Something was screwy with Vedim's character sheet; although he was 5th-level, he didn't have any of his 3rd-level spells assigned, nor did he have any of the bonus feats he should have had if he had multiclassed into fighter. So before we began playing I finished bringing him up to 5th-level.
In the course of the adventure he gained XP, a wand of cure moderate wounds (31 charges remain), a magical breastplate (as-yet unidentified), and the party treasury is now:
2 Masterwork Composite Longbow, + 2 str bonus
Masterwork Longsword
4500gp worth of draconic jewelry
4 small bags containing a total of 42 dragonshards worth 1d8 gp each.
1 small pouch of gems and dragonshards worth 450gp
1 unidentified potion
1 Masterwork Spear
magic greatclub (unidentified)
Vedim's post-adventure character sheet is available for viewing online.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Friday, February 15, 2008
Ultimate pirate!
So yeah, I found this site -- The Isle of Kev -- while trying to discern the duration of Opalescent Glare:
It has all the D&D books in PDF and HTML, near as I can tell. So, yay for pirates!
Don't miss his "dndreference", either. Kind of like d20srd, but it has non-OGL content.
Ben
It has all the D&D books in PDF and HTML, near as I can tell. So, yay for pirates!
Don't miss his "dndreference", either. Kind of like d20srd, but it has non-OGL content.
Ben
Adventure: Eyes of the Lich Queen Part One
Lharvion 24-Barrakas 9, YK 998
The Temple of Kha'shazul Part One - Employment Offer
Having recently completed a job in the area of Sharn, a band of adventurers made their way to the city of spires to seek rest, recreation and hopefully future employment. They didn't have time to enjoy the former, as the latter came seeking them.
The adventurers were a varied lot from the eastern coast of Khorvaire. Their negotiator, the public face of the team, was a Karrnathi sorcerer who had spent some time in the military during the war, a man named Sokol Raaft. Their spiritual adviser and healer was Vedim Baldirk, a dwarven cleric of Onatar, forge god of the Sovereign Host. Their "retrieval specialist" was a Valenar elf without a warband, an artificer and rogue named Ayrmidon Dannelorn. And their muscle consisted of a Talenta halfling named Hamba and his bonded clawfoot dinosaur named Ooni.
While walking through the rain-soaked streets of Sharn in midsummer, Sokol received a message from the gnomes of House Sivis in his head. "Your services are requested. Bring your companions to Kern's Rest and Revelry tomorrow morning to discuss arrangements. Be prepared to travel. A House Sivis service."
Following the prospects of a job, the band showed up at the inn the next morning. They found a quiet, mostly empty hostel jointly operated by House Ghallanda and House Thuranni with multiple performing stages. A lone bard played her lute for the few patrons enjoying breakfast, and a perky young half-elf who had, er, "crossed paths" with Ayrmidon previously spotted them and guided them up the stairs and into a balcony room that overlooked the stage below.
A low table, covered with fruits and pastries, was set against the back wall, and several chairs sat at the balcony's edge. A middle-aged human with dark hair and a neatly-trimmed beard stood near the chairs, watching the musical performance. He turned and offered a slight smile to the adventurers, gesturing to the table. "Please, help yourselves. My name is Sur'kil, and we have business to discuss, which is always more pleasant on a full stomach."
After the adventurers had eaten their fill, Sur'kil explained the nature of the job to them.
"I am what you might call an independent researcher. I have recently uncovered hints and rumors of an ancient site dating back to the so-called Age of Demons. I would like to employ you to investigate this location, and to retrieve a relic that I believe might be there."
"This task is not without some degree of danger, which is why I require the services of individuals such as yourselves. The location, while nominally still in Khorvaire, is somewhat remote, and so I would like to procure your services for a period of at least four weeks. You will have free choice of any treasure found at the site with the exception of the relics I seek, for which you will be rewarded in full. I can offer you each a base fee of 250 gp per week plus travel expenses. I will provide half up front."
Sokol attempted to negotiate a better price, but found that Sur'kil was insistent upon the original asking price. However, he did agree to provide them with a larger cut up front, and gave each of them a pouch of 200 gold. He told them to buy any equipment they might need, and to meet him at the lightning rail in the afternoon.
