Isona Adventure Logs Book 1: A suspicious group of characters

The beginning of this set of tales, in which a group of mismatched characters forms and then meets some of the movers and shakers of the mysterious Madlands.

Rattus Rexus

8/15/2017

We are holed up in the barracks room that led to the lair of the Undead Spider. Outside the door we hear the voice of the rat king: “We gots them now! Think of all we can buy when we kill them and steal their gold.” Ed sets up a trap in the doorway. Bonez is supposed to soak up crossbow fire, then the Press and Aci are to go out and lay waste to the dregs along with Bonez depending on how she feels.

Bonez takes the spider head, prepares for some time, then the door is opened. Bonez, mask on, holds up the spider head. She pauses and seems somewhat confused as she looks out the door. On of the ruffians asks “What do we do about that, boss?” Bonez opens and closes the jaws of the spider using telekinesis. After a long silence the rat king says: “Throw out all your money and equipment and we’ll let you live – for a little while.” Ed does his best batman voice: “Good idea! I accept your surrender. Drop your money and we’ll let you live.” Ed starts aiming his crossbow at the front rank. Ed dares them to come forth and take our money and taunts the rat king. “You hide behind meat shields. Come forward and show your valor.” What follows is 10 minutes of stalling, after which Njenq gets up. Bones leads and Njenq follows while Ed shoots at a crossbow who simultaneously turns and shoots a fellow crossbowman. Bones steps out, holds up the skeleton, and sucks up the crossbow fire. Njenq steps out, tries to activate her ability, and Vrroooom! She starts to glow! Those behind see two of her. She charges forward, downing two ruffians in her initial charge. Bonze drops the spider head. (There were 21 ruffians and the rat king to begin with, but 1 switched sides.) The Press and Bonez attack the right wing while Njenq takes the left. Saluek follows behing the Press. The ruffians step up and attack Njenq. After a brief flurry, the ruffians facing Njeng turn and flee. The rat king does not like what he sees, and stabs the ruffian in front of him in the back. Njenq turns and assists on the right. The rat king turns and flees while the right flank of the ruffians crumbles under the assault. About a third of the ruffians along with the rat king escape.

Ed gives instructions for Frim to be taken back to safety and healing. Aci looks at the Press who sighs. She seems to know someone. Ed, Aci, and Njenq to hold the rear. The Press, Seluek, and Bones take Frim. Njenq, meanwhile, is still feeling pretty good, although there is a slow fatigue drain. She steps into the room and turns off the ability. Unexpectedly, there is not a big fatigue drain, although she is still tired. The rear guard hunkers down while the trap is deconstructed, then move to just before the intersection and rest some more for Njenq’s sake, then continues on. We are able to make it back to the house without further trouble. From there we head to a large building that looks like a temple. An acolyte paper-pusher greets us. It turns out The Press’ uncle is a skilled healer, although they don’t get along very well. “The Press doesn’t like to be reminded where she came from.” The acolyte directs us to where he is working. Aci leads us deeper into the temple. Here we meet the most reverend Odael Inteccion. He asks us for details about what attacked Frimhandler and where. Ed examines Frim and sees the mark. He remarks that healing potions are good for flesh wounds, but don’t do anything for wounds deep in the body. Somewhat awkwardly he notes that his healing fee is 1 gold. Odael’s healing is magical, and he reports successful casting of the spell. Frim, though, is still unconscious. The situation is discussed. Odael finds a gnome who knows a little about poison, while Ed looks for someplace where he can perform some alchemical experiments. Ed shows the spider head to the gnome, and his opinion is that he might have a 50/50 chance of success. There is a bit of haggling, without effect: the fee is 400 cp regardless of the outcome which is… success! Frimhandler regains consciousness, makes her health roll, and all is well. Odael mentions that he has some wares that a party such as ours may be interested in, and Ed invites him out for a drink that evening. “Reena, will you be joining us?” he asks the Press.

1 CP

The $2840 Mistake

8/8/2017

With all the quiet work done, Ed begins hammering pitons in. At this time, the rest of the party begins advancing as well. The Press in particular begins her noisy hustle to the van. All that noise will, everyone assumes, attract the attention of the Giant Undead Spider, hereafter known as Gus. Ed gets two pitons in before Gus arrives. He attempts to hammer a third piton in, but is unsuccessful at getting any serious progress before Gus begins flailing its forelegs down the hallway. Ed back up a bit and prepares to dive behind The Press, but then Gus does something unexpected; it retreats.

So Ed finishes setting up the trap. Gus retreats and doesn't show any sign of coming back to the hallway, so the party switches to plan B—the assault. Aci moves forward and looses two arrows at Gus. The first arrow binks. The second arrow hits, more or less, and goads Gus into charging. Aci retreats behind Bonez, who moves forward to protect her. Gus and Bonez meet in melee. Frimhandler unleashes a flame jet upon poor Gus, and the spider retreats.

A torch is lit and handed to Bonez, who grabs it with telekinesis, and we advance behind her. Thick webs line the floor and walls, making it hard tell where the cavern we enter has solid walls and where there are small corridors leading off. The floor, at least, seems relatively safe, although Bonez does make sure to burn a few masses of thick, sticky webbing that might otherwise have ensnared someone. As we move further and further into the cavern, we spot Gus crouched on the back wall amidst a particularly thick mass of webbing.

Having left his trap far behind, Ed turns to his trusty sidearm and looses a quarrel at Gus. The missile hits and sends Gus scurrying around, but no major damage seems to have been done. The party pushes further in with Bonez burning webs left and right. Ed looks for traps while reloading his crossbow, but sees nothing of import. Frimhandler idly scans the room for anything her spy eyes can see. She sees bodies suspended from the ceiling. Meanwhile, Aci takes another shot at Gus to no significant effect other than to send the spider scuttling for a hiding place.

This goes on for a while with Aci and Ed pestering the spider but making little or no headway. Then Frimhandler gets close enough to reach Gus with her fire and, at Ed's urging, literally lights a fire under it. Gus charges.

Unfortunately, Gus is able to run right over The Press, who just isn't big or strong enough to body block this thing. Ed and Aci make a run for it while the melee closes in. Njenq and Bones charge Gus. Even The Press gets up, dusts herself off, and runs right back into the fray to hammer away at Gus' butt. Meanwhile, amidst all this tactical acumen, one party member weighs her potential damage output against her complete and utter lack of any way to mitigate incoming damage… and turns out to be really bad at math; Frimhandler, decides halfway through her tactically sound retreat that she'd rather stand and fight. And, well, having walked right over our front line, Gus is perfectly able to mosey on over to Frimhandler more or less unopposed and crush our only healer under its abdomen. Frimhandler goes down fighting, but mostly only manages to convince Gus to seal the deal by biting her with those eternally poisoned fangs we heard about so long ago.

Ed turns around and runs over to drag Frimhandler's dumb proto-corpse out from under Gus, and everyone else just lays into Gus, but the damage is done. While it only takes a few more rounds of continuous, unabated damage output and serial dismemberment from three angry fighters and the world's cutest ranger to end Gus' adventuring days, the fact remains that Frimhandler is at death's door. Ed pours all of his healing potions down her throat. Then Njenq does the same and then The Press, but we're unable to undo the mortal wound dealt to our goblin mage. Frimhandler, after briefly regaining consciousness, even uses all of her healing magic upon herself, but to no avail. It becomes immediately and pressingly clear that we need to get to the surface and quickly.

Then Njenq, who had tried to channel her mysterious magical talents earlier, suddenly and inexplicably falls to the brink of exchaustion.

2 CP

Down the Rathole

6/21/2017

We buy 6 healing potions @ $180 each, $1080 total. (Aci’s group buys the other 3) at the apothecary stand in one of the merchant squares. Ed invests in two anti-spider traps that are to be attached to the wall with a pressure trigger and secured by a plank of wood laid out on the floor. Ed spends a couple of days and $650 on the trap. Njenq spends the time gambling, losing $180. Ed buys some torches for a whopping $6.

After the trap is finished we go off to meet Aci’s group where we meet Saluek – their thief – who is taller than the gnomes but shorter than Njenq. She is apparently a she, but doesn’t speak. We head back to The Press’ apartments and head down through their secret entrance. Frim throws Night Vision on everyone except Bonez and we go in without torches. We mange to enter the tunnels fairly stealthily and reach the “crooked” 4-way intersection. We continue down the corridor, passing through first one then another chamber. Aci draws her short sword, Njenq her katana, and The Press her mace banging it against her armor in the process. Good job! Continuing on a chamber opens off to the left at the back of which are two doors. Aci motions to the left one as our destination at which point that door opens and a dozen dregs pour out – a bit of light comes out of the door and a few of the ruffians have torches. The skeleton rushes towards the other door. Njenq tries to “Flame On” and feels something briefly, but that’s it. The ruffians shuffle nervously away from the armored fighters in front of them. Frim fires off a blast taking out one of them, the rest deciding in favor of flight. The other door opens with a large group beyond. Aci shouts for us to go through the 1st door, but Njenq can’t help but strike down a laggard. The skeleton attacks and Njenq attempts again to “flame on” – she gets something, but it sputters. More ruffians rush out attacking Bonez, and she collapses to the floor. Another flame on attempt from Njenq sputters. The mob that gathers seems more confident after taking care of the skeleton, but don’t seem eager to engage Njenq and The Press. One is foolish to get within Njenq’s reach and suffers a nasty gash. The rest decide now is he time to run away. We now deign to follow Aci through door number left.

Inside the room which is fairly large and rectangular, two of the ruffians cower in the corner. The room serves as sleeping corridors. We head to the left side of the room where there is a trap door that the ruffians have been using as a latrine. We throw down the bedding material down the hole – the ruffians fleeing out of the room and none of us bothering to stop them. We take down both doors and the trap door and take them down into the room that we find below. Ed prepares a ramp out of the materials. Ed then prepares a rag ball, then covers it in some of the “refuse” – the plan is that we can light it and use it as a smoke bomb to cover our advance back up the trap door. This is literally a shitty idea but we go along with it anyway. Our preparations done we head down leaving a caltrops on the landing pad at the bottom of the trap door. Leaving Saluek behind at the entrance to the corridor out of the lower room we proceed down said corridor which goes 10 yds, turns right, then 5 yds down there are doors on both sides leading to store rooms after which it continues on a moderate distance, eventually opening up into some sort of large chamber.

The plan: Ed will set up the traps except for pietons as stealthily as possible about 5 yds back from the spider chamber. Frim and Ace will be 8 yds back (as measured from the ST), then Njenq at 10-13 yds, and finally The Press and Ms. Bones at 20 yds. When Ed is ready he will give a hand signal is given after which we beging to move up and Njenq starts attempting to power up. Combat positions will be The Press in front to tank the spider, then Aci (bow) and Frim (fire jets) providing fire support. We hope to lure the spider into the traps. If we have to advance into the lair we will pass past the traps one at a time and the skeleton will take care of web duty using a torch.

