Adventure Log - Part 2 - Vonmek

Notes from 2/25/2012 to 6/9/2012 [early 995 to Nov 995]

Ogre Snatchers

Shooting the Goo

The Hidden Temple

---

Ogre Snatchers

...and tentacle slicers

Notes from 2/25/2012 by Francis (Tylden). Edited by Galen (Rithban)

Our party: Grundar, Rithban, Tylden, Lauriel, Trel, Burl, Fred the mule, and ED (Evil Dwarf) in custody.

We interrogate ED (the Evil Dwarf) but get only obscenities and promises that “the master will destroy you! He can destroy anyone!”

Rithban detects some sort of magic affecting ED—there seems to be a link to something far away and a second spell maintaining his current state of mind, but that state may have been established by an earlier spell. The magic is unfamiliar to Rithban, but we will not get anything out of the dwarf until we deal with it. Rithban begins researching ways to purge the magic affecting the dwarf, only going on one brief tangent when he also looks into establishing setting up a pentagram in his work area. In the meantime, Grundar works on resizing ED’s armor to fit him.

Rithban determines little of value about the spells on ED, but deduces that a large amount of iron may help, so Grundar gives him his damaged armor as raw material for use in spells, eventually forming a crude hammer. Rithban uses this as part of a ritual that successfully severs the link spell on ED. Rithban then makes several attempts to dissipate the mind-lock spell. He fails, but determines that the spell seems to be dissipating on its own.

A couple of days after our return, Grundar accompanied by a few party members go back to talk to the goblins and are invited into their settlement. We see the platform over the pit. It looks like the platform was made by humans, but the goblins have built various buildings on top of it. We meet with the goblin chief. He hopes to start operations on the mine soon and has convinced most of the goblins although the shamans are still reluctant. First, however, they need a specific agreement on how the gains from the mine will be split. Also, since we killed their ogre earlier, they could use another. The orcs have an ogre but so far have refused to hand it over to the goblins, so the goblins want us to steal the orcs' ogre! The chief of the orcs is also their ogre-handler, so perhaps if we can just kill the orc chief, then the rest of the pieces might fall into place more easily. We take their request under advisement, but inform them that we first have a few affairs in the dwarven stronghold to deal with, specifically “the master”.

Back in Vonmek, Rithban notes that the spell on ED continues to degrade, but in the meantime ED is refusing all food and drink and thus slowly dying. Rithban continues to monitor the state of the spell and gives Tylden $300 to go off to Riverton on a shopping trip. Four days later, Tylden returns with 10 lb iron ore, 1 ½ lb of crystals, and a very big blank book. Rithban, meanwhile, is successful in his attempt to defeat the lock spell. ED is now one very confused dwarf, but he does start to accept food and drink. He is very distrustful of non-dwarves, but reveals to Grundar that knows that he was one of the defenders of the dwarven stronghold and that all his compatriots were killed, be he can’t remember his name. As time goes on he becomes less confused but more distraught. They were invaded by dark creatures from below. He stood at the last to enable the remaining survivors to escape. The name of their stronghold was Amort’s Reach. They were hoping in time to develop it into a full-fledged settlement. It is linked back to another dwarven settlement via a portal/very long tunnel that is protected by magic, but none of us would have the ability to get past the portal. He is unable to recall anything about “the master”.

The next day Rithban works on his book. ED now can remember that the master had tentacles on his head. ED wants to see I Wasacook. He wants to help us, but he fears the master and says that none can stand against him. He also says that the master forbade him from entering the Area of Will.

The next week Rithban and Tylden travel to Riverton to get components for Rithban’s staff so that he can use it as a field focus. Our trip to Riverton is made difficult by the re-occurrence of the disturbing dreams, and we lose a couple of days unable to travel. On the return trip, in our dreams, we see smoke coming from the Northeast. The smoke envelopes us and we feel flames and fear. We turn and look towards the sea and see a blood-red sun dip below the horizon. When we awake, a mark in dust is on the back of our hands. The mark comes off easily enough, but tends to reappear whenever we get them dusty or dirty. We travel back to Vonmek without further incident and find that the rest of the party has had the same dream.