After going out to buy some basic equipment in Sharn, allowing Ayrmidon time for his wandering eye and wandering hands to retrieve a rich student of Morgrave University of his coin purse, the band joined Sur'kil aboard the lightning rail, and found out that they were bound for the jungles of Q'barra. After three days of travel took them to Korranberg, they boarded the Swiftwind, a chartered House Lyrandar galleon headed for Adderport on the Q'barran coast. During the five days at sea, Sur'kil elaborated on their mission.
"The location you will be surveying is in the jungles of the Q'barran peninsula, to the south of the great volcano of Haka'torvhak. From Adderport, you will have a five-day trek inland to the site of the Temple of Kha'shazul. The temple is your destination and the site of the relics you seek."
"The temple is now used by a tribe of lizardfolk worshipers of some half-fiend dragon god. From what I understand, they demand tribute from other lizardfolk tribes in the region, so I would expect them to be armed and capable. However, the temple and its inhabitants are merely an obstacle."
"I believe the Temple of Kha'shazul hides a deeper secret, one unknown even to the current inhabitants. My research indicates the temple occupies a place where an ancient demon was cast down. Such places were guarded, in legend, by half-dragon beasts. Somewhere beneath that temple, I believe that the crypt of one such ancient creature lies, along with relics of that time. Those relics are what I am paying you to find."
Upon making landfall in Adderport, Sur'kil provided Sokol with a map with landmarks charting a course overland to the Temple of Kha'shazul, as well as a pair of sending stones to contact him once they found the relics, or if they were turning back empty-handed. He also handed them a box with five vials of antitoxin "in case you run into local inhabitants."
The Temple of Kha'shazul Part Two - Into The Jungle
After four days of travel through the jungle, they had their first encounter with the locals, as they came across a band of a half-dozen lizardfolk traveling the same path that they were following, only in the opposite direction. The two groups stared each other down, and Sokol attempted to talk with their obvious leader, who simply said in Common "We no want trouble."
The adventurers noticed that these lizardfolk had obviously been in a recent fight, but attempts to talk with them, even with Ayrmidon translating Sokol's Common into Draconic, ended in a wary peace that saw the two groups going their separate ways.
Another day later, as the trail grew wider, they had a much more intense encounter with local inhabitants. Hamba spotted movement in the jungle and saw a small humanoid, nearly perfectly blended with the vegetation, raising a bow to fire, and pulled down his death mask in response.
Reacting to this, Ayrmidon moved into the jungle, just as the humanoid, a Poison Dusk Lizardfolk, released his arrow and hit Sokol, the poison on the arrow sapping his strength. Another arrow, coming from another Poison Dusk concealed on the other side of the trail, narrowly missed Vedim, who responded by calling forth holy fire into his palm, even as Hamba charged forward aboard Ooni, throwing his boomerang into the jungle to strike the Poison Dusk sniper painfully on the shoulder.
Ayrmidon moved forward, firing off an arrow from his shortbow that caught the other Poison Dusk Lizardfolk solidly in the chest, causing him to let out a pained squeak before firing back and hitting Ayrmidon with his own poisoned arrow. Another surprise came as the leader of the band, another Poison Dusk Lizardfolk, fired another arrow at Sokol, who couldn't spot his attacker but did manage to fire his bow and kill Ayrmidon's target with a shot to the chest.
Hamba and Ooni crashed into the jungle, launching tangat and claw attacks at the Poison Dusk that had first shot at Sokol. Ayrmidon exchanged arrow fire with the leader of the band, hitting him once while the leader's arrow found a target again in Vedim, who was an easier target, out in the open on the trail. The other Poison Dusk dropped his bow and pulled out a length of hollow reed with a rope attached at the end and began spinning it, a low whistle beginning to emanate from the reed. Sokol put a stop to that with a burst of magic missiles that killed the Poison Dusk, and Hamba charged at the remaining Poison Dusk, the leader of the band, who tried to run and almost made it, but for magic missiles and hurled fire from Sokol and Vedim, which hurt him badly enough for Ayrmidon to chase him down and kill him with a shot on the run.
