A Mage from Poisonwood II Pt.3: The Battle Rages On…

The battle before Blackgut’s lair continued on. The whip wielding slave-master troll attempted to disarm Vorox’s axe and a troll that had charged across the creek went after Tweena preventing her from covering the field and us with her arrows. A fourth bestial type troll lurched at me with a double-claw strike but missed when I dodged teleporting to the large double door of the lair 30 ft. away. Vorox took a defensive stance as he traded blows with Blackgut as the troll had wounded him fairly badly but Greyshadow, his dragonsaurus, bit into the troll and rent the monster with his jaws. Unfortunately this caused Vorox to be thrown from the saddle. I attempted to cast Phantom Flames but failed. A bestial troll, the slave-master and Blackgut continued to engage Vorox whom was barely able to stave off their attacks with his tower shield. The troll that was after me continued to close as I tried to gather myself and get that spell out. That was when I noticed a scruffy black-haired ratling next to me who stabbed me in the back with a poisoned dagger. I teleported away from him preventing me from casting my spell and Vorox narrowly avoided a power attack from Blackgut’s massive flail while he jumped back into the saddle.

Vorox, Greyshadow, Blackgut and the slave-master dusted it up with Vorox scoring a massive blow against the boss troll. I spotted Tweena running towards the bridge drinking a potion as she was badly wounded. A large black arrow flew out of nowhere and pegged Vorox in the side. The black ratling nailed me again with his dagger and I teleported 10 ft. from his other side. The small cadre of slaves that had been slowly creeping forward towards my position suddenly attacked the shadow-ribbon bound shaman bashing him to death with rocks. In the central fight Greyshadow the dragonsaurus got a large chunk ripped out of him by a bestial troll and then again as another bestial fell upon him. I was finally able to get my phantom flames spell off but it had little to no effect on any of the trolls. Vorox and Greyshadow were ripping into Blackgut and I lost sight of the black ratling. The troll near me went on the attack and I was able to stop his claws with a shadow ribbons spell and then teleported away to another point on the battle field and acid-bolted one of the bestials attacking Vorox. At the same moment Vorox was disarmed by the slave-master troll’s whip. Greyshadow ran away from the center of the battle and the monster rider (Vorox) snatched up his axe as he rode by. Since I was left vulnerable a bestial troll that had been attacking Vorox tried to get at me but I got him first with shadow ribbons and then Blackgut nearly crushed me with a blow from his heavy flail forcing me to teleport and slam down the Arch-cure potion I was carrying.

I was behind the large wood pile still near the center of the battlefield and was able to see that the troll that had been harassing Tweena through the battle had chased her across the bridge, she turned and put an arrow in him. Vorox and Greyshadow had reared back around to the center of the battle where the slave-master was cracking a whip at him. Seeing that the coast was clear I stepped from behind the pile and cast phantom flame once again hoping to end the battle in spectacular fashion. The purple flames caught the slave-master and a bestial, the bestial dropped then Vorox charged in and dropped the badly wounded slave-master with a chop from his axe. I dodged a large black arrow by teleporting to the opposite side of the wood pile. Blackgut shouted out, “Where’s my PRIZE! No prize, no fight!” The troll-boss turned and began to move towards the lair doors.

Tweena was busy outrunning and shooting at the troll pursuing her and Vorox was fighting a bestial so I cast Stone Sphere dropping a gigantic boulder in front of and against the lair double-doors crushing a bestial troll at the same time. Vorox dropped the bestial. Blackgut shouted out, “Why is there a giant rock in my front DOOR!” He then turned and used his flail in a sweep attack against the monster rider and dragonsaurus leaving Vorox gasping, trying to keep himself conscious. The troll that had been chasing Tweena dropped his disgusting body bristling with arrows. She lit a torch with the intention of burning the corpse, I teleported next to her. A large black arrow shattered on Vorox’s shield. Blackgut went after the monster rider in earnest and I readied myself for any incoming. Suddenly Blackgut, who had the upper hand in his fight with Vorox, screamed and snatched something invisible off of his shoulders, it became visible as it landed won its feet with flop on the ground, a red-faced ratling. The ratling was bearing the symbol of the Red Daggers on his doublet with the glittering emerald necklace that had adorned Blackgut’s flabby neck in his sharp-nailed hands.

