DM's are a powerful bunch...and known to be fickle. Recently the DM of the game I'm currently playing in became a might bit peeved at a few of us for something completely out of the game. He reeled off a pair of curses at the offenders...and then got on a bit of a roll, much to the innocent bystanders chagrin. The results are presented here as a warning and a reminder to all players to tend to the care and feeding of their favorite DM... "...I proclaim a -5 to hit penalty for all spellcasters named Ron." "Durton has a new helm of improved visibility. He is now permanently blinded and randomly re-targets any being within range after he commits to an action." "Beros has new boots of sticky feet. Movement is at 1. Shifts fail to work and cause 40 arrows to snap in half." (After it was unwisely pointed out that our dwarf's name was actually Durkon, not Durton...)
"Durkon has his name changed to Durton and must now constantly recite how wonderful halfings are in imamic pentameter. Also, all dragons get a +10 tasty check when appraising Durton's succulence." "Poe can use all of his powers as at-will powers, but only when he's bloodied. Poe is compelled to take two healing surges per turn as a free action at the start of every turn until he runs out of them." "Kobe now has an uncontrollable urge to wet himself every time he sees a new shiny object which has a value surpassing 75gp. This is a compulsorily minor action in combat situations. Additionally, every killing blow that Kobe does not land (on a friendly target or otherwise) causes him to take on a culminating -1 "I'm even more sullen"to-hit penalty. This effect persists and can only be removed by an "accidental" friendly fire incident on Durton or Durkon." "Guss receives the shield of endless misery. Any and all zone effects that are cast where the range could have included Guss, now have Guss as the center of the effect." "Sunny is now +5 to hit, but can only roll a d10 for to-hit rolls. Although come to think of it, that's probably an advantage for her."
(It was confirmed by our resident rules expert that this was indeed an advantage for her as long as she has a better than 50% chance to hit...) "Kloister becomes a mute and is afflicted with a zone of perpetual truth. Additionally any creature within 20' of Kloister gains the ability to read Kloister's inner most thoughts with his spear providing commentary to the listener. The spear finds this to be immensely entertaining."
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Waist deep
Thirteenth entry (after the 10/09 session)
See the original post and the full journal at: http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/moonsong/wikis/poesjournalentrythirteen
Or here using category: Poe's Adventure Journal
Time seems to be playing tricks on me these days. Perhaps, Alia, because all I can do is count the hours that pass before I am with you again. That hour cannot come soon enough for me. The Queen however, has plans for me though. Me and these heroes she's charged me with shepherding to their fate. Like it or not. There's no fate but what She makes...
So, mama spider had been dispatched and we were left recovering from the battle on the spiral staircase in the old dwarven fortress. The heroes took a minute to catch their collective breaths. Before they could start arguing though a guttural voice called out from above us in the gloom.
The rest of the heroes looked at me like I was crazy. I suppose maybe I was. Or am. Anyhow, I shrugged. That's when we all heard a door slam up above and the scraping sound of a heavy metal bar being dropped into place. Just as quickly, the darkness all around us came alive. Spiders suddenly moved through their webs, and even jumped towards the central pillar of the room. Uh oh.
And stood on a featureless plain of snow. An icy wind whipped my face. In front of me stood a beautiful, black haired woman. Huge black raven wings sprouted from her back.
"Poe," she said, meeting my wide eyed gaze directly.
The single word shook me to my core. I fell to my knees, snow crunching beneath me.
"Now that you've finally accepted your fate I have a gift for you. Something you'll need for the tasks ahead. Try not to squander it...if only for your lover's sake."
The smell of rotting flesh made me gag. I opened my eyes just as the hag brought her cane down. Its gnarled bone handle smashed into my head. Light flashed before my eyes...
...and I caught myself against the inside of the spiral staircase. I continued my charge without breaking stride. My head ached, my left arm, wrapped in black prayer beads and tightly gripping my frozen blade was nearly numb with cold, and my head rang with an old woman's cackling laughter. Despite that I tingled - like a limb that has been too cold and is just now regaining some warmth.
Great timing, I thought as I leapt forward and closed the final distance to the glowing skeleton. That's about when I found myself enveloped in a clear, stinging goo. Too late, I learned that the glowing skeleton wasn't undead. It was merely a skeleton, holding a glowing sword held suspended in some kind of viscous clear goo. Goo that burned. Thank the Queen for full body armor. Heh. I swung the frost blade vigorously hoping to pull free of the gelatinous junk. Bits of frozen goo scattered from the blade's edge, but I remained lodged inside. In fact, it seemed to engulf me further as if it had a mind of its own. That's when what little light there was went out. Grasping shadows pulled at me and struck at the goo. I thanked Ron through gritted teeth, hoping this amorphous jelly thing was hurting as much as I was.
At least I was able to keep the thing from continuing to roll towards the rest of the heroes. I stood my ground, armor smoking where the goo touched it, holding the tide of gunk at bay while they scrambled to put up some ropes and get off of the steps below me. I heard footsteps behind me and Guss engaged the tide as well, slicing chunks of it off with his weapon. The goo wasn't working alone however. Large flying mats of darkness appeared, appropriately, out of the darkness, launching thundering attacks at the remaining heroes. As the booming sounds shook the cobwebs, Ron sprayed two of them with fire. I continued fighting within the goo, hoping to kill it from within. It reached out and smacked Guss, slamming him against the wall of the cavern and stunning him. I heard muffled yells as the heroes fought off the dark creatures. Then suddenly, one of black things fell on Guss. With Guss down, covered by a black, writhing cloak of a creature, the gelatinous creature I was trapped in began to move. I was pulled with it, still hacking away from the inside. Our dwarf's voice boomed over the din, ordering the goo to move away from me. Miraculously, it obeyed and I was free of its nasty embrace. I looked around quickly to take stock of the situation. Ron was pinned beneath a moving carpet of darkness. Beros was rapidly firing arrows at the other dark creatures. Our dwarf and Kleister were busy fighting them off as well. At least one was down. Magic flashed - Sunny was flinging her spells about, too. OK, things look pretty normal.
And that was that. The other heroes had taken care of the black things - some kind of flying predator it seemed - so the threat was past. Guss hefted the sword we'd retrieved from the goo, wiped it off and claimed it for his own. That's when I realized that Kobe was missing. Frack. My little buddy was gone. Apparently carried off by one of the black things. Double frack. No one seemed particularly worried about him - probably because he's run off on his own before. Sunny however, thought she'd last seen him further up the stairs fighting off one of the black things. That sealed it for me.
We pressed forward and advanced up the stairs. I kept an eye out for any sign of the halfling hero. With Kobe gone, scouting ahead fell to the taciturn elf. Beros silently whisked ahead of us stopping to motion us towards him when he encountered a room. Inside, a man lay slumped over a table. A gem next to his stilled hand gleamed in our light. He didn't move. Apparently already dead. Beros and I started to walk in, but the elf grabbed me after we'd taken no more than two steps.
The heroes were intrigued by the room - or more likely by the gem and the lockers along the far wall with the promise of more loot - so we did more investigating. Sunny volunteered to be anchored to a rope so that she could scout the room on her own safely. As we secured Sunny to a rope, Ron sent his floating mage hand into the room to check out the man at the table. Turned out it was all an illusion. This of course, further excited the heroes - surely only a great treasure would be hidden by such powerful magic. Sunny, safely roped up, moved into the room to investigate further. As she reached the center of the room the floor suddenly gave way. I grunted, taking up the slack on the rope. Thanks to help from Guss and our Dwarf, we were able to keep her from plunging into the darkness below. Quickly, we pulled her back to the doorway and solid ground. Our light illuminated the bottom of the pit she'd have fallen into just long enough for us to catch glimpses of many large centipede-like insects skittering over a grated floor. A bleached white skeleton laying on the grates testified mutely to the insects' appetites. Ron stayed busy while we worked with Sunny. First he had his bird friend check out the lockers across the room. He wasn't able to find much out. But, once we'd unhooked Sunny from the rope, he used his mage hand to take it with a grapple across the room, anchoring it so one of us could go across to get at the lockers and their treasure. Only our dwarf was brave - or maybe greedy? - enough to want to risk the fall into the pit of insects to make the trip across the rope. He reached the lockers safely and managed to get them open. Turned out that that all they contained were chunks of iron ore. Clearly everything valuable had already been taken. Kobe must have gotten here already, bypassed the trapped floor and looted all of the good stuff from the lockers. Heh. The little fracker must be OK after all. Probably just waiting for us up ahead somewhere, grinning like a fool and pretending not to have his pockets stuffed with gold. I kept this to myself, not wanting the rest of the heroes - especially our Dwarf - to get upset with him again.
We continued up the stairs. Beros continued to scout ahead into the gloom. We hadn't gone too far before we encountered more spiders. Nasty things - they're bad enough when they're little, but when they're the size of small ponies they're downright dangerous. But, being heroes and all, my companions dispatched them pretty handily. I was a little concerned during this battle though. For the second time in as many fights, Ron targeted himself with a spell. I'm beginning to think I may be a bad influence on him. It all ended OK though with the spiders dead and the heroes ready to push on.
Up we continued along the endless stairway. We rounded a turn and found a corridor leading up to a solid looking door. Arrow slits were cut high into either side of the corridor. The heroes paused to consider their options. Ron sent some magical force forward hoping to use it to open the door. It failed. Some things you just have to do yourself. I shrugged, nodded at Guss and charged the door. Arrows flew at me from both sides, three of them hitting me I think. A magical bolt of energy blasted past me, reflected back off the door and just missed me on its way back. I heard Ron curse in pain. Hmmm. Either payback or I really, really need to stop hanging around with him. I pushed against the doors with no effect other than to crack them back against the bar holding them shut. Then Guss arrived. He slammed into the doors next to em. The bar cracked loudly and splintered. The doors burst open. A row of orcs stood waiting for us. Good times. Heh.