Ed, Frim, and Aci head down the corridor with the trap parts in tow. As they creep down they see the tunnel widen out. There is something of a makeshift excavation that has widened out the tunnel in an apparent attempt to make it wider. Night Vision is set upon all. Ed completes the silent portion of the trap installation and then gives the hand signal as Frim guzzles a potion. Somewhere beyond a spider lurks…

1 CP

Press Pass

6/7/2017

We meet with Aci and her party leader, The Press. The Press expresses her opinions about leadership when she is told that Ed is the party spokesman. Apparently, The Press (a gnome) is swole as heck and only believes you deserve the mantle of leadership if you get stoked for gains every day. Anyways, we discuss an arrangement, and eventually agree that we will help them past the giant undead spider if they help us get to the spider. Also, Ed and Aci come to an agreement whereby her group gets to make the first post-spider run but agrees to hold onto any priceless artifacts they find long enough for Ed to buy them. Then we get to the issue of actually getting to the spider.

It's a hairy one. Aci's group's entrance to the warrens is safe and secluded in a house they're renting on the border between Lenart's high town and low town, but their route from there to the ruins goes right through the edge of The Rat King's lair. The degenerates lead by said Rat King clearly aren't much threat to a fresh group of well-armed adventurers, but we're worried about what they might do to a band of weary adventurers freshly returned from fighting a giant, undead spider. We discuss our two options. First, we could try to figure out the river approach. Second, we could try to kill The Rat King and his bros. Neither is very appealing.

We decide to check out the river approach first. Ed buys a 2'x2' piece of boiled leather, "some pitons," and 20' of rope. And we head down. Aci goes down the crevice in the not-a-troll's erstwhile lair. Frimhandler goes down after her under walk-on-air to relay information.

To cut a long story short, Aci gets further than anyone else has gotten, but still isn't able to find an exit or any sort of landing. We pack it up and head up to the surface.

1 CP

Aci A Little Silhouette

5/12/2017

We wait a little while to ambush anyone who comes looking for us, but nobody does, so we move on under cover of darkness. Ed leads the party in a direction that he thinks will lead back to the well, and he is right. Before he is right, however, we come across a small elf. The "small elf" (actually a gnome) appears to be hiding, but Frimhandler easily spots her and goes up to say "hi." Unfortunately, in doing so, Frimhanlder alerts a nearby patrol of ruffians. Combat ensues. We win, of course, and those ruffians who do not flee are subdued. Then we speak with the gnome.

It turns out we know her. She's Aci, the gnome who initially warned us about working with Yahwug the leather merchant. We inquire as to what she's doing down here and learn that she and her group are basically dedicated ruin-delvers here in Lenart. She asks after our access point and we ask after hers. Bonez worries that Aci might be less than entirely trustworthy, and Ed agrees that we shouldn't trust her implictly, but we're short on allies here, so he's willing to work with her for now. He shows her where we entered, and she remarks that our entrance seems to be close to the lair of the leader of these ruffians. About here, Dan chimes in that said leader goes by "the Rat King." It's not the most auspicious or intimidating title, to be frank, but we don't exactly want to tangle with any kings either. Ed asks Aci if she'll show us her entrance, but she doesn't want to. Apparently, it's a trade secret of her group's.

Ed does manage to convince Aci to arrange a meeting between us and her group for the next morning before we part ways. Then we spend a few hours looking for the secret door that Obelaisu wants us to find. We don't find it, of course, but Ed takes lots of notes. In time, we head back to the surface. We make a quick stop by Obelaisu's office, where the head of the sewer department iterates that we'll probably only find the secret door from the other side, but says that it's nice that we're not just blowing it off at least. Then we head back to our inn to sleep for the night.

Also, we buy Dan some non-theoretical clothing and agree to feed him in exchange for him basically being our sherpa. We'll see how that turns out.

1 CP.

Offer Refused

4/19/2017

Exploring the cave inhabited by the nondescript creature (Ed has no idea what it is) - which is tall but quite skinny skinny (perhaps malnourished) with long claws and moved extremely quickly - we are somewhat overwhelmed by a stench coming from the back. There is a crevice in the back although Njenq doesn't think that she can fit through it - but the creature probably could fit through. Ed requests that the creature's head be cut off, so Njenq ambles over and complies. Frimhandler goes over to the crevice. It is tough going, but wide enough for her to fit through. At that point it starts going downward quite steeply. Ed goes back to investigate more closely after he ropes up. He is followed by Frimhandler. After about 20 yards he hears the sound of rushing water coming from below. They decide to head back up. Ed slips at one point, but his armor absorbs the damage. He falls again (this one harder). At this point he decides to climb down to the bottom. This section of the stream is somewhat wider to the right, then narrows down again. He climbs back up, reaching the top without incident this time. We rest up, then head back into the corridor.

The corridor goes about 65 yards then hits an intersection. One goes 90 deg to the right, the other, narrower, goes 135 deg to the right. We take the larger corridor which goes about 30 yards, then turns right again and we see branch off to the left. Continuing another 20 yards we reach the intersection where we came in. We return to where the well is and continue north. This continues straight for some time. After about 35 yards we see another multi-way intersection. We hear some soft sounds, but we're not sure if they're ahead or behind. We stop. As we discuss the situation we hear a raspy voice: "Watch out!" followed by a twang, and four crossbow quarrels come our ways. Down the corridor we see five ruffian type figures. Njenq takes a hit. Three of them start running away, the fourth hits the fifth one in the head before running off. We get up and start running down the corridor. The injured ruffian is holding his head which is bleeding quite profusely. He has an odd look on his face. He is one of the ones that had been previously intimidated by us in a previous encounter. We think he is the one who gave the warning.

We head down the corridor to the west of the well - our ruffian following behind. We reach a 3-way intersection (East, NW, NE). Frim hears them running away to the right. They are travelling faster than we are, but we head off at a measured pace. The next intersection is a tee. (Other corridors to right and forward - the corridor ahead seems to dead end.) Obvious tracks in the mud lead to the right. We hit another intersection - exits ahead and to the right. It looks like the group split up. We head straight ahead. We continue for about 70 yards and it opens into a larger intersection. As we come up from the south, exits are to the SE, NE, and WSW. At this point we decide to take a break. The Ruffian catches up to us. Goes by the name of Dan. Frim puts Chameleon on the party and heals Dan, and we rest some more.

Noooo CPs, aw....

The Quarreling

4/12/2017

While the party rests, a few of the assailants regain consciousness. Ed and Bonez join forces to relay some choice threats to them. This seems to work well, and we proceed secure in the knowledge that we definitely won't be attacked by ruffians any more. Eventually,

Moving on once Frimhandler has her FP back, we head further down the passage and discover the well. This is good, as this is what we were looking down. We investigate the well. The well seems to go down quite some distance, and we can see the glimmer of rushing water at the bottom. Ed goes down and discovers that it is about twenty feet down; the first 16 yards or so are a proper well shaft, but then it opens up into a tunnel about two yards cross. He also discovers that there isn't any sort of solid ground at the bottom--just rushing water.

After some discussion, Njenq goes down. After much argument, she hauls herself up and Ed decides to add either a pulley wheel or a roping buffer pad to his shopping list. Frimhandler goes down next with the benefit of her fantastically useful Walk on Air spell. She sees that the water is wider and slower in some places, but she cannot see further than around a couple of corners and cannot find any good places to secure a rope down there. Discouraged, we decide to scout further in the warrens.

We don't get far before Frimhandler notices creatures far ahead and behind us in the darkness. We stop and wait to see if they'll approach, but we soon notice that both sets of creatures have retreated or aren't coming closer. So we decide to check out a door we find along the passage. Ed hears scratching and smells carrion on the other side, so we prep for battle and Njenq kicks in the door. There's nothing there. Well, there are some very old corpses, a ruined staircase leading up, and a cave in leading to a tunnel, but that's all. Frimhandler searches the room but finds nothing (not even a $100 gold coin). Sure that there is nothing lurking further in, we head into the room, close the door behind us, and investigate the tunnel.

We are attacked by a creature that isn't a troll. The fighting gets off to a slow start, with Njenq taking and dealing no damage, but then Bonez stabs the thing. Then Frimhandler almost burns her own foot off or something. Then Ed shoots and hits! After that, the fight is basically over. Various party members unload enormous amounts of damage into the thing, but the main thin here is that Ed scored a hit! Did you see that? He actually landed a hit! And it dealt okay damage! MVP right there. Anyways, the creatures crawls back into its itty bitty lair and dies.

1CP

Into the Depths

4/5/2017

Yves talks to Obelaisu, the head of the Sewer Department on our behalf – passing us off as his contact for some work we’re doing underground. Obelaisu asks what we’re looking for, and Ed tells him that we are simply trying to pass through his domain (the sewers) as quickly as possible. Obelaisu agrees to help us and spreads out a map of the sewer system. He identifies where the alligator pit was, and the entire area in the region has been dropping in elevation and is collecting more water. They are interested in what is causing the sewers to drop – such information would be quite useful. In the center of the network is a central control room with no marked connectors. Unfortunately it had been taken over by some group long ago and they blocked off access to it. In general the tunnels were designed to reduce the threat of incursion via the sewers. He also mention that there is a river network below the tunnels, and that they might be the cause of the subsidence of the tunnels.

We prepare for our delving and pick up a couple of (overpriced) healing potions. Meanwhile, back at the inn, Njenq is happily gambling away when Bonez rushes in chased by a gnome and goes upstairs – outside are cries of “Undead! Get him!” Njenq boils up and takes up position at the bottom of the stairs. The guards arrive, then follow Njenq up to the room. Bonez has disassembled into a bag under the bed. They want to interrogate Bonez, and after some bickering, Njenq with the bag go off with the guards. The mean to send word to the admin building, Ed and Frim come back to the inn and find some guards there waiting. The head off to what amounts to the guard center. They are lead to a room with Njenq and a back of bones on the table. Eventually a Lieutenant Ket comes in. He describes the suspicion regarding Bonez and a young girl in the streets. The lieutenant wants to take a statement, so Bonez reassembles. Using gestures, she mimics walking in the street. She can’t see very well. She’s surrounded by many small people. One of them starts attacking the skeleton, so the skeleton runs away. The lieutenant says that she can’t go around unaccompanied in the city. About this time Bonez disassembles, so we bag her up again. Ed agrees that Bones should be accompanied in the city to keep the citizenry at ease. The lieutenant is quite interested in Bonez’ history. Eventually he lets us go and we leave.

The party collects our gear and the inn, and are informed by the innkeeper that he will be charging us for four, then we head to the administration building. From there we are escorted to the sewer maintenance section where Obelaisu takes us to a door, down some stairs to a room, through another door to a brief flight of stairs down that ends in a very heavy, locked stone door, which opens up onto the sewer tunnels. Following the map, we find the door we were looking for. We go through the small maintenance room, down stairs into larger maintenance room. We prepare, then… open the door. Beyond is a long corridor with doors on both sides. The floor has thin layer of mud on it. We go down the corridor when stops at a tee intersection. To the right the corridor seems quite long, to the left the corridor goes for a ways before turning to the right. As Ed and Frim go exploring ahead, Bones and Njenq hold back, hearing footsteps. Njenq peaks around the corridor: three ruffians. The stay behind the corner, ready to strike. As they come around, Njenq and Bonez take out the 1st one, and next round they take out the 2nd. Meanwhile, the door opposite Ed and Frim bursts open and several ruffians pour out as well, but are met with a flame jet from Frimhandler. Njenq misses the 3rd, but not Bonez that takes the last one out with a savage thrust, at which point they turn around and start racing up the corridor…. Frimhandler takes out one with a firejet while another attacks Ed, but breaks his sword against the wall. Another falls to a flame jet. Bonez arrives, and the last ruffian standing (and armed) turns and runs. She heads through the doorway and the door slams shut. We gather the five ruffians we subdued and leave them outside the door. After taking their weapons of course.

