Aryth 3 - Aryth 10, YK 998
Part Six - Xulo:
Shaken from the sudden loss of their companion, the remaining Wolves reasoned that Brand's father must have been the one who rescued him, and clearly, he wasn't coming back any time soon. Realizing that they didn't have much time, and goaded gently by Muroni's insistence on the Prophecy, they decided to move on, despite being battered, tired and down a man.
All except one. Whitehearth refused to leave the site of his master's disappearance, and managed to convey to Luggoth that he wanted to stay there. Luggoth carried Whitehearth up to the level that held the globe of invulnerability and reluctantly, the Wolves left Whitehearth behind, secure behind the powerful spell.
Following the theory that they should be heading up, the Wolves passed through dusty rooms that had obviously once been quarters for drow slaves and the chamber of the slaves' overseer, full of chains and manacles and stained with blood. They emerged into a hallway and saw that there were exits to the ledges outside. Pel peered outside and saw that they were about 150 feet up, roughly halfway to the top. Had he remained a minute longer, he would have seen some of the dire apes walking along the ledges, guarding the temple that they had made their home.
As it happened, the Wolves did encounter the dire apes when the next door they opened turned out to be the apes' lair, holding their leader, a Girallon. The Girallon immediately bellowed with rage and attacked, smashing Pel with one of its fists. Kanatash opened fire with rays of cold from his dorje as Pel moved out into the hallway to draw the Girallon out. When it emerged, Luggoth and Pel both moved in to engage while Kanatash and Lysander fired dorje rays and arrows at it.
After the Girallon grabbed Luggoth with all four arms and nearly tore him in two, Lysander dropped his bow and moved into combat with his sword, but Pel cut the Girallon down with his scimitar before Lysander could really engage. Muroni began using her wand to cure Luggoth even as he downed a potion.
However, the fight was not as finished as the Wolves thought. Lysander, walking over to pick up his bow, saw two dire apes charging down the hallway, having come in from outside when they heard the cries of their leader. He began firing arrows at the charging dire apes, and Luggoth joined him to throw an axe and kill one of the apes. The other leaped at Luggoth, claws swinging, but Luggoth ducked the blow and came up with greatsword in hand, stabbing through the beast's shoulder. The ape swung a vicious claw into Lysander, but it was the last attack it would make, as Lysander struck back with his sword and Kanatash finished the beast off with two more rays of cold.
As the last bars of Lysander's song faded, the noise was replaced with the howls of two more dire apes! Lysander and Kanatash once again opened fire with their ranged weapons, Pel joining in with his crossbow, and Luggoth killed another with his throwing axe. He then climbed on top of the dead dire ape and attacked the other one, which already bore the scars of a cold ray, an arrow and a crossbow bolt. Enraged, the ape managed to sink its claws into Luggoth's right shoulder and left thigh and shake him, nearly tearing him apart, but Kanatash blasted the creature to death with another ray of cold before it could finish Luggoth off.
Moving down the hallway, healing Luggoth as best they could with the few remaining spells and charges of cure light wands, the Wolves found an empty room, closed the door and took a few moments to rest.
Realizing that they didn't have time to fully rest, the Wolves emerged and checked a few doors until they found a staircase leading up. They went up and found a room filled with crates of recent supplies, and quickly realized that the Emerald Claw must have already gone this way. Their suspicions were confirmed when they opened the door and found themselves facing four Emerald Claw soldiers standing guard outside the supply room. Despite their depleted magic and wounds, the Wolves managed to make quick work of the Emerald Claw, with only Luggoth suffering one minor hit from a flail in return.
The next obvious door contained a powerful glyph of warding, which Pel discovered and decided not to disturb. The Wolves then found a staircase in a room full of webbing, and they set torches to the webs, burning out the spiders who had been living there. A quick jaunt up the stairs discovered drow-sized attics, long abandoned and undisturbed, so the Wolves reasoned that the Claw had not been up there yet.
Moving down the hall to another door, several of the Wolves heard voices talking from the corridor in front of them. Pel and Lysander silently led the way, as Luggoth, Kanatash and Muroni followed from a distance. Eventually, they came out into a large room which was not the source of the voices, but which did contain something vitally important.
The room had walls extending up over a hundred feet high, with gauzy webs at the height of about sixty feet shielding it from the sunlight above. At the center of the room was a mammoth throne of stone and metal sitting on an inscribed disk of unblemished iron. Around the periphery of this disk were wooden crates, a few barrels and a wooden table strewn with a clutter of paper, pens, measuring devices and other items. A rotund female in work clothes worked around the inscribed disk, and didn't seem to notice Lysander and Pel as they came in.
The two moved out into the chamber, and the female worker turned around. "Oh, thank the Sovereign Host!" she said. "The Emerald Claw has been forcing me to decipher these runes!" Her ruse quickly faded, however, as she moved back around the throne and then yelled, in a masculine and familiar voice, "Guards! They're here! Take them!" before drinking a potion and vanishing.
From another nearby entryway, the Wolves saw the warforged Scimitar and eight Emerald Claw soldiers charge in, and the battle was joined. Lysander began an inspiring song as Scimitar engaged Pel in combat and Muroni, Luggoth and Kanatash ran toward the room to join in.
Lysander began firing his bow, killing one of the soldiers, as Luggoth joined the battle between Scimitar and Pel. Muroni rushed to engage the Emerald Claw soldiers, supported by Lysander's bow from a short distance away. Kanatash used the last of his psychic reserve to unleash a fiery energy missile on Scimitar and four of the Emerald Claw soldiers, killing all but one of them and severely wounding Scimitar as well.
While Lysander picked off two more of the Emerald Claw soldiers, Luggoth and Pel slashed away at Scimitar, rendering him inert. From there, it was easy for the Wolves to dispatch the remaining Emerald Claw soldiers.
As the battle wound down, Pel looked and noticed that a pattern of lights had emerged on the throne, one that had definitely not been there before the fight. The Wolves pondered what this might mean, trying to find clues in the notes on the worktable and recognizing the names "Scorpion's Eye" and "Garyx's Eye" as the names the giants had for stars. Then Muroni stepped up to the throne, trying to get a closer look, and vanished.
The Wolves realized that she had been either teleported or destroyed, and after some small discussion, Lysander led the way by jumping onto the throne. They were then transported to a chamber deep below the earth. They found themselves standing atop a giant-sized set of steps, fifty feet high and descending into a great vault filled with hulking, dimly glowing pillars of stone. They could see cords extending from each pillar, some made of metal, some of more organic material, all leading to great draperies covering something massive at the other side of the chamber.
At the foot of the stairs, they saw the figure of the rotund woman writhing and twisting in pain. As they watched, she twisted and took on other forms: Rarwog, the half-elf captain of the Jade Fury. Then, the pale and scarred form of Garrow, the vampire they had faced in the Mournland. "Fine!" he screamed. "Take it and be gone from my mind!" And with that, he flung the creation pattern in his hand deep into the chamber.
The Wolves wasted no time engaging their enemy, as Lysander fired his bow and Kanatash unleashed a fiery energy missile. Pel cast Protection from Evil on Luggoth, who began leaping down the massive, 10 foot stairs. Garrow, realizing he was no longer alone, called out to the Blood of Vol and healed himself as Kanatash, Pel and Lysander continued firing at him.
Garrow called out to the Blood of Vol once more and became infused with divine power, withstanding another blast of fire from Kanatash and an arrow fired from Lysander as Luggoth quaffed a potion of bull's strength and continued moving in.
Garrow drank a potion to heal himself further and moved toward the nearest stair, cutting off line of sight from the Wolves. Lysander, believing the vampire to be an immense danger, produced a scroll of haste and cast it on the party, which gave Luggoth the burst of speed he needed to jump down and begin attacking Garrow in earnest, slashing a wickedly powerful rent in his flesh with his greatsword.
Garrow responded by reaching out and touching Luggoth with the power of the Blood of Vol, draining some of his life but not killing him. Luggoth responded with another powerful sword blow and killed Garrow. Even as the Wolves were reaching for their stakes, they realized that Garrow was not what he had seemed. He didn't become gaseous upon death, but instead took on a pale white sexless form. Garrow had never been a vampire... he had been a changeling.
Lysander walked back into the draperies and cords and found both the creation pattern and the fourth schema, the only part not currently plugged in. Before he could do anything, he felt a strong compulsion to complete the pattern, which he resisted.
Now wary of the pattern, the Wolves began to look around. They saw that what was hidden beneath the draperies, and connected to the cords, was an enormous, primitive warforged, about thirty feet high.
The Wolves argued back and forth about what to do with the creation pattern. Natural curiosity and a potentially great story was compelling Lysander, but the compulsion he had felt made him nervous about putting the pattern together. Luggoth was indifferent, but leaned towards leaving it incomplete. Pel felt that the Traveler's will would have been to put it together, but he was also nervous about its potential for evil. Muroni stayed out of the argument, but her presence reminded the Wolves that this event was clearly meant to be, in some way, a playing out of the Prophecy. If they didn't complete the pattern, maybe they were failing to continue along the path destiny had provided for them, and they could prevent some good thing from happening to the world.
Finally, Lysander offered up "Can it be any worse than falling out of the sky on an airship?" Pel agreed, and he put together the fourth schema and the creation pattern.
The pattern rose into the sky of its own accord, levitating up to the massive warforged and melding into its chest. A terrible voice filled the minds of all present, speaking at once no language and every language. "I... am... complete! Xulo... is... whole! And now, Xulo has a body!"
With that, the warforged began moving, and its intentions were clearly hostile. Pel, Luggoth and Lysander began hacking away at the cords, hoping to shut down the power to the warforged, which was unleashing not only physical might but some sort of psychic attacks of despair and confusion. Luggoth fell prey to one of these, trying to escape but being prevented by Xulo's elimination of the teleportation effect that had brought them here.
Xulo smashed Kanatash into the ground, and Kanatash decided to feign death to avoid future attacks. The other Wolves quickly realized that there were too many cords to effectively sever before they were all killed, and then Kanatash hit upon the idea of firing his dorje at the creation pattern itself, which seemed to work.
Xulo brought both of the warforged's mighty fists down on Pel, breaking the changeling's body and leaving him dead on the floor of the chamber. Desperately, Kanatash and Lysander fired at the creation pattern, and finally Kanatash managed to shut it down. The creation pattern clattered to the floor, undamaged but temporarily intert, and Lysander quickly separated the parts out to the different Wolves, dropping the creation pattern itself into the Heward's Handy Haversack.
Lysander picked up Pel's body, and he walked with Kanatash, Luggoth and Muroni up to the throne, which was working once more. They quickly and quietly backtracked, stopping to pick up Whitehearth, who after several hours had decided that his master was not returning here. They emerged from the giant temple and found Chinxero waiting for them.
The travel by riverboat took five more days, depositing them in Stormreach on Aryth 8. Lysander knew that he had only a few more days to find someone to bring Pel back to life before his soul would be gone beyond the reach of most priests, and so he called upon Muroni to use her local contacts to help him. Together, they found two things: One was that there was a Cleric of the Sovereign Host who could help, but he was out in the jungles of Xen'drik for at least three more days. The other was that there was another priest who could help, but he was definitely of a... darker religion.
The priest didn't identify himself by name as he met with Lysander in one of Stormreach's alleys. He said only that he worshipped the same pantheon as the Traveler. Lysander, desperate to get his friend revived but worried about consequences, managed to convince the priest to reveal that he was a worshipper of the Keeper, the god of death. He agreed to revive Pel in exchange for a favor owed by the Wandering Wolves at some point in the future. "If you refuse this favor, my god will take back the gift he is about to imbue your friend with. And punish the rest of you as well."
Reluctantly, Lysander made the deal on the behalf of the Wolves. After two days of preparation, they gathered in a private ceremony and watched as the priest called upon The Dark Six to raise Pel from the dead. The priest smiled as he left the makeshift temple he had created. "Feel free to stay here for a while, it's quite safe. I'm sure we'll be seeing each other again soon."
XP: 4575 (EL 6)/3763 (EL 7)
Sunday, September 17, 2006
Saturday, September 09, 2006
Upcoming Schedule - September/October
Matt is planning on running Call of Cthulhu, but probably more late October, so I've got some more Eberron scheduled before then. Here's the schedule as I see it, please chime in if you aren't available for a given week.
September 15th - Poker Game
September 22nd - Eberron: Sharn City Life (buying/selling, city adventure, building backup characters)
September 29th - Eberron: Voyage of the Golden Dragon Part 1
October 6th - Eberron: Voyage of the Golden Dragon Part 2
October 13th - Eberron: Voyage of the Golden Dragon Part 3
October 20th - Poker Game
October 27th - Gaming off (Halloween parties, etc.)
September 15th - Poker Game
September 22nd - Eberron: Sharn City Life (buying/selling, city adventure, building backup characters)
September 29th - Eberron: Voyage of the Golden Dragon Part 1
October 6th - Eberron: Voyage of the Golden Dragon Part 2
October 13th - Eberron: Voyage of the Golden Dragon Part 3
October 20th - Poker Game
October 27th - Gaming off (Halloween parties, etc.)
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Ugh! Out again (probably)
The girlfriend has decided that my Friday night would be better spent repairing various bits of damage her dogs have done to our duplex. So, unless I can make the kitchen floor spotless and patch the chips in the concrete so we can put down new linoleum Saturday (dog # 2 ate the old linoleum) by seven or so, I won't be at gaming.
I'm gonna kill those fuckin' dogs...
I'm gonna kill those fuckin' dogs...
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Eberron Character: Diarmand d'Deneith
Name: Diarmand d'Deneith
Race: Dragonmarked Human (Sentinel)
Class: Rogue 1/Sorcerer 1, Fighter 4
Experience: 16,066
Alignment: Neutral Good
Religion: Soveregn Host (Olladra)
Homeland: Karrnath
Age: 17 Height: 5'9" Weight: 153 lbs.
Statistics: STR 15, DEX 18, CON 14, INT 15, WIS 13, CHA 13, BAB +4, Fort +4 (+6), Ref +3 (+7), Will +3 (+4), Init +0 (+4), AC 15/16 (+1 natural armor, +4 Dex/+1 Dodge), 19/20 (Mage Armor), 23/24 (Mage Armor + Shield), Speed: 30' (Expeditious Retreat: 60'), HP 44
Skills: Bluff +4 (+5), Climb +3 (+5), Concentration +6 (+8), Diplomacy +4 (+6), Disguise +1 (+2), Escape Artist +4 (+8), Jump +9 (+13), Knowledge: Local +4 (+6), Knowledge: Nobility +1 (+3), Listen +0 (+3), Open Lock +4 (+8), Perform: Dance +3 (+4), Ride +1 (+5), Sense Motive +4 (+5), Sleight of Hand +4 (+8), Spot +0 (+3, +6 in bright light), Tumble +9 (+15)
Weapons/Attacks: +9 (1d6+2, +1d6 Sneak Attack), Rapier +1), +8 (1d4+2, +1d6 Sneak Attack, Dagger)
Equipment:
Amulet of Natural Armor +1, Rapier +1, Dagger, Wand of Magic Missiles (50 charges), Scroll: Feather Fall (1st level), Scroll: True Strike (1st level), Glamerweave Noble's Outfit, Belt Pouch (2), Waterskin, Signet Ring (House Deneith), Trail Rations (1 day), Small Steel Mirror, Flint & Steel, Whetstone, Thieves Tools, 54 GP, 5 SP
Feats: Alertness (Familiar), Dodge, Mobility, Spring Attack, Favored in House (Deneith), Least Dragonmark (Mage Armor: 2/Day, Caster Level 6, 1 Hour/Level), Lesser Dragonmark (Protection From Energy: 1/Day, Caster Level 6, 10 Minutes/Level or Until Discharged, 12 HP/Caster Level = 72 HP), Weapon Finesse
Spells: 0 (Cantrips) - 5/Day: Flare, Ghost Sound, Mage Hand, Prestidigitation, 1st - 4/Day: Expeditious Retreat, Shield
Class Abilities: Trapfinding, Sneak Attack +1d6, Familiar
Proficiencies: All Simple & Martial Weapons, All Armor & Shields
Languages: Common, Elven, Halfling
Name:
Race: Hawk Familiar
Statistics: STR 6, DEX 17, CON 10, INT 6, WIS 14, CHA 6, Fort +3, Ref +6, Will +1, Init +3, AC 18 (Touch 15, Flat Footed 14), Speed: Fly 60', Walk 10', HP 19
Skills: Listen +4, Spot +16
Feats: Alertness, Weapon Finesse
Special Abilities: Low Light Vision, Alertness, Improved Evasion, Empathic Link, Share Spells
Weapons/Attacks: +6 (1d4-2, Talons)
History: Little is known of Diarmand d'Deneith. He met the Wandering Wolves on board the Golden Dragon on her ill-fated maiden voyage.
Sunday, August 20, 2006
Saturday, August 19, 2006
Poker Report
We had five for poker this time out: Me, Charles, Dave, Nick, Rob Osborne. Rob went out first when he tried to bluff me off my trip nines. Nick went out second on a bluff, I believe against Dave. Dave was short stacked for a lot of the game, but after a couple of big hands against me (one suckout on the river when he nailed two-pair, A-J against my pair, which I don't remember, and one where I had trip Kings thanks to a pocket K and K-K board and he had pocket aces and an ace on the board) he was chip leader and I was short stack.
Dave, Charles and I went all in against each other on the final hand. I had flopped a straight, and Dave had two pair, 8s and 9s, while Charles had a single pair. The river card came, a third 8, giving Dave a full house and busting out the last two players at once. I walked off with my $5 back, for second place, and Dave took home the big twenty dollah and bragging rights for the night.
Fun game, thanks to everybody for coming.
Dave, Charles and I went all in against each other on the final hand. I had flopped a straight, and Dave had two pair, 8s and 9s, while Charles had a single pair. The river card came, a third 8, giving Dave a full house and busting out the last two players at once. I walked off with my $5 back, for second place, and Dave took home the big twenty dollah and bragging rights for the night.
Fun game, thanks to everybody for coming.
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Brand New Player Character
Greetings, Wolves!
I just wanted to take a moment to announce to you the birth of one Gideon Thomas Jones. The young warrior was born into the Jones Clan at 11:20 a.m. on the 14th day of August. Mother, child and useless father are all fine. Congratulations are acceptable as are large sums of cash!
