Author Archives: Ranjr

A Mage from Poisonwood Pt.6: Bloody Red-Daggers

My time at Farmers’ Keep was spent first fencing the signet set, 2 rubies and the chalice I snatched from the green tower using the barkeep at the Merry Farmer Tavern meeting back up with Keenor of the Black Hands. Later I took my new funds to purchase spell components from the various shops and spent the next five days sequestered in my quarters formulating the Crown of Eyes and Lightning Bolt spells adding them into my spellbook. On the 7th day in town I refined a single dose of the yellow lotus for my own special use. The following day I accompanied the group on hunt for a wild boar that Drogo the ranger had arranged. The creature was apparently harassing the locals and killing valuable livestock. Drogo after we reached the outskirts of town was joined by his ‘animal companion’ a big freakin’ bear. Later I was able to glean that the boar was itself an unnatural creature and that it had moved on using the Commune With Nature spell. We decided to travel back to Rockhollow after that revelation. The trip was uneventful until we got to Farmer’s Bridge, the bridge under which the troll Blackgut’s lair was.

There at the center of the bridge were several ratlings dressed in red capes with the symbol of the red dagger on the chests of their leather armor. Drogo’s bear seemed perturbed just before we took action as if sniffed something in the air but naturally we charged the little mooks and found that there were hidden archers at both ends of the bridge which as soon as we were all at the center of the bridge engaged with the ratlings sprung from their cover to shoot arrows tipped with sleep potion at us. A group of thugs charged from both ends and four more ratlings leapt over the edges of the bridge form positions underneath to reinforce their fellow vermin. Among these ratlings was an apparent captain, a ratling wearing a red eye-patch and who proved impossible to hit and who got his dagger in my back once during the fight. I recognized him as an apparent companion of Blackgut when we invaded his lair. The bear was the first to drop from a sleep laden arrow behind which I took cover from 1 of the archers. I took an arrow but did not succumb initially to its toxin. I inadvertently damaged the bridge a few times as the ratlings proved very hard to hit with my acid bolts but I was able to hold back a few thugs using my Shadow Ribbons spell. Tweena was the next to drop from one of the Red-Daggers’ insidious arrows followed by Nami. Drogo was fighting valiantly but the number of enemies was proving a problem as we only managed to drop a handful with me and Drogo racking up the lion’s share of the body count. The last thing I saw before the second arrow I took knocked me out was Dolus leaping from the bridge in a desperate last dodge attempt to escape.

After a while I awoke groggy, hogtied and gaged but with my mask and robe still on. The rest of my hard won gear had been stripped. Just as I gathered my wits the door to my cell burst open and I heard the words, “Get the shackles on him!”

Luckily my abilities had expanded while I was out and I managed to teleport myself by the sole use of concentration. I wound up on the filthy sawdust strewn floor of the Merry Farmer Tavern yelling with a gagged mouth to be cut free. After the shock and amazement of the patrons and his own had subsided Flek the barkeep cut me loose. I hopped to my feet and roared swearing my vengeance against the Red-Daggers! Keeneor was present and told the bartender to, “get him a drink”. We talked and I pledged myself to guide a force of Black Hands into the lair of the Red-Daggers as he already knew where it was located, not far from Blackgut’s lair, but the insides were still a mystery. I may have bluffed a bit on how much I actually knew about the inside. Keenor handed me his dagger. It had his mark on the pommel, not that of the guild, and said that I could have it for now. The next night I found myself at the edge of town on the back of horse surrounded by rogues of the Black Hand along with Keenor and Ranknor the latter of whom had grabbed my forearm in recognition. I had only my robe on my back and the mask on my face aching to wreak my vengeance. We rode into the darkness along the road towards the river cleft.

We had arrived nearly at the midpoint of our venture and ran into other travelers on the road traveling in the opposite direction. A large hostile man riding a dragonsaurus and mounted behind him was Dolus. He introduced the rider as Shieldmaster telling me that he was an ally. That was when I found out that Drogo had fallen in battle bristling with the enemies’ arrows. The others had been captured. My blood boiling for action I talked Ranknor into letting tag along as we needed the brawn and he agreed. We rode on until we had to foot it down into the cleft traveling through shallow water to an undisclosed location (hey I’m a mage not ranger) and as we neared a clump of bushes we were ambushed.

We easily slaughtered the handful of ratlings which shot at us from the cover of the bushes and I cast Crown of Eyes on myself. We moved into what appeared to be a hidden stable built into a limestone cave then to the main door into the thief-lair, a bronze troll-faced double-door. Ranknor picked the lock without effort and Dolus and Shieldmaster charged into a hail of crossbow bolts flying through the slits in another door. The ratling thief made his way to the door and was able to pick the lock but triggered a gas trap. Fortunately he and Shieldmaster were not overwhelmed by the toxin. Four well-equipped Red-Daggers were on the other side. I paralyzed them all with a wave of my hand and the Black Hands following us cut their throats. Red-Daggers began to course through the place and a cacophony of shouting and the sounds of battle rang out. In this mass confusion and among the slaughter I grabbed two Black-Hands that were charged with guarding my flanks by Ranknor and teleported them and myself past a dense battle into the room behind. We came face to face with several more Red-Dagger thugs so I cast Mass Paralyze again but lost control of the magic. It went wild and paralyzed nearly every rogue within a 100 ft. radius of me. It took me 6 rounds to slit all of their throats turning the chamber into something like the killing floor of a slaughterhouse. Among those I slaughtered was the ratling with the red-eye patch. During my blood-rage Nami and Tweena had emerged from a side door having taken the distraction of our raid to their advantage escaping from the prison wing of the hideout. We reclaimed our gear and helped to clear out the rest of the place of Red-Daggers. We also took the opportunity especially in the personal quarters to loot. We eventually found our way to a vault filled with treasure but also standing by the entrance was a suit of armor with a troll-faced longshield wielding a troll-made axe. I immobilized it with some Shadow Ribbons and Shieldmaster bashed it to pieces taking the shield as his own against my advice.

Before we left the lair with our immense hall of treasure Nami animated a pair of corpses that she named “stupid 1 & 2”. The Blackhands took possession of the hideout a large force of them riding into the place as we walked out. I teleported to Rockhollow ahead of the rest and secured a private room at the Lucky Traveller. That was when I realized we had forgotten to lop off the heads from all of the Red-Dagger bodies missing out on the bounty on each!

To Be Continued…

The Dragonslayers II Pt. 5: Into the Gauntlet

After burying the bard Jesae our intrepid group of slayers carried on their quest to recover their buried treasure, buried atop a plateau on Hirok. They decided to make their way to the mouth of Sawback’s lair to see if the trolls were occupying it and if their treasure had been found. Vorwulf guided the group following the foot of Hirok to the cave mouth by late morning. The cave was intact and seemingly deserted the sound of water flowing from the cave met their ears as did the stench of troll mixed with the sharp scent of a reptilian origin. They sighted dozens possibly hundreds of small smooth stones akin to water smoothed river-stones scattered about most collecting on the shores of the creek each deeply engraved with a spiral pattern.

Vorwulf: “Well there’s definitely troll here.”

Grom: “What’re those stones? Are they magic?” He picked up a stone and his magic sense told him they were mundane.

Vorwulf: “Aw, probably some bored trolls sittin’ around carvin’ on ‘em.”