1 CP

Mario World

3/29/2017

The party decides to investigate the option of simply poisoning the crocodiles. However, while we are able to find an apothecary, and that apothecary does sell poison, it turns out to be too weak for our purposes—great for killing rats, but not so useful when dealing with enormous man-eaters. Ed thanks her for her time and tells her we'll definitely be back if we need anything she does sell. But we're on our way with nothing to show for it.

After plan poison is abandoned, the party continues discussing what to do next. The arguing is not particularly heated, but it still isn't long before Ed decides that it isn't going anywhere fast enough. He bids the party continue to talk and heads off to scout himself. He heads down through the party's main access point—an outlet where the sewers empty into the river—and heads down most of the way to Crocodile Pond. Along the way, he counts the number of grates above him and tries to get a feel for the general direction he is headed. Then he heads above ground and tries to find the same grates.

While he is partially successful, Ed decides he is going to need Njenq's help to scout further. He returns to the party and outlines his plan. Frimhandler and Bonez help refine the plan, and soon enough Njenq is heading into the sewers with a lantern, a handkerchief doused in perfume, and a pitch torch. She heads to right below the grate right before Crocodile Pond and lights her torch. Ed and Bonez search through the streets for the smoking grate.

Despite setbacks caused by the unfair introduction of thermodynamics into the campaign, Bonez is able to find the grate that Njenq is standing below. However, Ed and Bonez both figure it will be too difficult to open that grate. Ed yells down to Njenq to sit tight while he and Bonez figure something out, and then he heads off in what he hopes is the right direction.

Ed's plan is to try to find a grate that leads down to the other side of Crocodile Pond. He knows that the tunnel leading to the pond heads northwest, and he knows that the same tunnel continued past Crocodile Pond, so he searches for the next grate northwest of Njenq's position. With Bonez' help, he finds it. And, with Ed's help, Bonez is able to get that grate open.

Armed with a rope and grapnel that he bought beforehand, Ed heads down. He quickly determines that he found the right grate as he finds Crocodile Pond to be southeast of his entry point. One hilarious comedy sketch involving poopy rope later, Ed and Bonez collect Njenq and head back to the inn to discuss.

Having found the grates northwest and southeast of Crocodile Pond, Ed is reasonably sure of where said pond is relative to the city streets. Since he also knows that the party wants to get into the tunnel northeast of the pond, he proposes that we go looking for grates in that area. He outlines a search zone, and the party gets to it.

Finding the right grate turns out to be easy, and Ed and Bonez head down. Frimhandler tries to follow, but it turns out that even she can't fit through these grates. Ed and Bonez must continue alone. So they do. After confirming the location of the maintenance closet we eventually want to go down, Ed and Bonez search the sewers. They find that the sewers follow a logical pattern that Ed is certain will be easy to follow, especially after he is easily able to navigate back to their entry point. Unfortunately, they find no point where Njenq could come down and join them.

Also, when Ed and Bonez reach the surface, they find that a troop of guards are waiting for them. Apparently, you need a permit to search the sewers. Things look bad, and the guards are all ready to show the party that Lenart may be in the barbarian lands, but they're still well acquainted with the concept of bribery and corruption. Luckily (or not), Ed counters with a quick barrage of reasonably cogent accusations, threats, and general indignation that, despite the clear and object reality of the situation, gets the party what they want. Finally, Galen's real life experience in customer service proves useful.

Pleased with the results garnered by haranguing the guard lieutenant, the party heads home to smugly wash the shit off their boots.

The next morning, Ed and Frimhandler head off to speak with Yves at the Administration building. This, at least, goes smoothly. Ed bribes the first clerk they see $15 for directions, and he is directed to Yves' location in a cubicle-less cubicle farm. Then the gnome seems genuinely happy to see Ed and Frimhandler, which is nice, and the three shorties gather in an alcove to discuss what they can all do for each-other. Ed explains what the party needs and why he thinks Yves can also benefit from this. Yves agrees that the party should certainly prove useful and also agrees to help. Frimhandler is mostly silent.

With a willing ally (who we trust) at last, Ed and Frimhandler follow Yves over to the Sewer Department building. The three of them meet with Yves' contact in the department, who is easily convinced to introduce them all to the head of the department. We follow Yves' contact down into the bowels of the building and to the office of the head of the Sewer Department, Obelaisu.

Urban Legends

3/22/2017

As we head to Yawug’s we are accosted by a female gnome. “Phew, nearly missed you.” Apparently she knows us as Yves’ old crew. Goes by Aci. She warns us a bit about Yawug – that he’s a merchant and just looking for someone to do his dirty work. After our meeting which includes a mug of hot cider at an inn we continue on to see Yawug. The plan is to go to the underground, kill an undead spider, and bring back its fangs. Ed negotiates for one fang for each party. Yawug has offered us a 50/50 split – more specifically he gets the first fang and we get the second.

The entrance is through the sewers. Yipee! He gives us detailed directions: Take the sewer that leads off from the leatherworkers section. Hit main intersection, go right. Door on left after a little ways leads to a maintenance room. Exits to a tunnel – follow until you hit a square with well. Down the well to stream. Up the stream until you see a door (on left?) to ancient tunnels. That leads straight into the spider’s lair.

We enter the sewers. The height is under 4 feet, so Frimhandler and especially Njenq have to double over. The smell is quite bad and Ed and Njenq are both affected. Occasionally there are tunnels going straight up ending in grates, so that we get a little bit of light at times. Finally after an interminable trek it opens up a bit. Soon after that the passageway opens up into a pool and we see four exits from this chamber. As we look about, Frimhandler spots a pair of eyes in the pool. The ceiling is about 4ft above the edge, then goes up to about 12 ft in the middle. Our plan is to have Frimhandler Air Walk with Bones in a bag while Ed and Njenq rope up and attempt to walk around the edge. Unfortunately Njenq almost immediately slips into the pool. Ed gets out of the center and helps to pull Njenq. Frim and Bonez returns, Bonez reassembling to help pull Njenq out as well. As we retreat into the tunnel a crocidile comes out, dodges a firejet from Frimhandler, and chomps onto Njenq, knocking her out. The silver lining is that, now weighed down by the load presented by Njenq, is unable to dodge Frimhandler’s next firejet. Another firejet manages to miraculously knock it out. Njenq recovers, but so does the croc who knocks Njenq down again. Ed jumps on the croc and starts attacking with his dagger. Bonez continues to pull Njenq away. Ed jumps off while Frim continues to blaze away, eventually rendering the croc unconscious. Bones recovers his spear, then telekinetically retrieves Njenq’s dropped katana. In the pool, several more sets of eyes lurk, coming slowly closer to the mouth of the tunnel, and then lunge forward, grabbing the carcass of the unconscious croc and dragging it into the pool, quickly followed by a feeding frenzy. We return, making an initial stop at the river to clean off, then head back to the inn.

1 CP

Raiders & Traders

2/28/2016

Before long, we notice that more raiders are coming toward us, and quickly. With rising panic, we take stock of our situation, which mostly amounts to “our goblin can't run.” Luckily, Frimhandler's self-imposed leg wound looks like a little healing will fix it up. But she needs that healing fast, and she's fatigued. So Ed feeds her both of his healing potions. Then she casts Chameleon on Njenq, and those two hide while Ed tries to lead the raiders away.

It turns out, they were just after their dead. Ed feels the loss of $240 in potions, but doesn't say anything.

Once the raiders have retreated, the caravan cautiously approaches. Ed goes out to meet them, and Njenq joins him. One member of the caravan, Keever, is willing to speak with Ed, and thanks the party for helping. He asks if we're necromancers, to which Ed responds that we're just a collection of misplaced people. Keever compliments Njenq on her swordsmanship, but then another tribesman says that the elders wish no more weirdness on the journey. Ed tries to continue the conversation for a while longer, asking keever for their clan name and advice on dealing with the Mehkoraat. Keever is unable to give either, but Ed volunteers his own name and that he may be hanging around the hidden city for a while—in case Keever should find hmself wishing to hire some adventurers. Keever gives his own name in reply and asks Njenq hers. She gives it, and we part ways.

We find a good resting spot nearby and hunker down for a half-hour to recover fatigue. Then we press on. At this point, We have Bonesy in a bag. We let her out.

Ed leads the party toward Lenart using a two-peaked uppity hill as a major landmark. As we travel, we pass several large (1-2' across) mounds. These are odd, but we pay them little mind until we find one slightly larger, at which point Frim pokes it with a stick. Ants happen. Ed yelps and leaps back, convinced they're some sort of exotic barbarian ant, and shrieks for everyone to do the same. Everyone does and nothing happens. So we press on. Our journey continues through some sparsely wooded land with more anthills, but we give them a wide berth, and the barbarian ants don't decide to go a-viking or anything. We do also meet an especially big hillock and give it an especially wide berth. In response nothing especially happens. Once we're theoretically outside the ants' range, Ed pushes the party an extra mile before stopping to find a place to rest. We finally come across a large, proper hill. Ed checks it with his crossbow. It is a hill.

The night passes uneventfully. Then Ed critically fails a navigation roll. After spending all day searching for a ford, Ed finally finds one as dusk is falling. It takes most of the rest of the evening to get across, whereupon we quickly come across the camp of the Unvull tribe.

The Unvull welcome us with eerily open arms, and we are quickly introduced to their elders, who seem mildly sketchy. Still, Ed is unwilling to think ill of them immediately. They seem friendly enough, and we join them for dinner. The pork is weirdly tasty. Afterward, they declare that it is time for stories. Not wanting to piss off our hosts with the strangely delicious ham, Ed bumbles his way partway through the story of our fight south of the Aberration before Bonesy picks up and does a much better job.

The Unvull storyteller asks if we'd like a story of where they were or where they are now. Bonesy asks for a story of where they were, and so they oblige.

The storyteller tells of when the god Enthess laid a silver ring on the world—the path of the Markhor. In the story, the gods see the path as a perfect ring, but it is twisting and turning to mortals. The story tells of a man who tried to find the center of the ring only to be driven insane by finding that it seemed to have multiple centers. In the tale, the gods took pity on him after his death and gifted him with a drop of their essence so he could see the path as they see it, and now his spirit rests at the center of the path. The moral is that the gods do not abide by our rules.

Next the storyteller says he will tell the story of the Tree Guardian and the dragon. This seems like a popular tale. In the tale, the Tree Guardian heard that an expedition was being called to hunt down a mighty dragon. He was skeptical—hunting dragons didn't seem wise or prudent—but the expedition did intrigue him. So he headed to the expedition's meeting spot along the western coast. It took him three days of travel. After each day's travel, he fell into a deep slumber, the shadow cat safely under him.

While he dreamed, the land around his slumber was filled with the trees he dreamed of, creating three forests.

He joined the expedition, and they sailed. They dealt with sea serpents, merfolk, and deadly storms, but they finally arrived at the lair of an elder dragon. Nobody knows what happened, save that they never returned.

Years later, the tree guardian was seen at his rest with a scar from shoulder to wrist. Some also say he held a dragon's tooth on a cord around his neck, but if so, he is loath to reveal it.

We retire for the evening and are surprised to find ourselves alive in the morning. Ed thanks the Unvull and offers his friendship. They reciprocate his sentiments and offer him a sturdy seeming ceramic cup decorated with many blue and green circles, representations of the many rings of the path.

