party, hearing his cry, jumped up and their actions drew the pack away from Otto. Boldly, Sir Ryan attempted to banish the flesh-hungry abominations but they resisted him. Men-Ma’at-Re brandished his solar disk holy symbol and drove all but two of the ghouls away by the light of Ra. The two remaining ghouls sprang after Sir Ryan and Gorax, who had moved up to attack, but they missed. Sir Ryan valiantly swung his two-handed sword and cut both of the enemies across their chest pushing them both back just out of reach of Gorax’s attack. Fortunately, Thelonius’ halberd was long enough to land a blow killing a ghoul. The last ghoul turned on Thelonius and sank its claws into him, paralyzing the fighter. The ghoul dodged out of the way of Gorax’s battle ax only to step into the path of Sir Ryan’s swing and was laid low. The party regrouped and barred the door for the remainder of the night as Otto and Thelonius’s paralysis slowly faded and their wounds were tended to.

The following morning Gorax went back to examine one of the fighting statues in a side room. He noticed that it appeared chalky, as if made out of very soft stone. The rest of the party entered the room to see what was holding the dwarf’s interest so intently. As they entered, Gorax lifted his ax and smashed an arm off of the statue. An awful stench instantly filled the room causing everyone except Ram, who covered his face with his tattered cloak, and Sir Ryan, who was protected by higher powers against such stuff, to vomit and retch. With the party members running from the room and getting sick, Ram and Sir Ryan inspected the now visibly hollow statue. Ram tied a rag across his face and peered into the broken shoulder but couldn’t see much. Gorax regained his composure and returned telling the Half-orc and human to step back. He then continued his work of smashing the statue until only its base remained. When the dust settled the party could all see the beginnings of a spiral stair previously hidden beneath the hollow figure.

 

[part 3]

For several moments, the party stood discussing what might have caused the stench, and how best to explore. Gorax offered to toss a lit torch down the spiral of the stair case but Ram spoke up suggesting one of the spell casters cast Light on a spherical sling bullet and send it rolling down instead. No one had a Light spell prepared. In the end, they chose to send the scout group of Ram, Gorax, and Kemolton ahead as in the last adventure. The demi-humans descended the cold stone steps into a square chamber thirteen paces to a side with two doorways in the middle of adjacent walls. The foot of the stairway landed in the center of the room and quietly the three scouts spread out. Finding the room bare, they called the others down.

Gorax investigated one of the passages and found it lead about fifteen paces to another chamber. As he peered in with his infravision, he could just make out a series of rectangular niches covering the walls about the room. He returned to the party to relay what he’d seen. Together they all enter the room with the torch and realize it is a crypt. Thelonius went over to a body in one of the alcoves and reached out to touch it saying, “I wonder what kinda loot they’ve got?” His search was interrupted, however, when three of the corpses in the room began to crawl out of their niches. The horridness of their bloody hanging flesh and exposed skeleton caused everyone except Sir Ryan, Ram, Kemolton, and Men-Ma’at-Re to flee in terror back up the spiral stair. The paladin and cleric both attempted to turn the undead abominations back without success. Their efforts were answered by lunging attacks clawing both Men-Ma’at-Re and Kemolton. As the four were unable to land any significant blows on the creatures, Ram shouted to Men-Ma’at-Re, “Fall back to the tunnel!” The cleric hesitated for a second, not wanting to leave his companions in dire straits, but then Ram waved him away and Men-Ma’at-Re complied dashing up the stair to find the rest of the group. With grim determination, the three in the crypt were only just managing to hold the horrors at bay. The skeletal claws raked at the three defenders until at last, Kemolton was gashed across the throat. With a gout of blood, the elf’s body slumped lifelessly to the floor of the crypt. Ram began to fall back to the doorway calling for Sir Ryan to follow. Reluctant to leave his fallen comrade’s body, Sir Ryan gave once last swing of his sword, pushing his three opponents back briefly, before he joined Ram in the doorway.