The Temple of Kha'shazul Part Three - The Temple
After two of their members had been poisoned, Sokol distributed Sur'kil's antitoxin, and Vedim administered healing magic to Ayrmidon. The adventurers traveled for a few more hours until, at dusk, the jungle gave way to an open space dominated by a huge stone structure. The Temple of Kha-shazul was a mass of vine-choked granite walls and columns, with two stone domes marking either end of its oblong shape, and a columned portion jutting out from the temple's entrance. Steam billowed from somewhere within the temple, venting through high open windows 20 feet above the ground.
The trail leading up to the temple diverged to the left and right, and rather than explore much further, the adventurers backtracked to a safer place in the jungle to rest for the night and heal their wounds.
In the morning, Hamba and Ayrmidon snuck down one of the trails and found a handful of small mud huts set up around a fire pit at the edge of the temple clearing. The huts looked suitable for halfling-sized creatures, with doorways about 3 feet tall. They noted one Poison Dusk Lizardfolk reclining near the fire, his bow within easy reach, a large toadstool serving as a pincushion for his arrows.
They reported back to the others and made a plan of attack, and then Hamba and Ayrmidon made their way back to launch the ambush. Hamba swung his tangat out from the foliage to slash into the Poison Dusk, surprising it by failing to kill it, as Ayrmidon cast Shield of Faith on his armor and waited to see how Hamba fared.
Another Poison Dusk made itself known inside one of the huts, firing arrow into Hamba's meaty left shoulder, which didn't prevent Hamba from slashing into and killing the Poison Dusk near the fire. Another Poison Dusk emerged from the hut and found himself the target of magic missiles from Sokol and a crossbow bolt from Vedim, as they rushed up to join the battle.
The Poison Dusk grabbed his bow and ran back into one of the huts, as the sound of one of the reed whistles began emerging from another hut.
As one of the Poison Dusk continued to fire arrows at Hamba, drawing his wrath and causing the halfling to charge into his small domicile to do battle, Sokol fired a snowball burst into the hut, narrowly missing Hamba but hitting the two Poison Dusk within. The one that had previously been magic missiled and hit with a crossbow was killed, but the other one, clearly tougher than the others, was merely wounded.
Vedim traded his light crossbow for his warhammer and moved in to attack the Poison Dusk who had sounded the alarm, although he found the hut cramped and difficult to fight in. Ayrmidon, moving in to attack as well, had the same difficulty with the small quarters and caught a longsword slash deep in his arm for his troubles. With little room to maneuver alongside Vedim in the tiny space, Ayrmidon tumbled over to the other hut and began aiding Hamba against the tougher Poison Dusk lieutenant.
The lieutenant put his back to the wall and fired two more arrows, but Hamba's fury shattered his nerve, causing him to miss both shots. Sokol turned and fired an ice dagger at the Poison Dusk battling Vedim, which missed but showered shards of cutting ice on the Poison Dusk nevertheless. Vedim launched burning hands at the surprised Poison Dusk, which responded by biting the dwarf on one of his hands.
Ayrmidon, switching foes again as positions changed, rushed back and dealt a cutting blow to the Poison Dusk, which began looking extremely shaky on his feet, although it did manage to exchange a few dodges and attacks with both Vedim and Ayrmidon before trying to flee and finding its skull smashed in by Vedim's warhammer.
In the other hut, the Poison Dusk lieutenant abandoned his bow and began clawing and biting at Hamba. They exchanged a few glancing blows before the Poison Dusk managed to maneuver Hamba into a bad spot and sink his teeth into the halfling's throat, all the while tearing at his chest and abdomen with his claws. Hamba was forced to retreat slightly and drink a potion of cure light wounds, as Sokol opened up on the lieutenant with magic missiles.
Ayrmidon moved in to attack the lieutenant and the two of them parried and dodged until Hamba, somewhat recovered and very angry, took a nasty swipe with his tangat that nearly disemboweled the Poison Dusk. Sokol finished him with another barrage of magic missiles.
The adventurers quickly searched the bodies, and Ayrmidon took what he knew from experience with the past Poison Dusk to be an amulet of natural armor and hid in the foliage, expecting someone to respond to the alarm.
They didn't have to wait long, as a few seconds later, a pair of massive, blackscaled lizardfolk the size of ogres charged in to attack Hamba and Vedim. Hamba was ready for the charge and slashed at the lead Blackscale Lizardfolk with his tangat twice, once at the creature's legs and then at his throat, and as he fell dead to the ground, Ooni turned her claws on the other one, which fell quickly to a burst of magic missiles from Sokol and a blast of fire from Vedim.