Since they appeared to be alone and were intent on charging into the cave the shaman performed the war-paint ritual and painted the faces of each of the adventurers in preparation. As the shaman finished up the ritual, all faces now painted, the others sighted shambling humanoid shapes stumbling towards them from the other side of the creek approximately 60 ft. away. Bers pulled the cowl of her Cloak of Invisibility over her head disappearing from sight. The others attempted to hide in an effort to avoid a fight as they could clearly see these were undead creatures with a mage leading them. The mage had an Acton bearing the white star being gripped in a black gauntlet against a purple field. The shaman stumbled through a bush making quite a racket while trying to hide (he rolled a Natural 1). Needless to say the creatures and their mage saw him. They began moving towards the creek in an agonized attempt to cross its chest-deep waters. The slayers could see that the enemy group consisted of the mage whom they could see now was wearing a black hood over his head with a red skull painted on the face, an undead warrior wearing a rusted great helm and a bronze pectoral plate over a suit of scalemail bearing a bearded axe in his hands shreds of shriveled blue flesh still clinging to his yellow bones, four half-faun zombies bearing sledgehammers wearing rusted helms and rotted studded leather armor, and five skeletons bearing battle axes and carrying medium wood shields with the same arms as the mage painted on them.

Grom and Kyr emerged to do battle as Vorwulf stayed back in the bushes with a ready bow and Bers still invisible began moving forward. The undead warrior with the bearded axe began to levitate and float forward over the running water while the skeletons easily crossed running straight through the creek. Bers engaged a skeleton easily smashing it down while the shaman called down lightning onto the rest their bones dropping into the current. The levitating creature moved towards Bers and caught her in its gaze, her eyes went white and she dropped to the grass apparently dead. The shaman was able to reach her used his Mithral Helm to cast Heal on her bringing her back from the brink of death (she made the luck roll not to be just dead but only caught a glimpse with her left eye which is now permanently discolored). Vorwulf shot the mage and stuck him good. Kyrahma charged forward to Bers’ and the shaman’s sides. The lich warrior, they now knew what it was due to its Death Gaze, reached down to touch the shaman whom dodged. The mage attempted to cast a spell on Vorwulf whom saw cold grey mists begin to surround him but he was able to shake off its hold and remained unaffected. The zombies reached the water and the skeletons re-emerged from the water onto the bank with Bers, Kyr and Grom the shaman. The mage was slain by a second arrow which nearly passed directly through him and Vorwulf emerged from his cover. At the start of the second round Kyr battled the skeletons and the zombies forded the creek. Grom pulled his magic mace gaining the benefits of the Supernatural Power spell from it (his spells for the day were nearly exhausted) and swung at the lich. The lich successfully touched Bers and she froze in place unable to move a rigid muscle. At the end of the round only two of the skeletons had been permanently smashed into dust as the group found that these keep putting themselves back together after being beat down and getting back up and the lich was struck down after a couple of massive blows from the empowered shaman the corpse crumbling to dust leaving behind the wretched armor and gear. It took two more rounds to dispose of the zombies and the skeletons. After the battle and the adventurers took account they found themselves exhausted and badly wounded. Bers however was still as stiff as a statue.

As they persisted in looting the remains of the undead and the shaman used his Clairvoyance (a cantrip for shamans) in order to try to find the warrior lich’s phylactery but got nothing but the definite sense that he had just given their position and identities away to something particularly nasty (rolled a Natural 1, again). They could all hear the sounds of metal armor, multiple voices and weapons being drawn from within the cave. The shaman then turned his attentions towards Bers and casting the Mystic Diagnosis spell on her he found that the paralysis was permanent. They briefly debated on whether or not to use the Potion of Arch-Cure that the shaman carried but in the end decided to save the potion. Vorwulf dug around in her gear remembering that she was carrying a dragon-metal Ring of Freedom of Movement from when he and the shaman had taken inventory of the group’s gear before this little venture and slipped it on her finger which allowed her to move suppressing the lich’s uncanny paralysis. The shaman got around to healing the wounds of Vor and Kyr. Vorwulf took down a healing potion in addition to that. Four 12 ft. tall trolls in full plate armor and bearing large two-handed serpentine bladed swords emerged from the cave mouth and charged the hapless, exhausted adventurers.

Behind the four armored trolls a human in full plate armor with a visor resembling the face of a roaring demon and a creature resembling the unholy union of a troll and a dragon in half-plate armor and a wolfskin mantle followed them. The human locked eyes with Vorwulf whom immediately recognized him as the merc commander from the battlements at Merdna (see Dragonslayers II Pt. 2). The commander pointed at him hissing, “You”, before he lowered his demonic visor. A troll attacked Bers and avoiding the blow she hit it with a power attack cutting it down. The armor split and burst open as the body within turned to stone. The other tow trolls charged and engaged Bers and Kyr. Kyr power attacked wounding one and the shaman cast Mass Bull’s Strength increasing the slayers’ physical strength. Vorwulf used a magic ability on his weapon to warp the sword of the troll that had yet to charge. The group fought the three remaining trolls as the commander and the half-dragon troll readied to join the battle. During the first round of the fight a troll was knocked back by the blast from Kyr’s armor when it struck her causing it to fall on Vorwulf who became trapped underneath the immense bulk of steel and troll-flesh. When it came to the second round the commander in the demonic armor and the half-dragon troll joined the fight. The felled troll rose off of Vorwulf whom appeared dead to him and attacked Kyr again striking at her helm who after parrying the blow struck at him with a counter-strike. The commander engaged Vor who landed a power attack on him causing the demonic-armor to glow red-hot. Vorwulf was forced into a recovery check to reduce the damage of a nasty blow from the commander’s claymore. Grom and Bers fought on as the half-dragon unleashed a blast of steam-breath with little effect and met the shaman in battle. By the end of the round two more trolls fell, their armor bursting unleashing gouts of foul blood as they fell into pieces of stone and twisted metal. By the third round the group was fighting the remaining pair of enemies. Vorwulf, the shaman and Kyr were on the merc commander and Bers was fighting the half-dragon. With every blow he had suffered the commander’s armor glowed brighter and flames had begun to wreath his glowing form with flames forming around his weapon. The half-dragon was dropped with a single blow from Bers and her magic axe and when struck the deathblow by Kyr the commander exploded with a burst of flame which burnt them all and reduced the Hill-Lander’s corpse to dust leaving the demonic armor empty and still standing.

Blood and sweat pooled in gauntlets and boots of the adventurers and their sweltering helms dripped. The group realized that they were “really beat down” and decided they had to get out of there far away from the cave especially since they could hear more troops mustering within. Grom and Vorwulf were again badly injured; Bers and Kyr were mildly hurt. Grom found that he had cast all the spells he could for that day and thus was “out of magic”. Kyr admired the commander’s armor and inspected it closely but without touching it.

Isis (Kyr’s player): “Man, I really want that armor! Its frickin’ cool!”

Cris (Vor’s player): “You don’t want that f@$#in’ armor. It’s probably evil anyway.”

The group began deciding whether to travel either to Ekit’s Watch or to Robber’s Roost. Robber’s Roost where they had really gotten under the craw of the Crossed-Staffs gang unintentionally (see Dragonslayers Pt.26) lay half a day even going at full speed on their mounts to the southwest. They had no news about or knowledge of the place since returning to Hirok-Nor. Ekit’s Watch lay almost half a day to the northwest and which housed the wizard which Bers, Vorwulf and Grom had bartered with over a year ago before they went on to slay Old Sawback (see Dragonslayers Pt. 26 & 31). Bers, as senior member, decided that they would go to Ekit’s Watch.

