No matter where you go, there you are.
We are on the road again. After buying supplies, and a mule to carry them (hereafter to be referred to as “The Mule”), we set off north from Smallville, following the map we had found. The day went uneventfully, and as dusk approached, we neared a small farmhouse at the foot of the Barrier Peaks.
Thinking to stay the night with the farmers, we approached the house. Unfortunately, what we found was an empty house, with signs of a slaughter... blood everywhere, and no one to be found in the house or the barn! Upon further investigation, we did find a track of footprints and drag marks leading off into the mountains, and although we wanted to chase off after them immediately, we decided that we should wait until morning, as we were unfamiliar with the forest in this area, and were quite worn out from a long day of travel. All of the indications were that the residents were already dead, anyway. We set up camp near the farmhouse, and awaited the morning.
When morning arrived, we quickly gathered our gear and followed the tracks into the wilderness. Trap led the way, and we soon came to a cave entrance which the trail led directly into. Beside the entrance, there was a pole with a bunch of skulls impaled on it. This had to be the place.
Wasting no time, we proceeded into the cave, single-file. We then proceeded back out of the cave at a faster pace, after Trap set off an alarm! I am not of a “rogue-ish” nature myself, but it seems to me that setting off traps may not be the wisest way of detecting them?! But, I guess he knows his business.
In any case, the only one to follow us out was a goblin archer who began shooting at us from a ledge above the entrance. As everyone has a bow, we made quick work of him! Figuring that the rest of the creatures we were tracking were still waiting in the cave, we went back in with Valon leading the way.
A battle was soon to come... rounding a corner in the passageway, we came upon an Ogre and a half-dozen goblins! Valon was taken down almost immediately, yet he continued to bolster our efforts with his singing, even while laying on the ground fighting unconsciousness. Between my Magic Missiles, Ghelt’s axe, and Drusilia’s arrows, we managed to fell the Ogre quickly and then moved on to the goblins. At one point, a goblin in robes came and muttered some spell over the ogre, and the beast arose again! I am happy to say that the new “Flaming Sphere” spell that I learned in town came in handy to dispatch them both. Ghelt finished off most of the other goblins, except for one that Drusilia handled with a kick to the groin. I must say I felt sorry for the little creature as it let out a shriek and collapsed to the ground... nobody should go out like that!
As all of its companions were now felled, the one remaining gobbo ran off down another passageway, with Ghelt in hot pursuit, and me following behind. (At this point, I decided to use another one of my new tricks... I created 5 ‘Mirror Images’ of myself, to confuse any further enemies we ran into!). As we rounded another corner we were showered in a hail of javelins... thrown by another group of six goblins! Using the wand of color spray that we had found, I managed to disable four of them in a flash! The remaining two were handled by Ghelt, including one who had dropped his weapons, fallen to his knees and was pitifully begging to not be killed! At least his death was quick.... probably all the mercy the foul creature deserved. After ensuring that all of the goblins were indeed dead, we proceed to carefully search the rest of the caves.
We found the pit were the bodies of their unfortunate victims had been thrown, as well as a smelly bedchamber, and a locked door. The bedchamber contained nothing of interest, but Trap was itchin’ to examine the door closer.
Having determined there were no traps on the door, he proceeded to pick the lock, open the door, and get peppered with needles as he set off a needle trap that was rigged to the door!
Not to be discouraged, he proceeded into the room. (with the rest of us standing waaayyy back). “I’ve found an iron chest!” he proudly announced. After ensuring the party that the chest was “trap free,” he went ahead with trying to open it. This proved to be quite a task. A broken lockpick, a “shatter” spell, and a “mending” spell (for the lockpick) later, the box was still locked. After a suggestion from Ghelt, Trap took a different approach (to try and pry open the hinges rather than the lock), and the box was soon opened! Our enthusiasm was cut short though as Trap began coughing uncrontrollably.... once more the victim of gas trap on the box, that he had somehow missed.
Gathering the contents of the box, we prepared to leave the now-empty caves. While the rest of us were stopping for lunch, Ghelt insisted on dragging all of the bodies and stacking them in front of the cave. She said that this was to let people know the caves were “clear,” but I suspect all it will really do is attract a bunch of scavengers... oh well.
Now it looks like all of the bodies have been dragged to their final locations, and everyone else is done eating, so I guess it is time to move on towards the Heart of Nerull.
~= Fafnir Flamebrewer =~
Planting 21, 592 CY
Well, its been several days since I bothered to write anything down.
It is rather dull in this town, I have been performing for the tavern customers, and earning quite a bit for a town like this, not that the money is important, but I need to pay for a room somehow.
The party is setting out tomorrow morning, and while I have been invited, my heart pulls in other directions, too. I enjoy the company of them and wish to stay, but I believe that Corellon Larethian has other plans for me. I shall set out with them, but I am unsure whether or not I will return with them.