The next few minutes...or seconds maybe, were a bit of a frenzy. Let's just say that the heroes know their business. And killing orcs is a good business to be in. Heh. Guss' flashing blade accounted for several of the beasts and his shield work kept the battlefield under control. Beros' singing bowstring took out several more, saving me at one point from a potentially devastating axe blow with a critically timed shot to the orc's shoulder and later standing toe to toe with an orc to plug it in the chest while nimbly avoiding two clumsy swings of its axe. Ron, was, well, Ron. Stinking clouds, freezing darkness and various magical fiery blasts rained down on the creatures. My favorite move was when he blasted several of the orcs as they surrounded Kleister, blowing them through some magical portal so that they ended up right in front of me and our Dwarf. Speaking of our Dwarf, he acquitted himself well, calling down divine power several times to heal me and more than once illuminating the best place to strike a blow against an opponent. Kleister was everywhere, striking orcs with his spear and pushing by me to bravely take out the archers before they could empty their quivers into Sunny and Ron. And Sunny? Well, her darkness saved the day. It kept most of the archers from being much of a factor. And she continually flung magical blasts around the corridor, striking orcs with pinpoint accuracy. Ron could learn a thing or two about that - though I think I'm starting to get used to the smell of his stinking clouds. Heh.
Anyway, by the time Guss cut down the last fleeing orc, we'd all done our share of orc killing. The sudden silence of the end of the combat was punctuated by our harsh breathing. Something told me that this was just the start though - we had a way to go until we reached the dragon and this was but the entry way to the orcs' area. My Mistress would certainly be getting her fill of orc souls on this day.
Poe
Sometime after meeting the dwarves
See the original post and the full journal at: http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/moonsong/wikis/poesjournalentrythirteen
Or here using category: Poe's Adventure Journal
Time seems to be playing tricks on me these days. Perhaps, Alia, because all I can do is count the hours that pass before I am with you again. That hour cannot come soon enough for me. The Queen however, has plans for me though. Me and these heroes she's charged me with shepherding to their fate. Like it or not. There's no fate but what She makes...
So, mama spider had been dispatched and we were left recovering from the battle on the spiral staircase in the old dwarven fortress. The heroes took a minute to catch their collective breaths. Before they could start arguing though a guttural voice called out from above us in the gloom.
"Who's coming?"
I spat. Giant. Must be orcs. It'd been at least a couple of days since I'd had a chance to kill any orcs. Too long, really. Heh. I yelled back.
"Death."
"What's the password?", came the immediate reply.
Ok. I admit it. At this point I was a little surprised. But hey - I can go along with that. Maybe they were expecting Death. Maybe we all should be. But really, I had no idea what the password was. So, I simply replied, "Cold, cold death."
The rest of the heroes looked at me like I was crazy. I suppose maybe I was. Or am. Anyhow, I shrugged. That's when we all heard a door slam up above and the scraping sound of a heavy metal bar being dropped into place. Just as quickly, the darkness all around us came alive. Spiders suddenly moved through their webs, and even jumped towards the central pillar of the room. Uh oh.
A glow appeared above us. It quickly resolved into the form of a skeletal figure, floating down the stairway towards us. Undead. I charged, muttering a prayer to the Queen under my breath. Sprinting up the steep staircase, I stumbled...
And stood on a featureless plain of snow. An icy wind whipped my face. In front of me stood a beautiful, black haired woman. Huge black raven wings sprouted from her back.
"Poe," she said, meeting my wide eyed gaze directly.
The single word shook me to my core. I fell to my knees, snow crunching beneath me.
"Now that's better," she continued. "Proper respect."
Her voice echoed in my head but I resisted the urge to clap my hands over my ears. She was suddenly next to me, black feather wings folding around behind me as she bent down to take my face in her hands. I closed my eyes, trembling, hardly able to bear being this close to her.
"Now that you've finally accepted your fate I have a gift for you. Something you'll need for the tasks ahead. Try not to squander it...if only for your lover's sake."
The smell of rotting flesh made me gag. I opened my eyes just as the hag brought her cane down. Its gnarled bone handle smashed into my head. Light flashed before my eyes...
...and I caught myself against the inside of the spiral staircase. I continued my charge without breaking stride. My head ached, my left arm, wrapped in black prayer beads and tightly gripping my frozen blade was nearly numb with cold, and my head rang with an old woman's cackling laughter. Despite that I tingled - like a limb that has been too cold and is just now regaining some warmth.
Great timing, I thought as I leapt forward and closed the final distance to the glowing skeleton. That's about when I found myself enveloped in a clear, stinging goo. Too late, I learned that the glowing skeleton wasn't undead. It was merely a skeleton, holding a glowing sword held suspended in some kind of viscous clear goo. Goo that burned. Thank the Queen for full body armor. Heh. I swung the frost blade vigorously hoping to pull free of the gelatinous junk. Bits of frozen goo scattered from the blade's edge, but I remained lodged inside. In fact, it seemed to engulf me further as if it had a mind of its own. That's when what little light there was went out. Grasping shadows pulled at me and struck at the goo. I thanked Ron through gritted teeth, hoping this amorphous jelly thing was hurting as much as I was.
At least I was able to keep the thing from continuing to roll towards the rest of the heroes. I stood my ground, armor smoking where the goo touched it, holding the tide of gunk at bay while they scrambled to put up some ropes and get off of the steps below me. I heard footsteps behind me and Guss engaged the tide as well, slicing chunks of it off with his weapon. The goo wasn't working alone however. Large flying mats of darkness appeared, appropriately, out of the darkness, launching thundering attacks at the remaining heroes. As the booming sounds shook the cobwebs, Ron sprayed two of them with fire. I continued fighting within the goo, hoping to kill it from within. It reached out and smacked Guss, slamming him against the wall of the cavern and stunning him. I heard muffled yells as the heroes fought off the dark creatures. Then suddenly, one of black things fell on Guss. With Guss down, covered by a black, writhing cloak of a creature, the gelatinous creature I was trapped in began to move. I was pulled with it, still hacking away from the inside. Our dwarf's voice boomed over the din, ordering the goo to move away from me. Miraculously, it obeyed and I was free of its nasty embrace. I looked around quickly to take stock of the situation. Ron was pinned beneath a moving carpet of darkness. Beros was rapidly firing arrows at the other dark creatures. Our dwarf and Kleister were busy fighting them off as well. At least one was down. Magic flashed - Sunny was flinging her spells about, too. OK, things look pretty normal.
Guss yelled at me, shoved me to the side and then was engulfed by one of the creatures again. I turned to help him, but was suddenly picked up off my feet. And surrounded again by the burning goo. Again. Frack. Fire lanced from Sunny's outstretched hands. It struck the gelatinous creature surrounding me, burning me a bit in the process. She's been hanging around Ron way too much. Heh. A glowing hand floated into the goo, grabbed the sword from the skeleton's hand and whisked it away. Nice. Kobe would have approved of that move. Arrows plunked into the goo next to me, sparking with lightning. I swung my sword again as the goo slid past me. It reached out a gelatinous pseudopod and pummeled our dwarf. Kliester yelled across the stairs to me, pointing out an opening. I didn't hesitate - and slammed the frost blade deep into the goo's center. It collapsed suddenly into an inert pool of goop. Acidic spray splashed across several of the heroes.
And that was that. The other heroes had taken care of the black things - some kind of flying predator it seemed - so the threat was past. Guss hefted the sword we'd retrieved from the goo, wiped it off and claimed it for his own. That's when I realized that Kobe was missing. Frack. My little buddy was gone. Apparently carried off by one of the black things. Double frack. No one seemed particularly worried about him - probably because he's run off on his own before. Sunny however, thought she'd last seen him further up the stairs fighting off one of the black things. That sealed it for me.
We pressed forward and advanced up the stairs. I kept an eye out for any sign of the halfling hero. With Kobe gone, scouting ahead fell to the taciturn elf. Beros silently whisked ahead of us stopping to motion us towards him when he encountered a room. Inside, a man lay slumped over a table. A gem next to his stilled hand gleamed in our light. He didn't move. Apparently already dead. Beros and I started to walk in, but the elf grabbed me after we'd taken no more than two steps.
"The floor..." he said calmly. "Looks unsafe." We backed out carefully to discuss options with the heroes.
The heroes were intrigued by the room - or more likely by the gem and the lockers along the far wall with the promise of more loot - so we did more investigating. Sunny volunteered to be anchored to a rope so that she could scout the room on her own safely. As we secured Sunny to a rope, Ron sent his floating mage hand into the room to check out the man at the table. Turned out it was all an illusion. This of course, further excited the heroes - surely only a great treasure would be hidden by such powerful magic. Sunny, safely roped up, moved into the room to investigate further. As she reached the center of the room the floor suddenly gave way. I grunted, taking up the slack on the rope. Thanks to help from Guss and our Dwarf, we were able to keep her from plunging into the darkness below. Quickly, we pulled her back to the doorway and solid ground. Our light illuminated the bottom of the pit she'd have fallen into just long enough for us to catch glimpses of many large centipede-like insects skittering over a grated floor. A bleached white skeleton laying on the grates testified mutely to the insects' appetites. Ron stayed busy while we worked with Sunny. First he had his bird friend check out the lockers across the room. He wasn't able to find much out. But, once we'd unhooked Sunny from the rope, he used his mage hand to take it with a grapple across the room, anchoring it so one of us could go across to get at the lockers and their treasure. Only our dwarf was brave - or maybe greedy? - enough to want to risk the fall into the pit of insects to make the trip across the rope. He reached the lockers safely and managed to get them open. Turned out that that all they contained were chunks of iron ore. Clearly everything valuable had already been taken. Kobe must have gotten here already, bypassed the trapped floor and looted all of the good stuff from the lockers. Heh. The little fracker must be OK after all. Probably just waiting for us up ahead somewhere, grinning like a fool and pretending not to have his pockets stuffed with gold. I kept this to myself, not wanting the rest of the heroes - especially our Dwarf - to get upset with him again.
We continued up the stairs. Beros continued to scout ahead into the gloom. We hadn't gone too far before we encountered more spiders. Nasty things - they're bad enough when they're little, but when they're the size of small ponies they're downright dangerous. But, being heroes and all, my companions dispatched them pretty handily. I was a little concerned during this battle though. For the second time in as many fights, Ron targeted himself with a spell. I'm beginning to think I may be a bad influence on him. It all ended OK though with the spiders dead and the heroes ready to push on.
Up we continued along the endless stairway. We rounded a turn and found a corridor leading up to a solid looking door. Arrow slits were cut high into either side of the corridor. The heroes paused to consider their options. Ron sent some magical force forward hoping to use it to open the door. It failed. Some things you just have to do yourself. I shrugged, nodded at Guss and charged the door. Arrows flew at me from both sides, three of them hitting me I think. A magical bolt of energy blasted past me, reflected back off the door and just missed me on its way back. I heard Ron curse in pain. Hmmm. Either payback or I really, really need to stop hanging around with him. I pushed against the doors with no effect other than to crack them back against the bar holding them shut. Then Guss arrived. He slammed into the doors next to em. The bar cracked loudly and splintered. The doors burst open. A row of orcs stood waiting for us. Good times. Heh.