We head onward to Lenart and arrive around midafternoon. We find rooms at the Gnarled Pine, which is pricier than Mestram's Rest, but hasn't banned us yet. Frim and Njenq stay and enjoy some downtime. Ed goes to find his orange-tented merchant. It takes him a while, but he eventually finds Yawug, a leather merchant with a great interest in the tunnels below Lenart. Ed introduces himself as leading a small band of archaeologists and Yawug is delighted to embark upon some sort of business arrangement. Ed and Yawug share a drink.

After the drink, Yawug asks if Ed's party is stealthier or more militant. Ed says that they're a bit of both. Then Yawug tells Ed of his current major project—finding an undead spider and extracting her fangs of bottomless venom. Ed is goes along and the two quickly decide that they can work together. Ed suggests that the party come to Yawug's place in the morning, whereupon they will hash out the details. Yawug agrees, assuring Ed that they'll split the profit 50/50 and both come away fabulously rich.

1 CP

Falling Rocks and Wild Shots

2/22/2017

During the night as we rest in a cave, Frimhandler (on watch) senses sand and rocks cascading down from the ceiling. As we awake from Frimhandler’s yelling the wall falls down on the rest of the party. Njenq gets clear, but Ed is almost completely buried. Njenq in a burst of effort clears the area around Ed while Ms. Bones is able to extract herself from the pile of rocks. Frimhandler throws something and we’re all able to see much better. Njenq continues to work furiously and is able to clear the rock from around Ed and pull him out of the rubble. Meanwhile, a passageway seems to have opened up beyond the fallen rock.

The next morning after resting Ed examines the cave/fallen rock. It seems like this hill is really a thoroughly collapsed ruin. The area that we were in was once an underground chamber, but quite degraded. Njenq and Frimhandler clamber up to the top of the rubble beyond which is another chamber. Down below we see a room with doors (rotted) and a corridor. Ed and Bones climb up and join us in the room. Stairs head up to the surface but are blocked by debris. One metal door has stones on top that don’t seem well set, and we decide not to try to shove the door open. There is a rotted wooden door with holes in it that seem larger than they should be. Beyond is a room with several piles of debris. We search this room, then go down the corridor where there are two more doors with small rooms and nothing interesting beyond, leaving just that stupid metal door. We end up tying a rope around the door and pulling with all our might! Njenq is more than equal to the door, although she pulls so hard that she crushes Bones against the far wall. We think the door was opened – hard to tell what with all the pile of rubble around where the door was. We reattach the rope to Ed while Njenq helps to clear rubble at the top of the pile to clear a passageway for Ed. Ed goes through and finds a room beyond – also in bad shape. It looks like some sort of armory, but it seems as if the weapons were in a sandstorm for…. a long time. He finds a chest containing a couple of gemstones. These have an odd pattern of wear on them. A series of channels carved on the outside all in the same direction, but no holes all the way through. While Ed is finishing up his search, Bones indicates that we must leave immediately because of the worm things.

Frimhandler notes that the metal door, along with the sword and the gems have magical signatures on them. But not the spear tips that we also found. We start to clear out the passageway to the last room, but some disturbing sprinklings of sand occurs from above. We stop. Ed goes through first into the room trailing the rope behind followed by Frimhandler. Frimhandler inspects the room, but only senses faint echoes of magic. We head outside and examine the area from the surface. Ed finds a lacey dagger, but no hints of magic. After some poking about which doesn’t amount to anything, he head back out across the savannah.

After some travelling we see hints of a river and – much closer to us – an armed conflict between two groups of madlanders. About two dozen attackers and 50 – 60 defenders. Bones heads towards the conflict, followed by Ed, and finally by Njenq and Frimhandler. Bones approaches three raiders that have broken off from the main group and attempts to draw them off from the main group while the rest of us approach stealthily. As we get closer Njenq is noticed, and she breaks for them. Njenq approaches and attack while Frimhandler throws fire beams. Bones takes a hit, collapses, then reassembles and attacks again. Frimhandler is landing her blows as does Njenq’s, although Frimhandler’s are packing a bigger punch. Frimhandler takes out the first with fire beams, the 2nd taken out by a combo of fire and katana. The third, who was untouched, turns to flee but after moving three or four yards, crumples in a heap. We are relieved to have once more reigned victorious, but then notice that Frimhandler is groaning, having shot herself in the leg.

1 CP

Pork in the Road

2/15/2017

When we resume, we have been picked up by Aneeanmee scouts and taken to their camp. Since this was where we wanted to be all along, we happily regroup and rest a while under the watchful eyes of some 'Mee guards. Eventually some other 'Mee show up and tell us that someone wants to see us. They don't say who. We are taken to a tent that, while small, is clearly some sort of command tent, and there we meet a 'Mee lieutenant. We don't recognize the guy, and neither does he recognize us. Our 'Mee escort introduces us as "those travelers."

Ed fumbles his introduction of the party, Njenq makes snippy comments, and the Lt. generally seems unimpressed until Ed states that he knows Thronn. At the Lt.'s questioning, Ed describes Thronn, which is enough to convince our captor-I-mean-host to not have us killed out of hand. A little while later, Ed remembers that we were going to try to trade healing for information. He mentions this. The Lt. is unsure, but says he'll allow Frimhandler to heal under supervision. He also says that he isn't sure he knows the information we're after. That information being "What in the heck can we trade to the Mehkoraat in exchange for a dwarf-cum-bear returned to dwarf form?"

Frimhandler and Njenq go to heal. The one with the healing sell does well, Njenq not so much... but Frimhandler's help is welcome. All told, by the end of the night, our trusty (not to be confused with trustworthy) sorceress appears to have earned us some points with the 'Mee.

In the morning, The Lt. thanks Ed for Frimhandler's hard work and introduces a rider who tells us a story. In the rider's story, a Lenarti merchant tried to hire him to seek out something in tunnels below the hidden city. The rider refused, of course, because what kind of horse barbarian wants to go mucking about in underground tunnels. Having explained his own reason for not going into the tunnels, the rider then explains why we might be interested--the merchant spoke of recovering some artifact or such from the tunnels, and that sounds like the sort of thing the Mehkoraat might be interested in it. Although he didn't catch the merchant's name, the rider is able to give us a decent description. We're looking for the first merchant in the leatherworker's district. Or a big tent or orange cloth. That, at least, should be hard to miss.

With his story told, the rider departs. The Lt., meanwhile, informs us that the fighting is intensifying and suggests we head East. He punctuates his urging by stating that those lands are “safe,” while the lands to the west are “Within the reach of the ascendancy.”

The party holds a quick meeting and decides that we'll all head back to Lenart. We say our goodbyes, pick up Fred (who, it turns out, has a 20 in the Stay out of Trouble skill), and head Eastward.

A pleasant day ensues until it is unceremoniously interrupted by a wild outbreak of wild pig.

Then Ed fails his survival roll.

1 CP

Bumbling About

1/25/2017

We continue to search the lab and the environs, but are not coming up with anything. Ed takes a closer look at the logbook to see if there is anything of interest or mention of something that might be interesting, but it doesn’t mention anything new. Ed is able to pull a few very small chunks of magical shards from the wall, but they probably aren’t going to be very useful. Ed comes to the conclusion that what Calder wants doesn’t exist here, so we head back to the general vicinity of Rushas.

After travelling about 25 miles, he hear the sound of a large battle between Ascendency regular troops (mostly on foot) and the Aneanmee (mounted). As Frimhandler throws Chameleon on the party, she notices that it is taking an unusual amount of effort to do so. Frimhandler peeks over the hill – she is able to see Thron. The Ascendency has advantage of numbers and is able to press their way forward. Meanwhile, some of the outriders are getting close to where we are, although the Ascendency is not moving towards us. However the Chameleon spell seems to be working will as some of the scouts pass nearby, but all they notice is some pile of bones. As night falls, it appears that the Ascendency forces are preparing a defensive position.

We decide to seek out the Aneanmee camp, but make (well Njenq makes) some noise and attract the attention of Ascendency scouts (all on foot). We go to ground while Ed attempts to lead the scouts away from the group. Ed puts the plan into effect leading most of them off, but Frimhandler sees the line of scouts getting closer and it seems they are going to reach us soon. They almost reach the group when the skeleton gets up and starts walking – paying no attention to the Ascendency troops at all. However, right when the Ascendency scouts notice Bones, a group of Aneanmee riders appears and attacks the scouts, crashing right on top of the party. There are five riders and 16 Ascendency fighters, and the initial charge is mostly absorbed by the soldiers. Bones attacks one of the fighters, but is soon surrounded by fighters and decides to collapse into a pile of bones at the first blow. The riders come around for another pass as the fighters clump up, but veer off at the last moment. In the confusion Njenq and Frimhandler move away from the soldiers. They hunker down, wait, and watch. Across the plain, Bones and Ed meet up. The Ascendency forces decides that they should only move about in groups of 20 to 30. Njenq and Frimhandler attempt to move towards where they think Frim and Fatty are, but their efforts are hampered by Njenq’s inability to see in pitch blackness.

Madness

1/18/2017

After discussing the plan, we decide to just try what Nysris suggests—visiting the Mehkoraat and negotiating for Hjalrig. So Ed gets a mule for $1,000 plus tack, and we set out. 2.5 days later we make it to the first river. Another day later, we find the second river. And then it takes us another 2 days to get to Lenart. Somehow, this tallies up to a total travel time of 4.75 days to get to Lenart.

We stop by Mestram's Rest to reserve rooms, which goes well at first. Then Ed takes a bag of bones to the scholar to discuss the books. The scholar says he's “most of the way through the sane bits” of the elf's journal, while his assistant is going through the other books. Ed inquires how much of the book he has translated, and the scholar explains that he doesn't have a verbatim translation, but he does have extensive notes.

According to the journal, the elf appears to have lived through the Cataclysm at a young age, after which he left the Great Forest and moved North through ancient Caithness and into some tunnels. At first, the journal describes the tunnels as being very strange, which the scholar ascribes to the writer being and elf and not used to living below ground. This view seems to be held up by the elf slowly getting used to the caves until living underground seems normal to him. The elf seems to have started studying magic while living underground, eschewing generalism for a focused study of necromancy. Apparently the elves he was with seemed to hold no distaste for necromancy, possibly being power-hungry dark elves.

However, after “an encounter,” that the elf doesn't go into detail with, his family's attitude takes a shift from being proud of him to casting him out.

After this, stuff gets weird. He suddenly mentions needing some sort of sustenance to stay alive, and After that, there isn't much more before he begins to seem more and more insane. He mentions venturing out to the surface, but he was always seeking some place that reminded him of home where he could make a new home—someplace underground.

More and more, he speaks of his undead servants, and his journal includes some practical necromancy, which might be useful to a necromancer, but isn't of much interest to us. There isn't much else, but he does mention the few places where he stays, including the last place—the Twin Hills.

Interestingly, before coming to the Twin Hills, he spent some time “in tunnels below the goblin plague.” He rails against the goblins as lazy and incompetent, but he also seems to have found through some tunnels “from some creature” a dwarven room. One room, where he made his lair, was tilted at a severe angle.

And that's basically all the scholar, named Nanap, can glean from the journal. The codebook remains a mystery.

Ed picks up the garrison log and we head out the next day, although not before Bonez gets us all kicked out by starting a brawl. In a huff, Ed gets stabling for his mule and decides to spend a night sleeping under the stars, leaving the rest of the party to fend for themselves. This is not his finest hour.