To Be Continued…

A Mage from Poisonwood Pt.5: Green Hell

We found ourselves at the foot of the hill atop which stood the green tower surrounded by a high green hedge maze. Covering the hillside in patches were hundreds of yellow, purple and blue lotus flowers. Tweena and Drogo easily made it to the top by prowling through the poison spraying flowers but the yellow lotus is valuable to me and I couldn’t resist snatched a bit of a flower before teleporting to the top. The flowers convulsed and hillside became wreathed in a fog of poison lotus pollen. We hurried to the entrance of the hedge maze. Drogo entered followed by Tweena but I waited at the entrance doubting the place was not trapped or creature haunted. The topiaries inside of the entrance by a fountain began to move and attack. I identified them as a pair of Bane Hedges, magical plant monsters one shaped like a cat the other a gryphon. We made quick work of the creatures but not before both I and Drogo were scratched suffering the distracting itch of the toxic sap. Dolus and Nami heard the fight and walked from a side path in the maze to us. They had found the maze when they had wandered away from our camp and became lost within it for a few days. Tweena took lead and we continued on deeper into the maze. Her sense of direction was impeccable and soon we were very near the green tower leading us into the courtyard at its foot. She spotted an assassin vine and shot it with her crossbow. More crept from the hedge walls and we soon realized that they were all part of a giant single plant. I destroyed two tentacles with my acid bolt and Drogo was able to find kill the central part of the plant. We rounded the corner to enter the tower courtyard proper and I could see that the tower appeared to not have been built but rather grown. The group came to a sudden halt with Tweena and Drogo spotting a pair of Bane Hedges and an animated statue which were moving from their positions at the front gates towards us. The battle lasted for a good while the statue taking me a while to wear down with acid as I was the only party member able to remotely deal damage to its stone body.

After the statue collapsed into sizzling rubble the polished bronze doors to the tower opened of their own accord and we entered cautiously. We entered a large room with a high ceiling and a grand staircase to the north leading to the next level. We could see a bridge spanning the space above us at least a few floors up. On either side of us were locked doors which appeared to have been mundane craft unlike the organic/alien architecture and design of the rest of the place. We searched through the tower taking our time. We found the rooms at the ground level were just storerooms and found our way to a circular hall which occupied the second floor and two more store rooms which led to a circular stairway leading up into the third floor where we found a lab, library and scrying room a millennia of dust was over everything. There was a chamber by the scrying room at the end of a walkway a large statue stood and thus we avoided it but Tweena attempted to pick the lock of the door next to it which we later found opened into the laboratory and failed. The statue immediately animated and attacked but battle was curtailed when the statue pursued us onto the narrow bridge and the other four were able to overwhelm it and knock it off the ledge causing it to crash into the bottom floor. The bridge spanned between the library and magic laboratory which were next to each other and the large scrying room. We followed the staircase by the scrying chamber which spiraled up onto a well-lit platform attached to a mezzanine on the fourth floor. Sunlight beamed into the tower from above the top of the tower seemed to naturally allow in narrow beams of yellow daylight as it appeared to be constructed of living vines and leaves twisting up to a spire point. We found a room filled with curbed planters where dozens of mature lotus flowers were blossoming with a large green one at the opposite end and opposite that room we found a cluster of four more chambers, living spaces. We proceeded to the large stair we found on the platform which led up to the top chamber. When we came to a stop I fumbled through my newly acquired gear just in case there might be something useful while the others spread out into the single huge fifth level chamber.

I had six scrolls containing the Neutralize Poison, Mind Shield, Control Plant, Commune with Nature, Animate Plant and Purification spells. Moneywise I had 1 gold talon and 2 rubies. I was also carrying an alchemist’s kit, 1 bottle of assassin’s vine wine, 4 jars of magic extracts which were taken from a Doom Blossom, Gas Root, Ghoul Hair and Dragonscale (all monstrous or lethal plant creatures) and a glass vial of lotus seeds. I had all of this in a newly acquired gunny sack which also was stuffed with an alchemy booklot lifted from the library. Figuring I was duly equipped and seeing the others hadn’t run into any danger (my curiosity about the mage-corpse was also to blame) I decided to teleport to the foot of the steps by the throne. The corpse on the throne had green shriveled skin. It was wearing a green dragon-hide robe with a gold necklace and large emerald around its neck under the green beard. Next to the throne in a planter and surrounded by a glass dome was a black death’s head lotus, possibly the most lethal creature known to the world. After scoping out the immediate area and careful not to get too near the throne I teleported back to snatch up Nami to see if she could shed some light on the corpse as she was after all, a necromancer. She was unable to approach, after much prodding on my part, the corpse as it appeared to be surrounded by a force field of some kind. Drogo was meanwhile checking the side 3-walled side chambers when he tripped and knocked into a bee’s hive. He was attacked by a swarm of angry bees and 6 giant bees. A Deathblossom (yet another monster flower) was close to where he was and began to fight as well. I assisted with a Mass Paralyze spell to neutralize the bee swarms and blasted a giant bee with acid. The fight was long but only Drogo in the end was badly hurt. We again began to snoop around and then Tweena in a chamber opposite the one where Drogo had been attacked was snatched up by a tentacle. We wound up fighting a Greenvise. The battle was short with Drogo scoring the deathblow. I returned to the throne as all threats within this room seemed to have been exorcised. I studied the circle about the throne which I noticed after a closer inspection for 2 hours while the others checked the circular chambers behind the throne. I was able to learn the spell used, Impenetrable Circle in that time. I then immediately tried to cast a counter-spell to lift the circle from the throne and its corpse without alerting the others but failed. I then realized the corpse was probably not actually dead and was being contained within the circle especially after Nami told me the guy wasn’t dead. Suddenly Drogo smashed the glass containing the death’s head lotus hoping I could harvest it.

The marble statues in the room which we already inspected and which I had identified as magic but which were not a danger at the time immediately animated and attacked. I faced down 1 of the things by myself using my acid to wear it slowly away the other 3 lured the second statue tot eh ledge by the stairs toppling it to the flood below. They called me over after I finished destroying the first statue and blasted the second while they assisted but we were only able to destroy it after it had gotten back up the stairs. After the battle we decided to retire sleeping in the throne room careful to keep our distance from the black lotus.

During the night I spent my watch learning the Control Plant spell eager to use it come morning. When dawn finally came I used my new spell on the Black Death’s Head Lotus forcing it to allow us to harvest some pollen and petals from it. We traveled back down to the library where we were going to spend another day as Drogo and Tweena were still somewhat hurt and needed more rest. The door was barricaded, Dolus set a noise trap and I took the opportunity to learn some more spells from my scrolls. I learned the Mind Shield, Animate Plant, Purification, Neutralize Poison, and Commune with Nature spells. While resting Nami played her pan pipes badly and Dolus drank down a bottle of assassin’s vine wine getting knocked unconscious by its narcotic effects. Not surprisingly we all heard heavy footsteps just outside of the library doors shortly thereafter.

In the morning I cast Neutralize Poison on myself as I was still suffering from the Bane Hedge venom. After a brief breakfast of stale trail rations we positioned ourselves ready for Tweena to open the doors as she detected something waiting outside of the door. It was a statue, the one they had pushed off of the bridge. The fight was brief as it was badly damaged with me dealing the final blow. We left the tower with Drogo leading us back to Farmers’ Keep after a few days.