Kleister shouted some instructions to Guss, who stepped up to one of the orcs and stabbed it with his sword. Orc axes fell on him in retaliation. Sunny's voice cut through the din of battle, calling down darkness to block the sightlines of the orcs manning the arrow slits. Our dwarf boldly walked through the corridor to join the fray, chanting a prayer as he advanced. I quickly moved to stand with Guss, swinging wildly at another orc.
The next few minutes...or seconds maybe, were a bit of a frenzy. Let's just say that the heroes know their business. And killing orcs is a good business to be in. Heh. Guss' flashing blade accounted for several of the beasts and his shield work kept the battlefield under control. Beros' singing bowstring took out several more, saving me at one point from a potentially devastating axe blow with a critically timed shot to the orc's shoulder and later standing toe to toe with an orc to plug it in the chest while nimbly avoiding two clumsy swings of its axe. Ron, was, well, Ron. Stinking clouds, freezing darkness and various magical fiery blasts rained down on the creatures. My favorite move was when he blasted several of the orcs as they surrounded Kleister, blowing them through some magical portal so that they ended up right in front of me and our Dwarf. Speaking of our Dwarf, he acquitted himself well, calling down divine power several times to heal me and more than once illuminating the best place to strike a blow against an opponent. Kleister was everywhere, striking orcs with his spear and pushing by me to bravely take out the archers before they could empty their quivers into Sunny and Ron. And Sunny? Well, her darkness saved the day. It kept most of the archers from being much of a factor. And she continually flung magical blasts around the corridor, striking orcs with pinpoint accuracy. Ron could learn a thing or two about that - though I think I'm starting to get used to the smell of his stinking clouds. Heh.
Anyway, by the time Guss cut down the last fleeing orc, we'd all done our share of orc killing. The sudden silence of the end of the combat was punctuated by our harsh breathing. Something told me that this was just the start though - we had a way to go until we reached the dragon and this was but the entry way to the orcs' area. My Mistress would certainly be getting her fill of orc souls on this day.
Poe
Sometime after meeting the dwarves
Monday, October 12, 2009
To The Dwarves...at last
Twelfth entry (after the 09/09 session)
See the original post and the full journal at: http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/moonsong/wikis/poesjournalentrytwelve
Or here using category: Poe's Adventure Journal
Well Alia, I think I recall now why I hated shopping with you so much. It's not the spending of money (though the Queen knows I hate all the counting and figuring), but the frackin' wrangling over what to buy. You were nothing compared to these heroes though. They spent days arguing over what type of armor to have and who would get what shiny new magical item. Ahh, well. What I'd give for just one more of those trips with you...
After all the discussion, it was good to get on the road. The heroes set course once again for the dwarven stronghold. The path took us back through the town we'd recently freed from the orcs. Predictably, it'd been sacked. It was still smoldering in fact and scores of the dead were simply laying where the orcs had cut them down. It brought back memories I've tried hard not to think about...especially when I stumbled across a family, slain as they tried to flee their home. I spent the rest of the day praying to the Queen to provide all of the dead with a peaceful rest and burning their bodies. Guss and Kleister helped. Our dwarf seemed a bit upset with the delay and as soon as my work was done pushed us onward to the mountains. Fine with me...though I had to wonder where the fire was all of a sudden. Heh.
Once in the mountains it became clear that the heroes didn't really know where they were going. They tried to do something with their beacon to "triangulate" where the dwarves were located - whatever that means. As we marched, I shared some of my halfling whiskey with Ron. After a few swigs, he began sharing a bit of what he thought about the rest of us. Sunny, he said was a "hot chick with Poe's gold". Guss was where he cast all of his area of effect spells. Beros was simply "spit the tree". OK, maybe he'd had more than a few swigs. I forget the rest. I was drinking a bit myself. Heh.
Anyway, we stumbled into camp and somehow I managed to pull a shift on guard before crawling into bed. Unfortunately for me, a full night's rest was not to be had. I was awakened by someone shaking me fiercely and the sounds of battle in the distance. And off we went. The darkness wasn't much of a hindrance as we charged towards the sound. "Kobolds", I heard Kobe mutter under his breath as I caught up with the heroes. Great. I hate those little frackers. Probably means there's a dragon or two about. Guss apparently felt the same. Without even a "Hey, Poe I'm off to storm the castle..." he charged into the fray and started laying into the little beasts. Kleister whipped a sunrod out of his pants and lit things up as he followed Guss' lead. They were quickly surrounded by kobolds. Sunny started yelling at the man on horseback who'd been taking the brunt of the kobold's attacks. He veered his mount towards her just as Ron dropped a chill cloud on the kobolds. Our dwarf was in the melee by that point so with a shrug I threw myself into the thick of things as well. Sunny was on her own if the mounted guy turned out to be a problem...
The heroes made pretty short work of the kobolds. Guss really showed his disdain for the little frackers, calling them all to come and get it and then smacking the crap out of them when they did. Quite impressive. The only thing that made the battle interesting was that as usual the little beasts had some priests with them tossing healing around. That and the fact that a whole group of the sneaky bastards pulled a Kobe and snuck around behind the heroes, falling on Sunny and Ron while the rest of the armored folks were mopping up the main group. That didn't even faze Ron - though I swear I saw at least a small bead of sweat on his forehead. He simply stepped back and lit them all on fire. Unfortunately he caught Sunny in the blast as well, singeing her a bit. She was alright though. As the last kobolds started to run Kobe inexplicably started reciting poetry...
"An ode to stickers...
I was walking in yardickers when I saw a bunch of stickers..."
Apparently he'd been hitting the halfling whiskey on his watch as well. Heh.
With the kobolds routed the heroes set to interrogating the poor fellow they'd rescued. Turns out he really was a human (you never can really know for sure these days...) by the name of Bizz. He tossed them a sack containing a bronze statue as payment for saving his life. Kleister began acting strangely (more so than usual) - almost arguing with his spear. Uh oh...next thing I knew he was yelling at Bizz, asking him about his contacts with a dragon. I eased a little closer in case things got uglier. They did but not in the way I was expecting. As Bizz started babbling about how his master had sent him to find the heroes of prophecy the prayer beads around my wrist suddenly got ice cold. I guess 'you know who' was interested in this one. So, when Bizz mentioned that he was supposed to know the heroes by the fact that they had star metal I quietly pointed out that Ron was lugging around a big chunk of it. Bizz's eyes lit up at that. Heh. He insisted on seeing the rock to verify it - which took some doing since Ron is a lot more suspicious than our dwarf - but then happily spilled his story. He was in the employ of a copper dragon who was currently pinned down by all of the evil dragons in the area. His master, Byzantine, believed that the heroes were fated to wield the star metal. If he hadn't been trapped in his lair by the evil dragons, he'd have come to aid the heroes himself. Instead, he'd sent our his followers - like Bizz - to try to find them and warn them. Well, mission accomplished. Bizz was happy to serve the heroes as well, going so far as to give Kobe all of his money when asked for it. I guess I now have some competition in this whole side kick business. Heh. We'll see how he holds up under fire...
Despite Bizz's protests that there weren't any dwarves in the mountains, the heroes continued on their quest for the dwarven stronghold. Finally, they reached the place their talisman said was where the place's backdoor will be found. Not much around to be seen though. They seemed confident that our dwarf - who does have a lot of insight into dwarven backdoors - would be able to find it, so they made camp. I took the opportunity to nap. That's what I was doing when Sunny tapped me gently awake. She'd noticed some crossbows up in the rocks nearby. She started talking to the crossbow wielders - turned out they were dwarves, much to Bizz's surprise - in an ugly guttural language...apparently dwarvish. Three dwarves came out of hiding on a ledge up above our camp. She must have been convincing (isn't she always), because they spoke some words that seemed to rhyme and a door opened in the cliff in front of us.
There was an armed squad of dwarves waiting behind the door. Things seemed a little tense at first, but after a lot of talking in dwarvish and some pointing at the talisman on the spear, the armed group let us in. They escorted us to a huge room where an important looking dwarf - greybearded and wearing a fancy golden crown - talked with Sunny for a while. Ron began translating for the rest of us. Old Greybeard was interested in learning more about the heroes' adventures so far. I volunteered to let him read my journal as I've recounted most of what they've accomplished. The upshot of the whole conversation? The dwarves would love to work the star metal into something more useful than a chunk of rock. But they could only do that for brothers. Of course, non-dwarves have to undergo some kind of test to become brothers. Kleister slammed his spear down at that and announced that the heroes would slay the white dragon that had taken up residence in the dwarves' former hold. This he claimed will make them brothers of the dwarves. Greybeard was impressed by Kleister (who I have to admit, can put on a good show...). The dwarven king added that the star metal could only be worked by a set of tools that were lost inside Grimwatch when Diamond (the white dragon) took the holding from the dwarves. Apparently within Grimwatch there was a vault used by a great dwarven smith. Once Diamond was killed the talisman the heroes have would help them find it.
We spent a couple of days with the dwarves. And that's when I made a surprising discovery. In a small side cavern I found a whole herd of those damned flightless birds from the plains. Turned out the dwarves raise them to, get this, eat. Heh. Gotta hand it to them - dwarves are tough bastards. Funny, too. They have a wonderful dish made from the wings (yeh, bird things have wings even though they can't fly...go figure) of these creatures slavered in a spicy red sauce that they call "buffalo bites". And boy, are those buffalo bites excellent...they go extremely well with the halfling whiskey. And even better with the dwarven beer. Let's just say that the three days pass rather quickly for me. Though I did manage to pick up some nice plate armor for the Raven. Something tells me he's going to need it.
The heroes left the star metal with the dwarves and set off on the dragon hunt. The dwarves lined the halls of their caves as they marched out. I've told them a million times that they are a big deal...I hope they're finally starting to believe it themselves. Heh. It was a long walk. Three days underground until we made it to Grimwatch. Did I mention that Grimwatch is a holding built in the form of a 4000 foot tall statue of a dwarf? Or that Diamond's lair is in the dwarf's chest - right where his heart would be? Or that, most importantly, we're entering the place from...wait for it...the statue's left ankle. It's gonna be a long long climb. Heh.
