As I’m just about to start sticking it to feeler face, Erson decides he’s had enough, turns into a cockroach, and scuttles away leaving me alone with Mr Ugly. Time to start dipping into my bag of tricks.
So first I roll right between his legs and as he tries to work out where I’ve gone I spring up and lunge at him but he steps aside at just the wrong moment. I can hear a couple of the others yelling at me to just run away, but it doesn’t seem like a good idea to leave squid face unoccupied as he seems to have plenty nasty tricks of his own.
Durthen shows up and we begin to pick on him but then there’s this screaming sound in my head. I try to ignore it and get in a good kidney shot, but then it happens again and it’s so loud I can’t think about anything except the pain.
By the time the screaming fades away it’s all over. The two halves of Squiddly Diddly make me think Durthen had a hand in his demise.
Now comes the fun part. Oh look, an altar that has (kick) a hidden compartment in it with a bunch of platinum and a couple of sweet-looking diamonds. Next we move on to the office and look, a (click) unlocked drawer with the cult’s ledger book, and (tap, tap, tap) another compartment with more “liquid assets”.
We also find a bunch of potions but later when we’re examining them we discover that they’re poisonous, but Malakar is able to fix that.
I paid Oby to enhance my Bracers a bit more—the poor guy needs cash to get some book he’s been lusting after, and apparently once he gets that we’ll be able to cash in those spell books we nabbed from the necromancer. I think a couple of the others also got him to do some work for them.
Malakar pores over the ledger and manages to find out where the poisonous potions are coming from, and we decide that’s the best place to go next. He also interrogates the spirit of Anna Basc but she doesn’t know anything new.
We make one quick pass by the alchemist’s place during the day, and then decide to just rifle the place by night. Getting in the front door is no challenge, but as we make our way through the shopfront a bunch of vials fly at us. One goes flying over my head, but the others aren’t so lucky and I have to actually bundle Oby into my bottomless bag because he’s incapacitated. I’m just glad I have the area silenced because the way the others are looking I’m pretty sure they would have been moaning enough to attract unwanted attention. Time for Plan C.
Back at the inn we scratch our heads to come up with a Plan C, while Malakar works on fixing up all the guys that seem to have turned into wet noodles of weakness. Soon we have a Plan C, which sounds like what someone proposed for Plan A, which was that Livia goes in and tries to get a meeting with the guy and then we find out what he knows.
Sounds easy enough, and Oby and I wait outside where we can easily get to the room where the others are waiting for the alchemist to show up. I was so proud of my guys—they were going all “no harm, no foul” until the guy asked for money to stop him turning us in to the authorities, and then they went psycho on him. Hahahahahaha.
Now I must say I was surprised at how well prepared this guy was, but I guess if you’re naughty it helps to have defences. So before long the statue decorating the room is in the fight, as is the rug. I hear some swearing as someone hits the alchemist, and his skin goes all tough and hard, and then he goes all fuzzy around the edges as well. Oby and I start to move up to the balcony to join up with the others, but then the whole balcony area is surrounded by some invisible barrier.
Oby makes a few gestures and the barrier disappears again, and then he turns the alchemist into a tortoise. Meanwhile Malakar has done that wall of knives thing and shredded the rug. And most everything else in the room—I can barely see anything.
Then the alchemist is an alchemist again, but his skin has also returned to normal, his outline has stopped being all fuzzy, and he gives up. His statue stops fighting as well, so now we have no reason to keep fighting. In theory it will be easier to get information from him while he’s still alive, but that implies a certain competence we have thus far completely failed to demonstrate.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
guards, guards, guards!
Why do these people, especially malakar want to tell the city authorities what we have found ? Let's play out this scenario
Livia : Hello Mr Guard
Guard : Hello evil elf. How can I be suspicious of you today?
L : Well I wanted to let you know of an evil plot I discovered
G : What's that?
L : Well, this alchemist was plotting with Anna Basc to ship poisoned potions overseas. They had a local forger make these fake shipping documents.
G : Really ? The Basc family has been a pillar of this community. Why would you level these accusations? That alchemist gives to a local orphanage! His potion cured my son the other day.
L : Well I have proof. In a ledger
G : Oh? what ledger?
L : This one right here.
G : How did you get that ledger from Anna Basc's warehouse?
L : Ummmm.....
G : And is that blood on it? You know nobody's seen her in a few days and the warehouse is closed
L : Ummmm......
G : And some locals noticed a disturbance at the alchemist's house, some people using magic in violation of the law. Sounded like a big fight
L : Errrrrr.....
G : And how do you know that local forger?
L : *Dimension Doors outta the city*
Sure, we could all get locked up for our illegal activities, or we can be smart about it - figure out why, stop the worst of it, and profit off of the rest. I do need a nice new pair of shoes, something agile....
Seriously, I'm not even sure why we were interrogating the alchemist, or breaking into his store at night. Sure, it's fun bluffing, and even more fun intimidating, but what does it get us?
I want to get power and revenge, not go chasing down some tactician.
Hrm, I didn't even realize how late in the year it's getting, fall comes so soon....
Livia : Hello Mr Guard
Guard : Hello evil elf. How can I be suspicious of you today?
L : Well I wanted to let you know of an evil plot I discovered
G : What's that?
L : Well, this alchemist was plotting with Anna Basc to ship poisoned potions overseas. They had a local forger make these fake shipping documents.
G : Really ? The Basc family has been a pillar of this community. Why would you level these accusations? That alchemist gives to a local orphanage! His potion cured my son the other day.
L : Well I have proof. In a ledger
G : Oh? what ledger?
L : This one right here.
G : How did you get that ledger from Anna Basc's warehouse?
L : Ummmm.....
G : And is that blood on it? You know nobody's seen her in a few days and the warehouse is closed
L : Ummmm......
G : And some locals noticed a disturbance at the alchemist's house, some people using magic in violation of the law. Sounded like a big fight
L : Errrrrr.....
G : And how do you know that local forger?
L : *Dimension Doors outta the city*
Sure, we could all get locked up for our illegal activities, or we can be smart about it - figure out why, stop the worst of it, and profit off of the rest. I do need a nice new pair of shoes, something agile....
Seriously, I'm not even sure why we were interrogating the alchemist, or breaking into his store at night. Sure, it's fun bluffing, and even more fun intimidating, but what does it get us?
I want to get power and revenge, not go chasing down some tactician.
Hrm, I didn't even realize how late in the year it's getting, fall comes so soon....
[dnd-monitoring] accordlands High_body_count_per_answer
So far we've established that Basc Trading, led by the late Annie Basc, is indeed a front for the cult of Bascaron. We haven't figured anything else out. I continue to be underwhelmed by our investigative prowess, but at least we returned to form by decimating (perforating, liquifying, etc.) a decent number of cultists. As is so often the case, our progress picked up as soon as our cover was blown and fighting started.
I am considering suggesting a new modus operandi to enhance the efficiency of our investigations: we go to an arbitrary town, and walk through it announcing that we're heroes, we're on to the local bad guys, and we're going to bring them to justice. Then we see who attacks us, and assume they're the bad guys. The only hitch in this plan is that the bad guys only ambush us once we appear to be a credible threat, so there remains a tedious initial nosiness-establishing phase. Perhaps I could develop an easily-detected clairvoyance spell, to speed things up. I guess it would be simpler to just send Malakar on scouting missions instead of Borrow, or put me in charge of diplomacy.
Of course, the "spring every trap by walking into it" policy does have some drawbacks. Vis a vis dangerous opponents, such as the living spell and tentacle-faced high priest we face at this very moment. Knock knock. Ooze there? Oh no, a magical ooze! Love me tendril, love me true, never let Erson go... crap this cultist insanity is getting to me.
I am considering suggesting a new modus operandi to enhance the efficiency of our investigations: we go to an arbitrary town, and walk through it announcing that we're heroes, we're on to the local bad guys, and we're going to bring them to justice. Then we see who attacks us, and assume they're the bad guys. The only hitch in this plan is that the bad guys only ambush us once we appear to be a credible threat, so there remains a tedious initial nosiness-establishing phase. Perhaps I could develop an easily-detected clairvoyance spell, to speed things up. I guess it would be simpler to just send Malakar on scouting missions instead of Borrow, or put me in charge of diplomacy.
Of course, the "spring every trap by walking into it" policy does have some drawbacks. Vis a vis dangerous opponents, such as the living spell and tentacle-faced high priest we face at this very moment. Knock knock. Ooze there? Oh no, a magical ooze! Love me tendril, love me true, never let Erson go... crap this cultist insanity is getting to me.
Paying our Temple Dues...with Interest!
To be honest, I expected the spider chick's dad would be, well, a daddy long-legs. And maybe he is -- the head scholar we met claims he adopted her. So her true daddy long-legs might be sitting on the side of a house somewhere, pining away for his lost daughter. Maybe when we pull both halves of her corpse out of the bag of holding, we'll track him down and let him know.
I know that seems unusually caring of me given that I cut his daughter in half with my axe, but I just want our cleric to speak with dead and ask "Who's your daddy?". Can you blame me?
So, our next lead was the "Basc" trading company. It was right next to the Allen Qaeda Sand Emporium. The funny thing is, I think we could learn a lesson from their subtlety. Ahem, anyways.
We send in Livia to setup a meet with the trading company owner/manager, and she manages to do it without getting killed -- the owner lady pops into our (new) inn and Livia convinces her she wants to get involved in some illicit trading. Owner lady says to meet her at the trading company after nightfall, so we hang out in a nearby alley and keep track of Livia magically while she does the deal. Oby goes in as her manservant -- he finally took down his daily disguise so nobody would recognize him as the old feeble man he really is.
Finally, things start returning to normal. Livia and Oby get held up and manacled and Livia babbles about a coin and gets the trader lady all kinds of interested. Fortunately for us (not them) Livia leads them down the alley we just setup for an ambush. The fight was billed as "Monkeys In A Barrell" on HBO if you're interested in watching it again. Only the warlock got away!
We did manage to trap two soldiers, who let us know about a secret underground temple after peeing their pants. I guess they didn't want to ask for a hall pass for the bathroom.
Clearly, it would be a brilliant idea to sneak into the temple while they were on full alert. Don't ever say we are not brilliant!
Downstairs was the warlock, whom we quickly dispatched. Things got more interesting when we found the main altar. I ran in past a bunch of guards to attack the head priest, while some orb floated past and turned into a tentacled mass which blocked the doorway -- and no, it wasn't Sorcha. It was a bigger tentacled mass, and Oby wasn't making googly eyes at it.
The head priest started out rather wussy. I even managed to drop the guards that surrounded me with a sweet whirl of my axe! You perform it by drawing a circle with the stylus on the touch pad, centered around Link. It can be a little hard -- try drawing bigger circles if you have difficulty.