Meanwhile, Men-Ma’at-Re had arrived at the top of the stair to find the others filled with fear. He encouraged them and reminded them that their other friends were down there fighting. His words lessened the effect on Xander and Thelonius. Men-Ma’at-Re then cast Remove Fear on Gorax and the four of them raced down to rejoin the fray. They discovered Ram and Sir Ryan using the hall as a choke point. The battle raged back and forth for nearly a minute with Otto and Rayn finally shaking off their fear and joining as well. In the end, Sir Ryan dropped one with his sword, while Gorax finished off the other two.

The battle ended, Rayn spots Ram badly wounded and slumped against a wall. Men-Ma’at-Re rushed over and cast Cure Light Wounds on him. Still wounded but now able to stand, Ram thanked the cleric. During this time, Sir Ryan turned his senses about the room but could feel no other evil. Thelonius checked the graves but found no loot and threw down a dry arm bone in frustration. The party took Kemolton’s body to the bottom of the stairwell where Men-Ma’at-Re performed his last rights on it.

The group then explored the other passage which wound around for many paces and branched off in several places. The party decided to go back to the first side passage and check it out before getting lost in the maze of halls. The side passage lead to the middle of a wall of a chamber whose side walls tapered together almost to a point opposite of the party except it was another exit. In the corners to either side as the group entered the chamber were more of the eight foot tall three-armed fighter statues. Gorax could tell from a distance that these were of solid hard stone. Thelonius checked around behind them for a hidden door or items. Otto examined them for inscriptions but saw none. So, the party continued through the room.

The new tunnel quickly began splitting into side passages as well. The first one lead the group down a very long straight hallway. About twenty paces along, Gorax spotted an irregularity in one of the walls. A swift search located a latch mechanism and the dwarf opened the secret door on to another long, straight, dark passage. Sir Ryan detected no immanent evil so Gorax advanced, tapping the floor with the handle of his ax to test for pits. Nearly thirty paces down, the tunnel opened up into a chamber but the way was blocked by another large fighter statue. As soon as the group got within a few steps of it to try and look past, the statue cracked and began moving saying, “Protect pretty!”

Dodging the guardian’s initial attacks, the group fell into a fighting stance and began attacking as well. After several rounds of combat, the adventurers realized that their swords, axes, and arrows were having only a minimal effect on the stone automaton. Eventually, the several blows against it caused large cracks to appear all over its surface. Then at last, Rayn landed a well placed sling bullet at a crack in the base of its neck and the guardian shattered into a million tiny pieces. During the fight, Men-Ma’at-Re had cast Detect Magic in hopes of learning some weakness of the creature, but now he dashed into the room and over to a large hoard of treasure the stone guardian had been protecting. Men-Ma’at-Re’s enchanted sight allowed him to find a magical shield, sword and wooden spoon among the pile of gold, gems and jewelry. The party quickly split up the massive trove.

Play ended there for the evening.

Level report= Ram to 4th; Gorax, Xander, Rayn, Thelonius, Otto, and Men-Ma’at-Re all made 3rd. Sir Ryan remained 3rd level.

 

Thanks for the recaps! I can't wait to see what Ken has got for us next week! :shock:

 

Darkening skies and big thunderstorms moving through the area today. I hope it's not a side effect of Ken's plotting a la Sauron-style!

-Otto

 

I hope it isn't too bad. I only have so many healing spells!!

 

2011-08-24 Adventure Log [part 1 of 3]

Ram, the Lonely…………….Half-Orc Thief 4th
Sir Ryan von Krause………...Human Paladin 3rd
Chef Boyardee (C.B.)………Halfling Thief 2nd
Thelonius……………………Human Fighter 3rd
Crynton Dragon-Eye………..Human Magic-User 1st
Otto von Grunwald…………Human Ranger 3rd
Thurin……………………….Half-Elf Cleric 3rd
Gorax……………………….Dwarven Fighter 3rd
Xander Tinks………………..Human Druid 3rd
Rayn…………………………Human Magic-User 3rd
Ken H……………………….Human DM

The party, still inside the “Verbeegean Man-Caves”, chose to camp out back in the main room of the ruined cathedral. The next morning, the party could hear their names being called outside. Cautiously, Ram and Otto investigated finding C.B., Thurin and Crynton wandering the ruins looking for the rest of the party. The new comers explained that they had been travelling a day behind the rest of the party and had been directed where to go by Grag’s people. They had remained behind in town on clerical business as well as picking up Crynton.