Rithban takes a couple more days to construct his staff. By this time ED can remember his real name: Emik. He also adds that some of the master’s snakes got caught in the Area of Will and, as far as he knows, perished there. Emik wants his arms and armor back, but Grundar refuses, saying that he won them fairly in combat, which Emik seems to accept. Grundar refits Lauriel’s leather armor to fit Emik, and there is an axe that he can have. Emik still has no desire to enter the Zone of Will.

The next day we go back to the cavern and make our way to I Wasacook. He and Emik don’t recognize each other, but seem friendly enough. We leave them together and proceed to the Zone of Will armed with pickaxes and shovels. There, Rithban fortifies us with Mage Armor, and we set to work excavating where we think the ZoW is emanating from. Digging through the dirt, it seems as if something burrowed down. We eventually break through to a chamber below. Tylden lowers himself down on a rope and sees that the chamber was used as a place of worship. At one end of the room there is an altar, an alcove, and a door. There is also a very large translucent jelly worm. There are three dark shapes inside – we suspect them to be the bodies of dwarves. We also assume that the ZoW originates from the worm and shelve all our clever plans involving taking the ZoW ‘artifact’ away with us to use against the master. Leaving the ZoW we start planning how to deal with the master.

Our plan consists of bursting into the room beyond where we first met Emik. It is a very large hall – apparently a former temple. A figure is at the end of the room. Tylden lets loose a quick shot. The creature throws a spell to spoil his aim, but he still hits. The creature counters by screaming at us – this inflicts damage and terror on us, and various party members fall to the floor at times from the effects. Grundar manages to reach the creature but it dodges his blow and sends him fleeing away in terror. The creature is so busy dealing with other party members, however, that Trel, Burl, and eventually Lauriel manage to reach it. The dwarves hit the creature several times before Lauriel beheads it with a nifty swing of her broadsword.

The hall is filled with books. Apparently all the books in the stronghold were collected here, and they are all in dwarvish. We also find a few items:

• Set of drinking cups with birds on them (dwarven manufacture)
• 2 semi-precious stones (black)
• Small bag of dry fungus
• Silver earring – cooling enchantment
• Silver chain – also magical
• Clock of dwarven manufacture (valuable to the right collector)

We spend some time looking at the books. One set of papers describes the defenses of the stronghold, including instructions on how to operate the various controls in the control room. These controls allow us to lower the drawbridge that leads to the other area of the caverns. The controls operated on power from a central power plant, but there is also a hand crank backup, and after a couple of hours we get the job done.

We return to Vonmek and take a couple days to heal up, then return to the goblins to work on stealing us an ogre. The chief lends us some scouts. We are able to figure out that in addition to the main entrance to where the orcs live (what used to be the coal mining area), there are three small side tunnels leading from the main tunnel to their passageway. The main entrance is guarded by six orcs in a mix of chain and leather along with shields/swords/shortswords/axes. The side shafts are only guarded by a couple of orcs each. We return to the chief to discuss our plans. He estimates that there are about 60 orcs in the tribe. We question him about what will happen if we are successful – won’t it cause a war between them. The chief assures us that, if we bring them the ogre, the goblins will be able to re-establish peace on their terms.

We come up a plan and put it into motion. Tylden and Lauriel go down the last shaft. Fortunately one of the guards there is sleeping, so they are able to shoot one of the guards and slit the other guard’s throat. The rest of the party drags the body away. We go to the end of the corridor, and Tylden pokes his head into the main shaft. He seems to think that, although most of the orcs are to the left, the ogre is kept somewhere to the right. He returns to the party.

We go down the middle corridor and start experimenting with the chain. It seems to take 8 fatigue to activate, but we start formulating a plan involving driving off large numbers of orcs in panic. We head back to the goblin chief and try to get him to lend us some shamanic support, but none is forthcoming. The chief admits that he has little pull with the shaman.