Things were definately going my way, at least until the priest turned into yet another tentacled mass -- smaller -- and tried to eat my head. I tried to tell him oby's brain would be a nicer snack, but he wasn't listening. Finally my prayers were answered, as I was teleported away from his grip and left Erson in his clutches instead.
And here we are, in the middle of a fight while I take the time to write Dear Diary. It's amazing what you can do with a free action when you own a magical Blog Of Posting.
I know that seems unusually caring of me given that I cut his daughter in half with my axe, but I just want our cleric to speak with dead and ask "Who's your daddy?". Can you blame me?
So, our next lead was the "Basc" trading company. It was right next to the Allen Qaeda Sand Emporium. The funny thing is, I think we could learn a lesson from their subtlety. Ahem, anyways.
We send in Livia to setup a meet with the trading company owner/manager, and she manages to do it without getting killed -- the owner lady pops into our (new) inn and Livia convinces her she wants to get involved in some illicit trading. Owner lady says to meet her at the trading company after nightfall, so we hang out in a nearby alley and keep track of Livia magically while she does the deal. Oby goes in as her manservant -- he finally took down his daily disguise so nobody would recognize him as the old feeble man he really is.
Finally, things start returning to normal. Livia and Oby get held up and manacled and Livia babbles about a coin and gets the trader lady all kinds of interested. Fortunately for us (not them) Livia leads them down the alley we just setup for an ambush. The fight was billed as "Monkeys In A Barrell" on HBO if you're interested in watching it again. Only the warlock got away!
We did manage to trap two soldiers, who let us know about a secret underground temple after peeing their pants. I guess they didn't want to ask for a hall pass for the bathroom.
Clearly, it would be a brilliant idea to sneak into the temple while they were on full alert. Don't ever say we are not brilliant!
Downstairs was the warlock, whom we quickly dispatched. Things got more interesting when we found the main altar. I ran in past a bunch of guards to attack the head priest, while some orb floated past and turned into a tentacled mass which blocked the doorway -- and no, it wasn't Sorcha. It was a bigger tentacled mass, and Oby wasn't making googly eyes at it.
The head priest started out rather wussy. I even managed to drop the guards that surrounded me with a sweet whirl of my axe! You perform it by drawing a circle with the stylus on the touch pad, centered around Link. It can be a little hard -- try drawing bigger circles if you have difficulty.
Things were definately going my way, at least until the priest turned into yet another tentacled mass -- smaller -- and tried to eat my head. I tried to tell him oby's brain would be a nicer snack, but he wasn't listening. Finally my prayers were answered, as I was teleported away from his grip and left Erson in his clutches instead.
And here we are, in the middle of a fight while I take the time to write Dear Diary. It's amazing what you can do with a free action when you own a magical Blog Of Posting.
View From the Inside of an Ooze
So the day started off pretty normally -- I tried to question a corpse, failed, then I burned a bunch of incense to get answers, failed again, and then got into an argument with Borrow on whether or not "employers" actually must mean that they're paying you.
We went and checked out the "Basc" corporation, and discovered that it wasn't much more than a warehouse, or so we thought at the time. Livy volunteered to go ahead and pretend to be an elven merchant interested in illicit goods, and somehow she managed to get a meeting with one Annie Basc. All this subterfuge was grating my nerves, but soon enough, their cover was blown as Obegard and Livy went back to the warehouse to negotiate the final details of this "deal". Fortunately Obegard had a spell of message on hand, and those of us on the outside were able to hear that they were in trouble. I whispered for them to lead their captors down the alleyway, and fortunately, it wasn't hard for Livy convinced them that platinum coin the mysterious woman gave Obegard was with us. I don't know why they were so interested in that coin, though.
We sprung our ambush as they came down the alley. I ring a barrier of spinning blades surrounding and separating the cultists from Obegard and Livy as Borrow attacked from the flanks. Woe swapped Livy with Durthen and I undid Livy's manacles with a spell. It wasn't long before we forced the trapped cultists to surrender. Unfortunately, Annie Basc was killed in the fight. However, we did manage to get a good deal of information from our debriefing with them. They told us of a hidden temple beneath the warehouse.
We promptly descended into the corridors below. We encountered one of the cultists that managed to escape earlier, but a flurry of magic missiles blasted him down. His presence meant that the rest of the cultists must be on alert too. We explored for a small bit, and behind a locked door we found what must have been the temple for these cultists. There were five of them, along with some hovering orb. I stepped in and blasted four with divine fire, leaving Durthen to finish them off with a single slash of his axe. However, the final opponent was far more challenging. He was all but immune to most of our spells, and worse yet, the orb zoomed toward us and turned into some sort of ooze like beast. It
moved toward me, and I was just a little too slow to dodge out of the way. The next thing I knew, I was inside of it, getting crushed and also feeling so tired. I saw the cultist leader turn into some sort of tentacled beast, and lash out at Durthen and Erson, hurting them badly. I guess that's my cue to act. I probably shouldn't be writing this in the middle of a fight, anyways.
That could be me if I'm not careful.
We went and checked out the "Basc" corporation, and discovered that it wasn't much more than a warehouse, or so we thought at the time. Livy volunteered to go ahead and pretend to be an elven merchant interested in illicit goods, and somehow she managed to get a meeting with one Annie Basc. All this subterfuge was grating my nerves, but soon enough, their cover was blown as Obegard and Livy went back to the warehouse to negotiate the final details of this "deal". Fortunately Obegard had a spell of message on hand, and those of us on the outside were able to hear that they were in trouble. I whispered for them to lead their captors down the alleyway, and fortunately, it wasn't hard for Livy convinced them that platinum coin the mysterious woman gave Obegard was with us. I don't know why they were so interested in that coin, though.
We sprung our ambush as they came down the alley. I ring a barrier of spinning blades surrounding and separating the cultists from Obegard and Livy as Borrow attacked from the flanks. Woe swapped Livy with Durthen and I undid Livy's manacles with a spell. It wasn't long before we forced the trapped cultists to surrender. Unfortunately, Annie Basc was killed in the fight. However, we did manage to get a good deal of information from our debriefing with them. They told us of a hidden temple beneath the warehouse.
We promptly descended into the corridors below. We encountered one of the cultists that managed to escape earlier, but a flurry of magic missiles blasted him down. His presence meant that the rest of the cultists must be on alert too. We explored for a small bit, and behind a locked door we found what must have been the temple for these cultists. There were five of them, along with some hovering orb. I stepped in and blasted four with divine fire, leaving Durthen to finish them off with a single slash of his axe. However, the final opponent was far more challenging. He was all but immune to most of our spells, and worse yet, the orb zoomed toward us and turned into some sort of ooze like beast. It
moved toward me, and I was just a little too slow to dodge out of the way. The next thing I knew, I was inside of it, getting crushed and also feeling so tired. I saw the cultist leader turn into some sort of tentacled beast, and lash out at Durthen and Erson, hurting them badly. I guess that's my cue to act. I probably shouldn't be writing this in the middle of a fight, anyways.That could be me if I'm not careful.
Tongue tied
I'm really off my game today. All I needed to do was a simple bluff and then I fuck it all up by instead blabbing about the coin. What is wrong with me?
The day at least started well enough. Malakar couldn't talk to the dead aranaea. Maybe if someone hadn't cut her in two....
We went to the magical tower to try and figure out what was up with her. We found out she was the adopted daughter of the headmaster (oops!) but nobody seemed to suspect her. She was very studious and excelled at magic. It seems like it's likely that she was always an aranaea just wearing the form of a human and disguising it very well.
Then I went to the Basc trading company posign as an elven trader. I was told that Annie Basc would be with me soon. I really hoped that it was just a coincidence - what kind of crazy cultist would give themselves a nom de guerre that's a shortened name of their illegal evil cult? Obviously one that could flip around even my tongue. Well later on (after we had moved from the first hotel to a second one), I met her at a third hotel and convinced her (well not too well) that I wanted to trade in magic potions and other illicit substances. As she walked by the common room, Malakar sensed that she was a cultist of Bascaron (I wonder what other surprises he holds). So much for her subterfuge.
I went to meet her with Obegard as my manservant (I love that phrase, by the way). But she immediately figured out that I was not being completely honest. I really should have brought along a bodyguard as well. With scythes aimed for me, I was afraid that I would not be able to survive long enough to dimension door out of there. I lost my nerve for a second and suddenly somehow started blabbing about the coin. She didn't even know abotu the coin. At least I kept my wits with me enough to tell her that it was with the rest of my party (who was waiting around the corner). Thank goodness they were prepared and sprung a nice ambush. There was enough distraction for me and obegard to jump away safely. Malekar then cast wall of blades to trap them all in. We managed to capture alive two of the low level guards and I managed to literally scare the shit out of them. Dearthy of course split Annie Basc in two (again!) before we could talk to her. Doesn't he realize that talking with the living is much, much easier than talking with teh dead? I have to sneak in and dull his axe sometime.
Anyways we wound up making it down to the main temple (trap door underneath a crate,how typical) and are stuck in a battle with a creepy tentacle-face monster. Shouldn't be too hard to kill him, just long.... and hopefully durthy doesn't axe him like all the others
The day at least started well enough. Malakar couldn't talk to the dead aranaea. Maybe if someone hadn't cut her in two....
We went to the magical tower to try and figure out what was up with her. We found out she was the adopted daughter of the headmaster (oops!) but nobody seemed to suspect her. She was very studious and excelled at magic. It seems like it's likely that she was always an aranaea just wearing the form of a human and disguising it very well.
Then I went to the Basc trading company posign as an elven trader. I was told that Annie Basc would be with me soon. I really hoped that it was just a coincidence - what kind of crazy cultist would give themselves a nom de guerre that's a shortened name of their illegal evil cult? Obviously one that could flip around even my tongue. Well later on (after we had moved from the first hotel to a second one), I met her at a third hotel and convinced her (well not too well) that I wanted to trade in magic potions and other illicit substances. As she walked by the common room, Malakar sensed that she was a cultist of Bascaron (I wonder what other surprises he holds). So much for her subterfuge.
I went to meet her with Obegard as my manservant (I love that phrase, by the way). But she immediately figured out that I was not being completely honest. I really should have brought along a bodyguard as well. With scythes aimed for me, I was afraid that I would not be able to survive long enough to dimension door out of there. I lost my nerve for a second and suddenly somehow started blabbing about the coin. She didn't even know abotu the coin. At least I kept my wits with me enough to tell her that it was with the rest of my party (who was waiting around the corner). Thank goodness they were prepared and sprung a nice ambush. There was enough distraction for me and obegard to jump away safely. Malekar then cast wall of blades to trap them all in. We managed to capture alive two of the low level guards and I managed to literally scare the shit out of them. Dearthy of course split Annie Basc in two (again!) before we could talk to her. Doesn't he realize that talking with the living is much, much easier than talking with teh dead? I have to sneak in and dull his axe sometime.