Yours,
Lysander
I just wanted to take a moment to announce to you the birth of one Gideon Thomas Jones. The young warrior was born into the Jones Clan at 11:20 a.m. on the 14th day of August. Mother, child and useless father are all fine. Congratulations are acceptable as are large sums of cash!
Yours,
Lysander
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Eberron Adventure Journal: Grasp of the Emerald Claw (2)
Sypheros 26 - Aryth 3, YK 998
Part Three - Stormreach:
As instructed, the Wandering Wolves slipped unobtrusively into Stormreach by means of the docks, and then split up to do some recon work. Luggoth and Whitehearth wandered around the outskirts of town, looking for any physical evidence of the Claw. Pel and Lysander spent about five hours hitting up dockworkers, tavern-goers and other likely suspects to see if they had seen Scimitar, the Emerald Claw or their vampiric leader, but they came up empty. Brand spent the same amount of time asking around about his father, Traega d'Orien, but also didn't have any luck.
Kanatash, however, had a most unexpected sort of luck. When he approached House Tharask to hire an inquisitive, an elf woman named Muroni, dressed in full plate and bearing the holy symbol of Aureon, stopped him. "You won't find the answers you're seeking in there. Your destiny lies in the jungles."
Muroni explained that she was a follower of the great silver dragon Vuulaytherus of the Chamber, and that his interpretation of the Prophecy had driven her here to seek out the Wolves. She had seen that great events surrounding a group of adventurers connected to House Cannith would take place in Xen'drik around this time, and had been sent to witness them. She offered up details that no one could possibly have known without being either a member of the Wolves, a top-notch spy or someone who truly had access to prophecy, and expressed a desire to accompany the adventurers and witness the events. She promised in exchange to aid in any way she could.
When the rest of the group found Kanatash, he engaged his mind link so they could discuss Muroni privately. They all agreed that given what she knew, they might as well trust her, as she was either an ally or an enemy so well-connected that they were all screwed anyway. The group went to The Chapterhouse, a joint House Phiarlan/House Ghallanda performance space and tavern, to talk and eat.
While there, Lysander asked around with the other musicians and found out that someone had seen Scimitar (or a warforged who looked a great deal like her) about two days ago, and that she had come aboard an airship. After asking questions about the deep jungle, they got in their airship and took off into the jungles of Xen'drik. Lysander also heard rumors that they had spoken to the Provost of the Morgrave Expedition.
As a result, Pel went over and caroused with a handful of students from the Morgrave Expedition, getting them drunk and working them for information. He found out that the name of the Expedition leader was Provost Baris Kaven, and that the expedition was based out of a boarding house not far from where their ship was docked.
Assuming the form of the student he had left passed out drunk in the Chapterhouse, Pel went to meet with Provost Kaven. He acted out the part of the drunken student, and managed to discover that Kaven had spoken with Scimitar and a Captain Rarwog, who were looking for advice on the lay of the land. Kaven had told them to follow the river.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Wolves went to the House Cannith enclave to get their travel arrangements taken care of. They were told to find Chinxero, captain of the elemental riverboat The Marlow, at the docks by the Rachi River.
After a night of sleep at the Chapterhouse, the Wolves went down to find Chinxero, who turned out to be something of a surly human. He groused at them when he saw their travel papers. "Too far. Too far and too dangerous. Besides, I have other runs to make, schedules to keep. Find another charter."
The Wolves were understandably unhappy about this turn of events, but they tried to argue with him. He relented slightly, telling them that a diversion into the jungle might get him killed, and would certainly cost him. If they were willing to essentially bribe him with 6000 gold, he would go along.
Muroni took Kanatash aside and explained that she had 4000 gold, which she was willing to part with if it would help. The Wolves argued with Chinxero, telling him that they had a paid travel voucher from Cannith and that what they had to accomplish was important, and finally they managed to talk him down to 4000 gold, put as a deposit on his boat. If the boat and his crew survived the journey completely intact, he'd return the deposit. This was deemed agreeable by the Wolves, although Kanatash did demand a receipt for the gold. So it was that on Sypheros 28, the Wandering Wolves boarded The Marlow for a trip down the Rachi River.
Part Four - Riding the Marlow:
The Marlow was a small elemental-powered riverboat, with a crew of 10 and not much room to get around. The Wolves had to share a small auxiliary cargo hold as their quarters, and so they spent most of their time on the deck of the boat, even sleeping out under the stars.
The first day of travel along the river seemed relatively civilized, as they saw small villages dotting the jungle along the river banks. By the second day, any villages were gone, and the Wolves were deep into the uncivilized jungles of Xen'drik. The Marlow would travel by day, then drop anchor at night, for safety reasons.
On the third day, as the Marlow was travelling, a band of Lizardfolk began throwing javelins at the boat. The Wolves dove for cover, except for Kanatash, who unleashed an electrical energy missile that killed four of the Lizardfolk on one side of the river and took a javelin in the shoulder as a result.
Pel, Luggoth and Lysander fired arrows at the Lizardfolk, and Lysander killed one of them with an expert shot. Muroni cured Kanatash's wound as Kanatash fired at the rest of the Lizardfolk with another energy missile, eliminating the threat.
The rest of the day and night passed uneventfully, but on the fourth night, while everyone but Brand and Whitehearth was sleeping, Brand saw a pair of large green hands grab the prow of the boat and begin to pull. He drew his swords and moved forward, just in time to slash his shortsword into a troll that pulled itself up onto the boat. As Whitehearth joined him in attacking the beast, another troll pulled itself aboard at the rear of the ship. Brand looked back quickly to see the other troll, and the momentary distraction allowed the troll he was battling to claw him across the chest.
Brand responded with a flurry of attacks, slashing the troll several times, but it began to regenerate and swung another claw at Brand, tearing a small chunk out of his shoulder. The other troll moved over to Luggoth, who was stirring but not yet up and awake, but it's claws glanced off his armor. Kanatash discharged a fire energy missile at both trolls, causing them to shriek in pain. Pel and Lysander tumbled to their feet, and Lysander cast a mirror image spell while Pel tried to cast hold person, which the troll shrugged off.
Luggoth stood, drawing an attack from the troll next to him, but he struck back with a glancing blow off the troll's neck.
Brand swung another flurry of attacks at his opponent, but landed only one successful nick across the troll's upper leg, which was quickly regenerated. The other troll, nearer to Kanatash and furious with the fire attack, swung his claws and tore the psion nearly in two. Fortunately, Muroni was there to cast a healing spell, and Kanatash channeled some of his own life energy into another missile, this one destroying the troll at the front of the boat and severly wounding the one next to him.
It was still strong enough to attack again, though, and once again nearly killed Kanatash by clawing and biting at him. The psion resisted the pain and used another fiery energy missile to kill the troll, leaving the Wolves to heal up and rest after a devastating and nearly fatal attack.
The next day (Aryth 3), as they reached a turn on the Rachi River, Pel spotted a pair of giant hands of stone reaching up toward the sky, the marker they had been told to watch for by Lady Elaydren. Behind the hands, in the distance, they could see a massive ruined temple. Next to the hands, they saw an air-skiff floating about 20 feet in the air, a rope ladder hanging down to the ground and a line spiked into the ground to keep the skiff steady.
As they disembarked, the Wolves realized that there were two Emerald Claw soldiers aboard the air skiff. The soldiers were waving their arms and yelling out that they surrendered, which seemed odd to the Wolves. However, the soldiers seemed sincere, climbing down the ladder and allowing themselves to be bound.
Lysander used his magics and bardic ability to help Pel interrogate the soldiers. They learned that their leader's name was Garrow, and that they soldiers claimed he was a great and powerful vampire, but both Pel and Lysander sensed that the soldiers were lying about that last part. They were also told that there were fifty soldiers in Garrow's force, which was investigating the temple. The soldiers were brusque and aggressive, and this caused Brand to try physically threatening them, stabbing one of them in the shoulder with his rapier.
This upset Kanatash, who saw the attack as torture, and he created a defensive energy wall around the prisoners. The Wolves got into a minor squabble, until Muroni pointed out this seemed like a distraction, and that they needed to get into the temple before Garrow found what he was looking for. This clicked with the Wolves, and they realized why the soldiers had been so eager to surrender... they were stalling in the name of their leader.
With that decided, the Wolves headed for the ruin, intent on stopping Garrow from acquiring the last schema.
Part Five - The Ruin:
As the Wolves approached the ruin, they couldn't help but be impressed by its scale. It was over 300 feet tall, and composed of solid stone that didn't seem to be any worse for wear despite its age, a sure sign of magical reinforcement. The obvious point of egress was a set of giant stairs, each one 10 feet high. Fortunately, there was a slave staircase built right next to it sized for elves, and the Wolves began ascending that staircase.
As soon as they were all on the stairs, however, they were met by a trap. A giant boulder rolled down the stairs, and the Wolves tried to scramble back out to avoid being rolled over. Pel and Whitehearth managed to avoid it entirely, but the others were caught to some degree by the boulder trap.
Following behind the boulder they had released was a small group of about a half-dozen drow, who didn't seem amenable to Kanatash's attempt to negotiate a truce.
Brand and Luggoth moved up and blocked the drow from coming any further down the stairs as Kanatash, Lysander and Pel fired ranged attacks from the bottom. They were attacked in kind by the drow throwing javelins, and they ducked behind cover to avoid the attacks.
Brand engaged the leader of the drow in combat, exchanging shortsword and rapier strikes with the drow's shortspear, both men taking severe damage in the exchanges. Luggoth swung his greatsword and finished the drow leader off.
Two more drow charged in, and Brand killed each of them in turn, assisted by arrows from Lysander and Pel and Luggoth's greatsword. Kanatash fired an electrical energy missile that killed three of the others, and Luggoth charged forward and killed the last drow standing with his greatsword.
The drow leader had been wearing magical leather armor, which Brand quickly changed into, moving his masterwork leather into the Heward's Haversack.
Drawing on their experience in the ziggurat in Thrane, the Wolves decided to move upward as quickly as possible, finding another staircase that led up to an enormous pair of stone doors, cracked open about five feet with light spilling out. Brand snuck up to check it out and saw a ziggurat inside the massive room, generating some sort of light sphere on top. Standing inside that light sphere was a mummy who was studying the runes on the ziggurat and a heavily-armed warrior of the Emerald Claw.
On the level just below the top, ten feet below, there were six Emerald Claw soldiers bearing crossbows and aiming at the door. Brand dimension leaped behind the mummy and his troops onto the second level of the ziggurat and sent back information through the mind link.
The Wolves moved quietly up to the door and prepared their plan, using the mind link to work it out silently. Brand was unable to see that the leader of the Emerald Claw troops had picked up on an impending attack and moved down toward the door, drawing his sword, but Lysander heard some chainmail clanking around, so he knew someone was moving.
Lysander cast invisibility on Kanatash and then mirror image on himself, and then moved throw the door, drawing the soldiers' crossbow fire. His mirror images held up, however, and he suffered no attacks himself. With the soldiers reloading their crossbows, Kanatash stepped in and fired off an electrical energy missile that killed five of them.
The rest of the Wolves charged in, and resisted the mummy's fear effect except for Luggoth, who was paralyzed for a few moments. Brand came around the ziggurat and attacked the last remaining Emerald Claw soldier, missing with his surprise attack but succeeding with a flurry of sword strikes seconds after to kill him.
Pel engaged in melee with the Emerald Claw leader as Whitehearth provided support while Kanatash and Lysander engaged the mummy. The mummy had begun firing magic missiles down at them, but when Kanatash tried to fire back with an energy missile, he found that the white sphere the mummy was in was in fact a globe of lesser invulnerability, rendering him immune to spell and psionic effects. Lysander guessed that the globe was being generated by ancient giant magics from the ziggurat itself.
Lysander began firing his bow at the mummy as Brand pulled himself up to the top of the ziggurat to engage him in melee combat. The mummy moved over and backhanded Brand with a powerful blow, and Brand felt a rotting sensation which he managed to shake off. But he realized that the legends Lysander had just imparted to them were true, and that a mummy could infect others by touch with a rotting disease.
Sure that his bow was having little to no effect, Lysander dropped it and pulled his sword, starting up a rousing battle song as he did. Kanatash moved in with his quarterstaff to aid Pel, but Luggoth also recovered his wits and moved in, finishing the Emerald Claw leader off with a powerful slash of his greatsword.
Brand slashed at the mummy, cutting into him for some minor damage, but the mummy struck back, this time infecting Brand with mummy rot. He knew that he now had at best minutes to live. Kanatash, using the tactic he had developed against the dire shark, cast time hop to give Brand more time.
The Wolves began struggling to the top of the ziggurat, jumping at the 10-foot levels and trying to reach the mummy as the mummy rained magic missiles down upon them. Finally, when Lysander, Pel and Luggoth had all reached the top, the mummy drank a potion, which had no immediate effect inside the globe effect.
Seconds later, the mummy leaped out of the globe and vanished in midair. Lysander jumped after him, swinging at empty air, as Kanatash used his psionics to dispel magic in the area, rendering the mummy visible right next to Lysander. Luggoth jumped down, flying into a rage and swinging his sword into the mummy, cutting off a chunk of his bandages and spilling black embalming fluid onto the ziggurat. Pel, meanwhile, jumped down and cast a cure spell, dealing positive energy damage to the mummy.
Enraged, the mummy struck Pel, who resisted the mummy rot and prepared to cast another spell. As he did, Kanatash blasted away with his dorje, hitting the mummy with a gout of flame, and Lysander cast a cure spell of his own, hitting the mummy with more positive energy. Pel called out to the Traveler and laid his hands on the mummy once more, and the foul undead creature disintegrated, leaving only a pile of rotting bandages.
With the mummy defeated and adrenaline wearing off, the Wolves turned to their doomed companion Brand, who appeared from his time hop. Almost simultaneously, a dimension door opened next to him, and a man who looked a great deal like him except older emerged.
"It's good to have oracles, boy," he said, and then spirited Brand away with a dimension door. Clearly, Brand's father was in Xen'drik, and through some magic, had been expecting his son.
XP: 3120
Part Three - Stormreach:
As instructed, the Wandering Wolves slipped unobtrusively into Stormreach by means of the docks, and then split up to do some recon work. Luggoth and Whitehearth wandered around the outskirts of town, looking for any physical evidence of the Claw. Pel and Lysander spent about five hours hitting up dockworkers, tavern-goers and other likely suspects to see if they had seen Scimitar, the Emerald Claw or their vampiric leader, but they came up empty. Brand spent the same amount of time asking around about his father, Traega d'Orien, but also didn't have any luck.
Kanatash, however, had a most unexpected sort of luck. When he approached House Tharask to hire an inquisitive, an elf woman named Muroni, dressed in full plate and bearing the holy symbol of Aureon, stopped him. "You won't find the answers you're seeking in there. Your destiny lies in the jungles."
Muroni explained that she was a follower of the great silver dragon Vuulaytherus of the Chamber, and that his interpretation of the Prophecy had driven her here to seek out the Wolves. She had seen that great events surrounding a group of adventurers connected to House Cannith would take place in Xen'drik around this time, and had been sent to witness them. She offered up details that no one could possibly have known without being either a member of the Wolves, a top-notch spy or someone who truly had access to prophecy, and expressed a desire to accompany the adventurers and witness the events. She promised in exchange to aid in any way she could.
When the rest of the group found Kanatash, he engaged his mind link so they could discuss Muroni privately. They all agreed that given what she knew, they might as well trust her, as she was either an ally or an enemy so well-connected that they were all screwed anyway. The group went to The Chapterhouse, a joint House Phiarlan/House Ghallanda performance space and tavern, to talk and eat.
While there, Lysander asked around with the other musicians and found out that someone had seen Scimitar (or a warforged who looked a great deal like her) about two days ago, and that she had come aboard an airship. After asking questions about the deep jungle, they got in their airship and took off into the jungles of Xen'drik. Lysander also heard rumors that they had spoken to the Provost of the Morgrave Expedition.
As a result, Pel went over and caroused with a handful of students from the Morgrave Expedition, getting them drunk and working them for information. He found out that the name of the Expedition leader was Provost Baris Kaven, and that the expedition was based out of a boarding house not far from where their ship was docked.
Assuming the form of the student he had left passed out drunk in the Chapterhouse, Pel went to meet with Provost Kaven. He acted out the part of the drunken student, and managed to discover that Kaven had spoken with Scimitar and a Captain Rarwog, who were looking for advice on the lay of the land. Kaven had told them to follow the river.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Wolves went to the House Cannith enclave to get their travel arrangements taken care of. They were told to find Chinxero, captain of the elemental riverboat The Marlow, at the docks by the Rachi River.
After a night of sleep at the Chapterhouse, the Wolves went down to find Chinxero, who turned out to be something of a surly human. He groused at them when he saw their travel papers. "Too far. Too far and too dangerous. Besides, I have other runs to make, schedules to keep. Find another charter."
The Wolves were understandably unhappy about this turn of events, but they tried to argue with him. He relented slightly, telling them that a diversion into the jungle might get him killed, and would certainly cost him. If they were willing to essentially bribe him with 6000 gold, he would go along.
Muroni took Kanatash aside and explained that she had 4000 gold, which she was willing to part with if it would help. The Wolves argued with Chinxero, telling him that they had a paid travel voucher from Cannith and that what they had to accomplish was important, and finally they managed to talk him down to 4000 gold, put as a deposit on his boat. If the boat and his crew survived the journey completely intact, he'd return the deposit. This was deemed agreeable by the Wolves, although Kanatash did demand a receipt for the gold. So it was that on Sypheros 28, the Wandering Wolves boarded The Marlow for a trip down the Rachi River.
Part Four - Riding the Marlow:
The Marlow was a small elemental-powered riverboat, with a crew of 10 and not much room to get around. The Wolves had to share a small auxiliary cargo hold as their quarters, and so they spent most of their time on the deck of the boat, even sleeping out under the stars.
The first day of travel along the river seemed relatively civilized, as they saw small villages dotting the jungle along the river banks. By the second day, any villages were gone, and the Wolves were deep into the uncivilized jungles of Xen'drik. The Marlow would travel by day, then drop anchor at night, for safety reasons.
On the third day, as the Marlow was travelling, a band of Lizardfolk began throwing javelins at the boat. The Wolves dove for cover, except for Kanatash, who unleashed an electrical energy missile that killed four of the Lizardfolk on one side of the river and took a javelin in the shoulder as a result.