Gorax showed them his new magical shield, and they also noticed Xander’s new magic scimitar. The rest of the party filled them in on the massive amounts of treasure they had uncovered. Discussion was then made as to the party’s next move. Unanimously it was decided that rather than continue taking Grag’s “scroll” back to Marcus, they would spend at least one more day investigating the remainder of the catacombs.

Darkness hung over the group as it descended once again into the foul crypt. Making their way through the long tunnels, they arrived at an unexplored side tunnel just ahead of where the treasure room passage was. Ram and C.B. lead the way about twenty paces ahead of the rest of the party. The scouts came to another triangular chamber, based on what they could tell with their infravision. But before they could inspect the chamber further, a swarm of two foot long centipedes poured out of a crack in the wall next to the entrance taking both of the thieves by surprise.

C.B. collapsed after being bitten by a couple of the vermin. Ram managed to remain conscious though the poison spread through his veins like fire causing him to cry out and stumble. The rest of the party ran up, having heard Ram’s cry, to find the half-orc attempting to drag C.B.’s unconscious body back while still being harried by the centipedes. Otto called for a flask of oil to be thrown but it was quickly determined that it would be better to send in the fighters rather than start a conflagration. The fighter types waded in stomping and slashing two and three of the creatures at a time. Within a few moments, they had eliminated all of the pests. Thurin cast all of his Cure Light Wounds spells on the two thieves to bring them back to health.

Together, the party entered the “base” of a triangle room oriented opposite to the first one they had explored the previous day. Similarly, however, in the two corners flanking the archway the party entered were more of the three armed humanoid statues. Again they are checked and again nothing of note is found on or around them. Ram and C.B. begin to move out the only other exit at the “point” of the triangle while Thurin mutters to those around him, “Because it worked so well last time.” with a bit of a sigh. The cleric’s lack of faith went unrewarded as the two thieves successfully searched along a long passage for traps finding none and at last came to another archway into a square chamber.

The rest of the party caught up and everyone went in to discover a square chamber some ten or twelve paces to a side. In each of the four corners was another plain stone statue. Gorax searched for secret doors but found none. Ram examined the stone ceiling but found nothing unusual. Thurin made an intensive search of the statues but nothing of interest was discovered. Scratching their heads, the party moved along through the only other exit opposite from where they entered.

About fifteen paces straight along the next passage brought the party to yet another chamber. When the torch was brought up after infravision showed it to be similar in size and shape to the previous one, it was discovered to contain five human zombies that were already shuffling toward the adventurers. Thurin deftly held forth his holy symbol and commanded the undead to be gone. Four of the creatures turned and fled to the opposite side of the room. Otto shot the fifth with an arrow knocking it back a step or two, giving Gorax an opening to charge in with his ax thus finishing it off. While Thurin continued to hold them at bay with his mighty faith, the party worked together to pick off the zombies one by one without any difficulty. This left them in an otherwise empty chamber. Exhaustive search was again made of the empty room with no luck. Just as the group was preparing to leave, Sir Ryan turned to Xander and asked, “Maybe you should try casting Detect Magic.” Xander shrugged and replied, “Why not.” The druid made some motions and spoke an incantation then seemed to concentrate deeply before opening his eyes to gaze about the environs. He gasped and rushed to the south-west corner of the chamber. He informed the party that he sensed a great amount of magic behind the wall. Everyone frantically searched to no avail. Gorax suggested going back to town to get pick axes and come back but all thought that that would take too long. Ram and Otto studied the map and determined that there were two hallways that the party should search for secret doors. They quickly headed out.

 

[part 2 of 3]

The party searched along the halls where they were sure a secret door must be and not long after, Gorax discovered one. It opened onto a long dark passage, filled with silence, extending in the anticipated direction. Nearly thirty paces down, a familiar shape loomed ahead as the torch approached. Another stone guardian filled the arched entrance of a dark chamber behind him. As soon as the adventurers saw it, they draw their weapons and the three armed construct sprang to life booming, “Protect pretty!” It lurched forward and pummeled at Gorax landing only one blow past his enchanted shield. Rayn missed with her sling and Ram’s thrown dagger failed to connect. Otto two quick bow shots only glanced off of the monster’s stone surface as Sir Ryan and Gorax both stepped forward and landed solid blows with their weapons. Crynton cast a Magic Missile that blazed into its target’s chest while Xander threw a Fairy Fire enchantment on the guardian. Thelonius attempted to connect with an iron skillet that only clattered and clanged off into the dark room. Combat continued with Gorax and Sir Ryan in the front rank and Thelonius using his halberd from behind them and the rest of the party taking missile shots as opportunities presented themselves. Finally, Sir Ryan smashed at the guardian with his two-handed sword connecting with a large crack in its chest. The stone guardian fell backward, shattering as it landed on the floor.