Anyways we wound up making it down to the main temple (trap door underneath a crate,how typical) and are stuck in a battle with a creepy tentacle-face monster. Shouldn't be too hard to kill him, just long.... and hopefully durthy doesn't axe him like all the others
Monday, October 22, 2007
Ahaha. All cult up.
Malakar attempted to summon the spirit of the dead Aranea so we could find out what she wanted. It didn't work, and it will be another week before he can try again. Which means lugging around two oozing, stinking half-Aranea corpses. Well they ain’t goin’ in my rabbit hole—I’m not going to fight nausea every time I pull something out!
Two visitors in two nights is like a giant sign saying “Time to Move”. Fortunately we’re all literate and before long we were settling in to a new inn. Almost surprising, really—common-sense isn’t generally the first thing that comes to mind when I think about Upworlders.
Two paths were still evident: back to the magic college to find out more about Little Miss Spider; or Basc Trading Company to find why someone was shipping poisons and potions secretly, and find out whether it really was the least imaginative name that cultists of Bascerone could come up with.
We tried the magic college first and that was a dud. Beyond noting that she was the best student he’d ever seen the master had never noticed anything about her since he adopted her. The whole thing sounds suspicious but if he’s lying he’s had a lot of practice so we’ll have to let that go for now.
Which leaves the Basc Trading Company, or whatever they call themselves. As before, we sent Livia in to set things up. She told them she’d come into some money and was looking for a way to increase it. They told her that Annie Basc would come to see her to discuss options.
Sure enough, a dark-haired woman came to meet Livia, and invited her to come back to the warehouse to finalise the details. She took Obegard with her, and the rest of us hid nearby. Sure enough it went sour almost immediately—apparently she’d seen through Livia’s story.
Fortunately for us after slapping on some manacles they brought Livia and Obegard outside and straight down the narrow alley where we were immediately able to trap them. The fight was short and bloody; mostly on their side. One of the guards we didn’t kill spilled his guts and told us that underneath one of the crates in the warehouse was the entrance to a hidden temple, where there were maybe a dozen more guards, the warlock that had slipped away from our ambush, and a visiting priest of Bascerone.
In for a copper, in for a gold as they say so it was back into the warehouse, pull aside the crates, and down the stairs. Just round the corner was the warlock, but he idn’t seem to have done much since to raise the alarm and it was only a few seconds before he was dead as well.
We checked one direction and came across a barracks and a bedroom, neither of which was occupied. Looking the other way there was a door in a “temporary state of security” and once that was remedied things got somewhat hairier.
We’d found the temple, and hovering over the altar was some weird sphere. Dearthen made for the priest straight past the gaping guards, and then the weird sphere sprang forth of its own volition and burst into a mass of tentacles blocking the entrance to the temple. How very inconvenient.
Didn’t slow us down that much though. Malakar called down some divine flame on the guards, then Woe, Livia and Malakar did that magical jump thing into the temple. The guards had closed in around Dearthen and he called some power from his axe and as it flashed fatally around him the guards all fell.
The tentacle-thing moved over to engulf Malakar, and I took the opportunity to slip past on the other side. It tried to engulf me as well, but I dodged past and then moved in to attack the priest.
Suddenly the priest’s appearance shifted and his face sprouted tentacles. He leapt on Dearthen, but then someone magically switched Dearthen and Erson. Erson is usually pretty good in a cuddle, but I dunno what’s gonna happen with this thing, so I think I’ll stick here and see if I can trim those squiggly whiskers.
Two visitors in two nights is like a giant sign saying “Time to Move”. Fortunately we’re all literate and before long we were settling in to a new inn. Almost surprising, really—common-sense isn’t generally the first thing that comes to mind when I think about Upworlders.
Two paths were still evident: back to the magic college to find out more about Little Miss Spider; or Basc Trading Company to find why someone was shipping poisons and potions secretly, and find out whether it really was the least imaginative name that cultists of Bascerone could come up with.
We tried the magic college first and that was a dud. Beyond noting that she was the best student he’d ever seen the master had never noticed anything about her since he adopted her. The whole thing sounds suspicious but if he’s lying he’s had a lot of practice so we’ll have to let that go for now.
Which leaves the Basc Trading Company, or whatever they call themselves. As before, we sent Livia in to set things up. She told them she’d come into some money and was looking for a way to increase it. They told her that Annie Basc would come to see her to discuss options.
Sure enough, a dark-haired woman came to meet Livia, and invited her to come back to the warehouse to finalise the details. She took Obegard with her, and the rest of us hid nearby. Sure enough it went sour almost immediately—apparently she’d seen through Livia’s story.
Fortunately for us after slapping on some manacles they brought Livia and Obegard outside and straight down the narrow alley where we were immediately able to trap them. The fight was short and bloody; mostly on their side. One of the guards we didn’t kill spilled his guts and told us that underneath one of the crates in the warehouse was the entrance to a hidden temple, where there were maybe a dozen more guards, the warlock that had slipped away from our ambush, and a visiting priest of Bascerone.
In for a copper, in for a gold as they say so it was back into the warehouse, pull aside the crates, and down the stairs. Just round the corner was the warlock, but he idn’t seem to have done much since to raise the alarm and it was only a few seconds before he was dead as well.
We checked one direction and came across a barracks and a bedroom, neither of which was occupied. Looking the other way there was a door in a “temporary state of security” and once that was remedied things got somewhat hairier.
We’d found the temple, and hovering over the altar was some weird sphere. Dearthen made for the priest straight past the gaping guards, and then the weird sphere sprang forth of its own volition and burst into a mass of tentacles blocking the entrance to the temple. How very inconvenient.
Didn’t slow us down that much though. Malakar called down some divine flame on the guards, then Woe, Livia and Malakar did that magical jump thing into the temple. The guards had closed in around Dearthen and he called some power from his axe and as it flashed fatally around him the guards all fell.
The tentacle-thing moved over to engulf Malakar, and I took the opportunity to slip past on the other side. It tried to engulf me as well, but I dodged past and then moved in to attack the priest.
Suddenly the priest’s appearance shifted and his face sprouted tentacles. He leapt on Dearthen, but then someone magically switched Dearthen and Erson. Erson is usually pretty good in a cuddle, but I dunno what’s gonna happen with this thing, so I think I’ll stick here and see if I can trim those squiggly whiskers.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Oby shrank his wood! Crate, that is.
There's only one thing more exciting than slaying a giant evil spider bitch -- namely, slaying a giant evil spider bitch and then going back into your bedroom to play a few rounds of pinochle.
What? What did you think I was going to say?
You know, I hope the others don't find out how much I love card games -- but that lady I met really plays a mean hand of pinochle. I bet she's got at least 5 ranks in profession gambler! Too bad I'll have to play it up like we was fooling around all physical-like so they'll never know. She's hot and all, but just not....dwarfy...enough. You know? Growing up in a dwarf hold lets you appreciate a woman with a REAL constitution score....
But, alas, no pinochle for me. Woe came out and met the peeps, and Oby noticed his pendant was back on the radar (I wish I knew what radar was) so we decided to chase it down while the going was good.
We made our way over there and Oby muttered for 10 minutes and some dude popped out of a roof near by and we started teleporting around and then it was like 25 hours of chasing a greased rabbit (now THERE'S a game for the bedroom) where the most fun part was smashing through an iron wall (who did that, anyways? us or him?). Smashing is a high art, thank you very much.
The rabbit's name was Flinn, and he had a sister named Laura and a cousin named Boyle -- but that's neither here nore there. He did claim the pendant was planted on him, and we just believed him because we're too lazy. But he had a connection with some smuggler's ship, so we decided to follow that lead.
At this point, we tried to get all clever and disguised Livia as Flinn and she ran in and dropped off Flinn's papers and tried to find out what was up. All we got was a look at their cargo, which looked legit. So we sent the sneaky midget in to do his job -- 'cept this time he couldn't give us any lip because he had no lip. We should keep him as a pink cloud. It really was pink -- don't tell him, it's too funny.
Our fluffy cloud found a crate that looked different, and we decided to float Oby inside, invisible, to shrink it down and teleport or fly back. That almost worked, except he triggered some signal on his way in and pissed everybody off.
We did get away, though, and made it back to the inn. Where, oddly enough, the giant Moo Cow bad guy came and found us. How? Maybe he'd marked his crate.
Anyways, at this point there was no beating around the bush. He obviously knew we had his shit, and we wanted to know what the shit was and how it was connected to us. The dude seem pretty straightforward -- $10 says he's lawful evil -- and I got tired of trying to be inventive. Fact of the matter is, we found out it was connected to a shipping company and that it's contents weren't going to level a city or anything (just a bunch of potions) so for the moment we let him go.
S'not like we can't tell the city guard on him before he leaves port. I wonder why we aren't, I bet we can drop an anonymous tip using some of our fancy magicz... and just when they're inspecting the ship, oby can dismiss his shrink spell *grin*
What? What did you think I was going to say?
You know, I hope the others don't find out how much I love card games -- but that lady I met really plays a mean hand of pinochle. I bet she's got at least 5 ranks in profession gambler! Too bad I'll have to play it up like we was fooling around all physical-like so they'll never know. She's hot and all, but just not....dwarfy...enough. You know? Growing up in a dwarf hold lets you appreciate a woman with a REAL constitution score....
But, alas, no pinochle for me. Woe came out and met the peeps, and Oby noticed his pendant was back on the radar (I wish I knew what radar was) so we decided to chase it down while the going was good.
We made our way over there and Oby muttered for 10 minutes and some dude popped out of a roof near by and we started teleporting around and then it was like 25 hours of chasing a greased rabbit (now THERE'S a game for the bedroom) where the most fun part was smashing through an iron wall (who did that, anyways? us or him?). Smashing is a high art, thank you very much.
The rabbit's name was Flinn, and he had a sister named Laura and a cousin named Boyle -- but that's neither here nore there. He did claim the pendant was planted on him, and we just believed him because we're too lazy. But he had a connection with some smuggler's ship, so we decided to follow that lead.
At this point, we tried to get all clever and disguised Livia as Flinn and she ran in and dropped off Flinn's papers and tried to find out what was up. All we got was a look at their cargo, which looked legit. So we sent the sneaky midget in to do his job -- 'cept this time he couldn't give us any lip because he had no lip. We should keep him as a pink cloud. It really was pink -- don't tell him, it's too funny.
Our fluffy cloud found a crate that looked different, and we decided to float Oby inside, invisible, to shrink it down and teleport or fly back. That almost worked, except he triggered some signal on his way in and pissed everybody off.
We did get away, though, and made it back to the inn. Where, oddly enough, the giant Moo Cow bad guy came and found us. How? Maybe he'd marked his crate.