We head back down the third side corridor (closest to where we think the ogre is). Tylden shoots a guard, the other running away. We come in to the main cavern where we encounter a large number of orcs. We start using the chain, but each activation only sends off three or four orcs at a large cost of fatigue. We are unable to reduced their numbers sufficiently, and they are unwilling to follow us down the narrow corridor. Grundar tries to taunt the orc chief to single combat, but he will have none of that. After we retreat back they start filling up the entrance with wood and setting it afire. We have also come to realize that the ogre will not fit down the side passageways – he will have to be brought out by the front entrance. Lacking any good ideas we head back to the goblins. After much planning we come up with a crazy idea. It includes a wait of 2 weeks while Bartle brews battle potions. The chief is not crazy about the wait, but there’s not much he can do about it. In the meantime he agrees to lend us two dozen skirmishers for a diversionary attack and advises us to stay away from the orcs and to use the back entrance.

Bartle starts working on brewing the battle potions as well as slow-prepping an obscurity spell. Grundar and Tylden see how Emik and I. Cook are doing. After much entreating from Emik, I. Cook agrees to come back with us. Emik also agrees to help the party if we give him a full suit of armor. Grundar agrees and starts work on it.

In the end Rithban brews three battle potions as well as prepares a time-delayed obscurity spell, and Grundar finishes some armor of Emik. We return to the cavern and pick up the skirmishers as well as the goblin’s ogre handler. Rithban, Trel, and Burl take the skirmishers to the main entrance where they start making a ruckus. After some goblin runners tell the rest of the party that the diversion has commenced, the rest of the party and the ogre handler start down the 3^rd corridor. We simply run off the guards, then burst into the passageway. Many of the orcs have been drawn off by the diversion – there are only four large orcs at the end of the tunnel plus a knot of smaller orcs further down the main corridor. We attack the four orcs. Emik acquits himself very well, taking out one, stunning another, then putting a hit on the chief. Tylden, helped by Rithban’s obscurity spell, is able to run around the knot of warriors as well as the ogre that has been brought out, and plugs the chief in the kidneys at close range from the rear, killing him. Things look a little dicey for a moment as the knot of other orcs moves up to engage us and the ogre starts attacking Grundar. Tylden is able to plug the last remaining large orc standing and, more importantly, the handler is able to get the ogre’s attention even while shrugging off a hit from an orc. With all four large orcs down – including the chieftain, and with the ogre now turned against them, the rest of the orcs break and run away. The handler starts running the ogre down the corridor and out the main entrance, the rest of us providing an escort, where we meet up with Rithban, Trel, Burl, and the rest of the goblins. We make a triumphant return to the goblin’s abode, the goblin ogre handler crowing all the way about his new ogre.

Shooting the Goo

...and a day on the town

Notes from 3/24/2012 by Francis (Tylden).

Our party: Grundar, Rithban, Tylden, Lauriel, Trel, Burl, and Fred the mule.

It is now mid-May and Vonmek is well-inhabited by farmers – and not much else. We take a trip to Riverton to enquire about the economic feasibility of re-opening the mine, and are offered $35/lb for smelted copper and $0.25/lb for coal delivered to Riverton. The mine will produce about 100:1 ratio of ore to copper, which means about 5-6 lbs of copper per carload of ore, or no more than $200 gross. Meanwhile, the goblins are asking for one sheep per carload. At about $400/sheep, the numbers appear far from adding up.

The party returns to the dwarven stronghold to finish cleaning it up. Rithban casts Mage Armor on Tylden, Lauriel, and Grundar, and Tylden is lowered into the room with the Blob. Mr. B does not appear to be a fast mover – although it does have pseudopods. A closer examination reveals three dwarves inside – all very well preserved although one is half-digested. Tylden searches the side of the room away from the creature – the door leads to an office and he finds some papers, a silver ring, and a metal religious symbol. Before being raised up, Grundar talks him into shooting an arrow at the blob. This Tylden does, and the creature responds by thrashing about before going limp. Another arrow produces no response, and Rithban realizes that the Area of Will has gone. Tylden then decides to search the room for a suspected secret door and finds one leading out into the hallway on this level.