The alarm quieted, the camp pacified and the threat momentarily over, the adventurers took a moment to pause. Should they check the other trail, or head directly to the temple, now that the alarm had most certainly been raised?
XP: 1375
Hit Points Remaining/Other Notes:
(10 hp each for 5 minutes)
Vedim 41 hp, Hamba's 25 hp, Sokol 31 hp, Ayrmidon 17 hp
The Temple of Kha'shazul Part One - Employment Offer
Having recently completed a job in the area of Sharn, a band of adventurers made their way to the city of spires to seek rest, recreation and hopefully future employment. They didn't have time to enjoy the former, as the latter came seeking them.
The adventurers were a varied lot from the eastern coast of Khorvaire. Their negotiator, the public face of the team, was a Karrnathi sorcerer who had spent some time in the military during the war, a man named Sokol Raaft. Their spiritual adviser and healer was Vedim Baldirk, a dwarven cleric of Onatar, forge god of the Sovereign Host. Their "retrieval specialist" was a Valenar elf without a warband, an artificer and rogue named Ayrmidon Dannelorn. And their muscle consisted of a Talenta halfling named Hamba and his bonded clawfoot dinosaur named Ooni.
While walking through the rain-soaked streets of Sharn in midsummer, Sokol received a message from the gnomes of House Sivis in his head. "Your services are requested. Bring your companions to Kern's Rest and Revelry tomorrow morning to discuss arrangements. Be prepared to travel. A House Sivis service."
Following the prospects of a job, the band showed up at the inn the next morning. They found a quiet, mostly empty hostel jointly operated by House Ghallanda and House Thuranni with multiple performing stages. A lone bard played her lute for the few patrons enjoying breakfast, and a perky young half-elf who had, er, "crossed paths" with Ayrmidon previously spotted them and guided them up the stairs and into a balcony room that overlooked the stage below.A low table, covered with fruits and pastries, was set against the back wall, and several chairs sat at the balcony's edge. A middle-aged human with dark hair and a neatly-trimmed beard stood near the chairs, watching the musical performance. He turned and offered a slight smile to the adventurers, gesturing to the table. "Please, help yourselves. My name is Sur'kil, and we have business to discuss, which is always more pleasant on a full stomach."
After the adventurers had eaten their fill, Sur'kil explained the nature of the job to them.
"I am what you might call an independent researcher. I have recently uncovered hints and rumors of an ancient site dating back to the so-called Age of Demons. I would like to employ you to investigate this location, and to retrieve a relic that I believe might be there."
"This task is not without some degree of danger, which is why I require the services of individuals such as yourselves. The location, while nominally still in Khorvaire, is somewhat remote, and so I would like to procure your services for a period of at least four weeks. You will have free choice of any treasure found at the site with the exception of the relics I seek, for which you will be rewarded in full. I can offer you each a base fee of 250 gp per week plus travel expenses. I will provide half up front."
Sokol attempted to negotiate a better price, but found that Sur'kil was insistent upon the original asking price. However, he did agree to provide them with a larger cut up front, and gave each of them a pouch of 200 gold. He told them to buy any equipment they might need, and to meet him at the lightning rail in the afternoon.
After going out to buy some basic equipment in Sharn, allowing Ayrmidon time for his wandering eye and wandering hands to retrieve a rich student of Morgrave University of his coin purse, the band joined Sur'kil aboard the lightning rail, and found out that they were bound for the jungles of Q'barra. After three days of travel took them to Korranberg, they boarded the Swiftwind, a chartered House Lyrandar galleon headed for Adderport on the Q'barran coast. During the five days at sea, Sur'kil elaborated on their mission.
"The location you will be surveying is in the jungles of the Q'barran peninsula, to the south of the great volcano of Haka'torvhak. From Adderport, you will have a five-day trek inland to the site of the Temple of Kha'shazul. The temple is your destination and the site of the relics you seek."
"The temple is now used by a tribe of lizardfolk worshipers of some half-fiend dragon god. From what I understand, they demand tribute from other lizardfolk tribes in the region, so I would expect them to be armed and capable. However, the temple and its inhabitants are merely an obstacle."