Pel, Luggoth and Lysander fired arrows at the Lizardfolk, and Lysander killed one of them with an expert shot. Muroni cured Kanatash's wound as Kanatash fired at the rest of the Lizardfolk with another energy missile, eliminating the threat.
The rest of the day and night passed uneventfully, but on the fourth night, while everyone but Brand and Whitehearth was sleeping, Brand saw a pair of large green hands grab the prow of the boat and begin to pull. He drew his swords and moved forward, just in time to slash his shortsword into a troll that pulled itself up onto the boat. As Whitehearth joined him in attacking the beast, another troll pulled itself aboard at the rear of the ship. Brand looked back quickly to see the other troll, and the momentary distraction allowed the troll he was battling to claw him across the chest.
Brand responded with a flurry of attacks, slashing the troll several times, but it began to regenerate and swung another claw at Brand, tearing a small chunk out of his shoulder. The other troll moved over to Luggoth, who was stirring but not yet up and awake, but it's claws glanced off his armor. Kanatash discharged a fire energy missile at both trolls, causing them to shriek in pain. Pel and Lysander tumbled to their feet, and Lysander cast a mirror image spell while Pel tried to cast hold person, which the troll shrugged off.
Luggoth stood, drawing an attack from the troll next to him, but he struck back with a glancing blow off the troll's neck.
Brand swung another flurry of attacks at his opponent, but landed only one successful nick across the troll's upper leg, which was quickly regenerated. The other troll, nearer to Kanatash and furious with the fire attack, swung his claws and tore the psion nearly in two. Fortunately, Muroni was there to cast a healing spell, and Kanatash channeled some of his own life energy into another missile, this one destroying the troll at the front of the boat and severly wounding the one next to him.
It was still strong enough to attack again, though, and once again nearly killed Kanatash by clawing and biting at him. The psion resisted the pain and used another fiery energy missile to kill the troll, leaving the Wolves to heal up and rest after a devastating and nearly fatal attack.
The next day (Aryth 3), as they reached a turn on the Rachi River, Pel spotted a pair of giant hands of stone reaching up toward the sky, the marker they had been told to watch for by Lady Elaydren. Behind the hands, in the distance, they could see a massive ruined temple. Next to the hands, they saw an air-skiff floating about 20 feet in the air, a rope ladder hanging down to the ground and a line spiked into the ground to keep the skiff steady.
As they disembarked, the Wolves realized that there were two Emerald Claw soldiers aboard the air skiff. The soldiers were waving their arms and yelling out that they surrendered, which seemed odd to the Wolves. However, the soldiers seemed sincere, climbing down the ladder and allowing themselves to be bound.
Lysander used his magics and bardic ability to help Pel interrogate the soldiers. They learned that their leader's name was Garrow, and that they soldiers claimed he was a great and powerful vampire, but both Pel and Lysander sensed that the soldiers were lying about that last part. They were also told that there were fifty soldiers in Garrow's force, which was investigating the temple. The soldiers were brusque and aggressive, and this caused Brand to try physically threatening them, stabbing one of them in the shoulder with his rapier.
This upset Kanatash, who saw the attack as torture, and he created a defensive energy wall around the prisoners. The Wolves got into a minor squabble, until Muroni pointed out this seemed like a distraction, and that they needed to get into the temple before Garrow found what he was looking for. This clicked with the Wolves, and they realized why the soldiers had been so eager to surrender... they were stalling in the name of their leader.
With that decided, the Wolves headed for the ruin, intent on stopping Garrow from acquiring the last schema.
Part Five - The Ruin:
As the Wolves approached the ruin, they couldn't help but be impressed by its scale. It was over 300 feet tall, and composed of solid stone that didn't seem to be any worse for wear despite its age, a sure sign of magical reinforcement. The obvious point of egress was a set of giant stairs, each one 10 feet high. Fortunately, there was a slave staircase built right next to it sized for elves, and the Wolves began ascending that staircase.
As soon as they were all on the stairs, however, they were met by a trap. A giant boulder rolled down the stairs, and the Wolves tried to scramble back out to avoid being rolled over. Pel and Whitehearth managed to avoid it entirely, but the others were caught to some degree by the boulder trap.
Following behind the boulder they had released was a small group of about a half-dozen drow, who didn't seem amenable to Kanatash's attempt to negotiate a truce.
Brand and Luggoth moved up and blocked the drow from coming any further down the stairs as Kanatash, Lysander and Pel fired ranged attacks from the bottom. They were attacked in kind by the drow throwing javelins, and they ducked behind cover to avoid the attacks.
Brand engaged the leader of the drow in combat, exchanging shortsword and rapier strikes with the drow's shortspear, both men taking severe damage in the exchanges. Luggoth swung his greatsword and finished the drow leader off.
Two more drow charged in, and Brand killed each of them in turn, assisted by arrows from Lysander and Pel and Luggoth's greatsword. Kanatash fired an electrical energy missile that killed three of the others, and Luggoth charged forward and killed the last drow standing with his greatsword.
The drow leader had been wearing magical leather armor, which Brand quickly changed into, moving his masterwork leather into the Heward's Haversack.
Drawing on their experience in the ziggurat in Thrane, the Wolves decided to move upward as quickly as possible, finding another staircase that led up to an enormous pair of stone doors, cracked open about five feet with light spilling out. Brand snuck up to check it out and saw a ziggurat inside the massive room, generating some sort of light sphere on top. Standing inside that light sphere was a mummy who was studying the runes on the ziggurat and a heavily-armed warrior of the Emerald Claw.
On the level just below the top, ten feet below, there were six Emerald Claw soldiers bearing crossbows and aiming at the door. Brand dimension leaped behind the mummy and his troops onto the second level of the ziggurat and sent back information through the mind link.
The Wolves moved quietly up to the door and prepared their plan, using the mind link to work it out silently. Brand was unable to see that the leader of the Emerald Claw troops had picked up on an impending attack and moved down toward the door, drawing his sword, but Lysander heard some chainmail clanking around, so he knew someone was moving.
Lysander cast invisibility on Kanatash and then mirror image on himself, and then moved throw the door, drawing the soldiers' crossbow fire. His mirror images held up, however, and he suffered no attacks himself. With the soldiers reloading their crossbows, Kanatash stepped in and fired off an electrical energy missile that killed five of them.
The rest of the Wolves charged in, and resisted the mummy's fear effect except for Luggoth, who was paralyzed for a few moments. Brand came around the ziggurat and attacked the last remaining Emerald Claw soldier, missing with his surprise attack but succeeding with a flurry of sword strikes seconds after to kill him.
Pel engaged in melee with the Emerald Claw leader as Whitehearth provided support while Kanatash and Lysander engaged the mummy. The mummy had begun firing magic missiles down at them, but when Kanatash tried to fire back with an energy missile, he found that the white sphere the mummy was in was in fact a globe of lesser invulnerability, rendering him immune to spell and psionic effects. Lysander guessed that the globe was being generated by ancient giant magics from the ziggurat itself.
Lysander began firing his bow at the mummy as Brand pulled himself up to the top of the ziggurat to engage him in melee combat. The mummy moved over and backhanded Brand with a powerful blow, and Brand felt a rotting sensation which he managed to shake off. But he realized that the legends Lysander had just imparted to them were true, and that a mummy could infect others by touch with a rotting disease.
Sure that his bow was having little to no effect, Lysander dropped it and pulled his sword, starting up a rousing battle song as he did. Kanatash moved in with his quarterstaff to aid Pel, but Luggoth also recovered his wits and moved in, finishing the Emerald Claw leader off with a powerful slash of his greatsword.
Brand slashed at the mummy, cutting into him for some minor damage, but the mummy struck back, this time infecting Brand with mummy rot. He knew that he now had at best minutes to live. Kanatash, using the tactic he had developed against the dire shark, cast time hop to give Brand more time.
The Wolves began struggling to the top of the ziggurat, jumping at the 10-foot levels and trying to reach the mummy as the mummy rained magic missiles down upon them. Finally, when Lysander, Pel and Luggoth had all reached the top, the mummy drank a potion, which had no immediate effect inside the globe effect.
Seconds later, the mummy leaped out of the globe and vanished in midair. Lysander jumped after him, swinging at empty air, as Kanatash used his psionics to dispel magic in the area, rendering the mummy visible right next to Lysander. Luggoth jumped down, flying into a rage and swinging his sword into the mummy, cutting off a chunk of his bandages and spilling black embalming fluid onto the ziggurat. Pel, meanwhile, jumped down and cast a cure spell, dealing positive energy damage to the mummy.
Enraged, the mummy struck Pel, who resisted the mummy rot and prepared to cast another spell. As he did, Kanatash blasted away with his dorje, hitting the mummy with a gout of flame, and Lysander cast a cure spell of his own, hitting the mummy with more positive energy. Pel called out to the Traveler and laid his hands on the mummy once more, and the foul undead creature disintegrated, leaving only a pile of rotting bandages.
With the mummy defeated and adrenaline wearing off, the Wolves turned to their doomed companion Brand, who appeared from his time hop. Almost simultaneously, a dimension door opened next to him, and a man who looked a great deal like him except older emerged.
"It's good to have oracles, boy," he said, and then spirited Brand away with a dimension door. Clearly, Brand's father was in Xen'drik, and through some magic, had been expecting his son.
XP: 3120
Thursday, August 03, 2006
I'm out on the 4th
Just been informed that I'm expected to be at Shawna's cousin's rehearsal dinner, in addition to her wedding. Well, I make it sound worse than it is. There's free fajitas involved, and I go where the food is. Guess I'll see everybody in September.
Randy, have a blast in Florida!
Randy, have a blast in Florida!
Monday, July 31, 2006
Eberron Adventure Journal: Grasp of the Emerald Claw
Sypheros 19 - Sypheros 26, YK 998
Part One - Lady in Distress:
Thanks to a suggestion from Lysander, the Wandering Wolves had moved their regular tavern from the Broken Anvil over to the The Drunken Dragon, which also happened to be the regular bar for the Clifftop Adventurers' Guild. Kanatash and Luggoth also joined the charter of the Wandering Wolves with the guild, and later, at the Drunken Dragon, Kanatash suggested formalizing the structure of the Wolves even further.
So it was that on Sypheros 19, the Wandering Wolves had an official charter composed by Kanatash and signed by all of the members, including Tock but obviously excluding William. Luggoth and Kanatash were made aware of the group's benefits in regards to Gareth's Gear, but not the true nature of its ownership. The treasure split was agreed to be an equal share for all members, and if someone is killed, their share of the treasure goes to their beneficiaries named in the charter. Someone killed without a beneficiary donates their share to the Wolves. Kanatash named his beneficiary as Havakhad, spiritual leader of the Shrine of il-Yannah in Upper Dura's Overlook district. Luggoth named the community of the Wolf's Paw in the Eldeen Reaches. Pel wanted 50% of his share to go to the Church of the Traveler, and Brand 50% to his mother Sheryn, with the other 50% going to the Wolves. Brand also stipulated that if he died, Whitehearth was to be taken to join Rorsa's pack in the Eldeen Reaches. Lysander named no beneficiary as of yet, other than the Wolves.
On the 22nd day of Sypheros, shortly after the rain had begun falling in Sharn again, Pel looked into the Heward's Handy Haversack for the copy of the schema and the creation pattern that the Wolves had recovered, only to find them missing. The only times he could remember being away from the Haversack, excepting when he was sleeping with it in the same room, was when he was meeting with Xain and had to leave it with him for a few minutes and when he was briefly knocked unconscious by the Daask half-ogres.
Pel gathered with the Wolves at the Drunken Dragon to discuss what should be done. As they quickly worked out that this was likely a deliberate theft, and thus not likely to be the fault of the Daask, but more the fault of the previously trusted Xain, a House Vadalis gargoyle entered the establishment looking for them.
"The Lady has need of you," the gargoyle offered, depositing a sealed envelope onto the table and departing. Inside the envelope was a letter from "Lady E." asking the Wolves to meet her at her Parlan Tower town house in Middle Central at the sound of the second evening chime, which sounded shortly thereafter.
The Wolves made their way to Lady Elaydren's town house, but found that the door was open and the windows smashed, and an attack was clearly winding down. They rushed in and found Elaydren wounded, her magic spent, defending herself weakly against four Karrnathi zombies. All around them were Elaydren's personal guards and servants, as well as a few other zombies and a couple of Emerald Claw soldiers who had clearly fallen in the attack.
The zombies were doing their best to kill Elaydren before the Wolves could interfere, but Kanatash fired off an electricity missile that killed one and nearly destroyed the others. Pel called upon the Traveler and used positive energy to kill another, Brand finished one off with a lightning quick flurry of rapier thrusts and shortsword slashes and Kanatash ended the other one with another electrical missile.
Lady Elaydren composed herself and said "Once again I am in your debt. The zombies were only part of a larger force that attacked my guards and household staff. There were armored warriors wearing the symbol of the Emerald Claw and a warforged fighter wielding a wickedly curved scimitar. The worst of these, however, was their leader. He appeared first as a smiling merchant, rotund and jolly, who used so innocent a form to gain entry to my town house. Then his form seemed to melt and flow, and he appeared as a tall, emaciated man with white skin, red eyes and sharp fangs."
"They killed my guards, my servants... they smashed my pre-Galifar memory urn... and they took the schemas. By the Great Forge, the Emerald Claw has the schemas! Their leader indicated that they had also recovered another schema and the creation pattern, and that they knew of the location of the fourth schema as well! There is still time to retrieve the schemas and keep the Order of the Emerald Claw from gaining whatever power the completed creation pattern may possess. Time is of the essence, and there isn't a moment to waste!"
The Wolves didn't hesitate in accepting this duty from Lady Elaydren, especially after she offered them 5,000 gp each to undertake it, half now and half upon completion. She expressed a desire for discretion, as the schemas, as well as notes from her ancestor Kedran d'Cannith, were entrusted to her, and losing them could hurt her standing in the House. Fortunately, Kedran's notes hinted at a location for the fourth schema, on the lost continent of Xen'drik. Elaydren handed them a letter of credit for 5,000 gold and told them to take two hours to equip themselves with potions and scrolls for the journey, and then return to her town house.
The Wolves returned to their usual stomping grounds in Upper Dura to purchase equipment for the journey. They purchased scrolls of waterbreathing, daylight and magic fang at the Dragon's Hoard, potions of cure light wounds from Good Spirits and a wand of cure light wounds from Wise Wood. Lysander and Pel went and purchased a magical bow, as well as a variety of survival and travel gear, in the Bazaar in Middle Dura.
In addition, Pel paid one year worth of rent on his new apartment, and Lysander arranged for Tock to pay his rent if he was out of town for more than a month.
Part Two - From Here to There:
Upon their return to Elaydren's town house, Brand spotted that Elaydren had hired common laborers, rather than House-affiliated magewrights, and realized just how much she wanted to keep the news of the theft quiet.
"I have secured you passage on a new form of transportation recently developed by House Cannith. It is called an undersea ship, for it travels secretly beneath the seas. Three such vehicles have been constructed. We built them for various intelligence agencies, but only one such group has had the vision to purchase one of the ships now that the Last War has ended. The other two remain in Cannith hands. Take this letter of passage to Byam, in the Grayflood district. He can be found in the vicinity of the Stone Docks. He will make sure you get safely to Stormreach and back again."
Given their luck with previous travel, the Wolves expressed more than a little concern about being on a ship traveling underwater, but they accepted this as the fastest and best method of getting to Stormreach relatively undetected.
"You might be able to pick up the Emerald Claw's trail in or around Stormreach. If that doesn't seem to be working, you can head directly to the ruins. Kedran's notes place the ancient site about four hundred miles up the Rachi River. At the turn in the Rachi River, where the land rises and the hands of stone reach for the sky, look toward the giant's left hand for guidance to the schema's resting place."
With that, Elaydren gave each character a pouch of gems. "Collect the four schemas and the creation pattern, return them to me, and an equal amount will be yours on your return. Good luck, and may the fortunes of the Houses and the Nations smile upon you."
Brand compared his map of Xen'drik to the clues provided by Kedran and satisfied himself that there was no match. He resolved to show the map to Lysander when they had more time to examine it. Then the Wolves headed down to the Grayflood district to find Captain Byam.
As it turned out, Byam was fairly easy to find, a dark-haired gnome engaged in a game of dice with other sailors. After collecting his winnings, he nodded in response to the letter of passage from Lady Elaydren and showed the Wolves into a warehouse set back from the docks. There, they first glimpsed their vessel, which looked like a thin, elongated airship that had fallen into the water. Rather than air or fire, however, the elemental binding ring was that of violently spinning water. Several gnomes were busy carrying crates into the craft through the hatch in the top.
"This is the Sea Dart, my friends, and I am its captain, Byam of the ocean depths!"
Byam showed the Wolves down into the submarine and took them up to the observation blister, which featured a magical window allowing him to see anywhere around the ship. He then showed them to the two cabins, each capable of supporting four people (albeit not comfortably). Brand, Luggoth and Whitehearth claimed one cabin, while Kanatash, Lysander and Pel took the other. Byam informed them that he was taking a shortcut through Shargon's Teeth that should get them to Stormreach in three and a half days, almost as fast as an airship could manage.
On the second day of travel, Byam called the Wolves up to the observation blister to witness Shargon's Teeth, the stone and coral columns surrounding Xen'drik, from a different point of view. From this perspective, Byam found them quite beautiful. However, their beauty belied a certain danger, as the Wolves and crew found out moments later when something struck the ship, causing them all to go flying across the observation deck, slamming into walls and floor. All except Luggoth, whose shifter reflexes allowed him to keep his feet, falling prey only to a falling bit of debris that bounced off his head.
Looking out, the Wolves and Byam could see a massive, almost thirty foot long shark with bony ridges gliding away into the water. A gnomish crewman cried out that the binding ring had been damaged, and a small leak in the cargo compartment gave no one any comfort.
"Blast that overgrown sardine's mishapen fin! Get us to the surface before the elemental gets free and we're stuck in these cursed waters! Rise, rise!"
Byam assured the Wolves that once they reached the surface, repairs would only take a couple of hours, but another complication arose as the Sea Dart was caught from above in huge nets strung across Shargon's Teeth. "All right, crew! We're going to have to take a swim and cut the Sea Dart free!"
Byam turned to the adventurers. "Any help you can provide would be much appreciated."
Two gnome crewmembers drank potions of waterbreathing, grabbed water crossbows from the armory and exited the airlock, tethered to the ship by 50' long tethers. As the Wolves drank potions of their own and grabbed the two available medium water crossbows, they were also fitted for tethers.