The entire party meets on the lower level in the chapel which the blob inhabited. Rithban has Grundar cut off a pseudopod and wraps it up in his cloak, which the rest of us cut out the dwarves from the body of the creature so that we can give them a decent burial back in Vonmek, but first we finish examining the upper level.

We reach a semi-circular room where, inlaid on the floor, is a semi-circle of silver or possibly mithral, beyond which is a closed portal. It seems that the portal consists of a massive stone plug which, of course, does not budge at our prodding. We return downstairs and continue exploring the remainder of the dwarven stronghold. While searching through the apartments we find:

• Turquoise gem
• 3 small bottles – well sealed
• $45
• long spear

We think we are done, but Tylden finds another secret door that opens onto some more rooms, one of which contains a fully functional forge with a complete set of armory tools, 550 lbs of iron, and 480 lbs of coal. Iron goes for $6.90/lb in Riverton, but Grundar decides that he will use if for armor-making. His plan is to re-size Emik’s armor back to fit him (Emik’s choice) and make three new sets of plate armor for the rest of the dwarves.

Finally we return to Vonmek with the bodies of the three dwarves. Emik recognizes one of them as a guard. He also recognizes the description of the portal, but declares that it would be impossible for him to open it.

The party sits down and reviews our current equipment aided, where necessary, by Rithban’s magical divinations. After a brief discussion we decide what to keep and what to sell:

• Weapon potion – this counteracts 1d6 in weapon penalties. KEEP
• spindle – creates ice (2FP/gallon) or hides path, damaged by age. If not carefully handled it will break and lose its magical ability. KEEP (Tylden)
• silver earring – cools area, ~$1000s. SELL
• silver chain – causes panic. KEEP (Rithban)
• silver ring – seeks water, ~$100s. SELL
• old bottle of liquid: strength potion – KEEP
• 2 goblin figures – SELL
• silver plated brush – SELL
• 2 gems - ~$1000/ea – SELL
• small blue semi-precious topaz - $568.75 – SELL
• dwarven cups – SELL
• dwarven clock – quite valuable to the right collector – KEEP until we can get full value for it
• 2 semi-precious black stones - ~$300 total – SELL
• Small bag of dry fungus – turns out to be dwarven cooking spices – GIVE TO I Wasacook.
• Aquamarine gem - ~$500 – SELL
• Papers – may contain some useful information about the spice trade and transportation costs – KEEP (Tylden)
• Metal religious symbol – Of Heinar, the dwarven god of seriousness. (One of the shrines in the stronghold was to him – the other was to Gilana – the god of delving.) – KEEP
• Large magic box – fouls water – KEEP
• Whetstone of jumping – 3 FP to activate. Adds 5 to movement for purposes of jumping (effectively adding 10 ft to your broad jump) – KEEP
• Master’s cape – SELL

Rithban investigates the pseudopod and discovers that it has preservative powers, but it is related to the undead realm and only preserves dead items. He creates a small, sealed jar of preservative goo. Meanwhile, Grundar works on training Trel and Burl as smith apprentices while Emik catalogs the books. There are 168 in readable condition, with the following especially interesting:

• 2 on smithing
• 2 on religion/mythology
• 1 on smelting & mining operations
• 1 on dwarven history
• 1 on stonework
• 1 on engineering
• 1 on brewing
• 1 on dwarven enemies/dangerous beasts
• 1 on cooking
• 1 written in ancient dwarfish – subject unknown.

Grundar goes and talks to the goblin chief and informs him that the mine will not be profitable under the suggested arrangement, but that our truce still holds. The chief is disappointed but seems to accept this.

About the beginning of June the dreams return, but only for a one night performance.

In mid-June, Rithban, Tylden and Lauriel head to Burle with the items slated for sale, as well as 20 books. We receive:

• silver earring - $4600
• silver ring - $900
• 6 gems - $3205
• brush, cups, cape, goblin figures - $250
• 20 dwarven books - $1300

Combined with the $45 previously found, this totals $10,300, or $2060 for a full share.

Tylden looks over merchants who might deal in clocks, but is not terribly successful.

Rithban goes to the mage academy for 2 days (at $50/day) and gets copies of several magical texts of interest to him, spending a total of $915. He informs Tylden that if there is anyone who should be relieved of unappreciated assets, it is the denizens of the mage academy.