The trip back and forth to the Mehkoraat takes 9 days. During this trip, Ed learns that Hjalrig was indeed taken to “The elder Hut,” and that he can probably be returned to dwarf form. Calder says that it is almost unheard of to bring someone back, but he intimates that he could be convinced to convince the Mehkoraat elders to do so if we brought back something “astounding.” Ed, who continues to be very careful about revealing how much he wants to get Hjalrig back and why, asserts that he will return with something astounding, and we depart.

Stopping by Lenart, we pick up Nanap's notes and the codebook and head for the Aberration.

It takes 4.5 days to get to the Aberration.

1 CP

An Education

1/11/2017

Bonez gives a humourous pantomine about how her power tracks the mana level, followed by what ends up being an explantion that the Mehkooraat follow the high mana in order to retain control over their beasts.

The party goes to talk to Nysris, and during the conversation she lets slip that “Sodoc” is really Ed and that he has been employed by Nysiris for a couple of weeks. After resting, the next morning Ed and Njenq see Captain Ruk. There is something of a testy exchange between Ed and Captain Ruk. He wonders if we’ve been working for the Madlanders, but Ed assures him that we are working for Nysris. Captain Ruk thanks us for the information given to him. He endorses the note for an extra half gold and sends us off to the bursur where we get our $3500. Before we leave, a messenger fetches us to talk to Captain Ruk again. He asks Ed about the other slaves that we rescued, promising to recompense them for their time in captivity, and Ed assures him that he will let them know about his offer. We figure what he really wants to do is to debrief the prisoners.

We all head to Lady Nysris’ suite to plan the recovery of Hjalrig. They discuss plans – Nysris is somewhat skeptical at this point as to Hjalrig’s survival, while we convey our thoughts that Hjalrig has been turned into some sort of animal. Ed points out that the information we obtained form the Twin Hills particularly pleased the Mehkooraat – especially about the nature of the change in mana levels. Nysris suggests locating information locally that might be of interest the the Mekhooraat before going out to see them. At the end of the planning session she pays us $3000 in gratitude for returning her guardsmen.

Ed with Njenq goes off to “offer” their spelunking/adventuring/archaeological skills – mostly in hopes of gathering info that we can pass it to the Mekhooraat. We go to the bureaucratic section of town, but are rebuffed. Afterwards we go armor shopping and Njenq settles on some fine mail and sells her old suit, then purchases a backup katana.

Ed goes back to Captain Ruk to see if he knows about any more interesting areas like the ruins we visited, but isn’t able to come up with anything useful for us. Bonez and Frimhandler go out looking for information about elves in the area, but also don’t have much luck. Later, Lady Nysris summons us. She thinks that the best bad idea we have is to simply contact the Mehkooraat and ask them what they want for Hjalrig.

0 CPs

WAG, Pt. 2

1/3/2017

It was a bright and sunny day when we left for the Mehkoraat camp. Our guide initially said it would take us 3 days, but he quickly upped his estimate to a week when he realized that food had weight. Undeterred, we continue to follow him through the grassy wastes of the Madlands. On the fourth day, we cross a patrol of Ehleleen--the honor-minded foot-warrior clan that has done much of the warring against the Ascendancy so far. On the seventh day, we still haven't found the Mehkoraat, but the guide says they should be nearby. We switch from heading mostly East to heading mostly North and continue.

We finally see some evidence of our destination--an eagle circles overhead. Now, under normal circumstances, this might not seem important, but we have heard that the Mehkoraat are big on animal companions, so we're hopeful. The guide also seems to think this is a sign we're close, as he urges us to stick together from there on. A short while after, our suspicions are confirmed by a fellow in fur robes leading a pack of wolves. He calls our a challenge, which Sodoc answers. We introduce ourselves as archeologists looking to trade knowledge for raw labor. Wolf-man seems okay with this and tells us to go on ahead. We've met the Mehkoraat, and this first meeting seems most promising. We trundle forth.

Several miles later, we come across a bunch of low mounds. We immediately assume this is the Mehkoraat camp and that the mounds will turn out to be huts or tents. We're shortly proven right. As we come closer, we see that it is a sparse camp, with what look like hide-covered tents spaced far apart and partially buried. The camp is also sparsely populated--so sparsely, in fact, that we're greeted only by a single man. He is dressed in a very foreboding fashion and calls us trespassers. It is all very intimidating, but Sodoc sets him straight by explaining that we're traders and have actually received the go-ahead from the wolf-man. The greeter is suspicious at first, but he seems mollified when we claim we bring knowledge to trade. The greeter warns us against straying from the guest areas and calls forth a slave to show us where we can and cannot go. We are officially guests of the Mehkoraat.

And so, after eight days of travel, we're brought to a guest hut and given some food and water. The skeleton asks for some bones, but this request only seems to perturb our slave guide.

Later in the day, a slave (not the one sent to look after us) comes and tells us that "The Mehkoraat" will see us now. He leads us out and to another hut, and it is on this journey that we see a pair of bears helping some strong-backed slaves dig a pit. Nobody is commanding the bears, but they seem to be working alongside the slaves quite well. It is very odd. But, before we are able to wonder (or wander) we enter the hut to deal with the Mehkoraat. We meet wolf-man again, and he introduces himself as Calder. With him is your stereotypical barbarian warrior-woman, apparently named Norae. Calder seems amiable and interested in negotiating, but Norae seems to view the whole thing as a big bother. The greeter is not present. Sodoc and Calder haggle. Sodoc brings the Lab Notes and the Lab Grimoire to the table and also (without having discussed this beforehand with anyone) offers to have Frimhandler reveal interesting clues about the mana flows of the Aberration. Calder is not an unskilled negotiator, and does all the usual stuff (disparaging our goods and upselling his own), and he is eventually able to trade three dwarves and two semi-used humans for all the intel.

More important than anything else, however, is that Hjalrig is not among the dwarves. Calder claims that the three dwarves he is showing us are the only dwarves he has "in this place." Sodoc doesn't want to reveal his ploys, and so he doesn't push harder on Hjalrig's location. Negotiations wrap up, and we plan to leave in the morning.

In the morning, we leave. We travel a day or so with our guide, and during this time Sodoc speaks a little with the slaves we've taken. He quickly determines that suddenly turning back and launching a stealth recovery mission for Hjalrig isn't a viable option, as the dwarven slaves (who are from Nysris' caravan) confirm that Hjalrig wasn't in the camp. In fact, Hjalrig was taken to "The Elders' Tent," which isn't an actual tent in the camp but somewhere else, and he never came back. In fact, nobody comes back from "The Elders' Tent." This looks bad, but the slaves do have a theory that those taken are turned into animals. This means that Hjalrig might still be alive, but in animal form. So there is a chance to save him, but it'll take more than we can muster then and there to find Hjalrig and retrieve him. We decide to head back to Rushas.

So we part ways with our guide, who heads back to Lenart. We start making our way to Rushas, and everything goes well until we realize that nobody in the party is any good at navigation. The task defaults to Sodoc, as he's the smartest person there, but even he is pretty bad at it and gets us hopelessly lost.

We wander the wilderness for two weeks before seeing civilization again, and during those two weeks we face starvation, exposure, and bears. Did I mention the bears? At one point, Njenq (in an uncharacteristically enthusiastic display) hared off from the rest of the party (really, it's like she become a whole different person for a moment there) and surprised a mother bear. Unfortunately, the mama bear had a baby bear nearby and this made her really, really territorial and defensive--combat ensued. Also weirdness; during the combat, Njenq almost had a heart attack, only this heart attack ended with her suddenly enjoying the effects of a Great Haste spell instead of, you know, the usual. It's a good thing, too, because none of the rest of us really wanted to lug her corpse to the nearest temple (also, we were lost at the time, remember). With the benefits of the spell, and with the rest of the party showing up to help, Njenq was able to defeat the bear. Then we all saw the cub.

Sadly, none of us were good enough with our medical skills (or lack thereof) to revive the momma bear, and she died after an hour of futile attempts. Disheartened and weirded out, we pressed on.

A long, long walk later, we arrive back at Rushas.

1 CP

Partings from the Party

12/27/2016

As we come into view of Lenart the Aneanmee riders dump us off and ride back the direction they came. We head towards the town. We make our way to the river and pay for passage across. As we approach we notice that there is a thin arm of buildings going down to the river while the rest of the unwalled town is tightly clustered together. The inhabitants are gnomes and humans. We go in and encounter some racism with regards to the skeleton but arrange for lodging. Yves goes off to find a translator for the book while Njenq goes off and has some success gambling. As dusk arrives, Yves still has not returned. Alrick, Njenq, and Frimhandler go out looking for him. Nothing happens for an hour or so until Alrick is gob-struck. “Ul..? Uldar!?” Alrick and another man rush forward and embrace. It is obvious that the two though each other dead. Introductions are made. Alrick agrees to meet back up with him – hopefully after they have found Yves. They go back to the inn where Yves has not returned. Sodoc gets the name of a scholar from the bar owner that Yves may have contacted about translating the books.

The morning dawns without Yves. We start off towards the scholar when a messenger comes up to the party and hands us a note from Yves. He had an “emergency family matter” that he had to attend to – perhaps for a significant period of time. He also gives the name of a another scholar that we can inquire after from The Administration Building. With some difficulty we manage to find it, go in, and inquire after Yves. An administrative type takes us to a room and asks us to wait, returning with 8 guardsmen(!). As interlopers we are asked to wait here until they figure out what to do with us. Chamber pots and sandwiches provided upon request. Njenq chats up the guards but can’t get them to gamble. The Administrator – Severran – comes back and permits Alrick to leave and meet back with his clansmen.

Severran returns that evening and his is positively scowling. “Those that think you trustworthy have prevailed in this case.” We must not disclose the location of the city to those who are not of the Path of Marhkor. We all swear an oath to not reveal the location of Lenart. Sodoc inquires about Yves. Severran replies: “Yves has been reassigned to other duties, and that’s all I’m permitted to say.”

We mange to track down the scholar mentioned in Yves’ note. He brusquely shakes us off: “Come back in several days, not before.” We slink off and start looking for the cheapest accommodations that we can find.

(Accounting notes:

• $200 from Ruk
• $152 misc loot
• reflex bow
• Sodoc sells a bunch of stuff, get $5502, divided 3 ways. $1834 each.)

We return to the scholar. The books are:

• Lab notes – scratchy elven
• Lab Grimoire – Common, primer on defensive magic
• Garrison book – log of the garrison, mentions research into large-scale defensive magic (Common)
• Lair book – seems to be in common, but in some sort of code
• Inner sanctum book in hidey hole – elven

The Lab notes are the rambling notes of a half-insane researcher. Looks like necromancy/resurrection/protection magic, but written by an insane person and thus very difficult to decipher. He surmises that someone was trying to decode the Lair book based in part on the information contained in the Garrison book. The Hidey Hole book seems the most interesting – some sort of journal of an unnamed elf who apparently lived in the ancient past. They had some very disturbing experience that led him to search into dark powers, and many bad things happened to him. He was killed, but survived due to his necromantic powers. He left his home land and ended up in the twin towers. After some time the narrative breaks down as he slowly goes insane. Bonez asks about any family, and all that the scholar knows is that when the elf was newly dead his family had a hand in driving him off from his old lands.