Brand and Luggoth were first out of the airlock, and Brand summoned an octopus to help. Pel meanwhile cast bless, and Lysander began singing for inspiration as he and Kanatash exited the airlock and stepped out onto the submarine's hull.
As the Wolves began moving to cut the nets, the dire shark appeared again and bit down on Luggoth. Kanatash responded with thrusts of mental energy, but the shark's primitive brain resisted any effect, and the Wolves watched in horror as the shark tossed back its head, swallowing Luggoth whole. Luggoth swung a mighty blow at the shark's digestive tract, trying to escape, but was unable to cut himself free in one shot. He readied for another blow, even as the digestive acids and crushing muscles of the shark's stomach threatened to knock him unconscious.
Brand teleported over, losing his tether and diving into the shark's mouth after Luggoth. Unfortunately, in his rush to rescue Luggoth, he hadn't worked out the plan through the mind link, and thus he arrived in the shark's gullet just in time for Kanatash to hop Luggoth in time, freeing him from the shark. Brand used his dragonmark to teleport out again, as Lysander and Pel fired their crossbows at the massive beast.
Lysander attempted to distract the shark with an image of a smaller shark, but it seemed to be under the direction of something smarter than its own primitive brain. Kanatash and Pel unleashed magical and psionic energies at the shark, doing minor damage, as the shark moved in and swallowed one of the gnomes.
Brand chopped one section of the net free as the shark grabbed the other gnome in its jaws. Kanatash created an energy wall around the gnome which destroyed the front section of the net and drove the shark away, freeing the gnome.
Pel wrapped his tether around Brand and cast cure moderate wounds to restore some of the damage Brand had taken inside the shark, and Brand teleported with Pel to his old tether and an uncut section of the nets.
The shark turned its attention toward Lysander, grabbing him in its powerful jaws, and Kanatash unleashed a time hop to spare him from being swallowed, as Pel chopped at another section of the net.
Kanatash blasted the last remaining section of the net with a fiery energy missile, freeing the ship, which began to rise. The Wolves followed their tethers inside, as did the surviving gnome, and the shark fled. Lysander and Luggoth emerged from their time hops inside the ship, and the Sea Dart rose to the surface with a relative minimum of casualties.
Once they were above the water, the gnomes began making repairs, and the Wolves took up guard positions, suspicious that sahuagin might have been behind the attack. Indeed, Brand spotted a group of them moving quietly through the rocky shore of the islet that the Sea Dart was parked next to, and Kanatash summoned a fire wall to hold them back.
The sahuagin dove into the water to come around and up onto the Sea Dart, but were met with harsh resistance, including an electrical missile from Kanatash that killed two of their number, forcing the others into an underwater retreat. The rest of the repairs were uneventful, and after about two hours, the Sea Dart was underway once more.
Another day and a half later, on the evening of Sypheros 26, the Sea Dart deposited the Wolves about a half mile down the shore from Stormreach, in order to conceal how they arrived. Byam expressed a willingness to wait for them for 30 days, then handed them travel papers and a letter of credit.
"Slip into Stormreach by means of the docks. The travel papers indicate that you arrived aboard the House Lyrandar galleon Strong Wind and that you're part of an expedition from Morgrave University. Just don't reveal any of this where anyone from the expedition can hear you - they probably won't go along with your story, since they don't know you from the King of Q'barra. The letter of credit can be used to acquire transportation into the jungle... it can be used at the House Cannith enclave, and only at the enclave, and only for transport. Good luck!"
XP: 1920
Part One - Lady in Distress:
Thanks to a suggestion from Lysander, the Wandering Wolves had moved their regular tavern from the Broken Anvil over to the The Drunken Dragon, which also happened to be the regular bar for the Clifftop Adventurers' Guild. Kanatash and Luggoth also joined the charter of the Wandering Wolves with the guild, and later, at the Drunken Dragon, Kanatash suggested formalizing the structure of the Wolves even further.
So it was that on Sypheros 19, the Wandering Wolves had an official charter composed by Kanatash and signed by all of the members, including Tock but obviously excluding William. Luggoth and Kanatash were made aware of the group's benefits in regards to Gareth's Gear, but not the true nature of its ownership. The treasure split was agreed to be an equal share for all members, and if someone is killed, their share of the treasure goes to their beneficiaries named in the charter. Someone killed without a beneficiary donates their share to the Wolves. Kanatash named his beneficiary as Havakhad, spiritual leader of the Shrine of il-Yannah in Upper Dura's Overlook district. Luggoth named the community of the Wolf's Paw in the Eldeen Reaches. Pel wanted 50% of his share to go to the Church of the Traveler, and Brand 50% to his mother Sheryn, with the other 50% going to the Wolves. Brand also stipulated that if he died, Whitehearth was to be taken to join Rorsa's pack in the Eldeen Reaches. Lysander named no beneficiary as of yet, other than the Wolves.
On the 22nd day of Sypheros, shortly after the rain had begun falling in Sharn again, Pel looked into the Heward's Handy Haversack for the copy of the schema and the creation pattern that the Wolves had recovered, only to find them missing. The only times he could remember being away from the Haversack, excepting when he was sleeping with it in the same room, was when he was meeting with Xain and had to leave it with him for a few minutes and when he was briefly knocked unconscious by the Daask half-ogres.
Pel gathered with the Wolves at the Drunken Dragon to discuss what should be done. As they quickly worked out that this was likely a deliberate theft, and thus not likely to be the fault of the Daask, but more the fault of the previously trusted Xain, a House Vadalis gargoyle entered the establishment looking for them.
"The Lady has need of you," the gargoyle offered, depositing a sealed envelope onto the table and departing. Inside the envelope was a letter from "Lady E." asking the Wolves to meet her at her Parlan Tower town house in Middle Central at the sound of the second evening chime, which sounded shortly thereafter.
The Wolves made their way to Lady Elaydren's town house, but found that the door was open and the windows smashed, and an attack was clearly winding down. They rushed in and found Elaydren wounded, her magic spent, defending herself weakly against four Karrnathi zombies. All around them were Elaydren's personal guards and servants, as well as a few other zombies and a couple of Emerald Claw soldiers who had clearly fallen in the attack.
The zombies were doing their best to kill Elaydren before the Wolves could interfere, but Kanatash fired off an electricity missile that killed one and nearly destroyed the others. Pel called upon the Traveler and used positive energy to kill another, Brand finished one off with a lightning quick flurry of rapier thrusts and shortsword slashes and Kanatash ended the other one with another electrical missile.
Lady Elaydren composed herself and said "Once again I am in your debt. The zombies were only part of a larger force that attacked my guards and household staff. There were armored warriors wearing the symbol of the Emerald Claw and a warforged fighter wielding a wickedly curved scimitar. The worst of these, however, was their leader. He appeared first as a smiling merchant, rotund and jolly, who used so innocent a form to gain entry to my town house. Then his form seemed to melt and flow, and he appeared as a tall, emaciated man with white skin, red eyes and sharp fangs."
"They killed my guards, my servants... they smashed my pre-Galifar memory urn... and they took the schemas. By the Great Forge, the Emerald Claw has the schemas! Their leader indicated that they had also recovered another schema and the creation pattern, and that they knew of the location of the fourth schema as well! There is still time to retrieve the schemas and keep the Order of the Emerald Claw from gaining whatever power the completed creation pattern may possess. Time is of the essence, and there isn't a moment to waste!"
The Wolves didn't hesitate in accepting this duty from Lady Elaydren, especially after she offered them 5,000 gp each to undertake it, half now and half upon completion. She expressed a desire for discretion, as the schemas, as well as notes from her ancestor Kedran d'Cannith, were entrusted to her, and losing them could hurt her standing in the House. Fortunately, Kedran's notes hinted at a location for the fourth schema, on the lost continent of Xen'drik. Elaydren handed them a letter of credit for 5,000 gold and told them to take two hours to equip themselves with potions and scrolls for the journey, and then return to her town house.
The Wolves returned to their usual stomping grounds in Upper Dura to purchase equipment for the journey. They purchased scrolls of waterbreathing, daylight and magic fang at the Dragon's Hoard, potions of cure light wounds from Good Spirits and a wand of cure light wounds from Wise Wood. Lysander and Pel went and purchased a magical bow, as well as a variety of survival and travel gear, in the Bazaar in Middle Dura.
In addition, Pel paid one year worth of rent on his new apartment, and Lysander arranged for Tock to pay his rent if he was out of town for more than a month.
Part Two - From Here to There:
Upon their return to Elaydren's town house, Brand spotted that Elaydren had hired common laborers, rather than House-affiliated magewrights, and realized just how much she wanted to keep the news of the theft quiet.
"I have secured you passage on a new form of transportation recently developed by House Cannith. It is called an undersea ship, for it travels secretly beneath the seas. Three such vehicles have been constructed. We built them for various intelligence agencies, but only one such group has had the vision to purchase one of the ships now that the Last War has ended. The other two remain in Cannith hands. Take this letter of passage to Byam, in the Grayflood district. He can be found in the vicinity of the Stone Docks. He will make sure you get safely to Stormreach and back again."
Given their luck with previous travel, the Wolves expressed more than a little concern about being on a ship traveling underwater, but they accepted this as the fastest and best method of getting to Stormreach relatively undetected.
"You might be able to pick up the Emerald Claw's trail in or around Stormreach. If that doesn't seem to be working, you can head directly to the ruins. Kedran's notes place the ancient site about four hundred miles up the Rachi River. At the turn in the Rachi River, where the land rises and the hands of stone reach for the sky, look toward the giant's left hand for guidance to the schema's resting place."
With that, Elaydren gave each character a pouch of gems. "Collect the four schemas and the creation pattern, return them to me, and an equal amount will be yours on your return. Good luck, and may the fortunes of the Houses and the Nations smile upon you."
Brand compared his map of Xen'drik to the clues provided by Kedran and satisfied himself that there was no match. He resolved to show the map to Lysander when they had more time to examine it. Then the Wolves headed down to the Grayflood district to find Captain Byam.
As it turned out, Byam was fairly easy to find, a dark-haired gnome engaged in a game of dice with other sailors. After collecting his winnings, he nodded in response to the letter of passage from Lady Elaydren and showed the Wolves into a warehouse set back from the docks. There, they first glimpsed their vessel, which looked like a thin, elongated airship that had fallen into the water. Rather than air or fire, however, the elemental binding ring was that of violently spinning water. Several gnomes were busy carrying crates into the craft through the hatch in the top.
"This is the Sea Dart, my friends, and I am its captain, Byam of the ocean depths!"
Byam showed the Wolves down into the submarine and took them up to the observation blister, which featured a magical window allowing him to see anywhere around the ship. He then showed them to the two cabins, each capable of supporting four people (albeit not comfortably). Brand, Luggoth and Whitehearth claimed one cabin, while Kanatash, Lysander and Pel took the other. Byam informed them that he was taking a shortcut through Shargon's Teeth that should get them to Stormreach in three and a half days, almost as fast as an airship could manage.
On the second day of travel, Byam called the Wolves up to the observation blister to witness Shargon's Teeth, the stone and coral columns surrounding Xen'drik, from a different point of view. From this perspective, Byam found them quite beautiful. However, their beauty belied a certain danger, as the Wolves and crew found out moments later when something struck the ship, causing them all to go flying across the observation deck, slamming into walls and floor. All except Luggoth, whose shifter reflexes allowed him to keep his feet, falling prey only to a falling bit of debris that bounced off his head.
Looking out, the Wolves and Byam could see a massive, almost thirty foot long shark with bony ridges gliding away into the water. A gnomish crewman cried out that the binding ring had been damaged, and a small leak in the cargo compartment gave no one any comfort.
"Blast that overgrown sardine's mishapen fin! Get us to the surface before the elemental gets free and we're stuck in these cursed waters! Rise, rise!"
Byam assured the Wolves that once they reached the surface, repairs would only take a couple of hours, but another complication arose as the Sea Dart was caught from above in huge nets strung across Shargon's Teeth. "All right, crew! We're going to have to take a swim and cut the Sea Dart free!"
Byam turned to the adventurers. "Any help you can provide would be much appreciated."
Two gnome crewmembers drank potions of waterbreathing, grabbed water crossbows from the armory and exited the airlock, tethered to the ship by 50' long tethers. As the Wolves drank potions of their own and grabbed the two available medium water crossbows, they were also fitted for tethers.
Brand and Luggoth were first out of the airlock, and Brand summoned an octopus to help. Pel meanwhile cast bless, and Lysander began singing for inspiration as he and Kanatash exited the airlock and stepped out onto the submarine's hull.
As the Wolves began moving to cut the nets, the dire shark appeared again and bit down on Luggoth. Kanatash responded with thrusts of mental energy, but the shark's primitive brain resisted any effect, and the Wolves watched in horror as the shark tossed back its head, swallowing Luggoth whole. Luggoth swung a mighty blow at the shark's digestive tract, trying to escape, but was unable to cut himself free in one shot. He readied for another blow, even as the digestive acids and crushing muscles of the shark's stomach threatened to knock him unconscious.
Brand teleported over, losing his tether and diving into the shark's mouth after Luggoth. Unfortunately, in his rush to rescue Luggoth, he hadn't worked out the plan through the mind link, and thus he arrived in the shark's gullet just in time for Kanatash to hop Luggoth in time, freeing him from the shark. Brand used his dragonmark to teleport out again, as Lysander and Pel fired their crossbows at the massive beast.
Lysander attempted to distract the shark with an image of a smaller shark, but it seemed to be under the direction of something smarter than its own primitive brain. Kanatash and Pel unleashed magical and psionic energies at the shark, doing minor damage, as the shark moved in and swallowed one of the gnomes.
Brand chopped one section of the net free as the shark grabbed the other gnome in its jaws. Kanatash created an energy wall around the gnome which destroyed the front section of the net and drove the shark away, freeing the gnome.
Pel wrapped his tether around Brand and cast cure moderate wounds to restore some of the damage Brand had taken inside the shark, and Brand teleported with Pel to his old tether and an uncut section of the nets.
The shark turned its attention toward Lysander, grabbing him in its powerful jaws, and Kanatash unleashed a time hop to spare him from being swallowed, as Pel chopped at another section of the net.
Kanatash blasted the last remaining section of the net with a fiery energy missile, freeing the ship, which began to rise. The Wolves followed their tethers inside, as did the surviving gnome, and the shark fled. Lysander and Luggoth emerged from their time hops inside the ship, and the Sea Dart rose to the surface with a relative minimum of casualties.
Once they were above the water, the gnomes began making repairs, and the Wolves took up guard positions, suspicious that sahuagin might have been behind the attack. Indeed, Brand spotted a group of them moving quietly through the rocky shore of the islet that the Sea Dart was parked next to, and Kanatash summoned a fire wall to hold them back.
The sahuagin dove into the water to come around and up onto the Sea Dart, but were met with harsh resistance, including an electrical missile from Kanatash that killed two of their number, forcing the others into an underwater retreat. The rest of the repairs were uneventful, and after about two hours, the Sea Dart was underway once more.
Another day and a half later, on the evening of Sypheros 26, the Sea Dart deposited the Wolves about a half mile down the shore from Stormreach, in order to conceal how they arrived. Byam expressed a willingness to wait for them for 30 days, then handed them travel papers and a letter of credit.
"Slip into Stormreach by means of the docks. The travel papers indicate that you arrived aboard the House Lyrandar galleon Strong Wind and that you're part of an expedition from Morgrave University. Just don't reveal any of this where anyone from the expedition can hear you - they probably won't go along with your story, since they don't know you from the King of Q'barra. The letter of credit can be used to acquire transportation into the jungle... it can be used at the House Cannith enclave, and only at the enclave, and only for transport. Good luck!"
XP: 1920
Saturday, July 29, 2006
Upcoming Schedule - August/September
With Paul's character vanished, we can go ahead and play Eberron: Grasp of the Emerald Claw through to its finish in September.
August 4th - Eberron: Grasp of the Emerald Claw (Everyone in?)
August 11th - Gaming off (Randy in Miami, Nate out of town)
August 18th - Texas Hold'Em Game (regular gaming off)
August 25th - Gaming off (Dragon's Lair 20th anniversary, Randy working)
September 1st - Eberron: Grasp of the Emerald Claw (If Jason is available)
September 8th - Eberron: Grasp of the Emerald Claw (Paul out)
September 15th - Texas Hold'Em Game (Regular gaming off)
September 22nd - Eberron: Grasp of the Emerald Claw (Paul out)
September 29th - Eberron: Voyage of the Golden Dragon (All in?)
August 4th - Eberron: Grasp of the Emerald Claw (Everyone in?)
August 11th - Gaming off (Randy in Miami, Nate out of town)
August 18th - Texas Hold'Em Game (regular gaming off)
August 25th - Gaming off (Dragon's Lair 20th anniversary, Randy working)
September 1st - Eberron: Grasp of the Emerald Claw (If Jason is available)
September 8th - Eberron: Grasp of the Emerald Claw (Paul out)
September 15th - Texas Hold'Em Game (Regular gaming off)
September 22nd - Eberron: Grasp of the Emerald Claw (Paul out)
September 29th - Eberron: Voyage of the Golden Dragon (All in?)
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Two Weeks Have Passed...
Sypheros 8 - Sypheros 19, YK 998
Since your arrival back in Sharn on 8 Sypheros (an autumn month equivalent to October), about two weeks have passed. Miraculously, in the rain-soaked city of Sharn, the last five days have been sunny, although storm clouds gathered once more a day or two ago, and the rain will almost certainly return soon.
Viorr hired a House Tharashk half-orcish inquisitive named Rar'ashak Duanda to locate and return William's body. After two weeks, Viorr has discontinued his service, as Duanda was unable to find the body. His final report to you indicated that members of the Emerald Claw had been seen by passers-by taking the body away mere minutes after it hit the ground, killing two members of the guard in the process. Duanda tracked down the specific band of the Claw that had snatched the body in Korranberg, just as they attempted to cross the border into Darguun, but they managed to battle him off long enough to sacrifice their own lives rather than giving up further information. He tried to engage a cleric friend in the area to speak with dead, but they had been protected from such intrusions by powerful necromantic magic. He tried to use his dragonmark ability to locate the body, and it was protected by magic as well. Duanda and Viorr express their condolences, but they believe your friend's body to be in the hands of the Emerald Claw.