I sequestered myself in my room while I used the alchemist’s kit to produce 1 acid arrow and 1 alchemist’s fire grenade while the others changed our haul for coin. After 3 days I gave the acid arrow to Drogo and the grenade to Dolus. That done I went to seek out the town’s resident alchemist whom I easily found. His name was Ebaik. I approached him with a proposition to use his lab with his assistance to formulate an antitoxin for the Death’s Head Lotus poison. He agreed in exchange for some of the antitoxin and a bit of the black lotus. As part of the deal he gave me an 11th level enchanted ring of breath without air that I could use upon my return to the green tower. Unfortunately while we were working in his lab he made a critical error and poisoned himself. Fortunately I was able to find an Arch-Cure potion in his shop which saved his life. I sat with him for a while and just before I left him at evening he told me that he was planning to leave for Rockhollow in order to replace the alchemist that had been there since he seems to have disappeared.

The next morning I met back up with the group. We decided to return to the tower so to clear out the two rooms we had missed. Traveling we were assailed by 2 Dragonscale Plants both of which I was able to seize control of and 4 Deathpods, from which I harvested their brain-nodes.

In the tower Drogo kicked down a door which Tweena had failed to open and had broken her lock picks on. As soon as it crashed to the ground 3 flying weapons shot out and attacked him with an animated stone statue following. We fought a good fight I of course took out the statue with the help of my pet Dragonscale plants and their strong entangling tentacles while the others took out the animated weapons. The room was empty otherwise. We spent the night in a storeroom off of the foyer on the ground floor with my Dragonscale plants on guard by the door.

In the morning we went to an unexplored room, one of the living rooms, at the fourth floor. After we entered the room after Tweena picked the lock on the door the two medium-sized statues in the room sprang to life. I teleported further in to the far side of the chamber to a small table and chair where a silver goblet sat, snatched it up and while the others battled I found and identified a teleport circle at the center of the room. There was a desk in an adjoining chamber which the ratling opened while inspecting the room with Tweena after the statue was dealt with. It was booby-trapped with a Black Death’s Head Lotus pollen trap which the ratling was able to escape but which poisoned the dungeoneer. I used my only dose of Death’s Head anti-toxin to prevent her death but she did not regain consciousness. After I did this I noticed a gold and ruby ring in the open drawer which I snatched up when no one was looking. Inside was a signet set, 50 silver, 500 copper, 100 platinum pieces, and 10 gold talons which was to be kept in the group funds until we could divide it.

We set up for the night in the chamber to let Tweena recover. During my watch I walked to the lotus chamber protected by my Breath Without Air enchanted ring to converse with the green lotus flower. Green lotuses are intelligent, possess telepathy and can control any other lotus flowers near them. It didn’t have much information other than it was waiting for its master to awake and as far as it knew he had been “sleeping” for the past few hundred years or so and would do so for several hundred to a thousand more. I took the opportunity to harvest some yellow, red and blue pollen from the flowers. We traveled back to town the following morning.

At the outskirts of Farmers’ Keep I released the Dragonscale plants from my power after harvesting some scales from then as spell components. Later in my chambers at the inn which I rented for the next 7-day we split the loot. I received 2 gold talons, 20 platinum pieces, 100 copper pieces, 10 silver pieces and I kept the goblet, the ring and the signet set. Nami rented a common room for herself and the rest of the team.

To Be Continued…

A Mage from Poisonwood Pt.4: Demon Hunt

The following day we found ourselves traveling being led by Drogo and battled through 2 raptors and 3 Deathpods before reaching the edge of Farmers Wood. We had been following tracks the ranger had happened upon in the place the guards said they had fought the demon. Drogo tracked them to the shore of lake where stood an aqueduct with the green tower behind us visible on top of a hill. It was late and we decided to camp at the edge of the forest where of course we were set upon by a Brownfang dragon. Drogo got the deathblow.

In the morning we found our new companions had wandered off into the trees and met an old fisherman who had walked by our camp on his way to the lake. He told us that the previous night a cow had been killed by the “demon” and pointed us in the direction of the violate field. On inspection of the corpse my demonological expertise told me that this was a fiend with a touch of shadow and most certainly not a full-fledged demon. With a sigh of relief I broke the news to my two companions and Drogo searched the area around the body to try to pick up a trail. He found one and was able to back track the prints to some old ruins in the woods after a couple of hours. The place was not distinct just some moss-covered piles of old bricks and shattered masonry with some overgrown old foundations here and there. The ranger found a cave the mouth of which was no more than a hole in the ground held open by the roots of an ancient tree next to an old foundation. Tweena climbed down using her rope, she was the only one carrying any, and had to make gymnastics roll to safely leap the remaining 20 ft distance after a 70 ft. climb straight down. I teleported down after Drogo made it to the bottom and lit a torch.

We were immediately set upon by a pair of giant centipedes. I slew both of the monsters and found that both of my companions had been paralyzed by the centipedes’ venom. I could do nothing but cast Illuminate in order to hopefully stave off any more giant vermin and concentrate for the next few hours to maintain it trying to wait out the effects of the poison. After about 3 hours both of my fellows were able to move the venom having worn off leaving them only slightly stiff. We proceeded south down a short passageway connecting the partially collapsed chamber that we dropped into to a larger room with angled corners. There were arched passageways to the south, east and west. The passage to the south was choked with spider webs and Drogo picked up on the “demon’s” tracks going down the eastern route. Tweena and Drogo decided it was a good idea to set the webs ablaze before following the demon tracks so Tweena went to light them with her torch that was when Drogo spotted a pair of giant spiders which we easily took care of after the webs went up in a blinding blaze of flames. After dealing with the monstrous arachnids our focus went back to the mission and we followed the tracks through the eastern archway.

Past a set of niches and the remnants of a pair of shattered statues the hallway terminated in an archway through which we could see a set of stone steps rising. At the archway a pair of old bronze doors lay knocked down long ago atop which lay a desiccated corpse. Tweena looted the corpse finding 50 ft of rope, a superior quality dagger, a high quality longsword, a battle axe, a waterskin, 5 days rations, 10 silver pieces in a rotting pouch, a crossbow with 10 bolts, a gold ring on a boney finger, 5 unused torches, and the corpse was wearing a suit of studded leather armor which was amazingly intact. We proceeded up the stairs after Tweena packed up the loot.

The stairs led up into an octagonal chamber with statue niches in the north, east and south walls occupied by demonic goat-headed and winged statues. The center of the room sank with steps leading down into it to a wellhead. On three sides of the pit on the floor above were sacrificial altars equipped with silver chains and suspended troughs leading from the altars with spouts hovering over the well presumably to let the blood drain into the well and to wherever that led. The trail led to the well and probably into it. Scribed into the curb of the wellhead was demonic script but I couldn’t decipher its meaning. Tweena was able to identify the well as an open portal to somewhere. The “demon” sprung at us from the well and after a short battle the ranger smote the fiend with his sword. He severed the head and we tossed the black rubbery corpse back into the well. I teleported back to the surface shortly after the fight with the length of rope taken from the corpse so I could pull Tweena’s rope back up and tie the corpse’s rope to the end before lowering back down so the other two could climb back up. We camped near the opening and kept a large campfire.