Anyways, at this point there was no beating around the bush. He obviously knew we had his shit, and we wanted to know what the shit was and how it was connected to us. The dude seem pretty straightforward -- $10 says he's lawful evil -- and I got tired of trying to be inventive. Fact of the matter is, we found out it was connected to a shipping company and that it's contents weren't going to level a city or anything (just a bunch of potions) so for the moment we let him go.
S'not like we can't tell the city guard on him before he leaves port. I wonder why we aren't, I bet we can drop an anonymous tip using some of our fancy magicz... and just when they're inspecting the ship, oby can dismiss his shrink spell *grin*
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Voices in My Head Telling Me Not to Burn Everything Down
So after we dispatched the Aernea, Obegard informed us that he felt his pendant somewhere in this city. We resolved to set off immediately to track it down.
At this moment, a woman emerged from Durthen's room. I didn't know what the deal was, but she claimed to be from Obegard's guild. Obegard didn't seem to be suspicious of her claims, and that was good enough for me. She told us that her name was Woe, or was it "Whoa".
We followed Obegard to the house where his pendant was, and Obegard, being the voyeur that he was, eagerly volunteered to conduct a little lookie loo into the man's home. Unfortunately for us, the resident was prepared for such peepers, and somehow detected Obegard and began clearing out his goods. We quickly moved in to surround him, but this guy was more slippery than Borrow after a day of midget oil wrestling. We eventually caught up to him, and much to my disbelief, the others allowed him to keep his undoubtedly-ill-begotten goods. We also figured out that this man, Finn, was tasked with forging some papers for a ship set to leave dock this very morning. At this point we also suspected that someone was pulling our strings -- Obegard probed the man's thoughts, and it appeared that he really didn't have an idea how the pendant got into his possession. It seems that we were being led toward this ship, but by whom?
To cut a bit of a long story short, Ili used my hat of disguise and pretended to be Finn to deliver the forged documents, to the ship, which were crewed by a bunch of nasty looking humanoids. We stayed in contact with a telepathic bond, and though Ili wasn't able to gather much information, Borrow went in next, transformed into a cloud of vapor indistinguishable form the fog that permeated throughout the docks. He was able to gather some information about the cargo the ship was set to carry, but he wasn't able to figure out what it was, so we finally sent Obegard in to hopefully shrink the crate and bring it back with us for further examination. Unfortunately, Obegard went in the wrong way, and set off an alarm spell. I was about to cast a Flame Strike to create a distraction, but the others told me not to do it, so I backed off. Too bad, because I could have really crippled that ship. Obegard managed to steal the crate and teleport back to our room, where we met with him a little while later.
We didn't have much time before the captain of that ship came knocking at our door. I don't know how he managed to find us, because we never told Finn about where we were staying. Durthen and I had a chat with the beast, and I have to say that Durthen wasn't the most discreet of individuals, he pretty much spilled the metaphorical beans right away, and if it weren't for Obegard's timely Detect Thoughts spell, I fear that we would have let him get away. By carefully asking the right questions, I was able to get the captain to think about exactly why he needed the forged documents -- namely that the cargo was poisoned potions! With our goal accomplished, we let him take back his crate, with the intent that we'd warn the destination city of the tainted goods before they arrive. We also learned of this "Basc" company that apparently had initially supplied the goods.
At this moment, a woman emerged from Durthen's room. I didn't know what the deal was, but she claimed to be from Obegard's guild. Obegard didn't seem to be suspicious of her claims, and that was good enough for me. She told us that her name was Woe, or was it "Whoa".We followed Obegard to the house where his pendant was, and Obegard, being the voyeur that he was, eagerly volunteered to conduct a little lookie loo into the man's home. Unfortunately for us, the resident was prepared for such peepers, and somehow detected Obegard and began clearing out his goods. We quickly moved in to surround him, but this guy was more slippery than Borrow after a day of midget oil wrestling. We eventually caught up to him, and much to my disbelief, the others allowed him to keep his undoubtedly-ill-begotten goods. We also figured out that this man, Finn, was tasked with forging some papers for a ship set to leave dock this very morning. At this point we also suspected that someone was pulling our strings -- Obegard probed the man's thoughts, and it appeared that he really didn't have an idea how the pendant got into his possession. It seems that we were being led toward this ship, but by whom?
To cut a bit of a long story short, Ili used my hat of disguise and pretended to be Finn to deliver the forged documents, to the ship, which were crewed by a bunch of nasty looking humanoids. We stayed in contact with a telepathic bond, and though Ili wasn't able to gather much information, Borrow went in next, transformed into a cloud of vapor indistinguishable form the fog that permeated throughout the docks. He was able to gather some information about the cargo the ship was set to carry, but he wasn't able to figure out what it was, so we finally sent Obegard in to hopefully shrink the crate and bring it back with us for further examination. Unfortunately, Obegard went in the wrong way, and set off an alarm spell. I was about to cast a Flame Strike to create a distraction, but the others told me not to do it, so I backed off. Too bad, because I could have really crippled that ship. Obegard managed to steal the crate and teleport back to our room, where we met with him a little while later.
We didn't have much time before the captain of that ship came knocking at our door. I don't know how he managed to find us, because we never told Finn about where we were staying. Durthen and I had a chat with the beast, and I have to say that Durthen wasn't the most discreet of individuals, he pretty much spilled the metaphorical beans right away, and if it weren't for Obegard's timely Detect Thoughts spell, I fear that we would have let him get away. By carefully asking the right questions, I was able to get the captain to think about exactly why he needed the forged documents -- namely that the cargo was poisoned potions! With our goal accomplished, we let him take back his crate, with the intent that we'd warn the destination city of the tainted goods before they arrive. We also learned of this "Basc" company that apparently had initially supplied the goods.
Interesting, yet pointless
This time there didn't seem to be as much rushing ahead, though I still question Durthen's intelligence. He may be of more use to us if his tongue was removed. I guess some of the more evil of my kin had some excellent ideas. It's time to get out of this city as quick as possible though, I have a feeling we have attracted far too much attention.
Obegard could once again sense his pendant and I was definitely in the mood to figure out what was going on. Who was that mysterious girl? I did like her style, distracting Obegard so he would lose his wits. And leaving an incredibly rare (and horribly difficult to track) coin has got to be the most interesting calling card I have seen. Rather subtle - like she wants to be found, yet she wants us to search around for a week or two... Is it a trap, these folks do have many enemies. It is always easier to kill a group without attracting attention if you draw them away, rather than some large explosions in a guard-rich city.
Surprisingly enough, a woman from Obegard's school came out of Durthen's room. Either they teach their students to fall for the first thing that crosses their path (like Obegard) or Durthen shelled out for a strong potion of charming (I hope for the sake of hundreds of wizards and sorcerors, it's the latter).
So, we go and intimidate the thief that has Obie's pendant - he truly seems to be clueless--- either a skilled liar or an idiot. He's also rather slippery - he even managed to crawl over a 20 foot iron wall (I really hope that it's not too noticable....) without much of a problem. We grabbed some of his stuff as collateral, unfortunately returning the best thing he had -- we needed something to keep him in line. I decided to try and disguise myself as him to deliver the forged documents for a bunch of crates heading out in the morning -- the captain appeared to be pretty strong and intelligent and I didn't want to risk interrogating him. I tried some of the ground crew - rumors usually get around to the grunts rather quickly, even offering some gold for good information but they didn't have anything. We decided to send borrow into look inside the crates - as a cloud of fog. He slipped in, identified a crate that appeared different than the others, but unfortunately, you can't tell one liquid from another too well by sight alone. We decided to send Obegard in to grab the crate.
Unfortunately, the main cargo entrance was protected by a spell I hadn't encountered before, detecting Obie's entrance and setting off an alarm - he grabbed the crate and we rushed out, unfortunately I'm certain that we left tracks. While the others were upstairs, preparing for sleep, I hung around outside around the inn (I had almost forgotten how long humans spend sleeping!). Thank goodness our telepathic bond was still going off, because I saw the captain and a band of thugs heading towards the group in the inn. This would definitely attract attention. In luck, a band of guards was just heading down. I lied and told them the thugs had some weapons. Pretty believable. It scared most of them away.
Then Durthen and Malakar became the spokespeople for our group with the captain. Bad bad idea. Durthen would not shut up. Malakar kept relaying the conversation to me, while I was hanging around downstairs, just in case anything happened. Obegard was detecting thoughts, so it was interesting, turns out he was smuggling magic potions and poison, but Durthen's diplomatic skills left much to be desired and we didn't get too much useful, or a chance to even mark the crate. It was priceless to see the mental picture of an angry minotaur as he is handed back a miniature crate, one that could fit into the palm of your hand.
Well, we still haven't figured out why that aranea tried to kill us, what the coin is for, or much else. And we are still no closer to ridding my people of the scourge of necromancy....
I think I am starting to empathize with Borrow, this band tends to rush into action too much when they should be holding back and trying to use subterfuge more often. It was pretty effective this time, even though we didn't get as much loot as we could have otherwise.
Obegard could once again sense his pendant and I was definitely in the mood to figure out what was going on. Who was that mysterious girl? I did like her style, distracting Obegard so he would lose his wits. And leaving an incredibly rare (and horribly difficult to track) coin has got to be the most interesting calling card I have seen. Rather subtle - like she wants to be found, yet she wants us to search around for a week or two... Is it a trap, these folks do have many enemies. It is always easier to kill a group without attracting attention if you draw them away, rather than some large explosions in a guard-rich city.
Surprisingly enough, a woman from Obegard's school came out of Durthen's room. Either they teach their students to fall for the first thing that crosses their path (like Obegard) or Durthen shelled out for a strong potion of charming (I hope for the sake of hundreds of wizards and sorcerors, it's the latter).
So, we go and intimidate the thief that has Obie's pendant - he truly seems to be clueless--- either a skilled liar or an idiot. He's also rather slippery - he even managed to crawl over a 20 foot iron wall (I really hope that it's not too noticable....) without much of a problem. We grabbed some of his stuff as collateral, unfortunately returning the best thing he had -- we needed something to keep him in line. I decided to try and disguise myself as him to deliver the forged documents for a bunch of crates heading out in the morning -- the captain appeared to be pretty strong and intelligent and I didn't want to risk interrogating him. I tried some of the ground crew - rumors usually get around to the grunts rather quickly, even offering some gold for good information but they didn't have anything. We decided to send borrow into look inside the crates - as a cloud of fog. He slipped in, identified a crate that appeared different than the others, but unfortunately, you can't tell one liquid from another too well by sight alone. We decided to send Obegard in to grab the crate.