To add insult to this particular injury, roughly three days after you got back to Sharn, you recieved a summons from Sharri d'Deneith, one that came with several Deneith blademarks should you decide it was a summons to refuse. When you met with Sharri (either willingly or after taking a beating from the trained soldiers), she expressed that she held you responsible for William's death, dragging him into a life of combat that she had expressly forbidden him to engage in. It wasn't a debate, and she shut down all of your arguments that William had willingly, perhaps even a bit overzealously, sought out that adventure. She warned you not to expect friendship from House Deneith, and that the Wandering Wolves would be subject to scrutiny from her house. If she can find a way in the future to hurt you without exposing herself politically, by providing support to your enemies or revealing any illegal activities you're engaged in, rest assured that she will.
Your shop, Gareth's Gear, managed pretty well in its first month of operation. Under the daily management of Jalis ir'Mroranon, a female dwarf with ties to the Mroranon mining clan (whose father is an ambassador in Sharn), you broke even in the very first month and made a tidy sum selling your adventuring spoils. With Tock taking up full-time duties at Gareth's as in-house artificer and crafter of potions, scrolls and wondrous items, the reputation of the shop can only grow.
You have all been forced to curtail your daily duties with Morgrave University thanks to increase roles in adventuring and duties to your Houses, guilds or the shop. Each of you remains on the list for future endeavors in Xen'drik, but your teaching or assisting duties have been severely scaled back in favor of less nomadic help. Figure about one day of each week is now spent at your Morgrave jobs. For Brand, one day organizing and redrawing maps. For Pel, one day in the library sorting books and providing assistance. For Lysander, a weekly music and storytelling class. Luggoth and Kanatash, of course, are not currently gainfully employed.
This also means it was time to move house, out of the dorms of Morgrave. The most logical thing to do would be to either stay at the Guildhouse (5 sp/day each, basically 7 gp for the duration of your stay in Sharn this time) or, if you want a more permanent home, you could rent an average residence for 1d4x10 gp/month or an upscale residence for 2d8x10 gp/month. You could go cheaper, but you're very likely to be robbed or killed in such a neighborhood, given your apparent wealth and despite your formidable skills. You'll each need to let me know your thoughts on where your character is living.
Tock is immune to these changes, of course. Retiring from adventuring, even with his increased work at the shop, leaves him plenty of time to apprentice and teach at Morgrave and he'll continue to live there. However, on 12 Sypheros, four days after returning, he is attacked by a group of students at Morgrave, who seem to be under the influence of someone or something else and don't remember their actions after the attack is stopped by Tock and Morgrave guards. When Tock checks back in on his quarters, he finds them ransacked, although a quick overview indicated that nothing was taken.
During your time in Sharn, the celebration of Wildnight (18-19 Sypheros) will take place. This is a festival during which the Fury, Sovereign of Passions and Madness, reaches the height of her power, and the streets fill with raucous revelry and wild celebrations that last well into the night. Being minor celebrities, each of you has the opportunity to attend several parties as well as just enjoy yourselves on the streets of Sharn. Think of it as Mardi Gras for Eberron, with the same downsides of riots, brawls and crimes of passion mixed in with the hedonistic fun.
Brand - No further contact from your father, although you did exchange general pleasantries and catching up messages on a weekly basis with your mother via Sivis message stations. You found a fair bit in common with Luggoth, given his devotion to the wild, and I imagine you would have helped him find a place to live in Sharn.
Beyond deciding where to live and working two days out of the fourteen, Brand has a pretty free schedule, probably the most open of the entire group. Let me know what you want to do. If you want to take a trip out to the Eldeen Reaches during this time, you can, and that'll take up about seven or eight of your days (two or three of them spent in the Reaches). It's up to you and Luggoth as to whether or not he'd come with you to see the area, which seems suited to his sensibilities as well.
Kanatash - I really need you to write up some background on this character so I have some sense of what he's doing between adventures and what kind of subplots I should be coming up with for him. In the meantime, he needs to decide where to stay and what he wants to do with his downtime in Sharn. There is a Riedran Embassy in the city, and the ambassador often speaks at Morgrave University, where he is well-liked (and well-guarded, before you get any ideas). There are about 1,600 Kalashtar in Sharn (out of roughly 200,000 total population), most of whom live in Overlook, an apartment district in Upper Dura. There, you'll find tailors and restaurants catering to Adaran styles, average or poor residences (Kanatash is one of the few exceptions who could live poor, because he's among a racially friendly populace) and two shrines, The Gathering Light (martial arts/meditation) and The Shrine of il-Yannah (run by a powerful psion named Havakhad and devoted to worship of the Path of Light).
It's up to you whether you live in this area or whether you want to stick closer to your new friends.
Lysander - If he so wishes, Lysander can see Arenydee up to three times during these two weeks. Each time, she will suggest a cautious exchange of information that doesn't endanger either of you too much, along with a meal, then a play, then... well, it would be the third date, if you get my meaning.
As I emailed you privately, your House had one wish for you to engage in these two weeks, you can email me if you don't remember.
Given his adventuring duties, Lysander has not been able to take any long-term gigs in town. However, he has been quite popular nightly at various night spots, as much for his tales of adventure in many lands as for his skillful music. By taking 10 on his performances, Lysander can easily make anywhere from 3-30 sp per day. Given that he probably has about 10 performances during this time, figure that he can easily cover the cost of staying at the guild hall and your dates with Arenydee, or pay for an average residence and burn about 5-10 of your personal gold for those dates. If you want to actually roll the performances or roll the money made, we can certainly do that before the game starts and you can know exactly what you've made and what you've had to spend on lodgings. In fact, I'm willing to trust you if you want to make 10 performance rolls and post them in comments, or let me know if you'd rather take 10 on each performance and I can roll up the gold you earn and post that in the comments.
Lysander has an encounter on 14 Sypheros when he detects that he is being followed. When he takes a detour to try and trap his pursuer, the pursuit vanishes.
Luggoth - As with Kanatash, I really need some background ASAP so I can know what to work with as far as subplots go. As far as basics, though, shifters don't have neighborhoods of their own in Sharn, but most of them are concentrated in Lower Northedge, Middle Tavick's Landing and the Depths. There are only about 6,500 in the city total.
So let me know what you decide about where to live (and deciding to live outside the city is possible, but would make you hard to reach as part of the group, so it's probably not a good idea) and if you want to seek out any kind of work while you're living in Sharn.
Pel - Given the war between The Tyrants and the Daask, not to mention your own shaky standing in the Tyrants, it's probably a good idea to keep a low profile and maintain a cover identity or two while in Sharn. Your monthly contact with Xain at the Cracked Mirror is uneventful, as you pass on information gathered during the Whisper of the Vampire's Blade (including information on Viorr, Lucan, Arenydee and the Soul Blade, I presume) and he warns you that your name, along with the name of the Wandering Wolves, has been mentioned more than once in connection with the Emerald Claw in the city.
In fact, you have a run-in with a pair of well-armed and combat-trained half-orcs during Wildnight who provide you with several bruises before you run them off. You're not sure if this is related to the Tyrants, the Daask, the Emerald Claw or something else.
That's it. You also are free to buy items (both magic and mundane) and do whatever else you want. Use the comments below to let me know anything you want to do in your downtime and to answer any questions raised above, especially where you decide to live and what (in general) you decide to do.
Since your arrival back in Sharn on 8 Sypheros (an autumn month equivalent to October), about two weeks have passed. Miraculously, in the rain-soaked city of Sharn, the last five days have been sunny, although storm clouds gathered once more a day or two ago, and the rain will almost certainly return soon.
Viorr hired a House Tharashk half-orcish inquisitive named Rar'ashak Duanda to locate and return William's body. After two weeks, Viorr has discontinued his service, as Duanda was unable to find the body. His final report to you indicated that members of the Emerald Claw had been seen by passers-by taking the body away mere minutes after it hit the ground, killing two members of the guard in the process. Duanda tracked down the specific band of the Claw that had snatched the body in Korranberg, just as they attempted to cross the border into Darguun, but they managed to battle him off long enough to sacrifice their own lives rather than giving up further information. He tried to engage a cleric friend in the area to speak with dead, but they had been protected from such intrusions by powerful necromantic magic. He tried to use his dragonmark ability to locate the body, and it was protected by magic as well. Duanda and Viorr express their condolences, but they believe your friend's body to be in the hands of the Emerald Claw.
To add insult to this particular injury, roughly three days after you got back to Sharn, you recieved a summons from Sharri d'Deneith, one that came with several Deneith blademarks should you decide it was a summons to refuse. When you met with Sharri (either willingly or after taking a beating from the trained soldiers), she expressed that she held you responsible for William's death, dragging him into a life of combat that she had expressly forbidden him to engage in. It wasn't a debate, and she shut down all of your arguments that William had willingly, perhaps even a bit overzealously, sought out that adventure. She warned you not to expect friendship from House Deneith, and that the Wandering Wolves would be subject to scrutiny from her house. If she can find a way in the future to hurt you without exposing herself politically, by providing support to your enemies or revealing any illegal activities you're engaged in, rest assured that she will.
Your shop, Gareth's Gear, managed pretty well in its first month of operation. Under the daily management of Jalis ir'Mroranon, a female dwarf with ties to the Mroranon mining clan (whose father is an ambassador in Sharn), you broke even in the very first month and made a tidy sum selling your adventuring spoils. With Tock taking up full-time duties at Gareth's as in-house artificer and crafter of potions, scrolls and wondrous items, the reputation of the shop can only grow.
You have all been forced to curtail your daily duties with Morgrave University thanks to increase roles in adventuring and duties to your Houses, guilds or the shop. Each of you remains on the list for future endeavors in Xen'drik, but your teaching or assisting duties have been severely scaled back in favor of less nomadic help. Figure about one day of each week is now spent at your Morgrave jobs. For Brand, one day organizing and redrawing maps. For Pel, one day in the library sorting books and providing assistance. For Lysander, a weekly music and storytelling class. Luggoth and Kanatash, of course, are not currently gainfully employed.
This also means it was time to move house, out of the dorms of Morgrave. The most logical thing to do would be to either stay at the Guildhouse (5 sp/day each, basically 7 gp for the duration of your stay in Sharn this time) or, if you want a more permanent home, you could rent an average residence for 1d4x10 gp/month or an upscale residence for 2d8x10 gp/month. You could go cheaper, but you're very likely to be robbed or killed in such a neighborhood, given your apparent wealth and despite your formidable skills. You'll each need to let me know your thoughts on where your character is living.
Tock is immune to these changes, of course. Retiring from adventuring, even with his increased work at the shop, leaves him plenty of time to apprentice and teach at Morgrave and he'll continue to live there. However, on 12 Sypheros, four days after returning, he is attacked by a group of students at Morgrave, who seem to be under the influence of someone or something else and don't remember their actions after the attack is stopped by Tock and Morgrave guards. When Tock checks back in on his quarters, he finds them ransacked, although a quick overview indicated that nothing was taken.
During your time in Sharn, the celebration of Wildnight (18-19 Sypheros) will take place. This is a festival during which the Fury, Sovereign of Passions and Madness, reaches the height of her power, and the streets fill with raucous revelry and wild celebrations that last well into the night. Being minor celebrities, each of you has the opportunity to attend several parties as well as just enjoy yourselves on the streets of Sharn. Think of it as Mardi Gras for Eberron, with the same downsides of riots, brawls and crimes of passion mixed in with the hedonistic fun.
Brand - No further contact from your father, although you did exchange general pleasantries and catching up messages on a weekly basis with your mother via Sivis message stations. You found a fair bit in common with Luggoth, given his devotion to the wild, and I imagine you would have helped him find a place to live in Sharn.
Beyond deciding where to live and working two days out of the fourteen, Brand has a pretty free schedule, probably the most open of the entire group. Let me know what you want to do. If you want to take a trip out to the Eldeen Reaches during this time, you can, and that'll take up about seven or eight of your days (two or three of them spent in the Reaches). It's up to you and Luggoth as to whether or not he'd come with you to see the area, which seems suited to his sensibilities as well.
Kanatash - I really need you to write up some background on this character so I have some sense of what he's doing between adventures and what kind of subplots I should be coming up with for him. In the meantime, he needs to decide where to stay and what he wants to do with his downtime in Sharn. There is a Riedran Embassy in the city, and the ambassador often speaks at Morgrave University, where he is well-liked (and well-guarded, before you get any ideas). There are about 1,600 Kalashtar in Sharn (out of roughly 200,000 total population), most of whom live in Overlook, an apartment district in Upper Dura. There, you'll find tailors and restaurants catering to Adaran styles, average or poor residences (Kanatash is one of the few exceptions who could live poor, because he's among a racially friendly populace) and two shrines, The Gathering Light (martial arts/meditation) and The Shrine of il-Yannah (run by a powerful psion named Havakhad and devoted to worship of the Path of Light).
It's up to you whether you live in this area or whether you want to stick closer to your new friends.
Lysander - If he so wishes, Lysander can see Arenydee up to three times during these two weeks. Each time, she will suggest a cautious exchange of information that doesn't endanger either of you too much, along with a meal, then a play, then... well, it would be the third date, if you get my meaning.
As I emailed you privately, your House had one wish for you to engage in these two weeks, you can email me if you don't remember.
Given his adventuring duties, Lysander has not been able to take any long-term gigs in town. However, he has been quite popular nightly at various night spots, as much for his tales of adventure in many lands as for his skillful music. By taking 10 on his performances, Lysander can easily make anywhere from 3-30 sp per day. Given that he probably has about 10 performances during this time, figure that he can easily cover the cost of staying at the guild hall and your dates with Arenydee, or pay for an average residence and burn about 5-10 of your personal gold for those dates. If you want to actually roll the performances or roll the money made, we can certainly do that before the game starts and you can know exactly what you've made and what you've had to spend on lodgings. In fact, I'm willing to trust you if you want to make 10 performance rolls and post them in comments, or let me know if you'd rather take 10 on each performance and I can roll up the gold you earn and post that in the comments.
Lysander has an encounter on 14 Sypheros when he detects that he is being followed. When he takes a detour to try and trap his pursuer, the pursuit vanishes.
Luggoth - As with Kanatash, I really need some background ASAP so I can know what to work with as far as subplots go. As far as basics, though, shifters don't have neighborhoods of their own in Sharn, but most of them are concentrated in Lower Northedge, Middle Tavick's Landing and the Depths. There are only about 6,500 in the city total.
So let me know what you decide about where to live (and deciding to live outside the city is possible, but would make you hard to reach as part of the group, so it's probably not a good idea) and if you want to seek out any kind of work while you're living in Sharn.
Pel - Given the war between The Tyrants and the Daask, not to mention your own shaky standing in the Tyrants, it's probably a good idea to keep a low profile and maintain a cover identity or two while in Sharn. Your monthly contact with Xain at the Cracked Mirror is uneventful, as you pass on information gathered during the Whisper of the Vampire's Blade (including information on Viorr, Lucan, Arenydee and the Soul Blade, I presume) and he warns you that your name, along with the name of the Wandering Wolves, has been mentioned more than once in connection with the Emerald Claw in the city.
In fact, you have a run-in with a pair of well-armed and combat-trained half-orcs during Wildnight who provide you with several bruises before you run them off. You're not sure if this is related to the Tyrants, the Daask, the Emerald Claw or something else.
That's it. You also are free to buy items (both magic and mundane) and do whatever else you want. Use the comments below to let me know anything you want to do in your downtime and to answer any questions raised above, especially where you decide to live and what (in general) you decide to do.
Monday, July 17, 2006
Speaking of Hold'Em
For those that are curious, here's how the game broke down:
Randy - Sixth Place (first out, pair of Aces against Nate's trip 7s)
Nick - Fifth Place
Debbie - Fourth Place
Chris - Third Place
Nate - Second Place
Charles - First Place
I'd write what other hands folks busted out on, but I don't remember. :)
Randy - Sixth Place (first out, pair of Aces against Nate's trip 7s)
Nick - Fifth Place
Debbie - Fourth Place
Chris - Third Place
Nate - Second Place
Charles - First Place
I'd write what other hands folks busted out on, but I don't remember. :)
Enjoyed the Hold'em...
...despite the fact that I did not win. When are you leaving for SD, Randy? Perhaps we should get another practice round in before you go. Work on our "faking out" skills.
Also, Barnes said that if/when you do the supervillian one shot, he is totally there.
Also, Barnes said that if/when you do the supervillian one shot, he is totally there.
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Eberron Adventure Journal: Knight of the Silver Flame
Sypheros 2 - Sypheros 8, YK 998
With Lucan defeated, the Wolves faced the difficulty of how to transport him. In the short term, they had to figure out a way to get him outside without having him evaporate in the sun. In the long term, they needed transportation to the next town.
They decided to wait until night to emerge from the ziggurat, and grabbed some of the moldy tapestries from the Otyugh's room to wrap up Lucan's body. After a night of rest, they headed back up to the entry room to check on Grilsha and Arenydee. Arenydee would not reveal her employer, but did say she had worked with and against Lucan in the past, and that she had been engaged to locate and capture the Soul Blade. She also said that she realized she was outmatched, and she was grateful for being saved from a vampire's domination, and she would not try to take the blade or Lucan from the Wolves if they would take her with them to the next city and part ways.
Grilsha revealed that she had not been dominated, and expressed that loyalty to her brother, even as a vampire, had been what drove her to stay with him. She didn't know what he was planning, but he had told her he needed to get to Karrnath, and she had agreed to help him. She was not pleased that her brother was being turned back over to the King's Dark Lanterns, but she was glad he hadn't been destroyed, and agreed not to make any more trouble. This would be easy for her, as the Wolves decided to keep her bound and gagged to prevent any spellcasting.
When they emerged from the ziggurat into the night, the Wolves found a House Orien landcart waiting for them. The driver admitted that he wasn't sure they would ever see them emerge, but that he had been ordered to wait for them for a reasonable amount of time.
The 13 hour trip to Aruldusk passed uneventfully, and the Wolves, along with Grilsha, Arenydee and the body of Lucan, were taken to an office of House Orien there. Arinya, the head of household for the area, offered them food and drink and expressed his regrets about the trouble they suffered on the lightning rail. He offered them one way lightning rail passage to anywhere in Khorvaire, and to put them up at an inn in town for a few days if they'd like. The Wolves accepted both.