It will take a week to get the inner sanctum book translated. Around this time we finally part ways with Alrick and we all wish each other good luck in our endeavours. We hire someone from the Messenger’s Guild for $350 to show us where we can find the Mehkooraat. Ms. Bonez wants us to make a map. As we get ready to leave, we notice that the bag of bones is empty and the the normally very noisy common room is even noiser than ever. As we rush up, we see the remains of a tavern brawl – bones scattered everywhere. Njenq asks what happened. Apparently the skeleton came up to the bar, someone started throwing things at her, and it devolved from there. We leave the bar, pick up our guide, and head off to the east.

1 CP

How Not to Get A Head

12/21/2016

Having discovered that Sodoc is missing, the party promptly checks their pockets and then goes off in search of the missing halfling. The search gets off to a rough start, as The Skeleton falls apart when the party tries traveling in the direction of the keep. The party is forced to wait until The Skeleton picks herself back up. Then the party tries heading toward the tower under the theory that the mana will be higher in that direction. It works out, and we emerge into the daylight. Not having found Sodoc underground, we begin the search for him above ground. Oh, wait, there he is.

Sodoc, it turns out, has retrieved a halfling-sized pack from somewhere and is now hiding from some blurry figures moving around in the trees between the two hills. He motions for us to join him in his hiding place and informs us about the blurry figures. We spend a little time discussing what we'll do until we decide to send our sneakiest members around the hill to get a closer look. That turns out to be Sodoc and Frimhandler.

Unfortunately, Frimhandler rolls really high on one of her stealth rolls, so that plan gets blown. Sodoc and she return to us, and we decide to try going around the other way. Again, Frimhandler's dice betray us, but not before we spot the blurry figures coming around the other way. They're certainly skittering around us just as much as we're skittering around them. We discuss what we can do and whether or not to just leave for a while, but Yves really wants to make contact just in case they're some sort of denizen of the locale that his masters in Lenart will want to know about.

Yves attempt at parleying goes… poorly. The blurs agree to come out after a little while, but then they turn out to be Captain Ruk and his retinue. Yves immediately regrets his decision because these are high goddamn level officers of the enemy, and here he is sitting on a bunch of unreported intel about to be debriefed by the enemy. He does everything he can to avoid giving too much away to Ruk, which unfortunately includes trading a lich head (Yves lied and said the party was sent to kill the lich, rather than to gather intel) for a piece of paper money. The Skeleton is not pleased.

Eventually, Yves is forced to draw the redguard a map and hand over the poisoning supplies the party found, but he manages to hold onto the rest, including the stuff we looted off the redguard zombies. Well, we leave half the redguard armor suits behind, but we keep all the bows, blades, and shields. Meanwhile, the rest of the party is just sort of there watching the gnome squirm to protect the stuff he wants to keep secret regardless of what the rest of the party actually wants. Finally, we part ways and heads away from the Twin Hills. As we leave, the party finally has a chance to talk, and we use this time to discuss just how sketchy it was that the redguard really wanted that lich head. We consider abandoning our quest to free Hjalrig and go back to see what they do with the head instead, but we discard that after much discussion. We'll revisit this lich head business after rescuing Hjalrig.

We don't make it to Lenart straight away, of course. Some Aneeanmee scouts pick us up and take us to Thronn Windhoof's camp, where HE debriefs us. Seriously, a solid 25% of this campaign is just getting questioned by high-level NPCs. Anyways. Thronn (and Ruk, for what it's worth) is actually pretty impressed we killed a lich, but he's most interested in our intel and blowing our cover vis-a-vis whether or not we're going to betray Sodoc. Yves covers and pretends to not want to give Thronn everything the warlord wants, although he does make sure to give Thronn the personal effects of the Aneeanmee zombies we killed. We're told we're free to go but can also bivouac with the Aneeanmee for the night if we want an escort partway to Lenart in the morning. Yves is all about this, and so we rest the night. During the evening, Yves goes to Thronn in secret and gives a full report. He is a madlander spy, after all. Also during our time with the Aneeanmee, Sodoc gathers some of the party and tries to extract a promise that, when we go to rescue Hjalrig, we'll also rescue the other slaves as well. It goes alright, but Yves is cagey about adding secondary objectives to what already promises to be a high-risk operation.

1 CP

Good Reads

12/6/2016

We investigate the passageway hidden behind some rubble in the great hall of the keep. At the bottom of the stairs is a hallway and a room that seems to be a well-stocked research area. There are bookshelves in poor condition. To the north is the lab space, and in the northwest corner the walls are blackened and cracked from an apparent explosion. In the lab is an iron box as well as a table with some supplies and a notebook that have been used more recently. Frimhandler searches the room carefully, then looks at the items on the table which appear to be alchemical in nature. Frimhandler is unable to read the notebook. Yves is unable to read the notebook as well – we suspect it is in elvish. The handwriting is quite distinctive – seemingly by some who used to have good handwriting but somehow lost the ability. Yves takes the notebook. Some of the fleshy items on the table – which are of recent origin – seem to be human in nature. Sodoc points out some interesting sigils on the box. Yves looks at them and suggests that they are explosive runes. Frimhandler is able to verify that the sigils are magical, but not their exact nature. After a good deal of time we hear a click as the box is unlocked. Followed by an explosion. Sodoc is not happy, but at least he isn’t dead. The box contains a large book which fortunately wasn’t damaged by the explosion. It is written in Common. Frimhandler can read it, and it deals with magic, but she isn’t quite able to grasp what it is about. Elsewhere, Frimhandler finds crystals in the wall around the blast area that seem to be magical. She pries a few out of the wall and puts them in her back. Yves reports that the book is about defensive enchantments, but to know more he will need an elvish translator. We get ready to leave, but Mrs. Bones convinces us to go back to where we had been before (and she had led us away.) Upon questioning from Sodoc, she indicates that she had previously been leading us away from the elvish lich. We go back to the room and investigate, Frimhandler finding a secret door where the blast had previously occurred. Frimhandler opens the door… and it explodes. Njenq volunteers to try to open the door, but Bones suggests waiting, implying that the mana level will at some time drop to a very low level. While we wait, Njenq suggests searching the side passageway. We tromp down the passageway. At the end is a chamber that is quite cluttered – dismembered body parts litter the floor. Oh, and four zombie fighters – ex Aneanmee riders. Alrick and Njenq take the front line, Bones swoops to the rear, and Frimhandler shoots fire. The zombies advance, several landing blows on Njenq. Bones comes from behind and plants a spear-point in the skull of one, knocking it down. Yves then attacks a zombie with an acid attack, taking it out. Sodoc and Frimhandler work their way around, Frimhandler letting loose with a vicious attack that catches one of the zombies, but Njenq’s opponent jars Njenq’s katana out of her hand with a block. Fortunately Bones takes the opportunity to slash her opponent from behind, (re)killing it. Frimhandler swoops in and kills the final zombie.

We rest up after the combat – this looks to be a storeroom of spare body parts. Yves collects the personal effects of the 4 zombies and keeps the separate, including the sabers. We hang out waiting for the mana level to drop. It peaks sometimes in the evening. We go back to the secret door, and Bones somehow convinces Sodoc to try again. He says that he can’t see the magical lines that tie it together. Frimhandler comes over and takes a look, describing them to Sodoc. With Frimhandler’s assistance Sodoc thinks he has a better idea how to disarm the trap, but we should still wait until the mana level drops to minimum to actually attempt it. At 4 am the mana level is quite low. We trundle down to the secret door, and he is able to open the door without setting off any explosions. Sodoc, Frimhandler, and Bones go down the passageway and find a small chamber at the end. They find a notebook. Initially the handwriting is quite nice, but it degrades partway through. She brings it out and shows it to Yves. He can’t read it, but the script is similar to the previous notebook.

A couple hours, 6 am, all the spells fail, and Bones collapses in a pile of bones. A few hours later the mana level comes on barely and Bones slowly comes together. Frimhandler puts Dark Vision on Yves and Ms. Bones, and they begin reading the books. They take some time, but after several hours are unable to make any sense of it. Meanwhile, Sodoc has disappeared.

1 CP

Lich go Inferno

11/16/16

So, no shit, there we were facing off against an undying sorcerer and two of our own that had succumbed to the lich's mental domination. We had no escape route. Our ace-in-the-hole was trying to put holes in us, our unstoppable barbarian had been stopped dead in his tracks, and our unkillable skeleton was nearly dead.

The trouble “started” when the party and Sodoc (who we may or may not definitely plan on betraying later) headed into the tunnels. Light concerns were handled by Frimhandler, who gave everyone except the halfling darkvision. When Sodoc mentioned that he didn't have a light source, the skeleton took him by the hand and led him along. The issue of bringing a light source and betraying our advance to anyone with an eye open neatly side-stepped, we proceeded.

It wasn't long before Yves notices a secret door, and the party decided to go ahead and investigate. Yves is poisoned while searching the door. Sodoc is accused of poisoning Yves. Frimhandler keeps the gnome alive. Eventually, Sodoc actually finds and disarms the trap, and since Yves has recovered by this time, the party heads on in as a whole.

While the main tunnel is evenly hewn and supported by wooden framing, the cavern beyond the secret door appears to have been clawed out of the earth—it is a new addition, and a primitive one at that. The party splits up to search the area after ascertaining that there are no hostiles. The large amount of clutter in the hideout gives us lots to search without finding much, but we do find $241 in cash, a book in elven with notes in common, a pile of tanned human hides, and a secret panel. The book seems to be about a magical ritual performed in the area. Yves believes it may include enough intelligence to barter with the Mehkoraat with (and, incidentally, to qualify his personal mission as a success). This is, of course, very exciting for him.

Oh, and the secret panel exploded. That knocked out Sodoc, who had been given door-opening duties, and nearly wiped out Frimhandler. Handily, Frim stayed conscious and was able to keep both himself and the hobbit alive. Yay healers.

We decide to head through the secret panel without Sodoc, who is still out cold, but he skeleton insists we not. Then we head down a more obvious passage on the south-eastern edge of the hideout, but then the skeleton insists we gather Sodoc and retreat the way we came. The skeleton does not explain herself. We indulge her anyways.

Since the skeleton doesn't seem to object to heading further down the main tunnel, toward the keep, we do so. Along the way, Sodoc wakes up and is finally given darkvision. He remarks that this explains a lot about the party's seemingly incredible abilities of detection. He doesn't comment on what it means that we didn't want to give him darkvision earlier.

Arriving at an intersection, the map says left leads to the keep, so we head that way. At the base of the keep, we find a secret door, but it seems to open only from the other side. So we head up and into the keep.

The keep is abandoned.

Frimhandler finds some stuff, only some of which he shares with the party—and old throwing axe, a poleaxe, a button, a torch, a 2-gallon amphora of wine/vinegar, and a silver torc. All while Frimhandler is going about finding these things, the skeleton is dragging the party around. When questioned, she only insists that there is someone bad “down & south” (but apparently not in the hideout), who she is trying to find. We try heading back into the tunnels and taking the path untaken, but it just leads to a secret exit, which seems to displease Sodoc more than the rest of us. Regardless, with no bad guy in sight, we head back up.

Back in the keep, Frimhandler uses more magic to levitate up to the otherwise unreachable second story of the keep. From there, she is able to see a hidden path back down. On the ground floor, a thick pile of rubble blocks the way, but knowledge of what's behind it gives us the strength to clear that out.