The party then moved into the second treasure room finding the loot they had been looking for. Among the piles of gold, electrum and jewelry they found a rolled up Persian carpet, a suit of chain mail, a ring, a sword, and a cloak as well as two scrolls. Otto unrolled the carpet and sitting on it commanded, “Rise!” He sensed it twitch but nothing more. He rolled it back up. Ram took the ring which was identified as a Ring of Protection (+1), Rayn put on the cloak and realized from her arcane training that it was a Cloak of Vaenir that would expand her ability to memorize spells. Thurin noticed that the chain mail was of elven design so he took that with the party’s blessing. C.B. was the only party member who was proficient with long swords; so he took the sword which turned out to be very nice and even better balanced than Xander’s magical scimitar. With the treasure distributed, the party happily moved on to explore other regions on their incomplete map.

Passing back by the first treasure chamber tunnel, the party came to a ghastly chamber containing four ghouls. Confidently, Thurin stepped toward the gibbering abominations to turn them back but failed. Quickly, Sir Ryan moved up to do the same with only partial success, turning two ghouls. With the other two ghouls loping forward. Otto shot an arrow at each foe. One shot nearly toppled its target while the second landed in the ghoul’s shoulder. Gorax, who had been near the front, rushed to meet the enemy and dropped a wounded ghoul with a single ax stroke. The combination of Rayn’s casting Magic Missile and Xander’s scimitar hit finished the last approaching ghoul. The party then finished off the other two as Sir Ryan continued to hold them back with his holy symbol. In the melee, Thelonius was paralyzed by a ghoul who clawed him. As Thelonius recovered, Ram and C.B. searched the room for treasure and secret doors, etc… They found only a small handful of coins and nothing more.

Going down the last passage unexplored on their map, the party finds a square chamber with a spiral stair going up to darkness. Otto gauged that this must lead up to the other side room off of the “altar room” in the cathedral above. Similar to the first stair room, another passage lead off to another crypt room. Thelonius stepped into this to look for treasure and, like last time, three skeletal figures rose out of the niches to confront the party. Fortunately, these creatures were not the horrible entities that were encountered before but did move unnaturally quick compared to other skeletons the party had encountered in the past. With lightning fast weapon strikes, the skeletons hit Ram, Otto and Xander. Thurin then brandished his holy symbol turning back all three of the undead. With well practiced efficiency, the group then picked off their fleeing enemies. Also like the first crypt room, no loot was discovered in any of the niches. The whole map revealed, the party went back up stairs into the light of the noonday sun.

 

[part 3 of 3]

Sir Ryan said that it wouldn’t be safe for the party to stay in the ruins that night considering all the undead in the area. Otto agreed saying, “We could put quite a bit of distance between ourselves and the ruins by nightfall.” since it was only just after noon. So, the party headed out northward skirting the western cliff making camp once night had fallen.

During the first watch, Gorax was alerted by crashing sounds in the nearby brush. When he investigated, he saw a very large, humanoid shape moving directly toward the camp. Gorax quickly woke the fighters who began readying their weapons and shields then turned to face the intruder by himself. It turned out to be an ogre put hunting. The ogre was able to act first and grabbed the dwarf by his back armor, lifting him up. Gorax protested loudly while wildly swinging his battle ax. The ogre responded by punching him, breaking Gorax’s nose. Otto picked up his short bow and stepped toward the ogre firing an arrow into the beast’s open mouth. Stunned by the attack, the ogre dropped Gorax and grabbed at the shaft protruding from his face. The whole party was awake by this point and Rayn cast an invisibility spell on Ram so that he could easily sneak around behind the ogre for a backstab. Thelonius taunted the ogre in an attempt to draw it off of the wounded dwarf, giving Gorax time to recover his footing. As the ogre turned to face Thelonius, Gorax chopped its trunk like leg with his ax. Roaring in pain the ogre raised his massive club to smash the dwarf when Sir Ryan’s two-handed sword slammed into the monster’s ribcage slaying him. With the ogre slain, his body was carted away from camp and the party settled back into sleep once the dwarf’s wounds were bandaged.