"I believe the Temple of Kha'shazul hides a deeper secret, one unknown even to the current inhabitants. My research indicates the temple occupies a place where an ancient demon was cast down. Such places were guarded, in legend, by half-dragon beasts. Somewhere beneath that temple, I believe that the crypt of one such ancient creature lies, along with relics of that time. Those relics are what I am paying you to find."
Upon making landfall in Adderport, Sur'kil provided Sokol with a map with landmarks charting a course overland to the Temple of Kha'shazul, as well as a pair of sending stones to contact him once they found the relics, or if they were turning back empty-handed. He also handed them a box with five vials of antitoxin "in case you run into local inhabitants."
The Temple of Kha'shazul Part Two - Into The Jungle
After four days of travel through the jungle, they had their first encounter with the locals, as they came across a band of a half-dozen lizardfolk traveling the same path that they were following, only in the opposite direction. The two groups stared each other down, and Sokol attempted to talk with their obvious leader, who simply said in Common "We no want trouble."
The adventurers noticed that these lizardfolk had obviously been in a recent fight, but attempts to talk with them, even with Ayrmidon translating Sokol's Common into Draconic, ended in a wary peace that saw the two groups going their separate ways.
Another day later, as the trail grew wider, they had a much more intense encounter with local inhabitants. Hamba spotted movement in the jungle and saw a small humanoid, nearly perfectly blended with the vegetation, raising a bow to fire, and pulled down his death mask in response.
Reacting to this, Ayrmidon moved into the jungle, just as the humanoid, a Poison Dusk Lizardfolk, released his arrow and hit Sokol, the poison on the arrow sapping his strength. Another arrow, coming from another Poison Dusk concealed on the other side of the trail, narrowly missed Vedim, who responded by calling forth holy fire into his palm, even as Hamba charged forward aboard Ooni, throwing his boomerang into the jungle to strike the Poison Dusk sniper painfully on the shoulder.
Ayrmidon moved forward, firing off an arrow from his shortbow that caught the other Poison Dusk Lizardfolk solidly in the chest, causing him to let out a pained squeak before firing back and hitting Ayrmidon with his own poisoned arrow. Another surprise came as the leader of the band, another Poison Dusk Lizardfolk, fired another arrow at Sokol, who couldn't spot his attacker but did manage to fire his bow and kill Ayrmidon's target with a shot to the chest.
Hamba and Ooni crashed into the jungle, launching tangat and claw attacks at the Poison Dusk that had first shot at Sokol. Ayrmidon exchanged arrow fire with the leader of the band, hitting him once while the leader's arrow found a target again in Vedim, who was an easier target, out in the open on the trail. The other Poison Dusk dropped his bow and pulled out a length of hollow reed with a rope attached at the end and began spinning it, a low whistle beginning to emanate from the reed. Sokol put a stop to that with a burst of magic missiles that killed the Poison Dusk, and Hamba charged at the remaining Poison Dusk, the leader of the band, who tried to run and almost made it, but for magic missiles and hurled fire from Sokol and Vedim, which hurt him badly enough for Ayrmidon to chase him down and kill him with a shot on the run.
The Temple of Kha'shazul Part Three - The Temple
After two of their members had been poisoned, Sokol distributed Sur'kil's antitoxin, and Vedim administered healing magic to Ayrmidon. The adventurers traveled for a few more hours until, at dusk, the jungle gave way to an open space dominated by a huge stone structure. The Temple of Kha-shazul was a mass of vine-choked granite walls and columns, with two stone domes marking either end of its oblong shape, and a columned portion jutting out from the temple's entrance. Steam billowed from somewhere within the temple, venting through high open windows 20 feet above the ground. The trail leading up to the temple diverged to the left and right, and rather than explore much further, the adventurers backtracked to a safer place in the jungle to rest for the night and heal their wounds.
In the morning, Hamba and Ayrmidon snuck down one of the trails and found a handful of small mud huts set up around a fire pit at the edge of the temple clearing. The huts looked suitable for halfling-sized creatures, with doorways about 3 feet tall. They noted one Poison Dusk Lizardfolk reclining near the fire, his bow within easy reach, a large toadstool serving as a pincushion for his arrows.