We found a spiral staircase just inside the ankle and started the long climb. We were no more than 50 feet in when Kobe - who was scouting ahead for treasure - ran into a spider. He attacked it and several more spiders the size of small ponies jumped out of the webs above us to attack. Green goo was quickly flying everywhere as Guss and I began hacking at the creatures. Beros' arrows found their mark but he was bitten in the process. Kliester went down under one of the creatures, wrestling with its eight legs. Ron started lighting them on fire and then, when he gots a bead on the largest spider (mama I think...) dropped his chill cloud on it. The worst of it all? The damn things jumped. First on top of us, then back into the middle of the cavern into their webs. Which don't burn by the way. Big disappointment that was. For some reason I expected their webs to simply go up like kindling. Not so. The heroes proved their mettle once again, killing spiders with abandon and finally, with some fierce strikes from Kleister's spear and a few well placed arrows from Beros, dropping the mama spider. The remaining spider fled at that...leaving us panting and bloodied on the staircase staring at a waving sea of broken webbing...
Well, Alia...I must break here for now...darkness calls.
Poe
See the original post and the full journal at: http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/moonsong/wikis/poesjournalentrytwelve
Or here using category: Poe's Adventure Journal
Well Alia, I think I recall now why I hated shopping with you so much. It's not the spending of money (though the Queen knows I hate all the counting and figuring), but the frackin' wrangling over what to buy. You were nothing compared to these heroes though. They spent days arguing over what type of armor to have and who would get what shiny new magical item. Ahh, well. What I'd give for just one more of those trips with you...
After all the discussion, it was good to get on the road. The heroes set course once again for the dwarven stronghold. The path took us back through the town we'd recently freed from the orcs. Predictably, it'd been sacked. It was still smoldering in fact and scores of the dead were simply laying where the orcs had cut them down. It brought back memories I've tried hard not to think about...especially when I stumbled across a family, slain as they tried to flee their home. I spent the rest of the day praying to the Queen to provide all of the dead with a peaceful rest and burning their bodies. Guss and Kleister helped. Our dwarf seemed a bit upset with the delay and as soon as my work was done pushed us onward to the mountains. Fine with me...though I had to wonder where the fire was all of a sudden. Heh.
Once in the mountains it became clear that the heroes didn't really know where they were going. They tried to do something with their beacon to "triangulate" where the dwarves were located - whatever that means. As we marched, I shared some of my halfling whiskey with Ron. After a few swigs, he began sharing a bit of what he thought about the rest of us. Sunny, he said was a "hot chick with Poe's gold". Guss was where he cast all of his area of effect spells. Beros was simply "spit the tree". OK, maybe he'd had more than a few swigs. I forget the rest. I was drinking a bit myself. Heh.
Anyway, we stumbled into camp and somehow I managed to pull a shift on guard before crawling into bed. Unfortunately for me, a full night's rest was not to be had. I was awakened by someone shaking me fiercely and the sounds of battle in the distance. And off we went. The darkness wasn't much of a hindrance as we charged towards the sound. "Kobolds", I heard Kobe mutter under his breath as I caught up with the heroes. Great. I hate those little frackers. Probably means there's a dragon or two about. Guss apparently felt the same. Without even a "Hey, Poe I'm off to storm the castle..." he charged into the fray and started laying into the little beasts. Kleister whipped a sunrod out of his pants and lit things up as he followed Guss' lead. They were quickly surrounded by kobolds. Sunny started yelling at the man on horseback who'd been taking the brunt of the kobold's attacks. He veered his mount towards her just as Ron dropped a chill cloud on the kobolds. Our dwarf was in the melee by that point so with a shrug I threw myself into the thick of things as well. Sunny was on her own if the mounted guy turned out to be a problem...
The heroes made pretty short work of the kobolds. Guss really showed his disdain for the little frackers, calling them all to come and get it and then smacking the crap out of them when they did. Quite impressive. The only thing that made the battle interesting was that as usual the little beasts had some priests with them tossing healing around. That and the fact that a whole group of the sneaky bastards pulled a Kobe and snuck around behind the heroes, falling on Sunny and Ron while the rest of the armored folks were mopping up the main group. That didn't even faze Ron - though I swear I saw at least a small bead of sweat on his forehead. He simply stepped back and lit them all on fire. Unfortunately he caught Sunny in the blast as well, singeing her a bit. She was alright though. As the last kobolds started to run Kobe inexplicably started reciting poetry...
"An ode to stickers...
I was walking in yardickers when I saw a bunch of stickers..."
Apparently he'd been hitting the halfling whiskey on his watch as well. Heh.
With the kobolds routed the heroes set to interrogating the poor fellow they'd rescued. Turns out he really was a human (you never can really know for sure these days...) by the name of Bizz. He tossed them a sack containing a bronze statue as payment for saving his life. Kleister began acting strangely (more so than usual) - almost arguing with his spear. Uh oh...next thing I knew he was yelling at Bizz, asking him about his contacts with a dragon. I eased a little closer in case things got uglier. They did but not in the way I was expecting. As Bizz started babbling about how his master had sent him to find the heroes of prophecy the prayer beads around my wrist suddenly got ice cold. I guess 'you know who' was interested in this one. So, when Bizz mentioned that he was supposed to know the heroes by the fact that they had star metal I quietly pointed out that Ron was lugging around a big chunk of it. Bizz's eyes lit up at that. Heh. He insisted on seeing the rock to verify it - which took some doing since Ron is a lot more suspicious than our dwarf - but then happily spilled his story. He was in the employ of a copper dragon who was currently pinned down by all of the evil dragons in the area. His master, Byzantine, believed that the heroes were fated to wield the star metal. If he hadn't been trapped in his lair by the evil dragons, he'd have come to aid the heroes himself. Instead, he'd sent our his followers - like Bizz - to try to find them and warn them. Well, mission accomplished. Bizz was happy to serve the heroes as well, going so far as to give Kobe all of his money when asked for it. I guess I now have some competition in this whole side kick business. Heh. We'll see how he holds up under fire...
Despite Bizz's protests that there weren't any dwarves in the mountains, the heroes continued on their quest for the dwarven stronghold. Finally, they reached the place their talisman said was where the place's backdoor will be found. Not much around to be seen though. They seemed confident that our dwarf - who does have a lot of insight into dwarven backdoors - would be able to find it, so they made camp. I took the opportunity to nap. That's what I was doing when Sunny tapped me gently awake. She'd noticed some crossbows up in the rocks nearby. She started talking to the crossbow wielders - turned out they were dwarves, much to Bizz's surprise - in an ugly guttural language...apparently dwarvish. Three dwarves came out of hiding on a ledge up above our camp. She must have been convincing (isn't she always), because they spoke some words that seemed to rhyme and a door opened in the cliff in front of us.
There was an armed squad of dwarves waiting behind the door. Things seemed a little tense at first, but after a lot of talking in dwarvish and some pointing at the talisman on the spear, the armed group let us in. They escorted us to a huge room where an important looking dwarf - greybearded and wearing a fancy golden crown - talked with Sunny for a while. Ron began translating for the rest of us. Old Greybeard was interested in learning more about the heroes' adventures so far. I volunteered to let him read my journal as I've recounted most of what they've accomplished. The upshot of the whole conversation? The dwarves would love to work the star metal into something more useful than a chunk of rock. But they could only do that for brothers. Of course, non-dwarves have to undergo some kind of test to become brothers. Kleister slammed his spear down at that and announced that the heroes would slay the white dragon that had taken up residence in the dwarves' former hold. This he claimed will make them brothers of the dwarves. Greybeard was impressed by Kleister (who I have to admit, can put on a good show...). The dwarven king added that the star metal could only be worked by a set of tools that were lost inside Grimwatch when Diamond (the white dragon) took the holding from the dwarves. Apparently within Grimwatch there was a vault used by a great dwarven smith. Once Diamond was killed the talisman the heroes have would help them find it.
We spent a couple of days with the dwarves. And that's when I made a surprising discovery. In a small side cavern I found a whole herd of those damned flightless birds from the plains. Turned out the dwarves raise them to, get this, eat. Heh. Gotta hand it to them - dwarves are tough bastards. Funny, too. They have a wonderful dish made from the wings (yeh, bird things have wings even though they can't fly...go figure) of these creatures slavered in a spicy red sauce that they call "buffalo bites". And boy, are those buffalo bites excellent...they go extremely well with the halfling whiskey. And even better with the dwarven beer. Let's just say that the three days pass rather quickly for me. Though I did manage to pick up some nice plate armor for the Raven. Something tells me he's going to need it.
The heroes left the star metal with the dwarves and set off on the dragon hunt. The dwarves lined the halls of their caves as they marched out. I've told them a million times that they are a big deal...I hope they're finally starting to believe it themselves. Heh. It was a long walk. Three days underground until we made it to Grimwatch. Did I mention that Grimwatch is a holding built in the form of a 4000 foot tall statue of a dwarf? Or that Diamond's lair is in the dwarf's chest - right where his heart would be? Or that, most importantly, we're entering the place from...wait for it...the statue's left ankle. It's gonna be a long long climb. Heh.
We found a spiral staircase just inside the ankle and started the long climb. We were no more than 50 feet in when Kobe - who was scouting ahead for treasure - ran into a spider. He attacked it and several more spiders the size of small ponies jumped out of the webs above us to attack. Green goo was quickly flying everywhere as Guss and I began hacking at the creatures. Beros' arrows found their mark but he was bitten in the process. Kliester went down under one of the creatures, wrestling with its eight legs. Ron started lighting them on fire and then, when he gots a bead on the largest spider (mama I think...) dropped his chill cloud on it. The worst of it all? The damn things jumped. First on top of us, then back into the middle of the cavern into their webs. Which don't burn by the way. Big disappointment that was. For some reason I expected their webs to simply go up like kindling. Not so. The heroes proved their mettle once again, killing spiders with abandon and finally, with some fierce strikes from Kleister's spear and a few well placed arrows from Beros, dropping the mama spider. The remaining spider fled at that...leaving us panting and bloodied on the staircase staring at a waving sea of broken webbing...
Well, Alia...I must break here for now...darkness calls.