Night has fallen by the time we're done, however, so we decide to rest for the night. After some arguing, we select the keep's ruined smithy as a defensible camping spot. If we are attacked in the night, we reason, they can only come from one direction. Yves points out that the smithy also has no escape route if we're attacked, but he cedes the point pretty quickly, figuring we probably won't be attacked in our sleep by anything incredibly powerful.

We are attacked in our sleep by an incredibly powerful undead elven sorceror.

Battle commences with Frimhandler unleashing two astoundingly potent fire blasts, and the lich is almost immediately slain, but it isn't and then shit goes south real fast. Neither fighter seems able to hit the elf, and the elf responds by telekinetically flinging the skeleton against a far wall and then attempting to dominate Alrick. At first, the elf does not succeed, but the entire party finds no more success on all their actions. Then the elf mind-controls Frimhandler. Then the elf mind-controls Alrick, and in the intervening round, nobody is able to put another dent in it. The initial blasts by Frimhandler remain the only real damage we've done to this thing. It doesn't help that the dominated Frimhandler immediately drops everyone's darkvision, which turns the already lopsided fight even further against us.

In an awesome display of martial prowess, Yves and Sodoc manage to tackle and restrain the dominated Frimhandler so that she cannot blast anyone. This is especially impressive because Frimhandler has a strength of 8! Amazing. It is no wonder, therefore, that Yves was barely able to contain the goblin with his own strength of… 8. And Sodoc is a halfling, and halflings are even smaller than gnomes, so it's basically noodlefest 999 (or whatever year it is).

By comparison, the face-off between the wounded skeleton and the dominated Alrick is far less exciting, although only because Alrick seems to be partially fighting the mind-control. He half-asses all of his attacks, and the skeleton is thereby able to keep the barbarian occupied.

Since we've just examined the actions of literally everyone except the elf lich and Njenq, you can probably guess what the last bit of action was. That's right, in a stunning display of tactical incompetence, the lich decided not to press its massive advantage. Instead, the wounded lich tried to run away, leaving its unprotected backside wide open for Njenq to swoop in and kill it.

Pretty sure it still took her two tries, though.

But hey! With the lich dead, Frimhandler and Alrick both return to normal in short order. At first, everyone's unsure if the mind-control is completely off, but the Frimhandler goes to loot the lich's corpse, and all worries cease.

We find a hard from a mask very similar to the skeleton's, and we also find a magic silver ring. Nobody can identify the ring, but we're sure it's magical. We decide to wait until morning to decide exactly what to do with it. Then, after checking that all threats are gone, we head back to camp to finish resting up and continue our travails in the morning.

2 CP

WAG (World Archaeology Guild)

11/2/2016

We approach the tower which is somewhat in disrepair. It looks to be a couple of stories – some of the stones seem to be gone at the top. We enter through the open front door and see stairs up and down. Frimhandler buffs herself up (free given the high-mana zone) with Camouflage and Stealth, and creeps up the stairs. On the 2nd floor she sees some items that might deal with alchemy and herbs. The stairs up to the next level are blocked with debris. Frimhandler brings down the herbs, and Yves discerns that they are for making poison and pockets them. Frimhandler then starts down the stairs which are quite long – perhaps 30 ft. The construction is solid stone and sturdy. We start to investigate – the rooms are constructed defensively to repel an attack. The room beyond looks to be old barracks. Beyond that is another room that contains some packs and rations (now moldy) and a long smear of blood on the floor. Yves looks through the packs and finds four long knives. Frimhandler looks and sees the footprints leading to a trap door. The smear of blood leading to it also helped. She heads down the trap door. This room looks like another barracks/storage area. When she gets fully into the room she sees four skeleton fighters, so she sneaks back out. We discuss just attacking, but somehow Ms. Bones convinces us that having Frimhandler sneak past them is better. She creeps past them – there are branching passageways and she goes left then back and goes right, but both passageways go for quite some time. She comes back, sneaks past the skeletons again and back up the trapdoor. We discuss a bit, then vote in favor of See In the Dark buffs, then creep down the stairs. Well, except for Alrick who bangs his shield about a bit and alerts the skeletons. The two lines advance with Frimhandler sneaking around fire beaming the skeletons not once but twice. Frimhandler continues working his way behind the line and blasts another skeleton, while Alrick crashes his axe through a third. Ms. Bones finally clatters to the ground in a pile of bones from hits sustained, then Yves finishes off the last one after waggling a finger at it. (Toxic damage apparently.)

While waiting for Ms. Bones to reanimate we examine the room. One side is barred – but it is more of a weapons cage than a jail. A door to a room next to it is locked, but Yves is able bash the rust off and open it. This chamber seems to be the commander’s area. Frimhandler finds some records or perhaps a journal from the commander. It details the records of the tower and includes a handy map of the tunnels beneath the towers! One of them goes to the other tower, the other looks to be an escape tunnel. The end includes some hasty notes. It is unclear what happened, but something damaged the foundations of the keeps from below – source unknown. This caused the keep to partially collapse upon itself and happened about 1300 years ago.

She examines the armory, picking up a nice spear, a nice broadsword, two regular short swords, and a very nice small sword. While Frimhandler is looking around, she thinks she sees a halfling looking round corner at the stairs to the trapdoor. Frimhandler rushes to the stairs, but following up we are unable to find any trace of a halfling. We return to the last room. The skeleton convinces us to go back up the tower. We look over the 2nd floor more carefully and find the halfling. Yves goes over and talks to the hobbit nicely, as in informing him that we won't eat him, or something to that effect. His name is Sodoc, and after exchanging various lies about how we are apparently all archaeologists and how he has been here a couple of weeks but at the moment is waiting for his friends to come back who are sure to arrive any minute now (he can't imagine what's taking them so long), we enter into a truce-like arrangement. He asks if all we asked we found were skeletons – he thinks something else is inhabiting the ruins. He spotted it around the tower, and again around the keep. It had two legs and arms, but seemed like it was more like an animal. After some discussion, we decide to take the tunnel to the other tower.

1 CP

The Two Structures-of-Disproportionate-Height

10/25/16

Eight days of wandering through the plains later, the Aneeanmee capture us; finally, the plan seems to be working.

Per the plan, we are taken to Thronn Windhoof, who is amused to see us again. Yves pretty much tells Thronn everything about the party's plans in the hopes that honor will sway the Aneeanmee captain. The gnome certainly isn't being transparent because he works for the same side as Thronn, no sir.

Anyways, Thronn is helpful. He tells us that his men took the remaining captives away to sell to the Mehkooraat, the mystical tribe who are mostly known for sacrificing captives. That isn't good, obviously, but Thronn does suggest that we might be able to trade for our target.

Specifically, Thronn mentions that another captive escaped and left for “the Aberration,” a small area in the Path of the Markhoor where mana is even more wild. It also has a small keep and a watchtower, which are situated on two close hills. Yves thanks Thronn and says that this will help a lot. Thronn then mentions that the Mehkooraat and the Aneeanmee both would be interested in any intel we can bring back from the Aberration. He proposes that we sell the info to the Mehkooraat but also give it to him as repayment for all the help he's giving us. Yves thinks that's an excellent idea. We determine that we'll head to the Aberration to get whatever we can before heading to the Madland city of Lenart, where Yves will report to his superior and the rest of the party will set out to link up with he Mehkooraat and exchange prisoners.

We bivouac with the Aneeanmee and then set out in the morning.

Two days later, we arrive at the Aberration. There's the keep and the tower and a swathe of trees between them. Yves identifies those as three places the fugitive could hide and asks for ideas of where to search first. He quickly discards the swathe as a hiding place, since it gives the worst vantage for spying out approachers, and Njenq suggests the party start their search at the tower. Meanwhile, Frim spots something in rusty red-brown robes watching us from near the tower. We head up that way.

The robed figure departs, we think into the tower, and a quartet of what appear to be Redguard emerge from the keep and make a beeline for us. This seems bad, and we dislike the Redguard at this point, so we all take Njenq's suggestion and lay an ambush for the Redguard who, as they get closer, we realize are scouts. Later, when they're much closer, we also realize that they are zombies. Combat ensues. We win.

Then something amazing happens. We get loot! $320, 4 reflex bows, 80 arrows in 4 quivers, 4 longswords, 4 enchanted light shields, and 4 suits of enchanted light plate make up the haul. We stash the plate and carry the rest off with us.

1 CP

Applying A Full Nelson

Notes from 10/12/2016

"Never mind manoeuvres, always go at them." Admiral Nelson as recounted by Captain Aubrey

Asking “Joe” (the captive left for dead by the Aneeanmee), we establish that Mr. Bones was given to the caravan group by another group, but he doesn’t know the details of the transfer. The other group found him creepy for some reason. He stands just over 6 ft, has wings, and his feet seem to be capable of grasping. He did participate in some combat with this group. Not a major fighter – he sort of went off on his own. Frequently he would get smashed up, but eventually his bones would reassemble. We are able, through tedious questioning of Bonesy, that he is searching for an elf. This elf, a female, was separated from Bonesy as a child, many, many years ago. Much more than 10, probably more than 50, but the skeleton is unsure exactly how long ago. He, she was a guardian of the elf. (Also: Bonsey's race consists only of females, so I guess that's Mrs. Bonesy to you.)

The party, having lost the trail, heads out trying to find the Aneeanmee party. We head north-east when we encounter the river that flows through Rushas to the north-west to the sea. Heading upstream it takes awhile to find a crossing, but eventually we find one near the city. We cross and head into the wilderness. As we head north-east, Yves notices a large party (10-20) tracking us on foot and heading towards us. We think they are bandits. Mrs. Bones takes off and charges the bandits, despite Njenq’s attempts to rein her in, so we follow after her. The bandits stop and form a ragged line of three groups – five ruffians each on the left and right, and four better fighters and a magic user in the middle.

Mrs. Bones swoops between the ruffians and the center group to attack with her spear, and very soon the left group of ruffians decide that their survival is best served by running away. The next turn Njenq foolishly charges a gap and hits the magic-user, dropping him. In the meantime Njenq and Alrick take chunks out of the front line, and the right group of ruffians turns and flee, along with the spearman in the central group. Mrs. Bones faces off one of the ruffians. The long uninjured fighter in the central group turns and run, Njenq finishes off another fighter, leaving a lone opponent who foolishly continues to fight. At least until he is killed by Frimhandler. Frimhandler finds $237 on the magic-user. When he wakes up, Yves interrogates him (with the skeleton helpfully looming in the background.) And some point Yves will shoo off the skeleton before turning to the mage. We find that they know that a large group of Aneeanmee passed this way earlier and they avoided them. The bandits consists of various outcasts from the Ascendency and the tribe of the Mehkooraat. We heal up the mage a bit so that he’s out of damage and get him to promise that he and his group won’t bother us again.

1 CP

Totally Boss

9/21/16

So, no shit, there we were hunkered down under a feral shrubbery surrounded by an entire company of Redguard with nervous ticks in their stabbing arms. Now, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking “gee, that sounds like a tough situation. I don't know how you got out of it.” Well, that's okay, because I'll tell you. We sat on our collective butt and waited for those Redguard to leave, which they did.