We also see the actors while in Burle, and they bring us up to date of the local news. Smuggling activity is on the rise in the area, and there is a full scale war with the orcs who have recently taken over Castle Defiant from Caithness. Rumor is that dwarves are in league with the orcs. (The orcs are between Burle and Caithness, having been pushed out of their former haunts by men.) They also let us know we have a fan: one Er’tai , a merchant, who would like to see us. He seems especially intrigued by how we rescued the actors.

Tylden and Lauriel make an initial visit to Er’tai while Rithban is at the academy. He asks us about the rescue of the actors, then is disappointed when we tell him that Bartle is no longer part of our company. Still, he is very interested in meeting Rithban. The next day all three of us meet – Rithban introducing himself as the great and powerful Argleblaster ­­while telling several fanciful tales about his ability – and Er’tai gets to his proposition: his son was accused us of arson and is scheduled to be executed in a couple of weeks. He wants us to break him out, although he seems reluctant to say so directly. Remuneration for such a deed is also left unspoken. Over the next couple of days we discuss it, even paying a visit to the keep where is son is, well, kept. In the end we decide that we have no workable plan to free him and that the risk is too great and so decline the job – much to Er’tai’s bitter disappointment.

The company makes our way back to Vonmek where Grundar heartily approves of our choice with respect to Er’tai.

The Hidden Temple

...and those Pesky Bounty Hunters

Notes from 6/9/2012 by Francis (Tylden).

It is now November. During October Grundar was sick, but managed to complete the suits of armor for Trel and Burl, and are both fairly decent armorers themselves. The acting troupe has been doing quite well, and word of the troupe’s performances has been spreading about. As a result, the party has garnered something of a minor reputation in the area. Grundar has been reading through the dwarfish books and has found references to a hidden temple of Gilamar somewhere in the fortress, probably on the eastern side. Finally, Rithban reports that he has discerned that a group of magicians has been gathering low-level adventurers to come west, through a desert, and ultimately become mind-controlled by the wizards. The wizards seem to be fairly powerful, but their army of adventurers: not so much. Rithban expects that this army would have good discipline but no initiative. After much discussion about what course of action we could take, who we could warn, etc…, the group decides to take no action.

Life proceeds peacefully until the day that an armed group comes into Vonmek looking for Tylden. The leader is one Sean of Caithness, and the group interrogates Grundar, then Rithban. Also associated with the group – but staying somewhat apart from them – is a human mage and two orc bodyguards. He accuses Rithban of lying when he says that Tylden set up an operation in Burl. The mage correctly divines that Tylden is off in a nearby field where he was practicing archery with Lauriel. The interlopers proceed to try to hunt him down. Tylden attempts to sneak away but is spotted, so he bolts away from the bushwhackers while Sean orders his men to apprehend Lauriel. In the ensuing combat Lauriel joins up with Grundar and the other dwarves, forming a defensive position against some houses, and Tylden sneaks back around to snipe the attackers from the rear. He is able to plunk the mage and take him down at which point the orcs start dragging him away. After some heavy fighting, Grundar & co manage to gain the upper hand on their attackers. Grundar then goes after the orcs/mage assisted by Tylden. The pursuit is harassed by a magical raven and, after a couple of hits to the head, Tylden abandons the pursuit. Grundar – which much better head armor – trudges on. Rithban comes up to Tylden and is able to tell him that the raven is now with the Grundar/orcs/wizard group, by this time 100 yds away. Knowing that the raven is safely distant, Tylden gets back up and fires into the group, taking down the orc carrying the wizard. Grundar manages to finish off the last orc at which point Rithban sees the raven fly off. Both orcs are dead, and the mage is dead after Tylden checks up on him. We gather:

• $1200 from the men
• $1500 from the mage
• 2 daggers with poison on them (which Rithban removes – later sold)
• a potion (healing)
• a map (Rithban makes a copy of it)
• a ring (some sort of protective magic – made part of the party store)
• 3 semi-precious stones – later sold

The survivors are put in the ‘jail’ (temple) and Grundar questions the leader. Sean is quite ‘dedicated’, and the questioning does not go well. Grundar dismisses Sean and talks to someone else in the group, trying to get them to agree to leave and not come back. The next morning Sean has mysteriously choked on his gruel, while the remainder agree to Grundar’s terms. The $2700 divided 5 ways comes to $540 ea.