They reported back to the others and made a plan of attack, and then Hamba and Ayrmidon made their way back to launch the ambush. Hamba swung his tangat out from the foliage to slash into the Poison Dusk, surprising it by failing to kill it, as Ayrmidon cast Shield of Faith on his armor and waited to see how Hamba fared.
Another Poison Dusk made itself known inside one of the huts, firing arrow into Hamba's meaty left shoulder, which didn't prevent Hamba from slashing into and killing the Poison Dusk near the fire. Another Poison Dusk emerged from the hut and found himself the target of magic missiles from Sokol and a crossbow bolt from Vedim, as they rushed up to join the battle.
The Poison Dusk grabbed his bow and ran back into one of the huts, as the sound of one of the reed whistles began emerging from another hut.
As one of the Poison Dusk continued to fire arrows at Hamba, drawing his wrath and causing the halfling to charge into his small domicile to do battle, Sokol fired a snowball burst into the hut, narrowly missing Hamba but hitting the two Poison Dusk within. The one that had previously been magic missiled and hit with a crossbow was killed, but the other one, clearly tougher than the others, was merely wounded.
Vedim traded his light crossbow for his warhammer and moved in to attack the Poison Dusk who had sounded the alarm, although he found the hut cramped and difficult to fight in. Ayrmidon, moving in to attack as well, had the same difficulty with the small quarters and caught a longsword slash deep in his arm for his troubles. With little room to maneuver alongside Vedim in the tiny space, Ayrmidon tumbled over to the other hut and began aiding Hamba against the tougher Poison Dusk lieutenant.
The lieutenant put his back to the wall and fired two more arrows, but Hamba's fury shattered his nerve, causing him to miss both shots. Sokol turned and fired an ice dagger at the Poison Dusk battling Vedim, which missed but showered shards of cutting ice on the Poison Dusk nevertheless. Vedim launched burning hands at the surprised Poison Dusk, which responded by biting the dwarf on one of his hands.
Ayrmidon, switching foes again as positions changed, rushed back and dealt a cutting blow to the Poison Dusk, which began looking extremely shaky on his feet, although it did manage to exchange a few dodges and attacks with both Vedim and Ayrmidon before trying to flee and finding its skull smashed in by Vedim's warhammer.
In the other hut, the Poison Dusk lieutenant abandoned his bow and began clawing and biting at Hamba. They exchanged a few glancing blows before the Poison Dusk managed to maneuver Hamba into a bad spot and sink his teeth into the halfling's throat, all the while tearing at his chest and abdomen with his claws. Hamba was forced to retreat slightly and drink a potion of cure light wounds, as Sokol opened up on the lieutenant with magic missiles.
Ayrmidon moved in to attack the lieutenant and the two of them parried and dodged until Hamba, somewhat recovered and very angry, took a nasty swipe with his tangat that nearly disemboweled the Poison Dusk. Sokol finished him with another barrage of magic missiles.
The adventurers quickly searched the bodies, and Ayrmidon took what he knew from experience with the past Poison Dusk to be an amulet of natural armor and hid in the foliage, expecting someone to respond to the alarm.
They didn't have to wait long, as a few seconds later, a pair of massive, blackscaled lizardfolk the size of ogres charged in to attack Hamba and Vedim. Hamba was ready for the charge and slashed at the lead Blackscale Lizardfolk with his tangat twice, once at the creature's legs and then at his throat, and as he fell dead to the ground, Ooni turned her claws on the other one, which fell quickly to a burst of magic missiles from Sokol and a blast of fire from Vedim.
The alarm quieted, the camp pacified and the threat momentarily over, the adventurers took a moment to pause. Should they check the other trail, or head directly to the temple, now that the alarm had most certainly been raised?
XP: 1375
Hit Points Remaining/Other Notes:
(10 hp each for 5 minutes)
Vedim 41 hp, Hamba's 25 hp, Sokol 31 hp, Ayrmidon 17 hp
Monday, February 04, 2008
Upcoming Schedule for February and March
February 8th - Eberron: Lure of the Ancient Spells Part Four
February 15th - Eberron: Eyes of the Lich Queen Part Two
February 22th - Eberron: Lure of the Ancient Spells Part Five
February 29th - No Gaming - STAPLE! Party
March 7th - Eberron: Lure of the Ancient Spells Part Six (Paul out)
March 14th - Eberron: Eyes of the Lich Queen Part Three (Paul out, Chris in?)