Come morning we attempted to travel back to Farmers’ Keep but Drogo got us lost until midday so we had to set camp at the Western Edge (of Farmers Wood). The night was anything but uneventful as on my watch, the first, a Carnivog (another killer plant creature) happened upon camp upon which I got the deathblow. On second watch, Tweena’s watch, an unnaturally large wild boar rushed into camp but got away and on third watch, Drogo’s watch, a pair of trolls attacked but we made short work of them mostly due to my acid bolt. Later the next morning we finally made it back to Farmers’ Keep.

The first order of business was to deliver the package; the fiend’s severed head, to Lord Phenox (Black Eagle’s brother as he was in dispose at the time) and the captain of the nobles’ guards took us to Haldred Jeanor, Black Eagle’s druid, to receive our reward of 1,000 gold pieces. My share was 333 gold pieces, 333 silver, and 333 coppers. We made our way back to the Merry Farmer. I bought food and spoke to the bartender, named Flek, about the Red-Daggers thieves’ guild and found out that the local guild was the Shadow-Hands who are enemies of said other guild after dropping him a gold piece. We sat in the tavern for most of the day with Drogo picking up the first round. It wasn’t until evening that Corfen, the captain of the town guard that promised us he’d buy rounds if we brought the “demon’s” head back, showed up at the tavern and declared to the drunks and soon-to-be that our money was “no-good here tonight!”

He had the barkeep bring out the “best” bottle of Hill-Lander whiskey in the place and we sat and drank with him. We found out in the course of the night that Lord Black Eagle had a bounty on each Red-Dagger head brought to him for assassinating his wife the previous year. Corfen and Drogo rented whores for the night and left for their rooms. Tweena departed for hers. I sat and bought more food as I was drinking light for once. Shortly after Tweena left and I was finishing my meal a squire sat down across from me. He introduced himself as an envoy of the Shadow Hands guild and told me the Ranknor had stolen an item from the Red-Daggers that they were supposed to deliver to Blackgut the troll. Needless to say Ranknor now had a 1,000 gp price on his head if delivered to the Red-Daggers. The squire, a disguise btw, was named Keenor. He said that Flek the barkeep would know how to get a hold of him (Keenor) should I need to contact him for any reason. Later I went to my room. We stayed in town for 3 days before deciding to begin anew our quest for the green tower especially since now we knew exactly where it was.

To Be Continued…

The Dragonslayers II Pt. 4: The Day the Music Died

Jesae the bard (played by Rhiea) awoke in a haze and realized after a few moments that he was in a southern nomad caravan with a naked Stranis next to him sans most of his stuff (Rhiea lost her character’s inventory list). He only had the Ring of Invisibility, a few coins and his lute still on his person. He quietly vacated the wagon before Stranis could wake up and high tailed it back towards the tavern. He stumbled through the gates as the gypsy camp was located outside of the city ramparts. As he reached the neighborhood of the Hopping Rat Tavern he was surrounded in the muddy street by four well-armed thugs all with a black ‘X’ tattooed on their throats. They demanded everything on him commenting on his ring. He attempted to talk his way out of it but as he realized that they had no intention of just letting him go he activated the ring and escaped while the mooks were still reeling with surprise shortly reaching the tavern.

Jesae rejoined the group while they were preparing to move out towards Hirok to reclaim their treasure trolls be damned. While he waited the bard pined after his lady love and began to compose songs to her. Bers after a little while realized the bard might be under magical influences (he was, see last entry) as the situation was comparable to that of Dead-Eye when he was affected by the snow-maiden’s power (see The Dragonslayers Pt.18). Grom, the shaman, used Mystic Diagnosis to confirm it and the group searched their potion stores and came up with nothing that could lift the spell.

Rhiea: “Aww, f@%k me, f#$k me! Well, are there any of that guild, what’s it called, Whitestars in this town? No? F#$k me!”

After a while Vorwulf the ranger/dragonslayer decided to check to see if the coast was clear before they exited the tavern and spotted a familiar ratling spying on them atop a nearby roof. The creature ducked out of sight immediately as it realized it had been spotted. Vorwulf also could see, easily, that there were at least four Crossed-Staffs thugs waiting in the alleys across the street probably in ambush.

Vorwulf: “Tell Bloodspear we’re ready when he is!” The thugs immediately started mustering in the street.

Isis (Kyr’s player): “Woo-hoo!”

After several minutes 8 thugs led by Arvor Bloodspear were in the street ready to fight. Four of them were wearing leather scale armor with a warbelt and bronze bracers. The other four had on leather lamellar and had yellow actons over that with steel bracers on their forearms. All but Arvor Bloodspear were armed with iron-staffs. Arvor was armed with a fighting spear and was wearing a wooden chestplate under his yellow acton with steel bracers on his wrists. All had most of their faces hidden under yellow bandannas.

Gil (Grom’s player): “Man. Why do all these weak guys gotta fight us all the time.”

My Answer: “Street Cred.” (see The Dragonslayers Pt. 27)

Vorwulf drew his paired cutlasses and charged Bloodspear himself. The fight was lively with the shaman hitting a few of the thugs with lightning, two of the wounded pole-fighters finally being killed by the cone of force emitted by Kyr’s magic armor when its hit, a thug being burned to death by Grom’s throwing fire at him, and Vorwulf and Kyr getting tripped in battle. Only Bloodspear and 1 other thug survived into the second round both being basically chopped in half by Bers. Jesae even got a shot in at Arvor with a Forceball emitted from his magic bow, the one with a large emerald in it, given to him from the group’s armory. The battle ended and ended on a high note as none of the adventurers were remotely injured. They looted the bodies, or the remnants thereof and collected a few platinum pieces, gold bits (pieces of a gold coin often worth an eighth of gold coin each) and a lot of fliks (zinc coins minted by Fertums in order to keep economic control over the local area, often only good at the Fertum that minted them). Kyr and Jesae split the platinum pieces. The fliks and gold bits went into the empty strongbox behind the bar. Vorwulf smoothed things over with the angry shop owners whose buildings were damaged in the fight paying them off with 1 platinum piece each. After Vorwulf hung Bloodspear’s fighting spear on the oven the adventurers whipped out their map of Hirok-Nor and began planning out the route for the excursion in earnest. Jesae went back to talk to Stranis while they did this and while in her presence he wound up giving her all of the coins he had just gained. Strinis’ parting words to him were, “now go make some more money for our family.”

By noon they were heading out on horses sans servants or protégés who were left behind to watch the tavern and wagons. Just before they trotted through the gates Canohk the bard ran up to them hailing them to stop. He avoided eye contact with Bers and was brushed off by Vorwulf who said that they already hired a bard. Dejected Canohk frowned at Jesae who made faces at him as they exited the city gates.

By early evening the group had made it a few miles into the forest and was preparing to find a campsite until Vorwulf sighted a full unit of Hill-Landers patrolling the woods. He realized that they almost ran headlong into the mercenaries as the company of warriors was only 30 ft. away mostly hidden by the trunks of trees. The mercenary unit bore the standard which the slayers had seen before, a split field of blue and red with a spiked club over a cracked yellow skull. It consisted of 5 human warriors showing traces of faunic blood, 5 faunic warriors, a single Hill-Giant being led by a commander baring the traces of both a faunic and Hill-Giant heritage. The fight was very brief only lasting a single round and ending before all of the mercs even got their first turns. Almost all of them including the giant were transformed into chickens by Grom, a single unfortunate human warrior was cut down by Bers splattering Kyr with blood and gore and the remaining 5 fauns ran away into the woods heading east, the same direction in which the adventurers were traveling. Grom collected 3 of the chickens intending to make dinner of them.