That unfortunate incident behind us we discuss our future and come to the conclusion that at some point we must leave Vonmek, although Grundar would like to ensure that we leave them with some sort of defensive force. We decide that hiring on with some minor lord involved in the current orc wars might be our best bet. Tylden goes into Burl and contacts the actors to see what the possibilities might be. There are still rumors of orcs and dwarves working together. The general layout of the parties involved has Burl and the sea to the west, Caithness to the east, mountains to the north, and a desert and orcs to the south. Reme is a lord (one of the lords?) in the area somewhat in the middle and close to Castle Defiant which was controlled by Caithness but is now controlled by the orcs. People were going off to the west, but that seems to have dried up recently. Tylden sells the daggers for $160 and gems for $1050. Back in Vonmek, Rithban brews up 3 battle potions, but fails in his attempt to create healing potions.

When everyone is reunited in Vonmek further plans are made. The party shall first search out this temple within the dwarven fortress, then search overland for a dwarven outpost that Grundar has read about from the fortress documents. Long-term plans we will see about hiring ourselves out in Reme.

The party heads back to the fortress and starts searching for a secret entrance. We search diligently, not finding any secret doors, but we do find:

• $45
• small gems
• 3 tightly sealed bottles
• light silver chain
• box of unknown spices
• various bottle of alcohol (love those dwarves)

Eventually Tylden finds a secret door and what seems to be a passageway leading in a promising direction. It leads east, then turns south. In a small pit there is a chest, and beyond he can hear noises. We find a way to open the secret door that opens into a room beyond which appears to be the temple. Inside a remarkably spotless room are three poorly fed humans with brooms and another three dwarven priestsonly the priests appear to be animated, not alive. Grundar hails them with a “Hello, grandfather.” “Excellent…” the dwarven priest replies, “another servant. Come to me!” To the shock of the rest of the party, Grundar wordlessly obeys. Another servant comes up and closes the opened door but does not spot Tylden hiding in a back corner.

The remainder of the party retreats and regroups. Rithban prepares mage armor and bestows it upon the other party members. We return and line up behind the secret door. Tylden in the fore opens the door and the members charge out one after another – Tylden heading straight for the high priest with Lauriel following behind. Trel and Burl start dealing with one of the dwarven priests. The humans attack but are armed only with broomsticks. A difficult battle follows. The humans are no real threats, but the dwarven priests are difficult to take down. The high priest commands Grundar to put down his broom and arm himself with his axe, and we realize that he will be the major threat. Burl grapples Grundar at one point while Trel deals with a priest while in the other corner of the room Tylden and Lauriel must extricate themselves from the floor being webbed. The two other priests are finally felled, but then Grundar is able to grab his axe while the head priest levitates himself away from the fighters. Tylden and Lauriel re-arm themselves with bows, but arrows have little effect on the undead priest. Tylden in the end scores a skull shot, shattering it and dispensing the priest in cloud of bone fragments and dust, but not before the bespelled Grundar delivers a near-fatal blow to Rithban.

After the fight we patch up Grundar the best we can. Retrieving the chest we find a good deal of loot inside, and all told the party recovers:

• Chest ($10,000)
• Gold chain
• 2 silver chains
• 3 daggers
• shortsword
• light crossbow, 20 bolts

Eventually the humans awake – at least two of them do, the other having been killed. The survivors are Jack and Adam, the dead human is Arathus and was their leader. They came from “Quail Valley”, making their way through the tunnels before being charmed by the dwarf priest. We scout the main exit from the temple which is equipped with a couple of traps: a collapsing floor above spikes as well as a sticky web section, but there is nothing notable to report about those. Although Tylden may still be limping from his unfortunate discovery of the spike trap.

5 CP