Poe
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Saving the City
Eleventh entry (after the 08/09 session)
See the original post and the full journal at: http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/moonsong/wikis/poesjournalentryeleven
Or here using category: Poe's Adventure Journal
You know, this fort - hell, it's really practically a town now - is really starting to feel like home. Maybe it's just because I've spent so long convalescing here lately. Or maybe, Alia, it's because it's starting to remind me of the little town you and I grew up in. Either way, it'll be a sad day when I can walk steadily for more than a few paces and can accompany the heroes on whatever their next mission turns out to be. Mission, heh. More likely that it'll be some greed-fueled trek across the country after some mythical hoard...
Meanwhile, I've got plenty of time while I'm laid up here to write it all down. And since the local healers are strongly advising me against drinking (ok, so I sneak one in occasionally, but it's a little tough to get to the bar and Sunny has so far refused to deliver anything), I've even been mostly sober so maybe it'll all make sense. Heh. So, where was I my love? Oh yeah - the main floor of the orc governor's mansion in that god-forsaken little town Kobe'd talked us into. We'd just killed everything on that level and Ron was leading the heroes up the stairs to press the attack. Or rather, he'd sent me up the stairs into his stinking cloud. Seemed like a good idea at the time...and as it turns out, Ron's decision to press onward probably saved the lives of everyone. You see, as I reached the landing on the second floor, I heard muffled chanting. My prayer beads turned so cold they hurt. We'd stumbled into a ritual of the Queen's hated enemy. Something designed to raise a demon from the depths of hell. Frack. I took off running, yelling over my shoulder at Ron to hurry.
Two arrows whizzed past my ears. For once, charging into the thick of it was working in my favor. Heh. The two long bow wielding orcs fell back as I barreled down on them. I continued straight towards the sound of the chanting, hurtling at the wall to the next room, ready to blast through it and interrupt the ritual. The wall held. I bounced. Ouch. Luckily the wounds were mostly to my pride. I'd started to move towards the doorway when Guss caught up with me. He was a little upset with me - running off on my own. I started to explain but the breath was crushed from my lungs by a blow from a battle axe. My fancy new armor held. I suspect it's going to need some serious work to get that and various other dents pounded out. Heh.
The chanting was reaching a feverish pitch, so I tried to shove past the three orcs blocking the door. They stood firm, pushing me back. Guss had better luck - all that fancy footwork and years of training paid off. He got the orcs to move enough that I a narrow path into the room opened in front of me. A booming voice reverberated throughout the room, speaking in a strange tongue. Suddenly the back wall blew to pieces. Ron stepped into the room through the cloud of dust. He waved his hands and spoke some arcane words. Darkness burst from his fingertips, striking down all of the orcs and the newly summoned demon. Now that's an entrance. Heh. I didn't hesitate to back him up - charging into the room straight at the demon. I spent the next several seconds unconscious...recovering from a vicious strike from a fallen orc. Ron apparently hadn't killed them, just knocked them down. Frack. While I was out however, Kobe and Sunny joined the fray, each damaging an orc. Ron and the death mages traded magical attacks and several orcs closed with Beros, trying to keep him from using his bow. Oh, yeah, and the demon stood up and one upped Ron, blowing the remaining three walls of the room - the whole side of the mansion really - to dust. Sunny tells me that the demon then asked where his star metal was and that Ron, ever ready with a quip, quickly asked the creature how much he was willing to pay. Heh. Sunny also said that things started getting really interesting about then (as if they weren't already). The orcs began to flee, led by the indomitable Snarl, who crawled off the edge of the building to get away from the carnage. Ron yelled after him, calling for him to come back with the star metal. Apparently this ploy didn't work quite as planned. The demon responded with a blast of fire, forcing Ron to throw up a shield to avoid being crisped. Beros launched an arrow at the demon. It flew true, but was, according to Sunny consumed by the creature's fiery aura before it could do any damage. Kobe and Sunny kept their distance, killing fleeing orcs. Guss moved over to me and rendered some desparately needed first aid. And so I awoke - to a sea of flaming rubble and the entrance of our flaming dwarf, holding in his hand, of all things, a beer. Talk about service. Heh.
I figured I didn't really have time for a cold one, good as it sounded. Someone had to give Ron a hand. He'd moved the stinking cloud over the demon and then shrouded the demon and the death priests in fire. No one else seemed too eager to take on the creature. Well, I guess that's what I'm here for...I screamed the Queen's challenge at him and charged. Our dwarf shouted a prayer, sending waves of healing washing over me and then took up a defensive stance in front of Ron. None too soon either - the demon started towards them. Sunny lashed it with her magical power and it thought better of that plan, instead turning to swing it's fiery glaive at me. The burning blade crashed into my side, but I kept going buoyed by more healing from our dwarf. Ron's stinking cloud finally did in the death mages, but they had a last trick up their tattered black sleeves. As they died, their souls flew through him, raking him with black claws. He fell. Our dwarf was there though, exercising his praying muscles yet again, to bring Ron immediately back to his feet. I bought the two of them a second of respite, going toe to toe with the demon and trading blows with it. Ron wasted no time, flinging two magical missiles at the creature as soon as he was back on his feet. Unlike Beros' projectiles, these penetrated the creature's aura. Our dwarf started yelling something about the floor. I looked where he was pointing. Cracks were widening in the floorboards and several boards were starting to pull apart. Uh oh. Our dwarf continued praying as he backed away from the fast failing floor. He must have been calling for help for me, because I suddenly felt invigorated. Hell with it. I stood my ground, keeping the demon away from the heroes. Behind me, Sunny's voice cut through the din, calling down a curse on the demon. You'd think he'd be immune to such a thing, but no, it clearly stung. With that and a final groan, the floor gave way, sending the demon and I plunging back down to the main floor of the mansion.
Good thing we were only on the second floor. Plus, most of the heroes were smart enough to have backed out of the room before the floor fell. Me? Well I was up close and personal with the creature. Close enough to see him draw on some power to close several of the wounds that Ron had dealt him. Frack. I stood up and smacked him with the Queen's cold blade. A couple of arrows thunked into him as well. Good. Beros was back in the fight, too. Our dwarf continued praying from up above and the ground around the demon and I suddenly began to glow slightly. Soothing warmth spread up my legs. Guss was back, too - swinging at the demon with his blade as it tried to step out of the glowing area. Things were looking up. The demon didn't stand for long against the combined power of the heroes. Our dwarf hurled a lance of glowing power at him. Sunny blasted him with some sort of magical energy and then Guss finished him off with a sweeping blow from his sword. Suddenly all I could hear over my pounding heart was the crackling of the fire consuming the upper floor. I fell to my knees and thanked the Queen for helping to vanquish the creature.
While I prayed, the heroes stood in the burning building deciding on their next course of action. Stay and search for treasure or get out before the place collapsed. You can guess their decision. Heh. Fortunately, we got word relatively quickly that Snarl had holed up in the guard's barracks and may have actually gotten some of the remaining human guards to fight for him. We'd see about that. So, off we sped to the barracks. As we approached the building my prayer beads suddenly chilled and I noticed a raven launching itself from a nearby rooftop. Uhoh. I stepped in front of Ron, just in time. Three arrows thumped into my chest, kicking the wind from my lungs. Human archers on the walls behind the building were using us for target practice. I heard Snarl yelling at them. Time to put an end to that frackin' orc. Before I could act on that though, the humans loosed another volley of arrows. I was hit again. Sunny started yelling to the archers, asking them to join us and throw off the yoke of the orcs. The rest of us took a more direct path - charging the barracks. Kobe got there first and took up a post near the door. Ron and I moved forward together, following him. Ron hurled a spell at the structure...but missed. I looked at him in dismay. That didn't last long though as the barracks' door burst open and the orc who'd stabbed me from the floor earlier in the morning charged out. His wicked axe sliced into me again.
Sunny continued talking to the archers on the wall. I hoped she'd be able to talk them down. I'd taken enough arrows for one day. I figured our best bet though would be to get Snarl. Our dwarf must have been thinking the same thing. I heard him chanting and suddenly Snarl himself stepped out into the light of the morning, blinking and looking slightly confused. Ron tossed more fire at the orcs and I took the opportunity to smack Snarl with the Queen's blade. Orcs now poured out of the barracks. A single arrow threaded through the ranks, finding a home in Snarl's chest. Beros again. Guss wasn't quite so lucky - Snarl managed to dodge his blade. That was when I heard the yells from inside the barracks and several of the orcs in the back were mobbed by human guards. They'd joined us. The archers on the walls stopped shooting, too. Sunny's charm offensive had obviously succeeded. Good for her and us.
I watched Kobe dart around me and bury two daggers in the orc I'd been holding off to my left. I heard Sunny shout "Sorry!" and had a second to duck before I was engulfed in a firestorm. I clenched my teeth and tried to dodge as another orc's huge axe swept towards my head. Out of nowhere an arrow came shrieking past my ear, driving directly into the axe's shaft and deflecting it to the side. I breathed thanks to Beros. Snarl screamed his rage at the turncoat humans, "You'll all die for this!" Well, he's half right anyway. Heh. Guss shoved his way through an orc, his blade stabbing through the beast's defenses. Without pausing, he spun his sword as if it were nothing more than a dagger, catching a second orc with his back stroke. Frack, he's good. Me? I could barely keep a hold of my blade, what with the blood pouring down my arm. Warmth flooded over me, thankfully not fire this time, as our dwarf's prayers brought me healing yet again. The orc next to me staggered back as a blast of fey energy from Sunny caught him in the face. Not to be outdone, Ron flung a few missiles of his own, two burning bolts of magic that pummelled into Snarl and temporarily at least shut him up.