During the second watch, Gorax, who was unable to sleep due to his broken nose, spotted about a dozen man-sized humanoid figures slowly moving toward the camp from the same direction that the ogre had come. He again woke the camp and Rayn cast a Sleep spell on the approaching group. Only one figure dropped to the ground. The rest snarled and began running at the camp. Ram, still invisible, began moving around to find the leader as they moved into the light revealing themselves as a party of lizard men. Otto managed to wound one with an arrow while Xander threw an Entangle spell at them catching half of the enemies and slowing the others. Crynton took this opportunity to slow them further with his Push spell. After suffering some casualties from the party’s missile attacks and being hopelessly mired in Xander’s Entangle, the lizard men surrendered. Ram croaked, “They will make fine slaves! Let’s sell them!” Sir Ryan protested this vehemently saying, “Slavery is evil no matter who is enslaved.” Thurin then claimed, “Then I arrest these creatures in the name of Marcus!” Sir Ryan approved of this as they would be brought to justice. Ram then tied up the humanoids, none too loosely. Otto grinned and pondered whether there would be a bounty on lizard men.

The next day went uneventfully as the party marched their captives back to town. Camp was made and extra watch was set to keep an eye on the prisoners as well. The next morning it wasn’t long before the party drew near the outskirts of the southern village. They were greeted by another party of adventurers heading south. A human from the second group called out, “You lot look like you’ve done well for yourselves!” Sir Ryan called back as the two groups came closer, “Perhaps we have.” Another member of the second party looked Thurin’s elven chain mail over and offered to buy it from him saying, “We could use good armor as we are going lizard man hunting too.” Thelonius then offered with a chuckle, “You can take some of our captives as bait if you wish.” While the second party glared at Thelonius for having even considered such a thing, the still invisible Ram picked the pockets of one of the second party. Rayn, seeing that the coins Ram picked were floating visibly in mid-air, positioned herself to hide them from view. The second party then moved on with some grumbles and head shaking. Sir Ryan and the others then returned to Marcus’ cottage.

Marcus thanked the party and gave them their promised reward of two hundred gold pieces each. The party then spent the next day travelling to Delgrath to visit the magic shops there. Rayn identified the carpet as a Carpet of Flying and learned its activation word. The Wooden Spoon was also identified as a Merlin’s Spoon. In the magic shops the party purchased: a Ring of Invisibility for Ram and C.B.(with some extra gp from Otto), a Ring of Feather Fall for Otto, Thurin purchased a magical mace, Thelonius bought Wings of Flying, Crynton bought a Sling of Proficiency and some spell scrolls, and Rayn also bought some spell scrolls. Sir Ryan declared that he was saving up for his future stronghold. Gorax bought a shield brooch as well as a magic war hammer. Lastly, Xander bought a magic sling.

Ram slunk away from the group to find the local tanner and delivered a lizard man hide that he’d taken off of one of those killed several nights before. The thief commissioned a pair of boots to be made from the skins with enough left over for the tanner to make another pair for himself.

While the rest of the party spent the evening celebrating in the local tavern, C.B. tried out his new Ring of Invisibility. He attempted to pick the pockets of a passer by who noticed the attempt. The alarm was raised but C.B. escaped easily into an alleyway. He then tried again by picking a guard’s pockets. Again, he was detected and the guard swung his sword wildly around behind and caught C.B. on the shoulder. The guard could see the mysteriously dripping blood and shouted, “Sorcery!” Other guards quickly came and C.B. was very nearly caught being given away several times by his bleeding wound. Giving up, the Halfling made his way back to the tavern just as Rayn returned from spending the afternoon in the bath house relaxing. The party looked questioningly at C.B. who wouldn’t admit any wrong doing and everyone retired to their rooms in the tavern for the night.