This campaign is a plain-vanilla Greyhawk (no spells, feats, Prestige classes, etc. from Forgotten Realms or other “worlds”), and with only races found in the PHB.
Characters can be made with 40 points using the Point Buy method. All characters begin with full hit points and starting money at 1st level. Everyone starts at 1st level, and unless cleared with the DM, originate from the little village of Smallville in Bissel.
Any Evil or Chaotic Neutral characters are not allowed (any characters that behave with these alignments will become NPCs). This is intended to be a “heroic” campaign and the past has shown that these alignments are not conducive to teamwork or heroic adventure.
There will be no more than 5 or 6 PCs at any time. We’ve tried playing with more in the past and it decreases the enjoyment for the DM and players.
Character sheets will be in PCGen format (give your changes to Kristin so she can add them to the DM’s roster).
Occasionally, Hugh will give out something called “Fate Points” for working as a team. A single Fate Point can be used to reroll one die that affects that character only— whether it is a roll made by the player or a roll by an opponent against the character. The new roll counts even if it is worse than the first— that’s the fickleness of Fate after all.
In addition to experience points for game play and attendance, Hugh is also basing experience awards on timely-written journal entries, bios and other things character-related that help evolve the game world and make it easier for him to spend what time he has working on the campaign. A good background will lend itself to plot hooks for the characters.
Players unable to attend a session must make arrangements with Hugh to run your character for that session. A missed session will usually yield 75% experience.
No character or inventory item, etc. is in play unless it has been approved by the DM. This includes characters who have gone up a level since the last time Hugh has okayed a character sheet. Things discussed between characters that effect game play do not happen if the DM is not made aware of them.
Though these aren’t our official rules: http://www.stormkeep.net/house_rules.htm they are very similar and well-detailed—worth a look!
Skill, Spell, Feat, Class changes and additions:
Added Knowledge (Undead) and Knowledge (The Planes) as class skills for cleric.
Added Knowledge (The Planes) as class skill for paladin.
Allow choice of Brew Potion or Scribe Scrolls for wizard’s “automatic” 1st level feat for Alchemist character
Added Craft (Glassmaking) as a skill (from The Book of Eldritch Might)
Added Urban Lore as a skill (from Traps and Treachery)
Added Mechanical Aptitude and Improved Sneak Attack feats (from Traps and Treachery)
Added Invisible Object spell (from Traps and Treachery)
Added Domain Specialization and Profound Faith feats (from The Book of the Righteous)
Added Radiant Servant of Pelor prestige class (from Dragon Magazine #283)
Added various non-magical equipment (from the Ultimate Equipment Guide)
Added Shadow Binding spell (from Dragon Magazine #291)
Added Magic Missile Spray spell (from Spells & Magic)
Added Bladesong spell (from WotC web site)
Main books used for character creation:
PHB
DMG
Defenders of the Faith
Deities and Demigods (Greyhawk Deities only)
Masters of the Wild
Song and Silence
Sword and Fist
Tome and Blood
Living Greyhawk Gazetteer
Some Dragon Magazine articles, approved on a case-by-case basis.
Well, so far the adventure has gone downhill, for me at least.
We left Smallville yesterday morning, and had a rather uneventful day. We followed our map towards the Barrier Peaks, and as we got closer to them we came upon a small farmhouse, which had beeen looted. We searched the house for clues, hoping that we would be able to find the victims of the attack.
While searching the area we found blood that was still wet all over the place , and recent footprints, some of small humanoids and some of large humanoids.
We spent the night at the house and set off along the path of foot prints the next morning.
Here begins Valon and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.
We followed the path to a cave which had skulls on a pole posted outside the enterance. We entered the cave and began through a tiny passage I heard Trap fall and a clanging from out ahead of us.
We retreated out of the cave and set up an ambush for anyone coming out. After a few minutes, Trap got hit by an arrow from the ledge. We dealt with the goblin on the ledge above, and headed back down the passage, with me leading the way. I came upon an ogre and tried to slip past it, letting Ghelt, who was behind me, deal with it (she is a more powerful fighter, after all.) Unfortunately the ogre kept up with me and I got hit by him. HARD. I laid on the ground barely consious, hoping that I would still be help to everyone else, a Goblin hit me, though and I fell unconsious.
I awoke with Drusilia above me and I could still hear sounds of a fight . I got up and followed the sounds. I attempted to shoot an arrow, but the string of my bow broke, and the arrow ended up hitting Fafnir, who seemed to have multiplied into 6 Fafnirs. I promtly gave up on trying to help as I was proving useless as the creature Trap had when I first saw him. The party has now finished clearing out the caves, and we are now set to travel further into the mountains.