Unfortunately, the main cargo entrance was protected by a spell I hadn't encountered before, detecting Obie's entrance and setting off an alarm - he grabbed the crate and we rushed out, unfortunately I'm certain that we left tracks. While the others were upstairs, preparing for sleep, I hung around outside around the inn (I had almost forgotten how long humans spend sleeping!). Thank goodness our telepathic bond was still going off, because I saw the captain and a band of thugs heading towards the group in the inn. This would definitely attract attention. In luck, a band of guards was just heading down. I lied and told them the thugs had some weapons. Pretty believable. It scared most of them away.
Then Durthen and Malakar became the spokespeople for our group with the captain. Bad bad idea. Durthen would not shut up. Malakar kept relaying the conversation to me, while I was hanging around downstairs, just in case anything happened. Obegard was detecting thoughts, so it was interesting, turns out he was smuggling magic potions and poison, but Durthen's diplomatic skills left much to be desired and we didn't get too much useful, or a chance to even mark the crate. It was priceless to see the mental picture of an angry minotaur as he is handed back a miniature crate, one that could fit into the palm of your hand.
Well, we still haven't figured out why that aranea tried to kill us, what the coin is for, or much else. And we are still no closer to ridding my people of the scourge of necromancy....
I think I am starting to empathize with Borrow, this band tends to rush into action too much when they should be holding back and trying to use subterfuge more often. It was pretty effective this time, even though we didn't get as much loot as we could have otherwise.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Woe betide us all
We’ve found a new companion. She seems quite capable, helping to rain some misery, but a bit on the shy side. I’m guessing by her name she might have some familiarity with dwarves though at the moment she’s playing her cards close to her chest.
What she was doing in Durthen’s room I don’t know. I’m not sure I want to know, either. On the one hand, knowledge is power, but on the other what use is gaining knowledge if you then have to immediately go and get your whole mind erased for fear that one piece will contaminate everything else if you leave even a trace of it behind. No—what Durthen gets up to behind closed doors is not worth the risk.
The guy that had Oby’s pendant seems as much a victim as we. I have to give him credit, though—S-L-I-P-P-E-R-Y. I don’t know what his trick was, but I’d love to be able to just slip out of grapples, run through webs, and all that other neat stuff he was doing.
If there hadn’t been so many of us we would probably have never caught him.
While he had Oby’s proud spire in his pocket, he had no idea where it had come from. The only thing of interest here was that he’d been forging some documents for a ship we’d heard about that was supposed to sail on the morning tide. Mr Puppet, meet Mr String.
Down to the docks and Livia shifts into the form of our “scribe” and goes aboard to deliver the documents. That’s 200g for the good guys. She tries to find out from the sailors what’s what but it seems they’re just the hired help and don’t know anything useful so instead I let Obegard turn me into a cloud of smoke and I use a mind-talking spell he cast to keep everyone informed what’s happening.
Firstly, can I just say that being smoke is kind of cool.
Secondly, can I just say that being smoke is so slow I almost fell asleep just getting to the ship.
But eventually I’m in the hold checking around, though I have to be kind of careful with the sailors wandering around placing crates. It didn’t take too long to find something interesting. Sure, most of what was there was food and wine just like the forged documents said, but I found the one crate where the bottles looked kind of funny and the labels didn&rquo;t quite look right, and I let the others know we’d have to somehow get this crate out from under the others and then sneak it off the ship.
Once again Oby came up with the main plan (way to go, Oby!) turning himself invisible and giving himself the ability to fly. Unfortunately when he flew through the loading hatch a magical alarm sounded and the sailors started battening everything down.
Moving quickly, Oby joined me, magically shrunk the crate and managed to whip it out from under the other crates before it was trapped, then vamoosed back to our inn while I slowly drifted back ashore.
We made it back to the inn safely and examined the mini-crate, determining that the bottles contained magic potions and poison. Tut, tut, tut—how naughty!
Life wasn’t so easy though. The ship’s captain came to the inn (apparently informed by the forger—but how did he know where we were staying???) and we negotiated to return his cargo.
Again, he had little information, but was able to tell us who gave him the contents of the crate.
And so the net is closing: the question is, around whom?
What she was doing in Durthen’s room I don’t know. I’m not sure I want to know, either. On the one hand, knowledge is power, but on the other what use is gaining knowledge if you then have to immediately go and get your whole mind erased for fear that one piece will contaminate everything else if you leave even a trace of it behind. No—what Durthen gets up to behind closed doors is not worth the risk.
The guy that had Oby’s pendant seems as much a victim as we. I have to give him credit, though—S-L-I-P-P-E-R-Y. I don’t know what his trick was, but I’d love to be able to just slip out of grapples, run through webs, and all that other neat stuff he was doing.
If there hadn’t been so many of us we would probably have never caught him.
While he had Oby’s proud spire in his pocket, he had no idea where it had come from. The only thing of interest here was that he’d been forging some documents for a ship we’d heard about that was supposed to sail on the morning tide. Mr Puppet, meet Mr String.
Down to the docks and Livia shifts into the form of our “scribe” and goes aboard to deliver the documents. That’s 200g for the good guys. She tries to find out from the sailors what’s what but it seems they’re just the hired help and don’t know anything useful so instead I let Obegard turn me into a cloud of smoke and I use a mind-talking spell he cast to keep everyone informed what’s happening.
Firstly, can I just say that being smoke is kind of cool.
Secondly, can I just say that being smoke is so slow I almost fell asleep just getting to the ship.
But eventually I’m in the hold checking around, though I have to be kind of careful with the sailors wandering around placing crates. It didn’t take too long to find something interesting. Sure, most of what was there was food and wine just like the forged documents said, but I found the one crate where the bottles looked kind of funny and the labels didn&rquo;t quite look right, and I let the others know we’d have to somehow get this crate out from under the others and then sneak it off the ship.
Once again Oby came up with the main plan (way to go, Oby!) turning himself invisible and giving himself the ability to fly. Unfortunately when he flew through the loading hatch a magical alarm sounded and the sailors started battening everything down.
Moving quickly, Oby joined me, magically shrunk the crate and managed to whip it out from under the other crates before it was trapped, then vamoosed back to our inn while I slowly drifted back ashore.
We made it back to the inn safely and examined the mini-crate, determining that the bottles contained magic potions and poison. Tut, tut, tut—how naughty!
Life wasn’t so easy though. The ship’s captain came to the inn (apparently informed by the forger—but how did he know where we were staying???) and we negotiated to return his cargo.
Again, he had little information, but was able to tell us who gave him the contents of the crate.
And so the net is closing: the question is, around whom?
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Crate Expectations
With the Aranea's death, I became aware of my Spire Pendant again; perhaps she had cast nondetection on it, and that expired with her, or perhaps it was coincidence or contingency. In any case, we rushed across town, tracking it. Surprisingly, Durthen emerged from his room accompanied by a sorceress he called "Woe" (or perhaps "Whoa"; I'm pretty sure it wasn't "Ho" but you never know with Durthen). There wasn't a lot of time for explanations, but apparently she's from the Arak Spire. I don't recall running into her, but he seemed to trust her, and she was willing enough to follow him into adventure and happenstance (strange, that!).
In a dark alley near the building containing my pendant, I cast clairvoyance to preview the scene. In doing so, I set off some kind of magical alarm, and alerted a man in a loft apartment who hurriedly gathered some items and rushed towards the rooftop. I called out to my companions to join me and Livia for a short dimension door up to confront him, and a complex chase ensued. Our quarry was nimble and well-suited to running the roofs, and we had great difficulty pinning him down. Even a twenty-five foot wall of iron could not stop him, as he leapt and scrambled to the top, leave Durthen to chop his way through in signature destructive style. Eventually, however, the seven of us proved too much for him, and he surrendered to us.
Finn (we didn't bother to learn his name, but later heard it from another) didn't know how he came to possess my pendant, and was busy forging papers for the transport of wine and food aboard the pirate transport The Black Lightning. I curtailed his haphazard interrogation with the locally illicit but ultimately effective probe thoughts (note to self: this Dythanus character crafted a most excellent grimoire, despite his predilection for the dark arts). We left to deliver his forged papers in his stead, after the usual minor squabbles about the appropriate ordering and dependencies between "pillage" and "burn".
Although we suspected that the pendant may have been planted to point us towards the pirate ship, we saw no better alternative than to go there to investigate. Livia borrowed Malakar's hat of disguise and posed as Finn, delivering his papers to the Votaur captain of the varag-crewed vessel, and receiving some gold in reward. She attempted to bribe some of the crew for more details of the cargo, but they only knew the cover story of wine and food.
Malakar suggested sending Borrow in to scout in gaseous form, and Borrow agreed, so I called the spell (fortunately the pendant remained attuned) and he proceeded to explore. He discovered that one of the crates of wine appeared different than the others, with slightly ill-fitting labels, and reported his findings to us via telepathic bond. It was decided the I would fly into the hold under cover of invisibility and shrink item the crate to remove it.
While I knew that removing the crate would make a noise, I didn't account for the magical protections covering the hold. As soon as I crossed the threshold of the open hatch, the captain burst from his quarters and announced the presence of an invisible intruder. I proceeded downward, shrinking the crate and barely maintaining my hold on it, even as the sailors slammed shut the hatches. A moment later I teleported out as our new companion Woe distracted the sailors with a ghost sound, and waiting for the others back at our suite.
I was amazed that our little plan worked out! We didn't have long to wait, though, before the captain showed up at our inn, accompanied by five of his soldiers. After a while he sent his bodyguard away, and we agreed to parlay with him, Durthen and Malakar showing themselves and meeting him in the common room. Through conversation (remarkably reasonsable), seasoned with detect thoughts, we learned that he was taking these magical potions (perhaps poisoned, or perhaps some were poisons?) to a city in the north. He was commissioned to take this cargo by the Basc organization (a rather poor choice of pseudonym by the cultists, I presume, but that's what you get for worshipping a mad god). He didn't think much of us, but deigned not to attack, and we decided to give the cargo back rather than risk pointless open conflict.
It's clear that somebody is moving pieces around the board, but we still don't know who and for what purpose. My best hypothesis is that there are cultists of Bascaron about, and that another group opposed to the cultists is leading us in their direction. If I'm right, the Aranea was involved with the cultists and the beautiful stranger with their antagonists. However, it could be that there are all in league, and are just drawing us into a deeper plot; it's difficult to say with so many wheels turning, and so much evil and conspiracy at work. How this all connects to our search for Jartik (or whether it connects at all) I cannot begin to guess.
Our next obvious investigation will be the offices of this "Basc" group. I hope that we have crossed over from those facts which we were meant to see to those which we were not meant to see, and that soon we will be foiling the plots of those who would ensnare us. I wouldn't bet on it, though.