They looted the lone corpse and went through the gear that the victims of Grom’s magic had left behind. A little while later they had settled down in a well-hidden campsite which Vorwulf had searched out and took turns at watch. The night was uneventful on two of the three watches but on the second watch, Kyr’s watch, she caught sight of a man-sized raven flying overhead through the trees. She thought she could hear a faint screaming as it passed then a silk slipper dropped from above to the ground. She woke the group and climbed a tree sighting that the over-sized raven had flown in the direction of a tower from which she could see lights in the distance almost directly north of them. Vorwulf and Grom figured it was Ekit’s Watch where there was a wizard which they had dealt with once before. They shrugged their shoulders and went back to sleep.

The next day at late morning the group while nearing the southernmost slopes of Hirok sighted 12 ft. tall trolls in full plate armor waiting behind a copse of trees possibly in ambush about 50 ft away through the trees. All of the trolls had great helms on their heads and were bearing giant-sized serpentine bladed great swords. Kyr dismounted in preparation to fight and the lead troll charged rushing through splintering trees directly at the still mounted Jesae. The troll struck him with a natural 20 slashing the little bard and his mount in two.

Rheia: “F*@k me! I got f#$king disemboweled! F*@k me!”

Vorwulf dismounted and Bers deactivated her Ring of Phantom Mount, the phantasmal horse under her disappearing landing her on her feet. Grom called down lightning onto 3 of the trolls dealing some damage. A second troll charged the shaman who parried its powerful blow getting locked into a clinch his magic steel buckler versus its crooked blade. A third troll charged Bers and struck her with a massive blow of natural 20 she dropped almost dead (by 1 pt.) to the ground bleeding everywhere.

Jenn: “Nooooooooo!”

Grom let go of his buckler which was thrown away by the troll’s blade and he used a magic ability on his mithral helm to cast Heal on Bers healing her wounds (save for 5 Hit Points). Vorwulf got struck with a critical blow and was hideously wounded but was able to active his Boots of Fleet of Foot.

Cris: “I’m gonna f#^k these guys up!”

Kyr was forced into a recovery check to reduce the damage and the shaman quickened a healing spell to help her. The shaman when parrying another sword blow used his battle magic (a magic feat) to try to transform the trolls into chickens but the monsters’ armor began to glow seemingly protecting them completely from the spell. The rest of the round was spent avoiding blows or taking a fair amount of damage while Vorwulf danced around the trolls unleashing a rain of paired weapons blows and power attacks dropping two of the trolls. The second round began with Kyr striking out with a power attack facing off with one of the trolls in single combat. The shaman cast Mass Bull’s Strength reinforcing all of the adventurers and by the end of the first turn Bers leapt back to her feet. Kyr went into a berserker rage and Bers dropped 1 of the remaining trolls. The last which Kyr was engaged with in battle was killed by Vorwulf which had to flee with a blindly raging Kyrahma on his heels. Fortunately the duration of Kyr’s rage expired at the exact same time as the duration of Vorwulf’s boots.

The remains of the trolls were scattered about and the armor unrecoverable as it had been torn to scrap when hacked-open by the adventurers on the deathblows when the sun turned the flesh of the trolls into stone. The group of dragon-slayers surveyed the scene and gathered up the remains of the bard and his gear and buried him near a tree on which they carved his epitaph.

Vorwulf: “We’re gonna have to deliver the bad news to our bar-wench when we get back.”

To Be Continued…

Map of Hirok-Nor the slayers purchased a while ago.
Map of Hirok-Nor the slayers purchased a while ago.

The Dragonslayers II Pt. 3: The Hopping Rat

By late midday the gates were back up and functional so Vorwulf took a break to go check on something he had arranged for the last time the team was in Merdna. He had paid the Dracorian Brothers (3 Hill-Lander brothers who ran the opposition gang to the Crossed-Staffs in the city) to rebuild the old Blackwing safe-house which had been burned down presumably by the agents of Sawback the dragon. Finding it barely half finished he stormed to the Hopping Rat Tavern, the tavern owned and operated by the Dracorians. There he found the tavern packed to capacity with a morose collection of locals and the eldest Dracorian out front readying a full wagon to depart. He told Vorwulf that they were unable to finish the guild-house due to the onset of the trolls and went on to warn the dragon-slayer that the splinter groups of the broken Crossed-Staff gang will be after them especially him and Bers in order to gain some ‘street cred’. He described the dominant group as being led by a Moorvyr Spearbearer named Arvor Bloodspear. He also told him about a group of ratling adventurers, tat-eyes that were trying to dominate the criminal underground of the whole area as of late as well. As for himself the Dracorian said that he was traveling south while he could to join his brothers in Skullhead far to the south off of the West Trade Road. Vorwulf asked about the tavern and the Hill-Lander gangster offered to sell it cheap waving the deed before him since he was going to ‘gamble it away anyhow’.

After securing the deed for 4 gold talons (gtals) Vorwulf returned to the gate just in time to see 20 warriors in snakeskin warbelts and covered in dirty oiled-hide capes march up lead by a tough looking commander. They were apparently unarmored, had daggers on their belts and armed with axes and unpainted wood shields. The leader announced himself as Gafar and offered himself and his men as sell-swords. A chance breeze moved aside Gafar’s cloak exposing the tattoo on his chest of a coiled green serpent to Vorwulf’s keen eyes.

Vorwulf: “Berserkers! S*!#.” He sighed. “Let ‘em in!”

Vorwulf and the rest of the group invited the berserkers to the Hopping Rat so they could sit and negotiate a price. It didn’t take long and the price of 4 gtals was settled on to keep them in town. A few hours later the slayers and berserkers occupied the tavern along with a few locals. Kyr engaged Gafar in a drinking contest and was surprised as the tavern-keeper Ebor pulled several ‘special’ tankards from behind the bar which were essentially casks with handles. She lost after about an hour of drinking and passed out onto the floor. Gafar strode through the doors with a hardy laugh his men stumbled after. Shortly after a gaggle of ratlings, adventurers by the appearance their expensive and probably magical gear entered the saloon. They were followed by 1 human with strangely rodent-like features and a 5 ft tall ratling whom ordered his drink with a Tanglenese accent. The group noted that each including the human had a tattoo around the left eye.

Vorwulf sat behind the bar drinking from his magic gold chalice careful to monitor the situation. Grom, the shaman, saw that one of the ratlings was also a shaman and decided to talk to his ‘brother’. He tapped the little creature’s shoulder and engaged him in conversation initially courting a good reaction. Bers, drunk, decided to see if she could ‘get her some’ and approached the human adventurer trying to flirt with him. She failed and growing bored she poured a Purification potion down Kyr’s throat which instantly revived her. Vorwulf’s attention was directed back to the doors when a cloaked faun appeared. He was dressed in a green cloak with silver fringing fastened by a silver acorn brooch. He introduced himself as Bard Canohk Sharptongue as he approached Vorwulf and offered his services as chronicler to this branch of the Blackwings. He was told they already had a bard, Jesae btw was sleeping in the wagon in which he had ducked during the earlier battle, but he could ply his trade in the tavern. His skills with his flute, polished redwood panpipes with mother-of-pearl inlay, were impressive. Bers attracted by the sweet music walked over and flirted.