March 21st - Eberron: Lure of the Ancient Spells Part Seven
March 28th - Eberron: Eyes of the Lich Queen Part Four (Nate out)
OK, here's the planned schedule for the gaming group, which looks like all Eberron, all the time in February and March. Figure in April we can finish up Wolves and start in on another campaign, preferably one that someone else runs so I don't have to prep for a different campaign each week. :)
Chime in and let me know if there are any of these weeks you're not available.
February 15th - Eberron: Eyes of the Lich Queen Part Two
February 22th - Eberron: Lure of the Ancient Spells Part Five
February 29th - No Gaming - STAPLE! Party
March 7th - Eberron: Lure of the Ancient Spells Part Six (Paul out)
March 14th - Eberron: Eyes of the Lich Queen Part Three (Paul out, Chris in?)
March 21st - Eberron: Lure of the Ancient Spells Part Seven
March 28th - Eberron: Eyes of the Lich Queen Part Four (Nate out)
OK, here's the planned schedule for the gaming group, which looks like all Eberron, all the time in February and March. Figure in April we can finish up Wolves and start in on another campaign, preferably one that someone else runs so I don't have to prep for a different campaign each week. :)
Chime in and let me know if there are any of these weeks you're not available.
Friday, February 01, 2008
Xydryk Jhaelian
(Randy: feel free to reformat this post into your usual "character"-style.)Xydryk Jhaelian is a tall, pale Aereni necromancer. Xydryk is of the line of Jhaelian, which is deeply spiritual, producing many of the most powerful adepts and clerics of Aerenal. His mother Shaedrin is a member of the noble house of Jhaelian, and though their relationship is close, communication between them has been infrequent since Xydryk began his quest. At age 146, he is still a young man, though he has already lived longer than the average human will. He may live for thousands of years -- he is patient, and calm.
Xydryk is searching for a way to achieve his full potential, in the hopes of being raised to the nobility and eventually to the Undying Court. His chosen path is as one of the undead hunters of the Deathguard. He does not yet have the Right of Counsel, though one of his goals is to achieve that singular recognition from the Undying Court. Accordingly, he traveled to Xen'drik on behalf of a patron in the Court, who, seeking more information about the Aereni's ancient homeland, has asked him to be his eyes in the world beyond Shae Mordai.
As an elf of Aerenal, Xydryk knows that physical appearance is ultimately irrelevant. In fact, in keeping with his Jhaelian upbringing, he has already begun the process of discarding physical beauty in preparation for Transition. Xydryk doesn't judge people by their appearance; while others may be seduced by beauty (or horrified by disfigurements), to him these are simply transitory aspects of life. His face is covered by a skull tattoo, and he has grafted undead bone to the flesh on his torso and shoulders. His long, straight black hair falls to his waist, and his raven familiar Akthryx broods upon his right shoulder.
While many consider necromancy to be the magic of death, for the Aereni it is far more. In studying death, the Aereni wizard learns about life. In studying fear, he learns about hope. To the elves of Aerenal, the study of necromancy is as much a philosophical voyage as a quest for power; the wizard's ability to strike down his enemy with a ray of enfeeblement is a side benefit of his work, not the point of it. The one path that the Aereni avoid is the creation of negatively charged undead: vampires, liches, wraiths, and the like. The Aereni believe that these creatures are anathema to life. According to Aereni lore, the deathless are sustained by the energy of Irian and the devotion of their descendents -- energy that is freely given. Negative undead take the energy they need to survive -- siphoning away the life energy of Eberron itself. Karrnathi necromancers scoff at this belief, but the Aereni take it very seriously.
To an outsider, Aereni often seem cold and repressed. This is not actually the case; the elves feel emotions as strongly as any other race. They simply don't display their feelings as blatantly as members of the younger races, and they rarely reveal their thoughts to strangers. Xydryk does possess a sense of humor, but it is quite sophisticated; his jokes may take an hour or day to come to fruition. Humans generally find Aereni humor to be dull or confusing, while the elves consider the culture of the Five Nations to be simplistic and crass -- though it can be excused on account of youth.
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