Arenydee took her passage as a trip back to Sharn, and told Lysander to get in touch with her sometime by checking for messages at the Barmin Tower Sivis message station. The Wolves, along with Grilsha and Lucan, went to The Silver Chain Inn, a House Ghallanda establishment. Kanatash, Tock and Whitehearth waited in the room to guard Lucan and Grilsha while Pel, Brand and Lysander went out into Aruldusk to explore and shop.
Pel did some research in their libraries on vampires and found rumors of a place in Xen'drik that could be used to restore even the undead to life. The information was extremely sketchy, but he believed it could point the way to more information at the Morgrave Library in Sharn. Lysander, meanwhile, sought out a magic shop so that the Wolves could re-equip.
Brand went to the Chapel of the Silver Flame in the area to get the life force that Lucan had drained from him restored. He met Draci Sarhain, the priestess of Aruldusk, and she told him that she couldn't help him, but that the Bishop, Ossul Hetrion, was in town and he could. She had a young acolyte show Brand around the church while the bishop finished visiting with some parishioners.
Bishop Hetrion met with Brand and told him that ordinarily, he wouldn't use the powers of the Silver Flame to heal someone not of the faith, but he believed that the Silver Flame had directed Brand and his friends here. They had successfully battled a vampire, exactly the kind of creature of evil that the church preached against, and perhaps they could help with a matter that was plaguing the local chapel. Brand agreed, and Hetrion called upon the powers of his faith to restore Brand's life force.
With Brand healed, Bishop Hetrion told him what he would like the Wolves to do. A band of marauding shifters had been harassing the chapel and its parishioners, and a paladin from the church named Verodin Atrelioth had traveled up to the Burnt Wood to deal with them. That had been several days ago, and no one had seen him since. The Bishop asked if he could send a young man named Drego, the same one who had taken Verodin up to the Burnt Wood, with the party and maybe they could find a trail, track and recover the paladin.
Brand agreed, and after the adventurers bought some magic items and scrolls, they were ready to go. They bought a coffin to store Lucan in and secured him in a House Orien locker, and they left Grilsha in the care of Orien security as well. The House arranged for them to have some magebred horses to take them to the Burnt Wood, and Drego lead them to the place he had last seen Verodin.
Brand was unable to pick up a trail for Verodin, but he did find tracks indicating about a half-dozen shifters. He lead the Wolves down the trail until they found a clearing. Unfortunately, the clearing was not full of shifters. It was a trap, a set of tracks skillfully mislaid to lead the adventurers to a pack of three owlbears.
Whitehearth rushed in and attacked, nipping at the heels of an owlbear that viciously slashed him and left him dying as a result. Kanatash lifted himself in the air as Tock cast Cat's Grace on Brand's armor, who moved in past the charging owlbears, stabbing one with his rapier as he tried to get to the fallen Whitehearth. Pel cast Bless and Lysander began singing.
Kanatash unleashed a fiery energy missile on the two lead owlbears, as Tock swung his armblade at the other owlbear, who dodged the attack while trying to claw Tock in return. One of the owlbears bit Brand, who followed through with a strike of his shortsword and rapier in response, which Lysander followed up with a longsword slash. Pel moved through the woods quickly and quietly to reach Whitehearth's side and prepare to cast healing magic on him.
Pel noticed that Whitehearth's bleeding had stopped on its own, and so he moved in and landed a vicious scimitar blow against one of the owlbears. Kanatash blasted another fire missile that killed one of the owlbears and wounded the others, causing them to attempt to flee. Brand killed one with a stab of his rapier, and Lysander quickly whipped out his bow and killed the other with an arrow through its head.
As the combat ended, the Wolves had the sensation that they were not alone. They looked around and saw what looked like thirty different pairs of eyes. A loud, booming voice told them to put down their weapons and they wouldn't be harmed. Reluctant to actually disarm but seeing the numbers up against them, the Wolves sheathed their weapons.
From out of one of the trees, a tall, muscular shifter stepped forward and introduced himself as Luggoth. He said that the paladin had come into the woods and had been taken, and that the shifters had only been attacking the chapel because they had been blackmailed into it by a Cult of the Dragon Below.
One of the shifters in the woods stepped too far out and revealed himself, and the Wolves could see that it was just a child. The others stepped out at Luggoth's call, and the Wolves could see that they were all children. Luggoth was the only adult. He explained that he had been passing through the woods and had found the children and taken them under his protection. Their parents had been taken by the Cult, and they had sent the children to harass the villagers to draw the paladin into the woods. Luggoth had seen a Dolgaunt attack and capture the paladin, and knew where he had been taken.
Luggoth agreed to help them recover the paladin, in large part because it would help smooth relations between the shifters and Silver Flame but also because it would mean he could help rescue the shifter adults. However, he needed someone to stay with the children and protect them. The Wolves were reluctant to leave one of their own, but Tock agreed to stay. He handed the Heward's Handy Haversack over to Pel.
Luggoth lead them to a clearing, the last place he had seen the Dolgaunt. Brand tracked the Dolgaunt to a series of bushes, and beneath that he found a divine rune. Kanatash attemped to dispel it, but the magic was too powerful to be suppressed. Pel called upon the Traveler for help, and, bolstered by Lysander's songs, succeeded in bypassing the rune trap, revealing a 10-foot wide passage descending sharply down.
The passage was completely dark, with no light of any kind, so Luggoth kept a sunrod out to illuminate the area. As they walked, the Wolves could hear a distant screaming sound. The passage soon levelled out and widened, and the Wolves found themselves face to face with a fiendish girallon. Luggoth immediately fired an arrow that missed the charging Girallon, who followed up with a punch to Luggoth's chest. Brand, guarded by Pel's Protection from Evil spell, tumbled past a clumsy attack by the girallon and sunk his rapier deep into the creature's side. Lysander moved in and cut one of the creature's four arms with his longsword, and Kanatash fired a ray of cold from his dorje that went wide of the mark.
Luggoth pulled out his greatsword and landed a solid blow on the girallon, slashing it from shoulder to waist and spilling forth gouts of black blood. The enraged girallon swung wildly, hitting Pel and biting Luggoth, but in flailing, it opened itself to a vicious scimitar strike from Pel and a rapier stab in the throat from Brand. It gurgled and bled, but didn't die, swinging another fist and connecting with Lysander and resisting Kanatash's mind thrust attack. Luggoth finished off the dying beast by chopping across its midsection with his greatsword.
After using the wand and some potions to heal up, the Wolves moved forward into another area, one full of chambes that had cloth and wood, clearly meant as living quarters. The screams were getting louder now, a cacophny of unearthly voices echoing from every wall and making hearing difficult. Brand spotted something moving in the shadows, and they were attacked by a pack of chokers.
The chokers swung their elongated arms, whipping at Kanatash but failing to grab him. Kanatash stepped back and fired an energy missile of fire that killed one choker and severely wounded another. The chokers responded by grabbing Lysander and Pel, and dodging further attacks from the rest of the Wolves.
Kanatash launched another energy missile, this time a burst of cold, killing all but one of the chokers, which fled back into the darkened hallways. Lysander healed himself and Pel and then the Wolves headed down the corridor to pursue the chokers. They found them there, chittering in a language they didn't understand but clearly asking for mercy. Kanatash pointed at them and indicated for them to lay on the ground, and they did, and the Wolves searched all the rooms except the one the chokers were actually in, finding nothing but cloth and wood.
Delving further into the cavern, they found a room that was clearly used for body disposal. Bones and corpses filled the room, and the stench of death hung heavy in the air. An open bag, showing a glint of platinum, sat atop one of the more recent corpses. Fearing a trap, Lysander used his mage hand to bring the platinum over. Nothing stirred in the room, but the Wolves did not press their luck, leaving the room behind to see what was in the room next door.
This room, also carved out of stone, was a prison with metal gates. Inside, the Wolves saw the shifters they had been seeking, seven men and three women, all beaten near to death, hanging limply from chains affixing their arms to stone pillars. Pel searched for traps on the door, but the Wolves then decided not to open it yet, leaving the captives in their relatively safe surroundings until they had dealt with whatever was causing the screaming.
The Wolves soon found the source of the screaming. A dozen or so dolgrims were carving out the rock wall with picks as the dolgaunt watched from atop a 5-foot tall, 100 foot wide altar carved of stone. In the center of the stone, barely visible in the light of the sunrod, was the paladin, stripped to the waist with an obsidian unholy symbol jammed deep into his shoulder. Shadows spun all around him, clearly causing the torment and pain that was causing him to scream.
Pel immediately fired his crossbow, and the dolgaunt deflected it, revealing his monk training. Luggoth revealed his own abilities, shifting into his animal form and leaping to the top of the altar and swinging his greatsword into the dolgaunt's hollowed chest, causing it to stagger backward, bleeding heavily.
The dolgrims responded, picking up crossbows and firing at their adversaries. The shower of bolts mostly missed, but one hit Luggoth and another the dolgaunt. Lysander put one of the dolgrims to sleep with his spell, then cast mirror image on himself and began singing to inspire his comrades.
Kanatash summoned a force screen to protect himself as the dolgaunt attacked Luggoth with his tentacles, cutting into his flesh but failing to drain his vitality. Pel, moving up to the altar himself, activated a sunrod from the Haversack and revealed another adversary, a cleric of the Dragon Below who had been moving in from the back of the altar. As Luggoth swung another punishing sword blow into the dolgaunt, the cleric cast a darkness spell that enveloped all three of them.
Brand and Whitehearth engaged the dolgrims in battle as Pel moved up to the paladin to see if he could help. Luggoth swung blindly at the dolgaunt, but his bestial agility protected him even in the darkness against the dolgaunt's attacks. Before the cleric could do anything more, Kanatash warped time around him, sending him about 30 seconds into the future.
Pel pulled the everbright lantern from the Haversack, canceling the darkness. The Dolgrims responded by firing crossbows at him, landing a couple of hits. The cleric shook off the effect of Kanatash's time hop and tried to curse Pel, who resisted the attack as Kanatash launched an energy missile of cold at all of the adversaries, killing the dolgaunt and severely wounding the cleric.
Lysander used his dragonmark to create an image of a wall of fire, holding off dolgrim reinforcements, as Pel moved toward the cleric and slashed him with his scimitar. Brand used his dragonmark to teleport next to the cleric as Lysander moved in, and the two of them finished him off.
Kanatash then used his telekinetic powers to pull the unholy symbol free of the paladin's shoulder, ending the spell. The paladin was grateful, and the Wolves made sure he knew that the shifters were partially responsible for rescuing him. The Wolves escorted Verodin back to Aruldusk. After a brief rest, they decided to take their lightning rail trip back to Sharn. Luggoth, nomadic by nature and intrigued by the "wolf" theme of the adventurers that seemed so ideally suited to his own gifts, asked to join them.
The lightning rail trip back to Sharn was uneventful, taking about 5 days and landing the Wolves back in Sharn on 8 Sypheros. They immediately went to see Viorr, who was pleased with their efforts and who took Grilsha, Lucan and the Soul Blade into custody. He gave the Wolves their reward, 2,500 gp each minus the cost of the lightning rail travel they had purchased, and expressed his sympathies on the loss of William d'Deneith. He offered to pick up the cost of the House Tharask inquisitives searching for William's body as an additional thanks for a job well done.
XP: 3850
With Lucan defeated, the Wolves faced the difficulty of how to transport him. In the short term, they had to figure out a way to get him outside without having him evaporate in the sun. In the long term, they needed transportation to the next town.
They decided to wait until night to emerge from the ziggurat, and grabbed some of the moldy tapestries from the Otyugh's room to wrap up Lucan's body. After a night of rest, they headed back up to the entry room to check on Grilsha and Arenydee. Arenydee would not reveal her employer, but did say she had worked with and against Lucan in the past, and that she had been engaged to locate and capture the Soul Blade. She also said that she realized she was outmatched, and she was grateful for being saved from a vampire's domination, and she would not try to take the blade or Lucan from the Wolves if they would take her with them to the next city and part ways.
Grilsha revealed that she had not been dominated, and expressed that loyalty to her brother, even as a vampire, had been what drove her to stay with him. She didn't know what he was planning, but he had told her he needed to get to Karrnath, and she had agreed to help him. She was not pleased that her brother was being turned back over to the King's Dark Lanterns, but she was glad he hadn't been destroyed, and agreed not to make any more trouble. This would be easy for her, as the Wolves decided to keep her bound and gagged to prevent any spellcasting.
When they emerged from the ziggurat into the night, the Wolves found a House Orien landcart waiting for them. The driver admitted that he wasn't sure they would ever see them emerge, but that he had been ordered to wait for them for a reasonable amount of time.
The 13 hour trip to Aruldusk passed uneventfully, and the Wolves, along with Grilsha, Arenydee and the body of Lucan, were taken to an office of House Orien there. Arinya, the head of household for the area, offered them food and drink and expressed his regrets about the trouble they suffered on the lightning rail. He offered them one way lightning rail passage to anywhere in Khorvaire, and to put them up at an inn in town for a few days if they'd like. The Wolves accepted both.
Arenydee took her passage as a trip back to Sharn, and told Lysander to get in touch with her sometime by checking for messages at the Barmin Tower Sivis message station. The Wolves, along with Grilsha and Lucan, went to The Silver Chain Inn, a House Ghallanda establishment. Kanatash, Tock and Whitehearth waited in the room to guard Lucan and Grilsha while Pel, Brand and Lysander went out into Aruldusk to explore and shop.
Pel did some research in their libraries on vampires and found rumors of a place in Xen'drik that could be used to restore even the undead to life. The information was extremely sketchy, but he believed it could point the way to more information at the Morgrave Library in Sharn. Lysander, meanwhile, sought out a magic shop so that the Wolves could re-equip.
Brand went to the Chapel of the Silver Flame in the area to get the life force that Lucan had drained from him restored. He met Draci Sarhain, the priestess of Aruldusk, and she told him that she couldn't help him, but that the Bishop, Ossul Hetrion, was in town and he could. She had a young acolyte show Brand around the church while the bishop finished visiting with some parishioners.
Bishop Hetrion met with Brand and told him that ordinarily, he wouldn't use the powers of the Silver Flame to heal someone not of the faith, but he believed that the Silver Flame had directed Brand and his friends here. They had successfully battled a vampire, exactly the kind of creature of evil that the church preached against, and perhaps they could help with a matter that was plaguing the local chapel. Brand agreed, and Hetrion called upon the powers of his faith to restore Brand's life force.
With Brand healed, Bishop Hetrion told him what he would like the Wolves to do. A band of marauding shifters had been harassing the chapel and its parishioners, and a paladin from the church named Verodin Atrelioth had traveled up to the Burnt Wood to deal with them. That had been several days ago, and no one had seen him since. The Bishop asked if he could send a young man named Drego, the same one who had taken Verodin up to the Burnt Wood, with the party and maybe they could find a trail, track and recover the paladin.
Brand agreed, and after the adventurers bought some magic items and scrolls, they were ready to go. They bought a coffin to store Lucan in and secured him in a House Orien locker, and they left Grilsha in the care of Orien security as well. The House arranged for them to have some magebred horses to take them to the Burnt Wood, and Drego lead them to the place he had last seen Verodin.
Brand was unable to pick up a trail for Verodin, but he did find tracks indicating about a half-dozen shifters. He lead the Wolves down the trail until they found a clearing. Unfortunately, the clearing was not full of shifters. It was a trap, a set of tracks skillfully mislaid to lead the adventurers to a pack of three owlbears.
Whitehearth rushed in and attacked, nipping at the heels of an owlbear that viciously slashed him and left him dying as a result. Kanatash lifted himself in the air as Tock cast Cat's Grace on Brand's armor, who moved in past the charging owlbears, stabbing one with his rapier as he tried to get to the fallen Whitehearth. Pel cast Bless and Lysander began singing.
Kanatash unleashed a fiery energy missile on the two lead owlbears, as Tock swung his armblade at the other owlbear, who dodged the attack while trying to claw Tock in return. One of the owlbears bit Brand, who followed through with a strike of his shortsword and rapier in response, which Lysander followed up with a longsword slash. Pel moved through the woods quickly and quietly to reach Whitehearth's side and prepare to cast healing magic on him.
Pel noticed that Whitehearth's bleeding had stopped on its own, and so he moved in and landed a vicious scimitar blow against one of the owlbears. Kanatash blasted another fire missile that killed one of the owlbears and wounded the others, causing them to attempt to flee. Brand killed one with a stab of his rapier, and Lysander quickly whipped out his bow and killed the other with an arrow through its head.
As the combat ended, the Wolves had the sensation that they were not alone. They looked around and saw what looked like thirty different pairs of eyes. A loud, booming voice told them to put down their weapons and they wouldn't be harmed. Reluctant to actually disarm but seeing the numbers up against them, the Wolves sheathed their weapons.
From out of one of the trees, a tall, muscular shifter stepped forward and introduced himself as Luggoth. He said that the paladin had come into the woods and had been taken, and that the shifters had only been attacking the chapel because they had been blackmailed into it by a Cult of the Dragon Below.
One of the shifters in the woods stepped too far out and revealed himself, and the Wolves could see that it was just a child. The others stepped out at Luggoth's call, and the Wolves could see that they were all children. Luggoth was the only adult. He explained that he had been passing through the woods and had found the children and taken them under his protection. Their parents had been taken by the Cult, and they had sent the children to harass the villagers to draw the paladin into the woods. Luggoth had seen a Dolgaunt attack and capture the paladin, and knew where he had been taken.
Luggoth agreed to help them recover the paladin, in large part because it would help smooth relations between the shifters and Silver Flame but also because it would mean he could help rescue the shifter adults. However, he needed someone to stay with the children and protect them. The Wolves were reluctant to leave one of their own, but Tock agreed to stay. He handed the Heward's Handy Haversack over to Pel.
Luggoth lead them to a clearing, the last place he had seen the Dolgaunt. Brand tracked the Dolgaunt to a series of bushes, and beneath that he found a divine rune. Kanatash attemped to dispel it, but the magic was too powerful to be suppressed. Pel called upon the Traveler for help, and, bolstered by Lysander's songs, succeeded in bypassing the rune trap, revealing a 10-foot wide passage descending sharply down.
The passage was completely dark, with no light of any kind, so Luggoth kept a sunrod out to illuminate the area. As they walked, the Wolves could hear a distant screaming sound. The passage soon levelled out and widened, and the Wolves found themselves face to face with a fiendish girallon. Luggoth immediately fired an arrow that missed the charging Girallon, who followed up with a punch to Luggoth's chest. Brand, guarded by Pel's Protection from Evil spell, tumbled past a clumsy attack by the girallon and sunk his rapier deep into the creature's side. Lysander moved in and cut one of the creature's four arms with his longsword, and Kanatash fired a ray of cold from his dorje that went wide of the mark.