I'd finally got a good grip on my sword and I swapped blows with one of the orcs. The creature was shifty though and slid quickly behind me to strike a second blow - solidly this time - with his axe. I heard the twang of Beros' bow again and a grunt from Snarl. Another hit for the elf. Our dwarf yelled a battle cry. The orc behind me screamed as his knee was shattered by our dwarf's hammer. Kobe materialized out of thin air again, his daggers flashing as he, too struck the orc. A blast ripped the air off to the left. Ron again, I thought as I spun myself around and cut the orc behind me. Another orc came flying into the fray, slashing me with his axe. I smiled as Beros' bowstring sung again. Snarl yelled. Yet another hit for the elf. Our dwarf brought his hammer down again, this time smashing the orc's forearm. White light radiated from the weapon. With a flick of his wrist he sent the light towards Guss, who's eyes widened as several of his wounds closed up. I heard a gurgle and spun again. The orc who'd been threatening me was on his knees, one of Kobe's daggers protruding from his right eye socket. I was a bit disoriented, still bleeding pretty heavily. Ron shouldered me out of the way, blocking a pair of orcs from closing with me. We needed to end this fight now. I looked around and then found him. Snarl. Cut off the beast's head I figured. I wasn't the only one. We converged on Snarl. Sunny blasted him, drawing a howl of pain. Kobe twisted him around and pushed him to the ground. Ron loosed yet another volley of fire at an orc trying to shelter in the doorway of the barracks. Standing over Snarl, I growled at him myself. "Last chance to die quickly," I told him. He spat at me in reply. The remaining orcs weren't through yet either. They struck both Ron and Sunny. Beros plugged Snarl just as he was climbing to his feet. This brought him into range though and Snarl didn't waste the opportunity to strike at the elf. The archers on the wall joined in the battle again - this time on our side - firing on the orc that'd charged out to engage Sunny. Sunny pulled a trick of her own, sidestepping the creature while blasting it with more fey power. Ron threw more magic at the orc in the barracks. It seemed like things were well in hand around me...but Sunny was on her own against that orc. Frack. I charged without thinking, blood scattering from multiple wounds. As I staggered up to the orc, he spun around, batted my sword to the side and sunk his blade into me. Things went dark...
Sunny's filled in the details of what happened after I fell in what she calls my foolish attempt to save her. Turns out she can more than take care of herself. In fact, she was the one who stabilized me and kept me from dying on the field. While she did that, our dwarf and Ron teamed up to take down Snarl. Ron at one point literally stood over my body fighting off an orc. Together, the heroes killed the remaining orcs. After that, and some well deserved rest, they gathered all the humans who were interested and made the trek back to the fort. I wasn't much help for most of that, being laid up and barely able to walk. Sunny and Ron insisted I take it easy and since I wasn't in any state to argue, I did. Hopefully, I'll be back on my feet and full strength again soon.
Poe
See the original post and the full journal at: http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/moonsong/wikis/poesjournalentryeleven
Or here using category: Poe's Adventure Journal
You know, this fort - hell, it's really practically a town now - is really starting to feel like home. Maybe it's just because I've spent so long convalescing here lately. Or maybe, Alia, it's because it's starting to remind me of the little town you and I grew up in. Either way, it'll be a sad day when I can walk steadily for more than a few paces and can accompany the heroes on whatever their next mission turns out to be. Mission, heh. More likely that it'll be some greed-fueled trek across the country after some mythical hoard...
Meanwhile, I've got plenty of time while I'm laid up here to write it all down. And since the local healers are strongly advising me against drinking (ok, so I sneak one in occasionally, but it's a little tough to get to the bar and Sunny has so far refused to deliver anything), I've even been mostly sober so maybe it'll all make sense. Heh. So, where was I my love? Oh yeah - the main floor of the orc governor's mansion in that god-forsaken little town Kobe'd talked us into. We'd just killed everything on that level and Ron was leading the heroes up the stairs to press the attack. Or rather, he'd sent me up the stairs into his stinking cloud. Seemed like a good idea at the time...and as it turns out, Ron's decision to press onward probably saved the lives of everyone. You see, as I reached the landing on the second floor, I heard muffled chanting. My prayer beads turned so cold they hurt. We'd stumbled into a ritual of the Queen's hated enemy. Something designed to raise a demon from the depths of hell. Frack. I took off running, yelling over my shoulder at Ron to hurry.
Two arrows whizzed past my ears. For once, charging into the thick of it was working in my favor. Heh. The two long bow wielding orcs fell back as I barreled down on them. I continued straight towards the sound of the chanting, hurtling at the wall to the next room, ready to blast through it and interrupt the ritual. The wall held. I bounced. Ouch. Luckily the wounds were mostly to my pride. I'd started to move towards the doorway when Guss caught up with me. He was a little upset with me - running off on my own. I started to explain but the breath was crushed from my lungs by a blow from a battle axe. My fancy new armor held. I suspect it's going to need some serious work to get that and various other dents pounded out. Heh.
The chanting was reaching a feverish pitch, so I tried to shove past the three orcs blocking the door. They stood firm, pushing me back. Guss had better luck - all that fancy footwork and years of training paid off. He got the orcs to move enough that I a narrow path into the room opened in front of me. A booming voice reverberated throughout the room, speaking in a strange tongue. Suddenly the back wall blew to pieces. Ron stepped into the room through the cloud of dust. He waved his hands and spoke some arcane words. Darkness burst from his fingertips, striking down all of the orcs and the newly summoned demon. Now that's an entrance. Heh. I didn't hesitate to back him up - charging into the room straight at the demon. I spent the next several seconds unconscious...recovering from a vicious strike from a fallen orc. Ron apparently hadn't killed them, just knocked them down. Frack. While I was out however, Kobe and Sunny joined the fray, each damaging an orc. Ron and the death mages traded magical attacks and several orcs closed with Beros, trying to keep him from using his bow. Oh, yeah, and the demon stood up and one upped Ron, blowing the remaining three walls of the room - the whole side of the mansion really - to dust. Sunny tells me that the demon then asked where his star metal was and that Ron, ever ready with a quip, quickly asked the creature how much he was willing to pay. Heh. Sunny also said that things started getting really interesting about then (as if they weren't already). The orcs began to flee, led by the indomitable Snarl, who crawled off the edge of the building to get away from the carnage. Ron yelled after him, calling for him to come back with the star metal. Apparently this ploy didn't work quite as planned. The demon responded with a blast of fire, forcing Ron to throw up a shield to avoid being crisped. Beros launched an arrow at the demon. It flew true, but was, according to Sunny consumed by the creature's fiery aura before it could do any damage. Kobe and Sunny kept their distance, killing fleeing orcs. Guss moved over to me and rendered some desparately needed first aid. And so I awoke - to a sea of flaming rubble and the entrance of our flaming dwarf, holding in his hand, of all things, a beer. Talk about service. Heh.
I figured I didn't really have time for a cold one, good as it sounded. Someone had to give Ron a hand. He'd moved the stinking cloud over the demon and then shrouded the demon and the death priests in fire. No one else seemed too eager to take on the creature. Well, I guess that's what I'm here for...I screamed the Queen's challenge at him and charged. Our dwarf shouted a prayer, sending waves of healing washing over me and then took up a defensive stance in front of Ron. None too soon either - the demon started towards them. Sunny lashed it with her magical power and it thought better of that plan, instead turning to swing it's fiery glaive at me. The burning blade crashed into my side, but I kept going buoyed by more healing from our dwarf. Ron's stinking cloud finally did in the death mages, but they had a last trick up their tattered black sleeves. As they died, their souls flew through him, raking him with black claws. He fell. Our dwarf was there though, exercising his praying muscles yet again, to bring Ron immediately back to his feet. I bought the two of them a second of respite, going toe to toe with the demon and trading blows with it. Ron wasted no time, flinging two magical missiles at the creature as soon as he was back on his feet. Unlike Beros' projectiles, these penetrated the creature's aura. Our dwarf started yelling something about the floor. I looked where he was pointing. Cracks were widening in the floorboards and several boards were starting to pull apart. Uh oh. Our dwarf continued praying as he backed away from the fast failing floor. He must have been calling for help for me, because I suddenly felt invigorated. Hell with it. I stood my ground, keeping the demon away from the heroes. Behind me, Sunny's voice cut through the din, calling down a curse on the demon. You'd think he'd be immune to such a thing, but no, it clearly stung. With that and a final groan, the floor gave way, sending the demon and I plunging back down to the main floor of the mansion.
Good thing we were only on the second floor. Plus, most of the heroes were smart enough to have backed out of the room before the floor fell. Me? Well I was up close and personal with the creature. Close enough to see him draw on some power to close several of the wounds that Ron had dealt him. Frack. I stood up and smacked him with the Queen's cold blade. A couple of arrows thunked into him as well. Good. Beros was back in the fight, too. Our dwarf continued praying from up above and the ground around the demon and I suddenly began to glow slightly. Soothing warmth spread up my legs. Guss was back, too - swinging at the demon with his blade as it tried to step out of the glowing area. Things were looking up. The demon didn't stand for long against the combined power of the heroes. Our dwarf hurled a lance of glowing power at him. Sunny blasted him with some sort of magical energy and then Guss finished him off with a sweeping blow from his sword. Suddenly all I could hear over my pounding heart was the crackling of the fire consuming the upper floor. I fell to my knees and thanked the Queen for helping to vanquish the creature.
While I prayed, the heroes stood in the burning building deciding on their next course of action. Stay and search for treasure or get out before the place collapsed. You can guess their decision. Heh. Fortunately, we got word relatively quickly that Snarl had holed up in the guard's barracks and may have actually gotten some of the remaining human guards to fight for him. We'd see about that. So, off we sped to the barracks. As we approached the building my prayer beads suddenly chilled and I noticed a raven launching itself from a nearby rooftop. Uhoh. I stepped in front of Ron, just in time. Three arrows thumped into my chest, kicking the wind from my lungs. Human archers on the walls behind the building were using us for target practice. I heard Snarl yelling at them. Time to put an end to that frackin' orc. Before I could act on that though, the humans loosed another volley of arrows. I was hit again. Sunny started yelling to the archers, asking them to join us and throw off the yoke of the orcs. The rest of us took a more direct path - charging the barracks. Kobe got there first and took up a post near the door. Ron and I moved forward together, following him. Ron hurled a spell at the structure...but missed. I looked at him in dismay. That didn't last long though as the barracks' door burst open and the orc who'd stabbed me from the floor earlier in the morning charged out. His wicked axe sliced into me again.
Sunny continued talking to the archers on the wall. I hoped she'd be able to talk them down. I'd taken enough arrows for one day. I figured our best bet though would be to get Snarl. Our dwarf must have been thinking the same thing. I heard him chanting and suddenly Snarl himself stepped out into the light of the morning, blinking and looking slightly confused. Ron tossed more fire at the orcs and I took the opportunity to smack Snarl with the Queen's blade. Orcs now poured out of the barracks. A single arrow threaded through the ranks, finding a home in Snarl's chest. Beros again. Guss wasn't quite so lucky - Snarl managed to dodge his blade. That was when I heard the yells from inside the barracks and several of the orcs in the back were mobbed by human guards. They'd joined us. The archers on the walls stopped shooting, too. Sunny's charm offensive had obviously succeeded. Good for her and us.