Today there was some comment on the change in my behavior, I think perhaps Malakar started it; a certain tendency towards expedience and even deliberate unpredictability. I appreciate and acknowledge that change: our often bitter and precipitous experiences have taught me that if you don't know what to do, it may be best to do something dire, to maximize the chances of disrupting our opponent's control of the situation. My long education in patience and full understanding simply doesn't hold up to the reality of a world mired in conspiratorial evil. There may be an accounting some day, and I may be held wanting by the standards of the world that I once believed existed, if such should come to exist again. Until then I shall go on to my doom knowing that I strenuously avoided the snares of organized evil, and tried to do more good than harm.
Time is not on our side. We can only trust that fate may yet be, and follow our instincts when our principles and plans falter. If you can't go by the book, at least veer wildly from the hook!
In a dark alley near the building containing my pendant, I cast clairvoyance to preview the scene. In doing so, I set off some kind of magical alarm, and alerted a man in a loft apartment who hurriedly gathered some items and rushed towards the rooftop. I called out to my companions to join me and Livia for a short dimension door up to confront him, and a complex chase ensued. Our quarry was nimble and well-suited to running the roofs, and we had great difficulty pinning him down. Even a twenty-five foot wall of iron could not stop him, as he leapt and scrambled to the top, leave Durthen to chop his way through in signature destructive style. Eventually, however, the seven of us proved too much for him, and he surrendered to us.
Finn (we didn't bother to learn his name, but later heard it from another) didn't know how he came to possess my pendant, and was busy forging papers for the transport of wine and food aboard the pirate transport The Black Lightning. I curtailed his haphazard interrogation with the locally illicit but ultimately effective probe thoughts (note to self: this Dythanus character crafted a most excellent grimoire, despite his predilection for the dark arts). We left to deliver his forged papers in his stead, after the usual minor squabbles about the appropriate ordering and dependencies between "pillage" and "burn".
Although we suspected that the pendant may have been planted to point us towards the pirate ship, we saw no better alternative than to go there to investigate. Livia borrowed Malakar's hat of disguise and posed as Finn, delivering his papers to the Votaur captain of the varag-crewed vessel, and receiving some gold in reward. She attempted to bribe some of the crew for more details of the cargo, but they only knew the cover story of wine and food.
Malakar suggested sending Borrow in to scout in gaseous form, and Borrow agreed, so I called the spell (fortunately the pendant remained attuned) and he proceeded to explore. He discovered that one of the crates of wine appeared different than the others, with slightly ill-fitting labels, and reported his findings to us via telepathic bond. It was decided the I would fly into the hold under cover of invisibility and shrink item the crate to remove it.
While I knew that removing the crate would make a noise, I didn't account for the magical protections covering the hold. As soon as I crossed the threshold of the open hatch, the captain burst from his quarters and announced the presence of an invisible intruder. I proceeded downward, shrinking the crate and barely maintaining my hold on it, even as the sailors slammed shut the hatches. A moment later I teleported out as our new companion Woe distracted the sailors with a ghost sound, and waiting for the others back at our suite.
I was amazed that our little plan worked out! We didn't have long to wait, though, before the captain showed up at our inn, accompanied by five of his soldiers. After a while he sent his bodyguard away, and we agreed to parlay with him, Durthen and Malakar showing themselves and meeting him in the common room. Through conversation (remarkably reasonsable), seasoned with detect thoughts, we learned that he was taking these magical potions (perhaps poisoned, or perhaps some were poisons?) to a city in the north. He was commissioned to take this cargo by the Basc organization (a rather poor choice of pseudonym by the cultists, I presume, but that's what you get for worshipping a mad god). He didn't think much of us, but deigned not to attack, and we decided to give the cargo back rather than risk pointless open conflict.
It's clear that somebody is moving pieces around the board, but we still don't know who and for what purpose. My best hypothesis is that there are cultists of Bascaron about, and that another group opposed to the cultists is leading us in their direction. If I'm right, the Aranea was involved with the cultists and the beautiful stranger with their antagonists. However, it could be that there are all in league, and are just drawing us into a deeper plot; it's difficult to say with so many wheels turning, and so much evil and conspiracy at work. How this all connects to our search for Jartik (or whether it connects at all) I cannot begin to guess.
Our next obvious investigation will be the offices of this "Basc" group. I hope that we have crossed over from those facts which we were meant to see to those which we were not meant to see, and that soon we will be foiling the plots of those who would ensnare us. I wouldn't bet on it, though.
Today there was some comment on the change in my behavior, I think perhaps Malakar started it; a certain tendency towards expedience and even deliberate unpredictability. I appreciate and acknowledge that change: our often bitter and precipitous experiences have taught me that if you don't know what to do, it may be best to do something dire, to maximize the chances of disrupting our opponent's control of the situation. My long education in patience and full understanding simply doesn't hold up to the reality of a world mired in conspiratorial evil. There may be an accounting some day, and I may be held wanting by the standards of the world that I once believed existed, if such should come to exist again. Until then I shall go on to my doom knowing that I strenuously avoided the snares of organized evil, and tried to do more good than harm.
Time is not on our side. We can only trust that fate may yet be, and follow our instincts when our principles and plans falter. If you can't go by the book, at least veer wildly from the hook!
I didn't touch obegard's package.
It's really hard to find good help these days -- but damn, the chef we snagged for our keep knows how to make a fine whores-devours. I love those little snacks, especially those little salty fish tacos she makes. mmmm good!
Oh yeah, the chef was cooking her tacos because we had a visitor: Sorcha. Obegard thinks she's going to be hot under that hood, I think she'll be all tentacly -- which has it's uses mind you, but I suppose we're straying from the point.
The point is, Sorcha wanted us to run around and save the free kingdoms again. Frankly, if she wanted us to save the free kingdoms she'd have let us keep that chest of loot we stole from her originally. So we had to hoof it over to someplace 1,000 miles away. And by hoof I mean walk! Our benevolent wizard thought we should walk there. Worst wizard ever, can't he just wave his hands and make us poof there?
At least we got to do this thing he calls shadow walking. The world got all shadowy -- kinda like that just-before-dawn at the bar moment after your 18th pitcher of local village ass-beer. All swimmy and dark and thinks swoop past you real fast, except when your done you've moved a long distance and you're not waking up next to somebody who you *KNOW* isn't able to cough up the cure disease spell from the local cleric. Again. Sigh.
So we get into this city where they're all lawful and crap and super anal about punching people in the face or blasting them with spells. I do a fantastic job of not punching people in the face, until we're at this bar talking to this guy who finally had some info...and these drunk kung-foo types get all up in our face and whack me on the head with the mug. I even managed to keep my cool until he flipped me over his head and slammed me into the wall. So, I punched him.
I gotta say -- and don't you be tellin nobody -- those was some tough bastards. But we whacked 'em, except my not-so-bright colleagues started spellcasting in front of everybody and had to hoof it out when the town guard came.
Of course, I got arrested. They got away. To be honest, a quiet night in jail was rather refreshing. No need to listen to that bear of a cleric snoring like he was a hibernating or something. The judge had nothing on me and the fines were trivial and covered by our little insurance fund.
The next day had only one thing of note -- some chick got all up on oby's package. That is to say, she touched it. In public. I mean, once she gave it to him it was his package soo..... oh yeah, and we later found out she lifted his little school necklace. Cute broad.
I should have spent that night in jail again. Of course we wake up and there's some spider chick climbing on the ceiling and once she grew 8 hairy legs I stopped thinking Spiderman's Hottie and started thinking Janean Garofalo. So I cut her in half with my axe. It was sweet. Suck on that, liberal media!
And now it's the middle of the night, and I'm sleepy again. Back to bed, and the cute sorceress that's waiting there...
Oh yeah, the chef was cooking her tacos because we had a visitor: Sorcha. Obegard thinks she's going to be hot under that hood, I think she'll be all tentacly -- which has it's uses mind you, but I suppose we're straying from the point.
The point is, Sorcha wanted us to run around and save the free kingdoms again. Frankly, if she wanted us to save the free kingdoms she'd have let us keep that chest of loot we stole from her originally. So we had to hoof it over to someplace 1,000 miles away. And by hoof I mean walk! Our benevolent wizard thought we should walk there. Worst wizard ever, can't he just wave his hands and make us poof there?
At least we got to do this thing he calls shadow walking. The world got all shadowy -- kinda like that just-before-dawn at the bar moment after your 18th pitcher of local village ass-beer. All swimmy and dark and thinks swoop past you real fast, except when your done you've moved a long distance and you're not waking up next to somebody who you *KNOW* isn't able to cough up the cure disease spell from the local cleric. Again. Sigh.
So we get into this city where they're all lawful and crap and super anal about punching people in the face or blasting them with spells. I do a fantastic job of not punching people in the face, until we're at this bar talking to this guy who finally had some info...and these drunk kung-foo types get all up in our face and whack me on the head with the mug. I even managed to keep my cool until he flipped me over his head and slammed me into the wall. So, I punched him.
I gotta say -- and don't you be tellin nobody -- those was some tough bastards. But we whacked 'em, except my not-so-bright colleagues started spellcasting in front of everybody and had to hoof it out when the town guard came.
Of course, I got arrested. They got away. To be honest, a quiet night in jail was rather refreshing. No need to listen to that bear of a cleric snoring like he was a hibernating or something. The judge had nothing on me and the fines were trivial and covered by our little insurance fund.
The next day had only one thing of note -- some chick got all up on oby's package. That is to say, she touched it. In public. I mean, once she gave it to him it was his package soo..... oh yeah, and we later found out she lifted his little school necklace. Cute broad.
I should have spent that night in jail again. Of course we wake up and there's some spider chick climbing on the ceiling and once she grew 8 hairy legs I stopped thinking Spiderman's Hottie and started thinking Janean Garofalo. So I cut her in half with my axe. It was sweet. Suck on that, liberal media!
And now it's the middle of the night, and I'm sleepy again. Back to bed, and the cute sorceress that's waiting there...
Into the city
Back at the keep, we stayed around for a few days, until Obegard received a magical summons from none other than Sorcha. I wasn't too happy to hear about that, but she talked about some siegemaster of the Nothrog who had plans to lure some of the free kingdoms into a trap. She said that the only chance we had was to find the Nothrog that was his lieutenant, and get him to tell us the weaknesses in the siegemaster's plan.
That was all well and good, but we had to head to a city over a thousand miles away. Fortunately, Obegard had a spell that allowed us to skirt the plain of shadow and travel there rapidly. Before we went, we also met up with an elf who apparently was looking for us. It turns out this elf was one of those who were warring with the elf queen, and also wasn't all that bad. We let her join with us for the time being. I don't know what her talents exactly were, but she seemed to be able to handle herself fine.