Luggoth pulled out his greatsword and landed a solid blow on the girallon, slashing it from shoulder to waist and spilling forth gouts of black blood. The enraged girallon swung wildly, hitting Pel and biting Luggoth, but in flailing, it opened itself to a vicious scimitar strike from Pel and a rapier stab in the throat from Brand. It gurgled and bled, but didn't die, swinging another fist and connecting with Lysander and resisting Kanatash's mind thrust attack. Luggoth finished off the dying beast by chopping across its midsection with his greatsword.
After using the wand and some potions to heal up, the Wolves moved forward into another area, one full of chambes that had cloth and wood, clearly meant as living quarters. The screams were getting louder now, a cacophny of unearthly voices echoing from every wall and making hearing difficult. Brand spotted something moving in the shadows, and they were attacked by a pack of chokers.
The chokers swung their elongated arms, whipping at Kanatash but failing to grab him. Kanatash stepped back and fired an energy missile of fire that killed one choker and severely wounded another. The chokers responded by grabbing Lysander and Pel, and dodging further attacks from the rest of the Wolves.
Kanatash launched another energy missile, this time a burst of cold, killing all but one of the chokers, which fled back into the darkened hallways. Lysander healed himself and Pel and then the Wolves headed down the corridor to pursue the chokers. They found them there, chittering in a language they didn't understand but clearly asking for mercy. Kanatash pointed at them and indicated for them to lay on the ground, and they did, and the Wolves searched all the rooms except the one the chokers were actually in, finding nothing but cloth and wood.
Delving further into the cavern, they found a room that was clearly used for body disposal. Bones and corpses filled the room, and the stench of death hung heavy in the air. An open bag, showing a glint of platinum, sat atop one of the more recent corpses. Fearing a trap, Lysander used his mage hand to bring the platinum over. Nothing stirred in the room, but the Wolves did not press their luck, leaving the room behind to see what was in the room next door.
This room, also carved out of stone, was a prison with metal gates. Inside, the Wolves saw the shifters they had been seeking, seven men and three women, all beaten near to death, hanging limply from chains affixing their arms to stone pillars. Pel searched for traps on the door, but the Wolves then decided not to open it yet, leaving the captives in their relatively safe surroundings until they had dealt with whatever was causing the screaming.
The Wolves soon found the source of the screaming. A dozen or so dolgrims were carving out the rock wall with picks as the dolgaunt watched from atop a 5-foot tall, 100 foot wide altar carved of stone. In the center of the stone, barely visible in the light of the sunrod, was the paladin, stripped to the waist with an obsidian unholy symbol jammed deep into his shoulder. Shadows spun all around him, clearly causing the torment and pain that was causing him to scream.
Pel immediately fired his crossbow, and the dolgaunt deflected it, revealing his monk training. Luggoth revealed his own abilities, shifting into his animal form and leaping to the top of the altar and swinging his greatsword into the dolgaunt's hollowed chest, causing it to stagger backward, bleeding heavily.
The dolgrims responded, picking up crossbows and firing at their adversaries. The shower of bolts mostly missed, but one hit Luggoth and another the dolgaunt. Lysander put one of the dolgrims to sleep with his spell, then cast mirror image on himself and began singing to inspire his comrades.
Kanatash summoned a force screen to protect himself as the dolgaunt attacked Luggoth with his tentacles, cutting into his flesh but failing to drain his vitality. Pel, moving up to the altar himself, activated a sunrod from the Haversack and revealed another adversary, a cleric of the Dragon Below who had been moving in from the back of the altar. As Luggoth swung another punishing sword blow into the dolgaunt, the cleric cast a darkness spell that enveloped all three of them.
Brand and Whitehearth engaged the dolgrims in battle as Pel moved up to the paladin to see if he could help. Luggoth swung blindly at the dolgaunt, but his bestial agility protected him even in the darkness against the dolgaunt's attacks. Before the cleric could do anything more, Kanatash warped time around him, sending him about 30 seconds into the future.
Pel pulled the everbright lantern from the Haversack, canceling the darkness. The Dolgrims responded by firing crossbows at him, landing a couple of hits. The cleric shook off the effect of Kanatash's time hop and tried to curse Pel, who resisted the attack as Kanatash launched an energy missile of cold at all of the adversaries, killing the dolgaunt and severely wounding the cleric.
Lysander used his dragonmark to create an image of a wall of fire, holding off dolgrim reinforcements, as Pel moved toward the cleric and slashed him with his scimitar. Brand used his dragonmark to teleport next to the cleric as Lysander moved in, and the two of them finished him off.
Kanatash then used his telekinetic powers to pull the unholy symbol free of the paladin's shoulder, ending the spell. The paladin was grateful, and the Wolves made sure he knew that the shifters were partially responsible for rescuing him. The Wolves escorted Verodin back to Aruldusk. After a brief rest, they decided to take their lightning rail trip back to Sharn. Luggoth, nomadic by nature and intrigued by the "wolf" theme of the adventurers that seemed so ideally suited to his own gifts, asked to join them.
The lightning rail trip back to Sharn was uneventful, taking about 5 days and landing the Wolves back in Sharn on 8 Sypheros. They immediately went to see Viorr, who was pleased with their efforts and who took Grilsha, Lucan and the Soul Blade into custody. He gave the Wolves their reward, 2,500 gp each minus the cost of the lightning rail travel they had purchased, and expressed his sympathies on the loss of William d'Deneith. He offered to pick up the cost of the House Tharask inquisitives searching for William's body as an additional thanks for a job well done.
XP: 3850
Saturday, July 08, 2006
Upcoming Schedule - August
Here's the schedule as I see it for the rest of July and August. Folks chime in if you need to schedule a weekend off, either by editing the post or commenting in the comments section. As always, I'm estimating on how long it'll take to complete modules, it could wind up being a week earlier or later, but either way, it'll be the Eberron game.
By the way, Matt (Dave's brother) has raised the possibility of a "10 years later" sequel of sorts to our Cthulhu game in October. Would y'all be interested in doing that? Seems like if we're still in Eberron at that point, it'd be as good a time as any to take a break, and I wouldn't mind playing Cthulhu again. Paul and Jason would need new characters, but otherwise it'd be a return to our Cthulhu characters, unless one of us wanted to change out.
July 28th - Eberron: Grasp of the Emerald Claw (Paul possibly out)
August 4th - Eberron: Grasp of the Emerald Claw (Everyone in?)
August 11th - Gaming off (Paul out, Nate out)
August 18th - Texas Hold'Em Game (regular gaming off)
August 25th - Gaming off (Dragon's Lair 20th anniversary, Randy working)
By the way, Matt (Dave's brother) has raised the possibility of a "10 years later" sequel of sorts to our Cthulhu game in October. Would y'all be interested in doing that? Seems like if we're still in Eberron at that point, it'd be as good a time as any to take a break, and I wouldn't mind playing Cthulhu again. Paul and Jason would need new characters, but otherwise it'd be a return to our Cthulhu characters, unless one of us wanted to change out.
July 28th - Eberron: Grasp of the Emerald Claw (Paul possibly out)
August 4th - Eberron: Grasp of the Emerald Claw (Everyone in?)
August 11th - Gaming off (Paul out, Nate out)
August 18th - Texas Hold'Em Game (regular gaming off)
August 25th - Gaming off (Dragon's Lair 20th anniversary, Randy working)
Eberron Character: Luggoth
Name: LuggothRazorclaw Shifter, Barbarian
Feral Might: Rageblood Vigor
Background: Shifter - Persecution (+2 to Stealth)
FINAL ABILITY SCORES
Str 16, Con 19, Dex 16, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 10.
STARTING ABILITY SCORES
Str 15, Con 17, Dex 13, Int 10, Wis 8, Cha 10.
Init +11
Speed 6
Passive Insight 15
Passive Perception 15
Languages Common, Giant
AC: 24 Fort: 23 Reflex: 21 Will: 17
HP: 88 Surges: 12 Surge Value: 22
TRAINED SKILLS
Athletics +13, Nature +10, Intimidate +10
UNTRAINED SKILLS
Acrobatics +9, Arcana +5, Bluff +5, Diplomacy +5, Dungeoneering +5, Endurance +8, Heal +5, History +5, Insight +5, Perception +5, Religion +5, Stealth +11, Streetwise +5, Thievery +7
FEATS
Blurring Claws, Wild Senses, Fast Runner, Sturdy Shifter, Powerful Charge, Improved Rageblood Vigor
POWERS
At-Will: Recuperating Strike, Howling Strike
Encounter: Great Cleave, Blade Sweep, Tide of Blood
Daily: Macetail's Rage, Frost Wolf Rage, Stone Bear Rage
Utility: Combat Sprint, Combat Surge, Wellspring of Renewal
ITEMS
Adventurer's Kit, Hunter's Kit, Identification Papers, with Portrait, Climber's Kit, Bestial Hide Armor +2, Vengeful Greataxe +2, Greatbow, Dagger, Handaxe (2), Periapt of Cascading Health +2, Bracers of Mighty Striking (heroic tier), Potion of Healing (heroic tier) (6), Potion of Vigor (heroic tier) (2), Hunter's Flint (heroic tier), Gauntlets of Ogre Power (heroic tier)
History: The man who calls himself Luggoth has seen hardship and pain in spades throughout the course of his short life. Born in the western lands of the Eldeen Reaches, Luggoth’s tribe of longstriders was a nomadic band, living off of the land and taking care of its own. Their contact with other races was scarce, but of a friendly sort. His early days were spent trapping and playing, roaming the land like a near-wild creature.
And then The Inquisition came.
The Church of the Silver Flame struck when Luggoth’s tribe had temporarily settled along the Reaches’ outskirts. Luggoth’s own father his him in the woods (he was just a boy at the time) and went back to defend the tribe. When Luggoth came out of hiding days later, fueled by fear and hunger, he found his tribe dead, slaughtered by the Paladins of the Silver Flame.
He wondered for months, trying to find signs of any remaining members of his tribe. While his search would prove fruitless, a traveler from the shifter settlement The Wolf’s Paw, discovered a nearly starved Luggoth and brought him back to the village. There, Luggoth was accepted into the community and raised until his adult years. While he grew some bonds to the settlement and its community, he never forgot the slaughter of his tribe. As soon as he was able, he set out to help those others who might be persecuted by The Silver Flame.
Now, Luggoth roams the land on a quest for something that isn’t quite justice and isn’t quite vengeance. He protects the Shifters he comes across if the need help, but he has slowly become more trustful of men. The Silver Flame, however, is still a subject of hatred for him. Were he to encounter a Silver Flame paladin, and know there would be no consequences, he would kill the man without a shred of remorse. Somewhere in the back of his mind, however, he knows his actions might incur the Church’s wrath.
Luggoth has heard of the young woman who now leads the Church of the Silver Flame. He dreams of viewing her with his own eyes. Whether he will demand reparation or blood when that moment arrives, however, he does not know.
3.5 Stats:
Race: Shifter (Longstrider)
Class: Barbarian 5/Ranger 1/Weretouched Master 5
Experience: 55,676 (Next Level 66,000)
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Religion: The Traveler
Homeland: Eldeen Reaches
Age: 23 Height: 5'9" Weight: 195 lbs.
Statistics: STR 19, DEX 16, CON 16, INT 10, WIS 11, CHA 12, BAB +9, Fort +10 (+15), Ref +7 (+12), Will +2 (+4), Init +3 (+5), AC 26 (+8 armor, +3 Dex, +1 deflection, +2 natural armor, +2 ring of force shield), HP 113
Skills: Balance +2 (+5), Climb +4 (+9), Handle Animal +6 (+7), Heal +1 (+1), Hide +4 (+7), Intimidate +2 (+3), Jump +3 (+8), Knowledge (nature) +5 (+5), Listen +2 (+3), Move Silently +6 (+9), Ride +4 (+7), Survival +11 (+11), Swim +4 (+7)
Class Abilities: Favored Enemy: Human (+2), Fast Movement, Improved Uncanny Dodge (retain Dex when flat-footed, cannot be flanked), Trapsense +1, Rage 2/day (+4 Str/Con, +2 Will, -2 AC), Weretouched +1 (+2 Dex, 1d6+1 fangs), Weretouched 2 (trip attack), Frightful Shifting, Hybrid Form (+2 Str, +4 Dex, +8 Con)
Racial Abilities: Low-light vision, Longstrider (+2 Dex/+20 ft Speed, 2/day, lasts 8 rounds), Beasthide (+2 AC when shifting)
Weapons/Attacks: +15 (1d12 +7, greataxe +2), + 15 (2d4 +5, masterwork scythe), +11 (1d4+3, (2) punching daggers), +11 (1d6+4, fangs), +12 (1d6+3, (2) throwing axes), +12 (1d8, Longbow w/20 arrows, 16 +1 arrows)
Equipment:
+3 Glamered Breastplate, Ring of Protection +1, amulet of natural armor +2, cloak of resistance +2, potion of cure serious wounds, feather fall talisman, backpack, waterskin, (10) days rations, healer's kit, 50' hemp rope, sunrod, 51 pp, letter of credit for 5100 gp
Feats: Extra Shifter Trait, Power Attack, Healing Factor, Longstride Elite
Proficiencies: Simple and martial weapons, light and medium armor, all shields (except tower)
Languages: Common
Power Selection
Hey Randy!
Looking through the books again. While Project Quori Spirit is powerful, what it does (summon a lawful evil nightmare spirit to fight for you) is not really something Kanatash would do. So I'd like to drop that and take Sense Danger (also from Magic of Eberron) instead.
Cheers!
Ben
Looking through the books again. While Project Quori Spirit is powerful, what it does (summon a lawful evil nightmare spirit to fight for you) is not really something Kanatash would do. So I'd like to drop that and take Sense Danger (also from Magic of Eberron) instead.
Cheers!
Ben
Saturday, July 01, 2006
Adding Contacts
In discussing Lysander's role as an operative of House Phiarlan, he suggested I take a look at the contacts rules from Unearthed Arcana. I've looked, and I think I might go ahead and add them to the campaign. Here they are in a nutshell:
This system codifies a phenomenon commonplace in most long-term campaigns: the friendly bartender, gruff weaponsmith or absent-minded sage who points the PCs in the right direction, passes along important clues or offers unusual knowledge. With this variant, the PCs have one or more unnamed contacts marked on their character sheets for later use. A player can define a contact for his character at any point during the game, giving the PC access to a friendly NPC.
A contact won't risk life or livelihood on the PC's say-so, but a contact makes some sacrifices for a friend. For example, a contact will burn the midnight oil translating an ancient text or sneak the key to the pantry out of the castle (as long as it's back by morning). There's an inverse relationship between the contact's importance in the ongoing campaign and the amount of help he can provide. In other words, if you choose the mayor as your contact, he's going to be too busy to serve you at a moment's notice, but he's very helpful when you get an audience. Beppo the cobbler, on the other hand, practically lives in his shop, making him available day and night, but the ways in which he can help you are more limited.
There are three types of contacts. Information Contacts are useful for what they know. They're the ones who hear all the rumors - and they can discern which ones are true. Influence Contacts are useful because of who they know or who they're associated with. While a player can't define the queen as his character's contact, he can define one of her chambermaids as a contact. Skill Contacts are useful for what they can do. Some skills - especially categories of Craft, Profession and Knowledge - are rarely possessed by PCs. A special category of the skill contact is the linguist.
Bards get contacts every 2 levels. Clerics, Paladins and Rogues get them every 3 levels. Fighters, Sorcerers and Artificers get them every 4 levels. And Barbarians, Druids, Monks, Rangers and Wizards get them every 5 levels.
There are a few more details on pages 179-180 of Unearthed Arcana, but that's the basics. Any thoughts?
This system codifies a phenomenon commonplace in most long-term campaigns: the friendly bartender, gruff weaponsmith or absent-minded sage who points the PCs in the right direction, passes along important clues or offers unusual knowledge. With this variant, the PCs have one or more unnamed contacts marked on their character sheets for later use. A player can define a contact for his character at any point during the game, giving the PC access to a friendly NPC.
A contact won't risk life or livelihood on the PC's say-so, but a contact makes some sacrifices for a friend. For example, a contact will burn the midnight oil translating an ancient text or sneak the key to the pantry out of the castle (as long as it's back by morning). There's an inverse relationship between the contact's importance in the ongoing campaign and the amount of help he can provide. In other words, if you choose the mayor as your contact, he's going to be too busy to serve you at a moment's notice, but he's very helpful when you get an audience. Beppo the cobbler, on the other hand, practically lives in his shop, making him available day and night, but the ways in which he can help you are more limited.
There are three types of contacts. Information Contacts are useful for what they know. They're the ones who hear all the rumors - and they can discern which ones are true. Influence Contacts are useful because of who they know or who they're associated with. While a player can't define the queen as his character's contact, he can define one of her chambermaids as a contact. Skill Contacts are useful for what they can do. Some skills - especially categories of Craft, Profession and Knowledge - are rarely possessed by PCs. A special category of the skill contact is the linguist.
Bards get contacts every 2 levels. Clerics, Paladins and Rogues get them every 3 levels. Fighters, Sorcerers and Artificers get them every 4 levels. And Barbarians, Druids, Monks, Rangers and Wizards get them every 5 levels.
There are a few more details on pages 179-180 of Unearthed Arcana, but that's the basics. Any thoughts?
Friday, June 30, 2006
Schedule Update: Game Delayed
Just so everybody knows, schedule conflicts (Chris was sick, Ben was tired, Paul was out) caused us to call the game this week. So those of you who bowed out, you didn't miss anything, and with any luck, we'll have a complete group next week to play the adventure I have written, called "Knight of the Silver Flame."
Saturday, June 24, 2006
Eberron Adventure Journal: Whisper of the Vampire's Blade (5)
Sypheros 1 - Sypheros 2, YK 998
Part Six - Lucan's Last Stand
While the Wolves were healing and planning on how to take down Lucan, one of the House Orien crew came up to them and asked what had happened. Brand, not a fan of House Orien, brusquely told the man that they had tried to capture a vampire that had been on board, and that he had fled into the ziggurat in the distance, and they were headed to capture him. The crewman explained that he had to try and convince the elemental to take the train to Aruldusk, and wasn't easily swayed from this decision.