I watched Kobe dart around me and bury two daggers in the orc I'd been holding off to my left. I heard Sunny shout "Sorry!" and had a second to duck before I was engulfed in a firestorm. I clenched my teeth and tried to dodge as another orc's huge axe swept towards my head. Out of nowhere an arrow came shrieking past my ear, driving directly into the axe's shaft and deflecting it to the side. I breathed thanks to Beros. Snarl screamed his rage at the turncoat humans, "You'll all die for this!" Well, he's half right anyway. Heh. Guss shoved his way through an orc, his blade stabbing through the beast's defenses. Without pausing, he spun his sword as if it were nothing more than a dagger, catching a second orc with his back stroke. Frack, he's good. Me? I could barely keep a hold of my blade, what with the blood pouring down my arm. Warmth flooded over me, thankfully not fire this time, as our dwarf's prayers brought me healing yet again. The orc next to me staggered back as a blast of fey energy from Sunny caught him in the face. Not to be outdone, Ron flung a few missiles of his own, two burning bolts of magic that pummelled into Snarl and temporarily at least shut him up.
I'd finally got a good grip on my sword and I swapped blows with one of the orcs. The creature was shifty though and slid quickly behind me to strike a second blow - solidly this time - with his axe. I heard the twang of Beros' bow again and a grunt from Snarl. Another hit for the elf. Our dwarf yelled a battle cry. The orc behind me screamed as his knee was shattered by our dwarf's hammer. Kobe materialized out of thin air again, his daggers flashing as he, too struck the orc. A blast ripped the air off to the left. Ron again, I thought as I spun myself around and cut the orc behind me. Another orc came flying into the fray, slashing me with his axe. I smiled as Beros' bowstring sung again. Snarl yelled. Yet another hit for the elf. Our dwarf brought his hammer down again, this time smashing the orc's forearm. White light radiated from the weapon. With a flick of his wrist he sent the light towards Guss, who's eyes widened as several of his wounds closed up. I heard a gurgle and spun again. The orc who'd been threatening me was on his knees, one of Kobe's daggers protruding from his right eye socket. I was a bit disoriented, still bleeding pretty heavily. Ron shouldered me out of the way, blocking a pair of orcs from closing with me. We needed to end this fight now. I looked around and then found him. Snarl. Cut off the beast's head I figured. I wasn't the only one. We converged on Snarl. Sunny blasted him, drawing a howl of pain. Kobe twisted him around and pushed him to the ground. Ron loosed yet another volley of fire at an orc trying to shelter in the doorway of the barracks. Standing over Snarl, I growled at him myself. "Last chance to die quickly," I told him. He spat at me in reply. The remaining orcs weren't through yet either. They struck both Ron and Sunny. Beros plugged Snarl just as he was climbing to his feet. This brought him into range though and Snarl didn't waste the opportunity to strike at the elf. The archers on the wall joined in the battle again - this time on our side - firing on the orc that'd charged out to engage Sunny. Sunny pulled a trick of her own, sidestepping the creature while blasting it with more fey power. Ron threw more magic at the orc in the barracks. It seemed like things were well in hand around me...but Sunny was on her own against that orc. Frack. I charged without thinking, blood scattering from multiple wounds. As I staggered up to the orc, he spun around, batted my sword to the side and sunk his blade into me. Things went dark...
Sunny's filled in the details of what happened after I fell in what she calls my foolish attempt to save her. Turns out she can more than take care of herself. In fact, she was the one who stabilized me and kept me from dying on the field. While she did that, our dwarf and Ron teamed up to take down Snarl. Ron at one point literally stood over my body fighting off an orc. Together, the heroes killed the remaining orcs. After that, and some well deserved rest, they gathered all the humans who were interested and made the trek back to the fort. I wasn't much help for most of that, being laid up and barely able to walk. Sunny and Ron insisted I take it easy and since I wasn't in any state to argue, I did. Hopefully, I'll be back on my feet and full strength again soon.
Poe
Friday, August 14, 2009
Redemption, Part 2
Tenth entry (after the 07/09 session)
See the original post and the full journal at: http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/moonsong/wikis/poesjournalentryten
Or here using category: Poe's Adventure Journal
So here I am again beloved...ahhh, Alia, why is it only in the dregs of my cups that I can find any solace without you? I thought perhaps dedicating myself to the Raven Queen's service, dutifully praying and trying to advance her goals - though I still sometimes wonder at the import she has placed on this particular group - would ease that pain. It's not to be. Only in the heat of battle do I find peace. At least these heroes of prophecy lead me into the thick of the fight more often than not...even when they decide to run, as they did in the forest.
We took off from the battle site as fast as our little dwarf's legs could carry him. Try as we did though, we were not fated to elude the little frackers. They quickly ran us down from behind, almost literally as they were riding a huge lizard. The ensuing battle was bloody and brief. Six of the little frackers struck me with their short swords. Ron conjured waves of darkness to claw at them and Beros took one down with some well placed arrows. That's when the lizard - and I say lizard only because Kleister spent most of the battle yelling that it wasn't a dragon - spit poison at us. The green goo spewing from it's mouth smelled as bad as it felt. I gritted my teeth, held my breath and stepped into the spray. That's why She put me here I guess. Channeling her power I thrust the cold sword into the beast's chest. It roared. Felt that one. Heh. My gloating got me into trouble as I failed to notice the lizard's little kobold keeper slipping behind me. He quickly got my attention though, thrusting his short sword into my back. Kleister yelled at me, pointing out an opening and I took it, swinging my frost blade at the lizard again and connecting solidly. I heard a whistle and felt the wind of Guss' sword cutting the air behind me, killing the little fracker who'd just stabbed me. A grunt and a dwarven curse indicated that our dwarf had deigned to enter the fray as well. Good for him. The lizard wasn't done with me yet though. It chomped at me with its poison dripping fangs. I must not have tasted too good though as it promptly backed away after doing so. I pressed the attack, flailing wildly with my weapon. This time, the beast's fangs struck true, injecting its poison into me. Frack. High pitched screams erupted behind me - Ron clearing out the kobolds by the sound of it. With its handlers dead, I took a chance and ordered the lizard to sit in my fiercest voice. Amazingly it began to back down...just in time to be caught by a magical bolt hurled by Ron. Ron's magic killed it instantly. So much for riding out of there in style...
I suppose it was for the best - the Queen probably wouldn't have taken too kindly to me letting it live anyway. The battle turned out to be the kobolds last gasp and we made it out of the forest without further incident. Interestingly enough the longer we stayed in the forest the more I began to understand why it (whatever "it" was) was so pissed off. I guess I'd be a little upset if my body had been invaded by parasitic green dragons and their foul minions. Understanding this didn't make it any easier to sleep though so I was glad to leave the place behind.
The trip back to the fort went well. It was good to get back there. A lot had changed...most obviously that the fort itself was not as obvious. Apparently the negotiations with the gnomes had gone well - I heard that they spoke elvish - and the gnomes had cloaked the fort in an illusion spell. They'd also discovered a portal that would allow some of the magic using heroes to instantly travel between the fort and any other place that had a similar portal. The heroes were smart enough to be worried about this and so had blocked it up (after discussing ideas for using it as a trap for various evil creatures). The fields were growing well, too. Apparently the green dragon corpses really did make for good fertilizer. While the heroes regrouped and planned their next step, I caught up with the Raven. I was a bit disappointed to learn that he hadn't killed anything yet, so I spent some time with him teaching him how to use the bloody axe and getting him up to speed on the Queen's priorities.
Before too long the heroes decided to head to the mountains to visit the dwarves. Apparently they'd been told to present themselves there at the full moon some time ago. So off we went again...
Life on the road is becoming the norm for us. Traveling the plains especially is becoming old hat, but we did encounter something new this time: buffalo. A whole herd of them. It didn't take me long to realize that they were likely the main source of food for those frackin' flightless bird things. Frack. That put me on my guard Guss however saw the immediate danger - a stampede. He wisely led us to a rocky outcropping where we made out camp for the night. No stampedes and no birds things. Heh.
Things continued to be uneventful until we came to a road and followed the road to a city that looked to be about the size of Long Meadow. I guess the heroes had gotten a bit bored with life on the road. They decided to stop and enjoy the comforts of civilization for a night. Kobe took the lead, moving ahead of the rest of the group and attempting to talk his way past the gate guards. He was gone a while and from the looks we got from the guards as we came in he must have told them one heck of a story. Or maybe just paid them a bunch of money. Or perhaps both. Whatever he did, it got us in and to a comfortable looking inn. Ron wasted no time in getting himself hooked up at the inn, getting a good room and some companionship. I was happy to have Sunny procure me some new alcohol and promptly sat myself in the corner of the common room to test it out. I hadn't even gotten through the first glass however when I noticed a raven sitting on the windowsill, looking at me knowingly. Frack. I corked my new bottle and followed the bird's gaze. Two men sat in the opposite corner, their heads together. Clearly they didn't want to be bothered and didn't want to draw any attention to themselves. I looked at the bird again. He nodded at me. I sighed. OK, here we go. I took my bottle over to the men's table, plunked it down in front of them, grabbed a chair and sat down. As I did so, the raven squawked loudly and flew away. Their eyes darted to it and both made the sign of the Queen. Interesting. I did the same. Then quietly showed them my holy symbol. It wasn't long before we were discussing the sorry state of things for humanity. I told them about the Raven and how the Queen had chosen him as her champion. They agreed to spread the word among Her followers. In return, I acquired some gold from Sunny and Kobe and donated it to their group. All in all, a good night's work and I don't think the Queen begrudged my finishing off the remaining bottle by myself. Heh.
The next morning I learned that Ron had procured me a fancy suit of plate armor. Guess he likes having me between him and the bad guys...and on my feet. Heh. I also learned that Guss had started recruiting people from the town to emigrate to the heroes' fort. Worst of all, several of the Queen's worshippers I had talked with the night before approached me with a plan to overthrow the orc governor of the town. I deferred, but hooked them up with the heroes and let them decide. Predictably, we were soon planning to storm the governor's mansion. As I sit here writing this, they're feverishly working on their attack plans. Me? I don't care as long as I get to kill some orcs. They killed me not too long ago. I figure I owe them. Heh. Heck, today's as good a day as any to die.