<Level updates: Ram 5th, Sir Ryan 4th, Xander 4th, Gorax 4th, Thurin 4th, Thelonius 4th, C.B. 4th, Rayn 3rd, Otto 3rd, Crynton Dragon-Eye 2nd>

 

Sorry for the delay on this. I had two wisdom teeth removed on Friday. It hasn't been much fun. :roll: Anyway....

2011-08-31 Adventure Log [part 1 of 2]

Thelonius…………….Human Fighter, 4th
Sir Ryan von Krause…Human Paladin, 4th
Xander Tinks………...Human Druid, 4th
Ram the Lonely………Half-Orc Thief, 5th
Gorax………………..Dwarf Fighter, 4th
Rayn…………………Human Magic-User, 3rd
Chef Boyardee (C.B.)…Halfling Thief, 4th
Crynton Dragon-Eye…Human Magic-User, 2nd
Otto von Grunwald…..Human Ranger, 3rd
Ken H. ……………….Human DM

The party, having spent some time in Delgrat, had picked up on several rumors concerning adventure opportunities in the realm. They gathered in the tavern to discuss them and decided to rid the northern village of Curtal of a pair of ogres that had been harassing the area. After a good night’s rest and reequipping, the party set out northward.

Curtal was three days journey distant, but the trip went uneventfully. The party briefly stopped at “My Brother’s Inn” and learned from the twin owners that the ogres near Curtal had not taken any human or demi-human lives yet but only killed livestock and damaged property so far. The next day, soon after the sun rose above the eastern cliff, they set out with their lamas and arrived at Curtal in mid-afternoon.

Drawing near the village, they found it to be a dusty and utilitarian mining village. The inhabitants all seemed joyless and dressed in simple mining clothes. The party passed by several people who gave the new comers strange, almost disapproving, looks while carrying their loads of tools or pushing their carts of ore. When the party arrived at what seemed to be the village center, they were approached by a solitary elf that appeared to be quite old. In a flat tone of voice, he greeted the adventurers with, “You must be here for the ogres.” Sir Ryan stepped forward smiling and offering his hand to the elf saying, “Why yes. We’ve heard that they are raiding your village from the north.” The old elf seemed to liven up a bit and told the party a similar tale to the one they’d hear back at the inn. Rayn then asked, “So there are just two of them?” “Indeed,” replied the elf, “as far as we know. They strike alone, but descriptions from witnesses show that there are two.”
Sir Ryan thanked the elder for his help and assured him that the party would “take care of it.” Ram then proposed that they all go investigate the latest raiding site to look for clues and so the group set out.

At the shack, the party found a man mending a fence. The man told the party that the ogre had broken through and stolen two hogs before leaving. From a nearby doorway, the man’s wife stood weeping. Otto scoured the area and found the ogre’s trail. Following the ranger, the party pursued the trail back toward the eastern cliff face. Standing atop a boulder where the trail stopped, Otto looked up and spotted a cave about forty feet above in the cliff that was presumably the brutes’ lair. Ram and C.B. both donned their Rings of Invisibility and climbed up to the opening while carrying a rope. Once up, Ram scouted the entrance while C.B. tied the rope to a large piece of rock and threw the rest down for the party to climb. As the rest of the party came up one by one, Ram could see that the cave extended back into the cliff in a very natural fashion. He didn’t see any signs of the ogres though the whole cave smelled as if it was inhabited by something foul.

Gorax lit his bull’s-eye lantern as Sir Ryan activated his Plate Mail Brooch. Cautiously, the party began winding its way into the cave littered with rock formations and large boulders. A hint of movement was caught by the lantern light as a bowling ball sized stone whizzed past Otto’s head and smashed against a rock formation. Gorax instantly aimed the lantern at where the missile had come from and then handed the light source to Xander. Another rock went bounding past and now the party could make out the shapes of two large ogres, dressed in rags, half-covered by stalagmites about twenty feet ahead in the passage. Otto returned fire with his short bow, but an intervening boulder caused his arrow to clatter away into the darkness. Sir Ryan and Gorax did their best to charge the monsters while Ram moved invisibly along the cave wall to try and get behind the creatures. Rayn cast Scare on the foes causing one of them to be frozen with fear while Xander, setting the lantern on a handy rock, cast Fairy Fire on the ogres.