In the morning, after the Redguard left, we scooted out of our hidey-hole and made for the road, which we then took to Rushas. Of course we didn't get all the way there before coming upon the smoking ruins of an ambushed caravan. Not ones to look a random encounter in the mouth, we all got to searching the wreckage. Some of us rifled through the corpses for loot, and the rest rifled through the debris for survivors. We found a little of both, but the biggest find by far was the still-alive caravan master—a “dwarf” lady named Nysris of Clan Magren. We got Nysris on her feet and gave back the loot we looted, and we helped her bury some of her dead men. At some point a Redguard patrol came by, but Nysris took care of them for us.

Once all the business of cleaning up the ambush site was taken care of, we escorted Nysris and three other survivors to Rushas, where we parted ways; her to her holdings in the city and us to sell some loot from her caravan. We make a tidy $342 from the selling. We also stop by Captain Ruk's office to collect our pay. Along the way, there is a cat. It's clearly weird, but Njenq ruins our attempts to nab and interrogate it about its mystical nature.

In the Redguard compound, Ruk makes us wait. We wait. Finally, we get in to talk to Ruk, and he interrogates us. Mostly, he interrogates Yves, who does his best to not tell the Captain anything that might be of military importance. He finally pays us another $400 and kicks us out.

The next morning, Captain Ruk calls upon us and informs us that he's been assigned the Nysris account. It turns out Ms. Magren went to the city for aid, and the city in turn contracted the Redguard to help her on their account. Now Captain Ruk is trying to subcontract out to us. Considering he doesn't seem to have a very high opinion of us, we can only take this attempt at subcontracting to mean that he also doesn't care about Nysris much. We like her, and so we are duly offended on her behalf. Not that we tell Ruk that. Oh no, we feign wanting to step out and consider his offer, but only so we can get out the door politely.

Then we head straight for Nysris and offer our services directly. There is a brief bit of negotiating, but in the end she agrees to hire us on. Our payment will be in the form of fine equipment, which Nysris can use her mercantile skills and network to procure far more easily than we can. In turn, our duties are tracking down and retrieving Hjalrig, her assistant.

All the evidence points toward Hjalrig being taken prisoner by the raiders who attacked her caravan, who appear to be the Aneeanmee we were so recently prisoners of ourselves. We double-check by investigating the ambush site again, where Nysris' name gets us past the Redguard guards who appear to have been posted there overnight. We do a little investigating around the site, but really aren't able to find much aside from some tracks. AtB follows the tracks, and the rest of us follow him.

One day later, we come across several corpses surrounded by bones along the trail that AtB is tracking. We investigate, and discover that there is only one survivor. Unfortunately, our attempts at reviving said survivor are stymied by the bones arranging themselves into a skeleton, who then menaces us. Hilarity ensues, concluding with the skeleton allowing us to heal the survivor. Many head motions are involved.

1 CP

Slip Sliding Away

Notes from 9/28/2016

The party attempts to slip away during the confusion of the combat between the Aneeanmee and Red Guard, but are stopped by the Aneeanmee outriders. Yves steps up and explains why we should simply be let go, arguing that we should be allowed to make our own decision, rather than be forced to one side of the other. Besides, their original reason for holding us – to ensure that the Red Guard can’t track them – is moot. After apparently consulting with their superiors (gazing off mindlessly in the distance and then snapping back to the present) they agree to let us go. We try to sneak off (at least from the Red Guard), but are immediately spotted by outriders from the Red Guard. Are there any outriders we can sneak away from?? Eight Red Guard horsemen peel off towards us. As they bear down upon we helpless few, Yves cries out to them for help in a clever ploy. Alas, all it does is confuse the Aneeanmee who turn around and scratch their heads. As for the Red Guard from what we tell ourselves later, this group was simply waiting for an excuse to kill someone, and we conveniently presented ourselves. Yves casts See in Dark on the fighters, then the first wave of four riders swept through our line. Yves is hit and knocked unconscious. Frimhandler blasts one rider out of his saddle with a spear of fire and Alrick hits another. It’s pretty hopeless, but we hear some of the Aneeanmee coming up behind us in support. The next line of Red Guard horses comes up to attack, but at least Alrick’s and Frimhandler’s attacks are hitting home. The Aneeanmee riders arrive, one crashing into one of the Red Guard riders. The Aneeanmee horses continue to attack the Red Guard horses quite effectively, and a couple Red Guard lose hold of their swords. Frimhandler finds a handy bush and continues to press her abilities past the redline, eventually falling unconscious. The Aneeanmee fighters peel off, but there are still 7 of 8 Red Guard fighters up. Check that, make it 5 of 8. Unfortunately, five vs. two are still pretty steep odds. Three face off against Njenq, two against Alrick, but the Aneeanmee (both with injured horses) come up from behind for another pass. One rider is able to hit one of the fighters facing off Alrick, but the other aiding Njenq wiffs. Njenq’s attacks are (well, continue to be) pathetic, but fortunately her defenses are good enough to hold out long enough until two more Aneeanmee arrive to save the day. They dispatch the remaining Red Guard while we go to check on their fallen comrades. As for the larger battle, although the Aneeanmee were able to successfully ambush the Red Guard, the Red Guard force is large enough to hold off the Aneeanmee who are now preparing to retreat.

Thron Windhoof comes over to speak to the party, stating he is not sure what game we are playing. Yves fills in Thron about the mission we received from the Red Guard. Thron is unable to take the party with us, but sees no reason to hold us. After healing up a bit, we move out of the immediate combat area and attempt to hide. Frimhandler throws Camouflage and Chameleon on the party. During the night we see a party that has been able to follow our trail. Fortunately, they are not able to find where we are camping and we survive the night.

1 CP

Prisoners of Police Action

9/21/2016

When last we left our heroes, Alrick had discovered two sets of tracks. One set belonged to a large group of horsemen (mounted warriors, not centaurs), while the other belonged to a small group of men who seemed pretty good at covering their tracks—almost like the group of scouts we'd been sent to track down.

So we follow the scout tracks, but eventually we lose the trail. There we are, in the middle of the savannah, having just lost a trail. Frim climbs an invisible staircase into the sky to look around, but even she can't see anything. In retrospect, we might have tried turning the amulet on and waving it around in case these were the scouts, but that never occurs to any of us, so we just give up and follow the trail of the horsemen…

… right into a picket. Alrick follows the horse trail until we are able to see a long line of horses in the distance. We approach, but before we get close, group of Aneeanmee sentries hiding in the tall grass spot us. We spot them too, but the point is that we're spotted. The Aneeanmee rise out of their hiding places, surround us, and demand to know why we're skulking about. Yves spouts some BS about us being mere travelers, but the Aneeanmee insist on taking us to their leader, Thron Windhoof.

Thron listens to our BS tale, and he seems to believe it. Alas, he states that he can't have us running about because we might tell the Redguard that he's about. He states that the Ascendancy has been trying to annex the DMZ, and that he and his men are here to raise hell and… honestly, we're not sure what his long-term strategy was beyond kill men in red cloaks. Anyways. We stay the night, and the Aneeanmee (boy is that going to get old to type over and over again) are attacked at night by Redguard cavaliers. Well, it turns out that the horse barbarians are really REALLY good cavalry, and the Redguard riders get roflstomped. We volunteer to help during the fight and, while we aren't much use, the offer does earn us weapon-bearing privileges despite our de facto prisoner status. Thron immediately suspects that we have something to do with the Redguard being able to find his Stealthcamp(r), and interrogates us about it.

Hilarity ensues.

Still traveling with the Aneeanmee, we are there to witness them set up an ambush outside Rushas. The barbarians lay in wait a whole day while letting at least one rich caravan get by. Then, at night, the Redguard attack. The Aneeanmee spring their ambush upon the well-armed and battle-ready Redguard troops, but the Redguard are using foot spear now, and those are +2 POI against cavalry. The Aneeanmee are still superior cavalry, but the fight seems stacked against them. The party, being considered pretty much just an unreliable ally at this point, is put on one distant wing of the Aneeanmee (seriously, it's 9 characters) formation.

1 CP

Fools Rushas Inn

9/13/2016

The party meets in an inn, the Silent Banshee.

Our adventure begins in the city of Rushas. Originally a goblin trading post, Rushas has long since been co-opted by the Ascendancy to serve as a border town and forward garrison. The city has retained its large goblin population and role as mercantile center all the same, and the additions of the Ascendant military and its miscellaneous accompaniments only serves to expand on the city's hustle and bustle. Although technically situated at the nexus of the Madlands and its neighbors to the west—the Ascendancy and the Goblins Hills—Rushas is build in the Madlander style, which is to say earthen huts and easily-assembled structures made as much to move as to stand still. Still, between the merchants and the military, Rushas has turned out to be a very expensive place to live.

And so, spurred by short funds, four hapless fools turned to the world's most lethal get-rich-quick scheme to make ends meet. Responding to an advert for individuals of cunning and discretion, our four “heroes” each made their way to the Silent Banshee. So the party meets in an inn.

When all have arrived, a Redguard captain lays out the job. Actually, first he informs those gathered that they must agree to the job first before he will tell them what the job actually is. Everyone with a lick of sense immediately leaves the room because, seriously, who accepts a job without knowing what they're agreeing to? Anyways, the captain turns to the only four adventurers noobish enough to take the job and finally explains what he wants them to do. A cadre of Redguard scouts have dropped out of communication, and he needs a technical third-party to find these scouts and deliver a message. Why he can't just use a proper Redguard courier or another scout group is not mentioned. The party is given the message in a sealed parnilla (parchment manilla) envelope and an amulet that glows red when you stroke it and whisper the word “Vermillion,” which is kind-of coquettish for an inanimate object, but whatever. One of our fools, Frimhandler, mentions to the gnome seated beside her that she knows someone named Vermillion. While some of the other stuff going on is pretty off, that one actually makes sense, since gnomes have the honest face perk.

To his credit, the Redguard captain does buy us all dinner before he…

The next morning, our fools set out in the direction of the scouts' last known location. The first day is consumed in uninteresting travel, forcing the party to find other ways to entertain themselves. They finally settle on passing each-others' character sheets and snickering at everyone's skill selections and disadvantages. The gnome is secretly happy he replaced Sex Appeal (gnomes) with Philosophy before leaving the city. That night, the party sleeps under the stars. Actually, to everyone's surprise, this involves a fair amount of sleep and not a single midnight attack by assassin lizards.

The next morning (no, not that one, the next next morning), the party arrives in the target area. They then link up with the scouts, who—wait… I'm being informed that the party utterly fails to find the scouts (twice, actually, but the second time won't happen until later). Instead, the party happens upon the site of an ambush. Also, cats.

After a brief discussion of how Frimhandler is going to keep from turning into literal kitty kibble, the party decides to sneak up and try to get a good look at the pile of corpses. The hope is that they can get a bit closer before the cats catch them, but of course that doesn't happen. Combat ensues and shortly wraps up. AtB (Alrick the Barbarian) gets to show off his thick skin as the cat claws hurt him about as much as kitten swipes, and Frim gets to set things on fire. The only real twist is when the cats turn tail and flee, revealing a level of survival instinct heretofore unseen in foes.

With the furious felines fled, the party gets to investigating the corpses. We determine that they were set upon with great speed—a real ambush—and didn't even manage to put up much of a fight. The corpses are also clearly Redguards but just as clearly not the scouts we were looking for. Also, there are no officers among the corpses, which is odd. While investigating, we also loot the corpses, finding $50 in miscellaneous coins and six long knives. We also strip the corpses of the maille armor and stash it. With that done, we turn to the two different trails leading away from the ambush site and scratch our heads as to which one we'll follow.

1 CP