Grom somehow offended the ratling shaman (a roll of a Natural 1 on his Social Aptitude skill) and got a tankard of ale poured out at his feet leading his companions from the tavern. A short while later Vorwulf ‘kicked out the drunks’ and began to shut the place up with the assistance of the bar-wench Stranez the Beautiful, a human with faun and naga bloodlines. Before the doors were bolted for the night Bers left with Canohk to his wagon where she intending to “get some info” had fallen victim to his charms.

The next morning, the Shaman took over cooking duties while Vorwulf set his protégé Drasknor to cleaning the place especially clearing a pile of shattered stools and tables in a far corner. Vorwulf disbanded the surviving teamsters paying each 1 platinum talon. He then took down the Hopping Rat’s slate and gave the bartender, Ebor, all of the ale and booze he could cart off on a wheelbarrow to sell down the street. Vorwulf paid Ebor and Stranez 1 gold talon apiece telling them that their services were ‘no longer required’. He then set up a sign in front of the place notifying the public that the tavern was ‘closed permanently’. Stranez offered additional services and was sure the new guild could find a place for her ‘talents’ so Vorwulf let her stay on the payroll. Vorwulf then found the pigeon keeper of the town and paid him to send a pigeon to Chago with a message written for the Black Wings guild.

While Vorwulf was away and while he was finishing up the preparation of breakfast Grom had a sudden vision. He saw three familiar chests, the ones he, Bers and Vor had buried at Hirok, being dug up by trolls and saw visions of creatures that appeared as half-dragon half-troll. The heraldry of Trollguard and the Hill-Landers mercenaries danced in his head when magic devices called the Gate Stones were revealed to him apparently in the possession of the trolls (Gil rolled a Natural 20 on the vision).

Cris: “That’s how they’re gonna get the treasure out of there!”

The Group decided they needed to get to Hirok as soon as possible. Vorwulf pulled out the map of Hirok-Nor he carried and both he and the shaman poured over it trying to figure out where the forces of Trollguard might have an encampment. The wagons were being loaded by Drasknor and Bers began itemizing their supplies and equipment. Kyr stood by the tavern door. She noticed a young berserker with a shaved head and naked save for a loincloth tucked under a snakeskin warbelt and the gold emerald eyed serpent bracelet on his right wrist. He demanded she get out of the way but she refused telling the place was closed. He became somewhat angry. Drasknor noticed this and alerted Vorwulf to the situation. Vorwulf walked up to the berserker and told him the place was closed but there was a job for him and his ‘buddies’ and the ‘pay would be excellent’. He finished by tossing him a platinum piece which dropped into the street. The berserker scowled at the both of them, Vor and Kyr, and stomped off growling.

A few minutes after that Vorwulf tossed Jesae the bard a Ring of Invisibility from the group gear. When the dragon-slayer turned back to help Bers with the equipment a couple of well-equipped street thugs walked up to Jesae while he was admiring his new ring. The black ‘X’ on each of their throat evident.

Lead Thug: “Nice ring.”

Luckily the bard pointed out the group he was following which was at arm’s length and the pair of gangsters quickly trotted away. After they were finished with the wagons the group went back inside and locked the tavern up tight. They began looking again at the map but then thinking about the plague, the shaman brought it up, so they decided to try to find a living victim of it in order to see if it had any connection to what was going on in the region. Stranis was able to tell them where they might find one, at the charnel house on a low hill by the lake shore. The people of Merdna were laying their sick among the dead in an effort to keep the disease from spreading. Vorwulf, Grom and Kyr were going to check out the charnel house while Bers and Jesae were going to sit about the tavern and drink the remaining ale.

While the trio was leaving the tavern Vorwulf caught sight of a ratling spy whom disappeared with blinding speed when he noticed he had been spotted. Heedless of their being watched they continued to the lake and the charnel house. Drasknor went into the back to take account of what was left in the stores as well as to ‘straighten up the place’. Stranis dismissed herself to wash the dishes for which she had to get a bucket of water from the public well. Jesae followed her on her way out catching up with her in the courtyard where he accidentally seduced her (an attempt to massage some info from her but she rolled a Natural 1 versus the charm check) and wound up with her rolling in the hay of the tavern stables.

Jesae was privy to Stranis’ tattoo which was a slithering black snake with a black star above it on her well-shaped thigh. Later on Stranis would tell the bard that her family name was Ressha and that her tattoo was her family’s “mark”.

Meanwhile the others were reaching the boardwalk which ran along the lakeshore and fishing piers. They could see the hill and the miserable wood building atop it. They had several narrow alleys along one side and the lake waters and small piers on the other. Kyr caught sight of the young berserker that had previously tried to enter the closed tavern with a young boy in one of the narrow alleys. He had the boy by the neck and was apparently squeezing. At the same time both Vorwulf and Grom could see the ratling following them by leaping from roof to roof and a gang of three Crossed-Staffs gang members possibly lying in wait.

Vorwulf (calling out the thugs): “Show yerselves we know you’re there!”

The three thugs stepped onto the boardwalk. Two of them were dressed in leather scale armor with warbelts, bronze bracers on their forearms and armed with iron staffs. They were being led by another who was wearing a yellow Acton over his leather lamellar armor and steel bracers on his arms. He was armed with an iron staff as well but seemed to have more skill than the other two even though he appeared to be less experienced. The black cross tattoos on their necks made it clear that they were crossed-staff gang members looking for revenge.

Grom the shaman: “You guys looking for trouble?”

The thugs charged and Vorwulf was tripped but was able to dodge an opportunistic staff strike leaping onto his feat using his acrobatic skills while Grom attempted to Call Lightning but failed. Grom was able to parry and avoid all staff blows leveled at him. Kyr was nowhere to be seen. Grom was able to back up quickly and let loose with a Primal Scream spell hurting all three thugs somewhat but also causing them to flee in panic. Vorwulf shot the yellow acton in the back wounding him knowing full well that in Westlander warrior culture that shooting a fighter was a deadly insult much more so if in the back.

Cris: “Hell yeah I know it is!”

Gil: “It is?”

Cris: “Hell yeah!”

They heard a scuffle coming from an alleyway further back and found Kyr fighting with the young berserk next to the body of a young boy. Kyr was winning and had hit her foe twice with her sword with the Coiled Serpent Berserk trying to snatch it out of her hands. The shaman and dragon-slayer just stood by watching the brawl as “some crazy berserker honor s%*t was going down”. The young berserk went into a rage foam flecking his lips and was able to snatch and toss away Kyr’s sword and knocked her to the ground on a tackle. The fight went on for two more rounds both warriors gone berserk taking turns reversing their position from under to atop each other and pummeling each other’s faces to bloody messes in the alley-mud. On the third round the shaman foolishly tried to cast a spell on Kyr but fortunately the spell failed and he didn’t extend his hands to touch her. Vorwulf warned him away from the struggling, bleeding pair. The young berserk tried to tear out her throat with his sharpened teeth and the fight turned in her favor. She power punched him in the face spattering his nose everywhere. Four half-naked berserkers walked up with wide sharp-toothed grins on their faces and green coiled serpent tats on their chests. The smiles instantly disappeared when they saw that the shaman was a bit close to the fight. Grom immediately walked towards them attempting to get between them and the fight but they were simply interested in watching the fight and began to cheer their man on.

Vorwulf: “I’ve got 5 gold pieces on the Ferenoi!”