At the city, I was surprised that we weren't able to find sellers for all of our magical goods, especially since the city was quite large, and a trading city to boot. We also took time to try to find out about this siegemaster. We asked around, and by greasing the right palms, we found someone who had the information we needed. Unfortunately, our chat was disrupted by a group of drunks looking for a fight. Except that they weren't no ordinary drunks. One of them threw Durthen literally across the room. I managed to give a few of them some nasty injuries from my spiked gauntlet. The city guard soon showed up, and while normally I'd stick around and explain what happened, the city's rules were quite draconian, and I had no desire to be railroaded into whatever justice they intended to dole out. Durthen was the only one to be taken away, as the rest of us magically were transported away.
The next day I discovered that Durthen had been fined a good amount by the local judges, and he paid fines for the rest of us. I didn't too approve of that, but I guess not having to look over our shoulders the whole time here was a plus. Not long after, as we were traveling through the marketplace, a beautiful woman with what I guess a touch of celestial blood approached Obegard and handed him a package. Obegard, as usual, was awestruck at the sight of a woman, and he began acting funny. I gave him a slap on the back of his head to return him to his senses, but that was exactly when she had reached over to try to kiss him on the cheek -- not exactly what I intended. Inside the package was a note and a single coin of unknown origin. The note merely said that we should go speak to her, except that she didn't leave us where she was staying. I don't know why she would try to be cryptic. We tried to glean some information out of the coin, even going to one of Obegard's guild scholars. We discovered that it was some kind of ancient coin from the Medusan nations. That was all well and good, but it didn't get us any closer to our mysterious benefactor. Just then, Obegard also noticed that his tower pendant was missing. Did that woman also take it? I'd be surprised, since I was watching quite closely for such sleight of hand, and noticed nothing.
Even with Obegard's magic, he couldn't locate the pendant, and we resigned ourselves to a rest in the inn. Fortunately, I had insisted that we cast a defensive spell around the door first, as we were awoken in the middle of the night by an intruder. It was some sort of hybrid spider woman -- the same one that we had seen assisting the guild mage. Obegard cast a spell that managed to bring her down from the ceiling, and Durthen charged in with a furious stroke of his axe that almost split her in two. I guess any live questioning is well, out of the question.
That was all well and good, but we had to head to a city over a thousand miles away. Fortunately, Obegard had a spell that allowed us to skirt the plain of shadow and travel there rapidly. Before we went, we also met up with an elf who apparently was looking for us. It turns out this elf was one of those who were warring with the elf queen, and also wasn't all that bad. We let her join with us for the time being. I don't know what her talents exactly were, but she seemed to be able to handle herself fine.
At the city, I was surprised that we weren't able to find sellers for all of our magical goods, especially since the city was quite large, and a trading city to boot. We also took time to try to find out about this siegemaster. We asked around, and by greasing the right palms, we found someone who had the information we needed. Unfortunately, our chat was disrupted by a group of drunks looking for a fight. Except that they weren't no ordinary drunks. One of them threw Durthen literally across the room. I managed to give a few of them some nasty injuries from my spiked gauntlet. The city guard soon showed up, and while normally I'd stick around and explain what happened, the city's rules were quite draconian, and I had no desire to be railroaded into whatever justice they intended to dole out. Durthen was the only one to be taken away, as the rest of us magically were transported away.
The next day I discovered that Durthen had been fined a good amount by the local judges, and he paid fines for the rest of us. I didn't too approve of that, but I guess not having to look over our shoulders the whole time here was a plus. Not long after, as we were traveling through the marketplace, a beautiful woman with what I guess a touch of celestial blood approached Obegard and handed him a package. Obegard, as usual, was awestruck at the sight of a woman, and he began acting funny. I gave him a slap on the back of his head to return him to his senses, but that was exactly when she had reached over to try to kiss him on the cheek -- not exactly what I intended. Inside the package was a note and a single coin of unknown origin. The note merely said that we should go speak to her, except that she didn't leave us where she was staying. I don't know why she would try to be cryptic. We tried to glean some information out of the coin, even going to one of Obegard's guild scholars. We discovered that it was some kind of ancient coin from the Medusan nations. That was all well and good, but it didn't get us any closer to our mysterious benefactor. Just then, Obegard also noticed that his tower pendant was missing. Did that woman also take it? I'd be surprised, since I was watching quite closely for such sleight of hand, and noticed nothing.
Even with Obegard's magic, he couldn't locate the pendant, and we resigned ourselves to a rest in the inn. Fortunately, I had insisted that we cast a defensive spell around the door first, as we were awoken in the middle of the night by an intruder. It was some sort of hybrid spider woman -- the same one that we had seen assisting the guild mage. Obegard cast a spell that managed to bring her down from the ceiling, and Durthen charged in with a furious stroke of his axe that almost split her in two. I guess any live questioning is well, out of the question.
Friday, October 12, 2007
Obegard's romantic delusions
Construction in Dragon Keep is proceeding well, and the architect was showing me the drawings. While everything he pointed out for my part of the keep sounded familiar his plans seemed to bear very little resemblance to the sketch I’d given to him on the crumpled up parchment I’d handed him a couple of weeks before.
We were chillin’ when Sorscha arrived, telling us some story of someone who knew someone who knew something about something to do with someone, yada, yada, yada Medusan Lords.
Long story short, Road Trip!
Someone else has shown up, an elf named Livia. I think she’s another manipulator of the Arcane, but so far I haven’t seen her and Oby getting all wet together. Which, I gotta say, is probably a good thing...
The others seem very accepting, given how judgemental they normally are. Perhaps Ili’s misfortune has taught them something about being more accepting.
Obegard has come up with yet another way to travel long distances. This one supposedly puts us on the edge of some so-called shadow plane. I must say it seemed quite pleasant.
In this new city, we found a brawl on the first evening. A couple of us had the sense to stay out of it, but it turned quite nasty. The watch arrived and took Dearthen away, but our spellcasters had already magically debunked, not a bad move given all the rules this place has around fighting and magic. The commander took my statement, but forgot to say the magic words (“Here’s a thousand gold”) so I evaded nimbly and he went away none the wiser.
It sounded like Dearthen wasn’t going to be in too much trouble, partly because the guys that started things were from the fighter’s college. He finished up paying a fairly small fine, and also coughed up for the others to avoid them getting into more trouble.
We asked the scholars in the library to try and find out something about someone or something in the big chain of things we were here to investigate. It was going to take some time so we headed for the market, when some Upworlder woman walked up to Obegard and handed him an envelope, saying she had what we were looking for. She leaned in toward him and I could see Obegard start to pull away, but then Malakar hit him across the head and pushed him back into her.
It appeared that all she wanted was to give him a kiss, but later we discovered she’d lifted an amulet he wore. I have to admire her style—we didn’t see anything and she probably picked the easiest mark to get close to.
We opened the envelope to find a coin that none of us recognised, so it was back to the library. This was a sufficiently difficult task that we were required to engage the head librarian but as before we were given preferential terms due to Obegard’s membership in the Tower.
When we returned to check on the state of the research there were three people working on the coin and the told us they’d identified it as being from Mourn, an ancient city in the Shattered Lands now long gone and which nobody knew the location of, or anything much else.
We didn’t tell them that we’d seen a map showing the location of Mourn, or that it had been a city of the Medusans, since we knew all that through our association with Sorscha, and it was important that we help maintain her secrecy.
We retired for the night and as I slept soundly near the dying fire the magical alarm Obegard had set off near the door went off. I saw a large shape skittering up the wall and across the ceiling, and as others came out of their rooms I pointed it out to them lest it take them by surprise.
I started to suspect it was one of Malakar’s lycanthropic buddies as it shot a spider web while clinging to the ceiling without appearing to cast spells, but after the fight as we examined the corpse of one of the head librarian’s assistants Malakar assured us she wasn’s a lycanthrope and Obegard identified her as an Aranea—some sort of spider-woman.
We were chillin’ when Sorscha arrived, telling us some story of someone who knew someone who knew something about something to do with someone, yada, yada, yada Medusan Lords.
Long story short, Road Trip!
Someone else has shown up, an elf named Livia. I think she’s another manipulator of the Arcane, but so far I haven’t seen her and Oby getting all wet together. Which, I gotta say, is probably a good thing...
The others seem very accepting, given how judgemental they normally are. Perhaps Ili’s misfortune has taught them something about being more accepting.
Obegard has come up with yet another way to travel long distances. This one supposedly puts us on the edge of some so-called shadow plane. I must say it seemed quite pleasant.
In this new city, we found a brawl on the first evening. A couple of us had the sense to stay out of it, but it turned quite nasty. The watch arrived and took Dearthen away, but our spellcasters had already magically debunked, not a bad move given all the rules this place has around fighting and magic. The commander took my statement, but forgot to say the magic words (“Here’s a thousand gold”) so I evaded nimbly and he went away none the wiser.
It sounded like Dearthen wasn’t going to be in too much trouble, partly because the guys that started things were from the fighter’s college. He finished up paying a fairly small fine, and also coughed up for the others to avoid them getting into more trouble.
We asked the scholars in the library to try and find out something about someone or something in the big chain of things we were here to investigate. It was going to take some time so we headed for the market, when some Upworlder woman walked up to Obegard and handed him an envelope, saying she had what we were looking for. She leaned in toward him and I could see Obegard start to pull away, but then Malakar hit him across the head and pushed him back into her.
It appeared that all she wanted was to give him a kiss, but later we discovered she’d lifted an amulet he wore. I have to admire her style—we didn’t see anything and she probably picked the easiest mark to get close to.
We opened the envelope to find a coin that none of us recognised, so it was back to the library. This was a sufficiently difficult task that we were required to engage the head librarian but as before we were given preferential terms due to Obegard’s membership in the Tower.
When we returned to check on the state of the research there were three people working on the coin and the told us they’d identified it as being from Mourn, an ancient city in the Shattered Lands now long gone and which nobody knew the location of, or anything much else.
We didn’t tell them that we’d seen a map showing the location of Mourn, or that it had been a city of the Medusans, since we knew all that through our association with Sorscha, and it was important that we help maintain her secrecy.
We retired for the night and as I slept soundly near the dying fire the magical alarm Obegard had set off near the door went off. I saw a large shape skittering up the wall and across the ceiling, and as others came out of their rooms I pointed it out to them lest it take them by surprise.
I started to suspect it was one of Malakar’s lycanthropic buddies as it shot a spider web while clinging to the ceiling without appearing to cast spells, but after the fight as we examined the corpse of one of the head librarian’s assistants Malakar assured us she wasn’s a lycanthrope and Obegard identified her as an Aranea—some sort of spider-woman.