Gorax leapt from a boulder and landed two blows of his ax across the frozen ogre’s torso severely wounding it. Sir Ryan’s two-handed sword was somewhat hampered by the close quarters but he still managed to land a single mighty blow on the second ogre. C.B. had been invisibly following the two fighters and sprang out with his magic long sword but missed. Crynton cast one of his special Magic Missiles and the glowing violet ball slammed into the frozen ogre causing it to reel back a step. Thelonius was stymied as the narrow passage was filled with combatants forcing him to stay back with his halberd, magic bracers and loin cloth.

In self-defense, the scared ogre swung wildly at Gorax but missed due to his smaller size. Sir Ryan was also attacked by his foe and missed. Rayn then cast her Magic Missile at the scared ogre killing it. Gorax stepped over to Sir Ryan but missed the ogre. Sir Ryan landed another blow finishing off the final enemy.

Stepping past the fallen monsters, the party discovered a cave lair several paces further down the tunnel. In the lair were two palates of hay and hides next to the remains of a greasy fire pit filled with blackened animal bones. Beneath one of the piles of hay and hides C.B. discovered a sack containing several dozen gold coins and over a dozen gems of various types. Gorax explored the cracks around the cave but found no “navigable” tunnels. He then went back to the fallen ogres. Sir Ryan said, “The villagers will probably desire some proof that we defeated them.” Gorax grinned wickedly and loped off the corpses’ heads with his ax. Ram wrapped them up in some rags from the cave lair and the party headed back to Curtal.

The villagers greeted the party with cheers and bought them several rounds of drinks at the local bar. Celebrations went late into the night and the party woke up at mid-morning the next day ready to move on to their next adventure lead.

 

[part 2]

Having left the mining village of Curtal, the party headed south bound for the ruins that Marcus had spoken about when they had been with him several days prior. The first night as the party was just beginning to look for a site to make camp, Otto stopped them and spoke quietly, “There is something big moving toward us in that direction! We should…” But before Otto could finish speaking, Gorax grinned with bloodlust and ran off unarmored in the direction Otto had pointed. Rayn quickly tried to imbue the dwarf with an Invisibility spell but was unable to catch him in time. Shaking his head, Sir Ryan activated his plate mail brooch and, once Xander placed a Barkskin enchantment on him, took off after his foolhardy companion.

Some distance ahead, Gorax quickly made his way to an opening in the thick brush to find himself confronting a party of eight bugbears. Seeing a lone, unarmored dwarf jump out of the bushes the bugbears all grin and growl hefting their heavy spears. It was at this moment that Gorax realized his folly and turned to flee. Five of the humanoids’ spears hit the dwarf and he let out a yell then fell to the ground playing dead as the foes came charging behind him.

Hearing the dwarf’s cry, Ram put on his ring of invisibility and moved forward into the brush fashioning a trip line with his rope.

The eight bugbears charged after Gorax finding him “dead” a few yards ahead. As they examined the “corpse” the sounds of Sir Ryan’s approach caused five of them to lope off to investigate. Stopping short of Ram’s line, Sir Ryan acted as bait and shouted, “Now!” to Ram as the foes moved into the trap. The enemies proved too alert and hoped over the rope launching spears at both Otto and Xander, who had moved up behind the paladin. Xander was caught on the shoulder while the attack on Otto went wide. Otto returned fire with two bow shots nearly killing two of the marauding foes. Sir Ryan spins with his mighty two-handed sword severely wounding another as it charged past him for Otto. Ram too used his invisibility to sneak a backstab on a passer-by crippling it.

Meanwhile, the two left on Gorax decided to loot him. As one rifled through Gorax’s pack, the other grabbed for the dwarf’s ax; but when he did so, Gorax opened his eyes and shouted a battle cry that startled the two enemies. The bugbears recovered before Gorax could act again and the one standing over him kicked Gorax in the head with his hairy, clawed foot. The other bugbear stopped raiding the dwarf’s pack to come assist its companion but C.B., who had been creeping through the brush invisibly, took this opportunity to backstab him and missed. When he was kicked, Gorax let go of the ax and the bugbear grinned triumphantly preparing to cleave the dwarf with it. Almost simultaneously however, Xander managed to hit the ax-wielding bugbear with a sling stone as Thelonius, using his wings of flying, swooped down in turn missing him.