The berserkers took that action. The next and fourth round of the fight was the end with the berserker being beaten unconscious and nearly to death. Barely breathing he was lifted up and taken by his coven brothers while Kyr’s rage ended with the fight and she shot up with a final burst of energy and snatched the berserker’s gold serpent bracelet from his wrist.

Kyr: “This is my trophy!”

The berserkers tossed Vorwulf 20 gp as they walked away. The shaman checked out the young boy and was able to heal him back up though he was very near death. Apparently the name of the berserker was Andracor the Wolf’s Jaw and he had snatched the clothes off of his sister in the streets so he in an attempt to defend her kicked him between the legs and ran off with the angry berserker hot on his heels. Satisfied with that explanation they walked on to the charnel house. Vorwulf and the bruised, muddy and bloody Kyr stayed outside by the door. The shaman cast a protective spell on himself and walked inside finding a few moaning victims of the plague. Using Mystic Diagnosis he was able to find out that the plague was supernatural created by the Plague Carrier spell and it was tinged with a significant amount of negative energy. He was able to cure the sufferers and after emerging with the restored townsfolk he relayed this vital information to his companions.

Back at the tavern Bers was sitting by herself in an empty and dark tavern drinking and by now quite drunk when the door was smashed in and in the doorway stood 3 fighters. The first entered and declared himself to be Arvor Bloodpsear speaking with a heavy accent unknown to her. He was armed with a superior quality fighting spear (the head has barbs on the sides enabling it to hook opponents), a bowie knife on his belt and wearing a yellow Acton over his wood plate armor and steel bracers on his wrists. The other two were wearing similar armor but were armed with iron staffs. All had black ‘X’ tattoos across their throats.

Arvor Bloodspear: “I am here to take revenge for the 3 brothers…” He noticed the empty tavern but recognized Bers.

Bers simply invited them to drink with her and clumsily tried to ‘seduce’ them. Not knowing exactly what they were going to do the three simply backed out saying that they would be back (they rolled a neutral result on their reaction roll). For some reason Bers thought they had said they wanted to duel them the next evening but fortunately when Drasknor rushed into the room from the cellar he couldn’t understand Bers’ drunken babble. The bard cautiously walked back in fifteen minutes after he heard the crash finding all okay save for the smashed door. Drasknor lit the place and started the oven fire. The bard sat with Bers and Stranis set a fresh tankard of ale out just for Jesae who mindlessly began drinking it while conversing with a barely coherent Bers.

Rhiea: “Awwww. F*@k you! Really!?” She failed her saving throw versus the love potion that the barmaid had slipped her character, Jesae.

Hopping Rat Tavern

 

By the time the others returned it was dark and the tavern was alive with a gaggle of drunks who had wandered into the street, the barkeep was

 

 

again behind the bar selling ale and Jesae was singing the best song they ever heard him sing to his love Stranis whose eyes he was intently staring into. They shrugged their shoulders and sat down to get drunk.

To Be Continued…

 

A Mage from Poisonwood Pt.3: The Merry Farmer

By late morning Tweena and the two former captives entered the tavern and met with us. The ratling was a thief named Dolus and the she-faun was a necromancer named Nami. We decided to split up as the others decided to get things done in town and I after asking the tavern-keeper for directions wanted to seek out the local alchemist. I picked up some rumors later at the alchemist’s shop whose name was Fek Blue-Leaf about a long dead hedge-wizard and a green tower far to the northeast of town. I met back up with them at the tavern and presented the idea of pursuing this tower thing.

The next day Drogo guided us in the direction of the fabled tower avoiding the road staying within the shelter of the woods. We ran into 3 lions while traveling with Drogo taking 1 down with 3 arrows and me paralyzing the other two. Drogo reluctantly killed the paralyzed animals with his dagger and went to skinning them so that their deaths would ‘mean something’. We set up camp to him to do this but he messed up on two of the beasts ruining the hides. Nami successfully pulled the hide from the last. During camp during third watch Nami and Dolus spotted a pair of trolls sneaking up on the campsite and alerted us. I paralyzed both and we burned them to ashes in the fire before they regained the ability to move a muscle. We set out again on our quest at dawn stopping by a creek by late morning to allow Tweena and Drogo to fill their water-skins. We were ambushed by a Carnivog (a large man-eating walking plant creature) which we dealt with fairly quickly. By evening we came to a large obviously dangerous plant, a Greenvise which I identified, and were stopped for a short while. The ranger took a pot shot at the giant venus-flytrap-like bulb of the creature finding his arrows useless and I knew that my acid bolt was useless against it. We decided to try to find a way around it trying to give it a wide berth. The ranger couldn’t find us a way around it so Tweena took over for a while and lucked onto a game trail around the monster. At dusk we set camp in a clearing.

Later the next day we came to a hemp field, farmlands we expected to find, and talked to the farmers getting better directions to the green tower. We were also told about Farmers’ Keep a nearby village which these farmlands surrounded. We decided to make a bee-line north towards a group of hills where the green tower was supposed to lie. Before we exited the fields a grayling (a light weight dragon) swooped from the sky and snatched up a cow. We huffed it to the tree-line where we ran directly into a Deathpod (another ambulatory killer plant-creature). My acid bolt made quick work of the creature. By evening we wandered into a field of purple lotus with Drogo and Delus falling victim to the paralyzing pollen of the flowers. Those of us who were still able backed off and I killed 3 of the plans with my acid bolt and Tweena lassoed the ratling before killing two more with her crossbow. We put some distance between us and the dangerous purple blossoms finding a campsite where we could wait out the 24 hour duration of the toxin that had affected out companions. During the night a bear had wandered into camp and stole the ranger’s rations before licking Nami’s face before it wandered back off into the forest. The next day we spotted the grayling from the day before circling the camp in the air. Nami panicked and climbed a tree while I and Tweena dragged the paralyzed pair to the cover of some bushes. It eventually flew off and by midday the ranger and thief were again able to move though they were still significantly impaired with very stiff muscles. We decided to make our way to Farmers’ Keep instead to allow our companions to fully recover. We were somewhat lost until we ran into a tree-cutter whom set us back on the right path and warned us about the red-daggers in the area who were rumored to be “planning something big” even though they were pretty much suppressed by the local lord.

Battle-weary we entered town just before nightfall entering under the shadow of a rebuilt keep flying the banners of Lord Black-Eagle (a black eagle against a crimson field). I rented a private room at the inn for myself while the others paid for a common room. We all congregated in the taproom of the Merry Farmer Tavern for the next 5 days while our two stiff companions recuperated. Realizing we needed money Tweena tried to find some craft work but found that most of the farmers and the craftsmen were away in Rockhollow for the summer festival which was taking place for the next fortnight.  I gathered some more info on the green tower which was rumored to have been a hedgemage’s tower and possibly dated back several hundred years to the Era of the Mad Mages and was surrounded by a hedge maze rife with various types of lotus flowers.

On the evening of the fifth day a troop of warriors and knights burst into the taproom bearing the brand of Farmers’ Keep and Lord Black Eagle. They took up board and began toasting their fallen comrade. Of course we conversed with their captain whom introduced himself as Corfen and found that they were hunting a black-skinned “demon” with red eyes and that sucked blood from those it had slain which was prowling the Farmers Wood. There was a 1,000 gold piece bounty for the monster’s head put out by Lord Black Eagle. Corfen promised us that he would by rounds for those of us who returned with the head. So we decided to curtail our quest for the green tower to pursue this lead and get paid.

To Be Continued…