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Taking it Easy
(with apologies to the Eagles)
Well I'm shadow walking down the road,
tryin' to loosen my load
I've got seven women on my mind,
Four that wanna own me,*
Two that wanna stone me,**
One says she's a friend of mine,***
Take it easy, take it easy
Don't let the sound of your fellow PCs
Drive you crazy
lighten up while you still can
Don't even try to comprehend [languages]
Just find a place to make your stand
and take it easy
Oh we got it easy
We oughta take it easy, yeah
* Cassandra (employer and representative of our liege), Sorscha (arcane Medusan puppetmaster, reluctant ally in our resistance to the secretive Medusan Lords), and the mysteriously beautiful woman who kissed me in the streets of Valen, giving me a coin from long-lost Mourn and a note that she has what we seek. That's only three women, I know, I don't know about the fourth one yet but I'm sure she's out there.
** The High Elf Queen, whose clutches we so recently escaped, and a mysterious Aranea assassin who invaded our suite at the inn and now lies dismembered before us.
*** Livia, the Elf who joined us. Don't know much about her, but she seems too smart to be hanging out with us. The contrast to our recently-departed (in both senses of the word, but in the wrong order, it's complicated) Ili couldn't be greater: Livia shows tolerance, restraint, and a preference for hanging back and choosing her actions carefully. I still miss Ili, and I'm sorry we couldn't save her.
Things are getting heavily weird again, with string-pulling at all levels. We're working for Sorscha against Nassiral Hate, but not directly. We're looking for the guy, who worked for the other guy, who works for Hate, based on where he was 25 or 30 years ago. It was terribly complicated even before the mysterious woman and her coinage of Mourn showed up. We follow a trail long-dead, and as usual we're floating around without a clue, being manipulated by unknown (but drop-dead gorgeous) forces. Fortunately, our usual strategy seems to be working: flail around and lull our opponents into a (false?) sense of security, then respond with an unpredictable mix of compliance and violence when they show themselves. We may not know what we're doing, but at least we're dangerous. Very dangerous. Critical hit from a dwarven waraxe dangerous.
Well I'm shadow walking down the road,
tryin' to loosen my load
I've got seven women on my mind,
Four that wanna own me,*
Two that wanna stone me,**
One says she's a friend of mine,***
Take it easy, take it easy
Don't let the sound of your fellow PCs
Drive you crazy
lighten up while you still can
Don't even try to comprehend [languages]
Just find a place to make your stand
and take it easy
Oh we got it easy
We oughta take it easy, yeah
* Cassandra (employer and representative of our liege), Sorscha (arcane Medusan puppetmaster, reluctant ally in our resistance to the secretive Medusan Lords), and the mysteriously beautiful woman who kissed me in the streets of Valen, giving me a coin from long-lost Mourn and a note that she has what we seek. That's only three women, I know, I don't know about the fourth one yet but I'm sure she's out there.
** The High Elf Queen, whose clutches we so recently escaped, and a mysterious Aranea assassin who invaded our suite at the inn and now lies dismembered before us.
*** Livia, the Elf who joined us. Don't know much about her, but she seems too smart to be hanging out with us. The contrast to our recently-departed (in both senses of the word, but in the wrong order, it's complicated) Ili couldn't be greater: Livia shows tolerance, restraint, and a preference for hanging back and choosing her actions carefully. I still miss Ili, and I'm sorry we couldn't save her.
Things are getting heavily weird again, with string-pulling at all levels. We're working for Sorscha against Nassiral Hate, but not directly. We're looking for the guy, who worked for the other guy, who works for Hate, based on where he was 25 or 30 years ago. It was terribly complicated even before the mysterious woman and her coinage of Mourn showed up. We follow a trail long-dead, and as usual we're floating around without a clue, being manipulated by unknown (but drop-dead gorgeous) forces. Fortunately, our usual strategy seems to be working: flail around and lull our opponents into a (false?) sense of security, then respond with an unpredictable mix of compliance and violence when they show themselves. We may not know what we're doing, but at least we're dangerous. Very dangerous. Critical hit from a dwarven waraxe dangerous.
Interesting Group
These humans and dwarf don't seem to be quite as powerful as the rumors indicated, if they are telling the truth. They also have gotten themselves into the middle of quite a lot. Lycanthropic cultists, elven factions, and a mysterious woman who is a "medusan" whatever that is.
The wizard Obegard seems quite easily smitten with these women, he even let himself become so distracted that his symbol of his tower of magic was swiped - he seems to belong to some order that highly values their symbols - perhaps similar to an order of clerics.
I have to wonder if all men of the free kingdoms are so flighty. Obegard falls in love with any powerful woman he meets and Durthen seems to fall in lust with anything with two legs. He has a bit more muscle than brain(or face!), as evidenced by when he cut an attacker of ours in two instead of trying to injure her enough to disable her. Ever heard of subtlety ?
They weren't kidding when they said that they always seem to get attacked - there was a big bar fight, and instead of trying to talk the drunken brawlers down, instead durthy goes for a big fight. I of course got out of there - I can't imagine these lands are hospitable to elves.
Off we go to some more adventure, hopefully figure out what is going on with this group, maybe even figure out how to get them to help my cause
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Captured...Again!
I don't know what's up with us and getting captured, but as we were heading up with villagers in tow, we came across a group of elves who accused us of killing the necromancer. The others seemed to know one of the elves, and thought that at the time, the elf was pretty decent, well, for an elf.
We counted at least four of them, and while in normal situations, I'd been confident to being able to fight through them, after killing that skeleton and the golem, most of my divine abilities had been used up for the day. Obegard had tried to reason with them only to be met with a ray that rendered him dizzy. Ili, in all of her wisdom, decided that it would be best to attack and for that she paid the ultimate price...
We were transported a ways away into a anti-magic prison that rendered our powers useless. We were questioned several times. First, by the queen in a public chamber, simply stating that we must be guilty, and that we'd be executed in a week. Then, by her in private where she offered the possibility to spare our lives if we named House Netheren as our co-conspirators. Finally, we were questioned by that "friendly" elf. He game us the counter offer: if we named the queen as the head of the conspiracy, then he'd send a rescue party and return all our possessions. The last offer seemed to be the best -- we'd work for the least distasteful party, regain our belongings, free not only ourselves but the villagers as well, and finally, cause internal strife within the elven ranks. With the human lands besieged upon all sides, it seemed the wisest thing to do.
The day came and we made our statement. I was surprised that we weren't killed on the spot for accusing the queen, but we were sent back to our cells. That night, the promised help arrived, and had spells that allowed all of us to walk through the walls of the keep. They also returned our equipment. We ran all the way out of the city and into a clearing before the spells expired. I'm not sure what was the reason for the next betrayal, but our rescuers unexpectedly turned on us. I don't know if it were all planned out, or if they simply decided that killing us outside of town was good sport. In either case, they were clearly overconfident in their own abilities, as they had foolishly returned our weapons before attacking us. It didn't take long before we had slain them. Unfortunately, in my haste to escape, I had forgotten to take one of their corpses for later questioning, as distasteful as it would have been. I guess now, we'll never find out why they attacked us.
We returned back to our keep with the help of several Dwarven wizards that were sent alongside Obegard, and planned our next move.
We counted at least four of them, and while in normal situations, I'd been confident to being able to fight through them, after killing that skeleton and the golem, most of my divine abilities had been used up for the day. Obegard had tried to reason with them only to be met with a ray that rendered him dizzy. Ili, in all of her wisdom, decided that it would be best to attack and for that she paid the ultimate price...
We were transported a ways away into a anti-magic prison that rendered our powers useless. We were questioned several times. First, by the queen in a public chamber, simply stating that we must be guilty, and that we'd be executed in a week. Then, by her in private where she offered the possibility to spare our lives if we named House Netheren as our co-conspirators. Finally, we were questioned by that "friendly" elf. He game us the counter offer: if we named the queen as the head of the conspiracy, then he'd send a rescue party and return all our possessions. The last offer seemed to be the best -- we'd work for the least distasteful party, regain our belongings, free not only ourselves but the villagers as well, and finally, cause internal strife within the elven ranks. With the human lands besieged upon all sides, it seemed the wisest thing to do.
The day came and we made our statement. I was surprised that we weren't killed on the spot for accusing the queen, but we were sent back to our cells. That night, the promised help arrived, and had spells that allowed all of us to walk through the walls of the keep. They also returned our equipment. We ran all the way out of the city and into a clearing before the spells expired. I'm not sure what was the reason for the next betrayal, but our rescuers unexpectedly turned on us. I don't know if it were all planned out, or if they simply decided that killing us outside of town was good sport. In either case, they were clearly overconfident in their own abilities, as they had foolishly returned our weapons before attacking us. It didn't take long before we had slain them. Unfortunately, in my haste to escape, I had forgotten to take one of their corpses for later questioning, as distasteful as it would have been. I guess now, we'll never find out why they attacked us.
We returned back to our keep with the help of several Dwarven wizards that were sent alongside Obegard, and planned our next move.
Friday, October 5, 2007
Ili at ease
I wish these humans would learn to think before they act. Admittedly Ili was more rash than most, or so they would have me believe.
Still it’s disappointing that she couldn’t wait to understand what was going on before attacking the elves, and as a result she was killed and then restored as an undead. Which of course is completely intolerable to her and she has now abandoned us to seek salvation. I have trouble imagining that her god is less tolerant than she, but perhaps she needs to forgive herself in order for Albrecht to forgive her, in which case she’s in for a long penance.
It was interesting to see the Elven court, and to find out that there is so much dissension. Perhaps this is something that the Upworlders should try to foment—having your enemies fight each other is much more efficient than fighting them yourself.
The behaviour of the elves was strange. While we made a deal to get us and the villagers out, once we made it our escorts attacked us. Did they break the deal? Was it Icarus who wanted us dealt with, but required us to get free of the Elven city in order to maximise the shame of the Elf queen?
The intrigue of the Elven houses at least seems to warrant some study, and if I could work out a way to dwell safely in their presence perhaps it would be a valuable exercise. If nothing else it would be diverting, unlike the humans where there seems to be no intrigue and almost as soon as you meet them you know everything there is to be known.
Still it’s disappointing that she couldn’t wait to understand what was going on before attacking the elves, and as a result she was killed and then restored as an undead. Which of course is completely intolerable to her and she has now abandoned us to seek salvation. I have trouble imagining that her god is less tolerant than she, but perhaps she needs to forgive herself in order for Albrecht to forgive her, in which case she’s in for a long penance.
It was interesting to see the Elven court, and to find out that there is so much dissension. Perhaps this is something that the Upworlders should try to foment—having your enemies fight each other is much more efficient than fighting them yourself.
The behaviour of the elves was strange. While we made a deal to get us and the villagers out, once we made it our escorts attacked us. Did they break the deal? Was it Icarus who wanted us dealt with, but required us to get free of the Elven city in order to maximise the shame of the Elf queen?
The intrigue of the Elven houses at least seems to warrant some study, and if I could work out a way to dwell safely in their presence perhaps it would be a valuable exercise. If nothing else it would be diverting, unlike the humans where there seems to be no intrigue and almost as soon as you meet them you know everything there is to be known.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)