Back on the other front, Otto leapt back onto a low boulder to avoid three stabbing bugbear spears. He fired two point blank shots catching one bugbear in its eye and another in the neck and they slumped to the ground dead. Seeing this, the one remaining turned to run for the rest of its group around Gorax. Crynton launched a sling stone at the humanoid killing it as it ran. Sir Ryan and Ram too were able to land blows on their badly wounded targets finishing both before turning to help Gorax.

Gorax, still unarmored attempted to crawl away on all fours as Thelonius whirled his halberd with much flourish at the two foes present but missed. The one over the dwarf again stomped the dwarf causing him to be flattened against the ground. The other bugbear tried to stab Thelonius with his crude spear, missing as the fighter spun out of the way. Using the momentum from his spin, Thelonius’ pole arm landed against the spear-wielding foe who collapsed with a pain-filled roar. Finding himself alone, the ax-wielding bugbear, roared and raised the ax high as if to make sure he would take the dwarf with him before he died. A hail of missiles of various types missed the last bugbear as the party tried to save Gorax. Just as the ax began to descend, Thelonius reversed his momentum and caught his target across his rib cage driving him backward and falling like a tree to the dusty ground, dead. Gorax painfully, picked up his healing salve from the scattered remains of his pack and rubbed it all over his battered face.

Moving a good distance away from the battle scene, the party made camp. Just as the sky was lighting with shades of dawn, the party members on watch (Gorax, Ram, and Sir Ryan) spotted a carrion crawler slinking toward the camp. As Sir Ryan ran to engage and Ram slipped on his ring of invisibility to maneuver for a backstab, Gorax went to wake Otto and Thelonius. Sir Ryan crushed the vermin with his sword while Ram missed his attack. The creature’s tentacles bounced off of Sir Ryan’s plate mail but managed to land several blows on the now visible thief who was paralyzed by their searing toxin. As Gorax, Otto and Thelonius step up to the edge of the fight, Sir Ryan heaved a counter stroke on the abomination finishing the job of his first blow by cleaving the ichor filled horror in two. Seeing the unwounded combatants and the mutilated crawler, Otto looked at the dwarf and said flatly, “You woke us up for this?” Gorax muttered and looked about grumbling, “You never can tell how the fortunes of battle may fall…” Returning to camp the party began to get ready for the new day just as the sun’s light filled the valley west of them.


(p.s. I can't make tonight's session because I'm playing Mr. Mom this week and one of my daughters has a brownies meeting.)

 

To any players in this game, this is something you might be interested in:

http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/o ... 9/16950222

It's not the big hardcover like I have, but it looks like about the most inexpensive D&D book ever. If you make an account on lulu, they send out 20% off coupon codes about once a month too.

 

Our scribe missed last week's session - if I have time I'll try and post what happened last Wednesday from my own addled memory....

 

For the price, that's a good pick up - might just break down and get one.

 

Yeah, so what did happen last week? All I got on Google+ and Facebook was that Conner's guy rolled around in some kind of "blue goo". Hopefully, that didn't take up the whole 3.5 hours!

I will be there tomorrow. My sockets are healing nicely and the blasted infection is gone too.

-Jeff "Otto" B.

 

No, it wasn't "blue goo" - it was "blue monkey poo"!! We did run into the monkeys that made the poo and took them out; but, they had nasty stingers in their tails that zapped your dexterity for a while. Also ran into some ghouls, one having a ring of speed (or some sort). We managed to zap the one with the ring, but there were too many to deal with when a cleric fails his turning (rolling a "3"). We finally were able to corral the ghouls back into the room and have them blocked in. We decided to rest for the day/night, recoup, and decide what to do next. There are a few places that we haven't look into yet. Unfortunately, I won't be there tonight due to a school function that I have to attend. Since the cleric won't be there, all I can say is, "choose wisely"...

I'm hoping that this is the last interruption for a while.

 

I may not be able to make it tonight see you all next week!