We're catching our breath here, so I have a moment to write. Battle was joined as the sun broke above the horizon this morning. We snuck Beros into town with a hat pulled down over his pointy ears (he wouldn't let us cut them round...) and ambushed the orcs at the front door of the mansion. Sunny successfully lured one of the guards out but the other sprinted inside and pounded on a gong. So much for the fancy plan. Guss and I charged the door, leaving the rest of the heroes to deal with the first orc guard. Kobe and Beros were on the case, so we figured they'd be fine. The gong ringing orc charged back out of the door, right into Guss' steel. The orc had friends behind him though - and at least one of them either had magic abilities or an uncommonly close relationship with the local garbage heap: a swarm of flies flew out of the building, surrounding me, biting me and obscuring my sight. Lucky for me, the flies moved on quickly. I heard Ron cursing...they must have found him instead. Heh. The yells of the orc outside suddenly gurgled and stopped. I caught a glance of Beros, looking grim, nocking a new arrow. Score one for the good guys. I stepped into a hail of blades - damn orcs and their frackin' axes - trying to keep up with Guss who was pressing into the building. Ron followed right behind me, wreathed in fire and throwing one of his magical stinking clouds past me. I was bleeding heavily and Guss was looking like he's hurting. The Queen however had other plans for today. My new prayer beads iced up and Her power flowed through me, healing both myself and Guss. Arrows whistled past me and buried themselves into the one-eyed orc's shoulder. That should slow him down I thought. The Queen's power was still flowing strongly through me so I struck out with it, lending it to my nearby comrades as well. Ol' One-eye was still back though - he threw some sort of disease at Guss, who almost immediately began to take on a greenish hue. Uh oh, I thought. Luckily Beros and Kobe had finally joined the fun. Kobe walked straight up to One-eye and calmly stuck his daggers in the grimy creature's chest. I dropped the orc still holding and was rewarded with the Queen's blessing. Energized I charged forward. Guss beat me there, bashed One-eye with his shield and with a sweep of his blade, ended the creature's foul existence.
So here we are...getting ready to put an end to this orc governor's hold on this town. If She wills it, I shall relate how it went to you when I can. If not, I shall join you, Alia, in eternity.
Poe
See the original post and the full journal at: http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/moonsong/wikis/poesjournalentryten
Or here using category: Poe's Adventure Journal
So here I am again beloved...ahhh, Alia, why is it only in the dregs of my cups that I can find any solace without you? I thought perhaps dedicating myself to the Raven Queen's service, dutifully praying and trying to advance her goals - though I still sometimes wonder at the import she has placed on this particular group - would ease that pain. It's not to be. Only in the heat of battle do I find peace. At least these heroes of prophecy lead me into the thick of the fight more often than not...even when they decide to run, as they did in the forest.
We took off from the battle site as fast as our little dwarf's legs could carry him. Try as we did though, we were not fated to elude the little frackers. They quickly ran us down from behind, almost literally as they were riding a huge lizard. The ensuing battle was bloody and brief. Six of the little frackers struck me with their short swords. Ron conjured waves of darkness to claw at them and Beros took one down with some well placed arrows. That's when the lizard - and I say lizard only because Kleister spent most of the battle yelling that it wasn't a dragon - spit poison at us. The green goo spewing from it's mouth smelled as bad as it felt. I gritted my teeth, held my breath and stepped into the spray. That's why She put me here I guess. Channeling her power I thrust the cold sword into the beast's chest. It roared. Felt that one. Heh. My gloating got me into trouble as I failed to notice the lizard's little kobold keeper slipping behind me. He quickly got my attention though, thrusting his short sword into my back. Kleister yelled at me, pointing out an opening and I took it, swinging my frost blade at the lizard again and connecting solidly. I heard a whistle and felt the wind of Guss' sword cutting the air behind me, killing the little fracker who'd just stabbed me. A grunt and a dwarven curse indicated that our dwarf had deigned to enter the fray as well. Good for him. The lizard wasn't done with me yet though. It chomped at me with its poison dripping fangs. I must not have tasted too good though as it promptly backed away after doing so. I pressed the attack, flailing wildly with my weapon. This time, the beast's fangs struck true, injecting its poison into me. Frack. High pitched screams erupted behind me - Ron clearing out the kobolds by the sound of it. With its handlers dead, I took a chance and ordered the lizard to sit in my fiercest voice. Amazingly it began to back down...just in time to be caught by a magical bolt hurled by Ron. Ron's magic killed it instantly. So much for riding out of there in style...
I suppose it was for the best - the Queen probably wouldn't have taken too kindly to me letting it live anyway. The battle turned out to be the kobolds last gasp and we made it out of the forest without further incident. Interestingly enough the longer we stayed in the forest the more I began to understand why it (whatever "it" was) was so pissed off. I guess I'd be a little upset if my body had been invaded by parasitic green dragons and their foul minions. Understanding this didn't make it any easier to sleep though so I was glad to leave the place behind.
The trip back to the fort went well. It was good to get back there. A lot had changed...most obviously that the fort itself was not as obvious. Apparently the negotiations with the gnomes had gone well - I heard that they spoke elvish - and the gnomes had cloaked the fort in an illusion spell. They'd also discovered a portal that would allow some of the magic using heroes to instantly travel between the fort and any other place that had a similar portal. The heroes were smart enough to be worried about this and so had blocked it up (after discussing ideas for using it as a trap for various evil creatures). The fields were growing well, too. Apparently the green dragon corpses really did make for good fertilizer. While the heroes regrouped and planned their next step, I caught up with the Raven. I was a bit disappointed to learn that he hadn't killed anything yet, so I spent some time with him teaching him how to use the bloody axe and getting him up to speed on the Queen's priorities.
Before too long the heroes decided to head to the mountains to visit the dwarves. Apparently they'd been told to present themselves there at the full moon some time ago. So off we went again...
Life on the road is becoming the norm for us. Traveling the plains especially is becoming old hat, but we did encounter something new this time: buffalo. A whole herd of them. It didn't take me long to realize that they were likely the main source of food for those frackin' flightless bird things. Frack. That put me on my guard Guss however saw the immediate danger - a stampede. He wisely led us to a rocky outcropping where we made out camp for the night. No stampedes and no birds things. Heh.
Things continued to be uneventful until we came to a road and followed the road to a city that looked to be about the size of Long Meadow. I guess the heroes had gotten a bit bored with life on the road. They decided to stop and enjoy the comforts of civilization for a night. Kobe took the lead, moving ahead of the rest of the group and attempting to talk his way past the gate guards. He was gone a while and from the looks we got from the guards as we came in he must have told them one heck of a story. Or maybe just paid them a bunch of money. Or perhaps both. Whatever he did, it got us in and to a comfortable looking inn. Ron wasted no time in getting himself hooked up at the inn, getting a good room and some companionship. I was happy to have Sunny procure me some new alcohol and promptly sat myself in the corner of the common room to test it out. I hadn't even gotten through the first glass however when I noticed a raven sitting on the windowsill, looking at me knowingly. Frack. I corked my new bottle and followed the bird's gaze. Two men sat in the opposite corner, their heads together. Clearly they didn't want to be bothered and didn't want to draw any attention to themselves. I looked at the bird again. He nodded at me. I sighed. OK, here we go. I took my bottle over to the men's table, plunked it down in front of them, grabbed a chair and sat down. As I did so, the raven squawked loudly and flew away. Their eyes darted to it and both made the sign of the Queen. Interesting. I did the same. Then quietly showed them my holy symbol. It wasn't long before we were discussing the sorry state of things for humanity. I told them about the Raven and how the Queen had chosen him as her champion. They agreed to spread the word among Her followers. In return, I acquired some gold from Sunny and Kobe and donated it to their group. All in all, a good night's work and I don't think the Queen begrudged my finishing off the remaining bottle by myself. Heh.
The next morning I learned that Ron had procured me a fancy suit of plate armor. Guess he likes having me between him and the bad guys...and on my feet. Heh. I also learned that Guss had started recruiting people from the town to emigrate to the heroes' fort. Worst of all, several of the Queen's worshippers I had talked with the night before approached me with a plan to overthrow the orc governor of the town. I deferred, but hooked them up with the heroes and let them decide. Predictably, we were soon planning to storm the governor's mansion. As I sit here writing this, they're feverishly working on their attack plans. Me? I don't care as long as I get to kill some orcs. They killed me not too long ago. I figure I owe them. Heh. Heck, today's as good a day as any to die.
We're catching our breath here, so I have a moment to write. Battle was joined as the sun broke above the horizon this morning. We snuck Beros into town with a hat pulled down over his pointy ears (he wouldn't let us cut them round...) and ambushed the orcs at the front door of the mansion. Sunny successfully lured one of the guards out but the other sprinted inside and pounded on a gong. So much for the fancy plan. Guss and I charged the door, leaving the rest of the heroes to deal with the first orc guard. Kobe and Beros were on the case, so we figured they'd be fine. The gong ringing orc charged back out of the door, right into Guss' steel. The orc had friends behind him though - and at least one of them either had magic abilities or an uncommonly close relationship with the local garbage heap: a swarm of flies flew out of the building, surrounding me, biting me and obscuring my sight. Lucky for me, the flies moved on quickly. I heard Ron cursing...they must have found him instead. Heh. The yells of the orc outside suddenly gurgled and stopped. I caught a glance of Beros, looking grim, nocking a new arrow. Score one for the good guys. I stepped into a hail of blades - damn orcs and their frackin' axes - trying to keep up with Guss who was pressing into the building. Ron followed right behind me, wreathed in fire and throwing one of his magical stinking clouds past me. I was bleeding heavily and Guss was looking like he's hurting. The Queen however had other plans for today. My new prayer beads iced up and Her power flowed through me, healing both myself and Guss. Arrows whistled past me and buried themselves into the one-eyed orc's shoulder. That should slow him down I thought. The Queen's power was still flowing strongly through me so I struck out with it, lending it to my nearby comrades as well. Ol' One-eye was still back though - he threw some sort of disease at Guss, who almost immediately began to take on a greenish hue. Uh oh, I thought. Luckily Beros and Kobe had finally joined the fun. Kobe walked straight up to One-eye and calmly stuck his daggers in the grimy creature's chest. I dropped the orc still holding and was rewarded with the Queen's blessing. Energized I charged forward. Guss beat me there, bashed One-eye with his shield and with a sweep of his blade, ended the creature's foul existence.
So here we are...getting ready to put an end to this orc governor's hold on this town. If She wills it, I shall relate how it went to you when I can. If not, I shall join you, Alia, in eternity.
Poe
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