The Wolves gathered their things, which now included a bound and gagged Grilsha and a bound Arenydee, and headed over toward the ziggurat. They saw that there was a stagnant lake, about a quarter mile across, between them and the stairs leading up to the only door. They wanted to rest and recover their spellcasting and psionic capabilities, but it was the middle of the night, and they worried that Lucan might attack or, worse, escape.
After much discussion about building a raft, swimming across or trying to figure something else out, Tock walked out into the lake. He found that it was about 10 feet deep at its deepest point, and didn't have any creatures or threats in it. The Wolves cut down branches from nearby trees to use as flotation devices and formed a train of sorts, with Tock walking across the bottom and the others swimming along and simultaneously being pulled along behind him. When they arrived at the bottom of the stairs, they set Arenydee and Grilsha down and headed up the stairs.
The light from Tock's sunrod illuminated the interior room, a chamber made of polished gray marble with eight pillars that looked like octopus tentacles. It also illuminated the creature trying to hide at the back of the room, a cloaker, which immediately began an unnerving moan.
Whitehearth charged right in and snapped at the Cloaker, landing a solid blow, as Kanatash manifested psionic crossbow bolts. Tock charged as well, but missed and was engulfed and bitten by the Cloaker. This stopped the moaning, and Brand and Lysander moved in. The Cloaker avoided their attacks, but Lysander began an inspiring song, and Pel fired a magic missile that struck the Cloaker, but didn't cause it to loose Tock.
Whitehearth struck again, and the Cloaker released Tock and let loose a moan of fear that shook Whitehearth and sent Brand running outside into the water. Lysander quickly changed songs to counteract Whitehearth's fear, and the wolf, now angry, turned and bit the Cloaker again.
Kanatash, seeing the tide turning, tried to psionically attack the Cloaker, but it resisted his attack and changed to another moan, which caused Whitehearth and Pel to double over from stomach pain. Lysander charged the beast and swung his longsword into it, and Kanatash launched a bolt of electrical psionic energy, setting the Cloaker up for a killing stroke from Tock's armblade.
After this dangerous and draining battle, the Wolves decided to take a chance on resting inside this antechamber. Pel scouted the outside to look for other exits and didn't see any, and Lysander and Brand brought in Grilsha and Arenydee and tied them to one of the pillars, and then they all rested, with Brand and Whitehearth keeping watch. 8 hours later, they could see out the door that the sun had risen. They were refreshed, and unless Lucan had found a secret exit, he was now trapped inside the ziggurat.
Leaving the only sunlight in the ziggurat behind, the Wolves advanced up the stairs to a room Pel had scouted the night before. An altar hung in the center, suspended by heavy chains, and faded frescoes of demons adorned the walls. Pel searched the room for traps and found a lever on the back of the altar that would open a secret drawer. Before he pulled it, however, he noticed another mechanism, a trap that would activate a pit beneath the altar if the drawer was opened. Taking note of this room for possible strategic use later, the Wolves went upstairs to the next room.
The next room was formerly an animal sacrifice chamber, as evidenced by the large, stained stone table in the center of the room. Carved animal heads with emeralds for eyes adorned the walls, and next to the stone table stood one of the creatures that had performed the sacrifices eons ago, a Minotaur zombie that lifted its greataxe and charged.
Pel tried to turn the creature, but his spiritual powers were not enough. Fortunately, his roguish skills were intact, and he ducked under a mighty swing of the creature's greataxe. Lysander again launched into an inspiring song, but the Wolves were unable to enter the room, as the minotaur had now blocked easy access to everyone except Pel, who was already inside, and Tock, who stood at the door. Tock sliced a chunk out of the minotaur with his armblade, and Whitehearth and Brand decided to try and slip by. Whitehearth succeeded, but Brand was struck by the axe with a solid blow that sliced a gash down his back. However, he and Whitehearth both retaliated, doing only slight damage to the creature but tripping it and knocking it to the floor.
The beast resisted Kanatash's psionic attacks and shrugged off a glancing blow from Pel's scimitar as it pulled itself to its feet. This maneuver made it vulnerable, and Tock, Brand and Whitehearth managed to sneak in solid blows on the creature. Kanatash psionically convinced the creature it was still on the ground, causing it to try and stand up once more, and Pel, Brand and Whitehearth struck again, with the minotaur tripping and falling as a result.
The minotaur was now showing even more bone through its rotting flesh, but didn't show any signs of slowing down. It stood once more, and was struck again by Pel, Brand and Whitehearth. Lysander tumbled into the room as the minotaur swung its greataxe and slashed open Pel's chest. Rising from his tumble, Lysander swung his longsword into the beast and slashed away a great chunk of flesh from its midsection, revealing its spinal cord. The minotaur rose its greataxe to finish Pel off, and Pel swung his scimitar through the spinal cord, causing the zombie to drop, in two flopping halves, onto the floor, where it finally stopped moving.
In the wake of this battle with an undead creature, and with the battle with a vampire approaching, Tock infused his arm blade and Brand's shortsword with undead bane, while Lysander used the cure light wounds wand almost completely up healing the damage Pel and Brand had suffered during the combat.
Faced with stairways going up or down, the Wolves decided to descend. They emerged into a hall filled with statues of goblins and bugbears, and immediately feared they were facing a medusa, but were instead attacked by a pair of Gricks. The creatures shrugged off Pel's non-magical crossbow bolt and one of them bit Lysander deep in the shoulder as Tock slashed at the other one with his armblade. Kanatash ended the fight quickly with a bolt of electricity that destroyed both gricks utterly.
Continuing downward, the Wolves found themselves in a prayer chamber festooned with moldy tapestries and submerged in a foot of murky water. On the other side of the room was a large stone door with a crescent moon, and near the Wolves were a pair of kettle drums beating out a ceremonial rythym by means of a magically animted double mallet. Pel spotted a tentacle peeking out from one of the tapestries, and was able to warn the others as an Otyugh shuffled out into the water and charged.
Tock struck the creature, but was rewarded by a tentacle wrapping around him and squeezing. He broke free as the others moved in and dealt another vicious slash to the Otyugh. Pel blasted away with magic missiles as Brand slashed the thing with its shortsword and Lysander moved into position with his longsword. Whitehearth attacked, tripping the creature in a dirty, smelly splash of water, and Lysander moved in and finished it with a powerful stroke of his longsword.
Brand and Tock attempted to push open the crescent moon door, but found that it was heavy and quite stuck. While they tried to figure out what to do next, Pel searched and discovered a secret door leading to a vertical shaft heading upward. Lysander sang a song of inspiration as Brand ascended the shaft carrying a rope. At the top, about 100 feet up, he found a small ledge that he could stand on, and began pulling others up. He managed to pull Lysander up, and the two of them pulled Pel, and then they realized that there wasn't any more room.
Lysander pushed open the secret door next to the ledge and discovered a massive chamber, clearly located at the top of the ziggurat. The room was half-filled with sarcophagi beneath its 30-foot high vaulted ceiling. The other half of the room was filled by a 25-foot high bat-winged, ram-headed demon statue with a throne at its base. Lucan sat brooding on that throne, and he leaped to his feet as he sensed the door opening.
Lysander quickly turned invisible as Lucan ranted that he hadn't asked for any of this. "I didn't ask to become a vampire, I didn't ask to be enslaved by that thrice-damned blade... but I will die on my feet, or else be the death of all of you!"
Pel cast Protection from Evil on Brand as Lysander began moving invisibly toward the vampire. Brand drank a potion of cat's grace, and Lysander a potion of mage armor, as down below, Kanatash began levitating himself and Whitehearth up the shaft. As Lucan struck Brand with his fists, draining some of his life energy, Pel used his animate rope to tie the rope around the statue's legs, allowing Tock to begin his own climb up the shaft.
Brand swung his weapons and missed the agile vampire, but the invisible Lysander managed to blast him with a wand of cure light wounds. Lucan spun and backhanded Lysander's in response, draining some of his life energy as well. Lysander moved back and used his mage hand to draw the Soulblade from its sheath and bring it to his hand, where it immediately began to tempt him with promises of power. Brand took advantage of Lucan's surprise and anger at this maneuver to strike with both his rapier and his bane-infused shortsword, and the vampire's flesh sizzled and bled in response. Lysander, resisting the mental domination of the soulblade, drove it into the ground and left it there.
Pel drank his elixir of fire breath after failing to hide from undead with a scroll, and moved in towards Lucan as he ran 20' up the wall, away from further attack. Brand used his dragonmark to teleport next to Lucan and strike again with his weapons, landing on the floor. Lucan ran down the wall and struck Brand again angrily, but then Kanatash appeared at the secret door and launched a psionic fire missile which struck the wounded vampire and forced him into his gaseous form.
The gaseous cloud made its way toward the vertical shaft that Tock was still climbing, but Lysander used his dragonmark to create an image of a holy symbol in front of it, forcing Lucan to instead choose one of the sarcophagi in the room. He solidified, and the Wolves all closed in with their stakes, putting one into Lucan's heart to keep him immobilized. Their long journey was over. The soulblade was contained, and Lucan was captured.
XP: 2320
Part Six - Lucan's Last Stand
While the Wolves were healing and planning on how to take down Lucan, one of the House Orien crew came up to them and asked what had happened. Brand, not a fan of House Orien, brusquely told the man that they had tried to capture a vampire that had been on board, and that he had fled into the ziggurat in the distance, and they were headed to capture him. The crewman explained that he had to try and convince the elemental to take the train to Aruldusk, and wasn't easily swayed from this decision.
The Wolves gathered their things, which now included a bound and gagged Grilsha and a bound Arenydee, and headed over toward the ziggurat. They saw that there was a stagnant lake, about a quarter mile across, between them and the stairs leading up to the only door. They wanted to rest and recover their spellcasting and psionic capabilities, but it was the middle of the night, and they worried that Lucan might attack or, worse, escape.
After much discussion about building a raft, swimming across or trying to figure something else out, Tock walked out into the lake. He found that it was about 10 feet deep at its deepest point, and didn't have any creatures or threats in it. The Wolves cut down branches from nearby trees to use as flotation devices and formed a train of sorts, with Tock walking across the bottom and the others swimming along and simultaneously being pulled along behind him. When they arrived at the bottom of the stairs, they set Arenydee and Grilsha down and headed up the stairs.
The light from Tock's sunrod illuminated the interior room, a chamber made of polished gray marble with eight pillars that looked like octopus tentacles. It also illuminated the creature trying to hide at the back of the room, a cloaker, which immediately began an unnerving moan.
Whitehearth charged right in and snapped at the Cloaker, landing a solid blow, as Kanatash manifested psionic crossbow bolts. Tock charged as well, but missed and was engulfed and bitten by the Cloaker. This stopped the moaning, and Brand and Lysander moved in. The Cloaker avoided their attacks, but Lysander began an inspiring song, and Pel fired a magic missile that struck the Cloaker, but didn't cause it to loose Tock.
Whitehearth struck again, and the Cloaker released Tock and let loose a moan of fear that shook Whitehearth and sent Brand running outside into the water. Lysander quickly changed songs to counteract Whitehearth's fear, and the wolf, now angry, turned and bit the Cloaker again.
Kanatash, seeing the tide turning, tried to psionically attack the Cloaker, but it resisted his attack and changed to another moan, which caused Whitehearth and Pel to double over from stomach pain. Lysander charged the beast and swung his longsword into it, and Kanatash launched a bolt of electrical psionic energy, setting the Cloaker up for a killing stroke from Tock's armblade.
After this dangerous and draining battle, the Wolves decided to take a chance on resting inside this antechamber. Pel scouted the outside to look for other exits and didn't see any, and Lysander and Brand brought in Grilsha and Arenydee and tied them to one of the pillars, and then they all rested, with Brand and Whitehearth keeping watch. 8 hours later, they could see out the door that the sun had risen. They were refreshed, and unless Lucan had found a secret exit, he was now trapped inside the ziggurat.
Leaving the only sunlight in the ziggurat behind, the Wolves advanced up the stairs to a room Pel had scouted the night before. An altar hung in the center, suspended by heavy chains, and faded frescoes of demons adorned the walls. Pel searched the room for traps and found a lever on the back of the altar that would open a secret drawer. Before he pulled it, however, he noticed another mechanism, a trap that would activate a pit beneath the altar if the drawer was opened. Taking note of this room for possible strategic use later, the Wolves went upstairs to the next room.
The next room was formerly an animal sacrifice chamber, as evidenced by the large, stained stone table in the center of the room. Carved animal heads with emeralds for eyes adorned the walls, and next to the stone table stood one of the creatures that had performed the sacrifices eons ago, a Minotaur zombie that lifted its greataxe and charged.
Pel tried to turn the creature, but his spiritual powers were not enough. Fortunately, his roguish skills were intact, and he ducked under a mighty swing of the creature's greataxe. Lysander again launched into an inspiring song, but the Wolves were unable to enter the room, as the minotaur had now blocked easy access to everyone except Pel, who was already inside, and Tock, who stood at the door. Tock sliced a chunk out of the minotaur with his armblade, and Whitehearth and Brand decided to try and slip by. Whitehearth succeeded, but Brand was struck by the axe with a solid blow that sliced a gash down his back. However, he and Whitehearth both retaliated, doing only slight damage to the creature but tripping it and knocking it to the floor.
The beast resisted Kanatash's psionic attacks and shrugged off a glancing blow from Pel's scimitar as it pulled itself to its feet. This maneuver made it vulnerable, and Tock, Brand and Whitehearth managed to sneak in solid blows on the creature. Kanatash psionically convinced the creature it was still on the ground, causing it to try and stand up once more, and Pel, Brand and Whitehearth struck again, with the minotaur tripping and falling as a result.
The minotaur was now showing even more bone through its rotting flesh, but didn't show any signs of slowing down. It stood once more, and was struck again by Pel, Brand and Whitehearth. Lysander tumbled into the room as the minotaur swung its greataxe and slashed open Pel's chest. Rising from his tumble, Lysander swung his longsword into the beast and slashed away a great chunk of flesh from its midsection, revealing its spinal cord. The minotaur rose its greataxe to finish Pel off, and Pel swung his scimitar through the spinal cord, causing the zombie to drop, in two flopping halves, onto the floor, where it finally stopped moving.
In the wake of this battle with an undead creature, and with the battle with a vampire approaching, Tock infused his arm blade and Brand's shortsword with undead bane, while Lysander used the cure light wounds wand almost completely up healing the damage Pel and Brand had suffered during the combat.
Faced with stairways going up or down, the Wolves decided to descend. They emerged into a hall filled with statues of goblins and bugbears, and immediately feared they were facing a medusa, but were instead attacked by a pair of Gricks. The creatures shrugged off Pel's non-magical crossbow bolt and one of them bit Lysander deep in the shoulder as Tock slashed at the other one with his armblade. Kanatash ended the fight quickly with a bolt of electricity that destroyed both gricks utterly.
Continuing downward, the Wolves found themselves in a prayer chamber festooned with moldy tapestries and submerged in a foot of murky water. On the other side of the room was a large stone door with a crescent moon, and near the Wolves were a pair of kettle drums beating out a ceremonial rythym by means of a magically animted double mallet. Pel spotted a tentacle peeking out from one of the tapestries, and was able to warn the others as an Otyugh shuffled out into the water and charged.
Tock struck the creature, but was rewarded by a tentacle wrapping around him and squeezing. He broke free as the others moved in and dealt another vicious slash to the Otyugh. Pel blasted away with magic missiles as Brand slashed the thing with its shortsword and Lysander moved into position with his longsword. Whitehearth attacked, tripping the creature in a dirty, smelly splash of water, and Lysander moved in and finished it with a powerful stroke of his longsword.
Brand and Tock attempted to push open the crescent moon door, but found that it was heavy and quite stuck. While they tried to figure out what to do next, Pel searched and discovered a secret door leading to a vertical shaft heading upward. Lysander sang a song of inspiration as Brand ascended the shaft carrying a rope. At the top, about 100 feet up, he found a small ledge that he could stand on, and began pulling others up. He managed to pull Lysander up, and the two of them pulled Pel, and then they realized that there wasn't any more room.
Lysander pushed open the secret door next to the ledge and discovered a massive chamber, clearly located at the top of the ziggurat. The room was half-filled with sarcophagi beneath its 30-foot high vaulted ceiling. The other half of the room was filled by a 25-foot high bat-winged, ram-headed demon statue with a throne at its base. Lucan sat brooding on that throne, and he leaped to his feet as he sensed the door opening.
Lysander quickly turned invisible as Lucan ranted that he hadn't asked for any of this. "I didn't ask to become a vampire, I didn't ask to be enslaved by that thrice-damned blade... but I will die on my feet, or else be the death of all of you!"
Pel cast Protection from Evil on Brand as Lysander began moving invisibly toward the vampire. Brand drank a potion of cat's grace, and Lysander a potion of mage armor, as down below, Kanatash began levitating himself and Whitehearth up the shaft. As Lucan struck Brand with his fists, draining some of his life energy, Pel used his animate rope to tie the rope around the statue's legs, allowing Tock to begin his own climb up the shaft.
Brand swung his weapons and missed the agile vampire, but the invisible Lysander managed to blast him with a wand of cure light wounds. Lucan spun and backhanded Lysander's in response, draining some of his life energy as well. Lysander moved back and used his mage hand to draw the Soulblade from its sheath and bring it to his hand, where it immediately began to tempt him with promises of power. Brand took advantage of Lucan's surprise and anger at this maneuver to strike with both his rapier and his bane-infused shortsword, and the vampire's flesh sizzled and bled in response. Lysander, resisting the mental domination of the soulblade, drove it into the ground and left it there.
Pel drank his elixir of fire breath after failing to hide from undead with a scroll, and moved in towards Lucan as he ran 20' up the wall, away from further attack. Brand used his dragonmark to teleport next to Lucan and strike again with his weapons, landing on the floor. Lucan ran down the wall and struck Brand again angrily, but then Kanatash appeared at the secret door and launched a psionic fire missile which struck the wounded vampire and forced him into his gaseous form.
The gaseous cloud made its way toward the vertical shaft that Tock was still climbing, but Lysander used his dragonmark to create an image of a holy symbol in front of it, forcing Lucan to instead choose one of the sarcophagi in the room. He solidified, and the Wolves all closed in with their stakes, putting one into Lucan's heart to keep him immobilized. Their long journey was over. The soulblade was contained, and Lucan was captured.
XP: 2320
Thursday, June 22, 2006
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