Vorox shouted out pointing at a clump of brush at the extreme north-east of the battle field on the slope where we could all see a troll-archer fumbling with a large black arrow and his black bow, the string had broken. Seeing how injured I was Tweena grabbed my head and poured a healing potion down my throat. A crossbow bolt shattered on Vorox’s shield shot from a large rock near the creek at the far south-west end of the battlefield to where the red-faced ratling was fleeing, I teleported to the rocks and cast Mass Paralyze freezing a pair crossbowmen where they squatted by the creek both also bearing the arms of the Red-Daggers. Blackgut roaring charged after the ratling and Vorox hacked at the troll but missed nearly losing his weapon. The ratling dove into water and the troll slave-master stood back up still badly wounded but regenerating fast. I cast a lightning bolt at the ratling in the water but he incredibly was able to avoid the electricity entirely! Vorox charged Blackgut on his mount. The boss-troll roared and missed the monster rider with a powerful swing of his weapon. The slave-master resumed his whip attacks against Vorox and Greyshadow sank his teeth into Blackgut badly wounding the giant armored troll. I shot another lightning bolt at the ratling energizing the general area of water where I thought he might be as he was completely submerged. I saw an outline of the little beast in the crackling flash of light but since no corpse floated to the surface so I had to assume that he had escaped me. Damn, I really wanted that necklace.

 

To Be Continued…

A Mage from Poisonwood II Pt.2: Duel at Blackgut’s Lair

With myself and Vorox reduced to rabbits Tweena the dungeoneer leapt into action. She snatched me up somersaulted through the Otkid savages and leapt into the dragonsaurus’ saddle. The creature bolted from the battle leaving our assailants in the mud soon enough we arrived at our destination the smoking ruins of the town of Blackwood. As Tweena guided the Greyshadow, the dragonsaurus, into town the town druid, Ebol Blackleaf stepped into our path turning us back and taking us to his dwelling, an ancient hollowed tree where he restored me and Vorox.

As he told it the half-giant marshal was dead, his skull posted on a spear under Blackgut’s flag (bearing a black skull on a red field) in what used to be the center of town. The Broken Branch tavern had been burned to the ground. During the siege the town had sent out messengers but none had gotten through the battle lines. Blackgut had captured a number of able-bodied men for slaves and currently demands a “tax” from all who would occupy the Black Wood. He put us for the night, I doesed myself with some Yellow Lotus, for a sleep aid.

We ate a vegetarian breakfast served by the druid and the other pair went into the ruins of the town to find use the blacksmith’s forge to repair their damaged armor. I tried to scry on Blackgut again but something was blocking my magic. After they returned in the late afternoon Blackleaf pointed out the hidden path to the troll’s lair. After about an hour we were cresting the ravine and neared the bridge above his lair (see A Mage from Poisonwood Pt.2) when a group of black-bellied Otkids leapt from the bushes and charged us.

We recognized the savages as those that had defeated us just a day before. The big guy with the wolfteeth club met Vorox and Greyshadow in battle and I managed to paralyze all of the Otkid warriors along with the big guy. Vorox spotted the Otkid shaman flying off on a pair of feathered wings. I and Vorox slaughtered the goat-men and looted the corpses. I stowed 3 high quality titanium troll-make kriss-daggers in my robes. We easily made it to the bottom of the ravine to the banks of the creek where more Otkid tribesmen exploded from the bush and attacked.

I narrowly teleported in time to dodge a blow from one of the savage’s clubs while Vorox engaged the rest all the while the face on his troll-make shield was demanding that he “slay all of these creatures.” I ended the battle by paralyzing them all. I stowed away 4 more troll-make daggers while Vorox chopped necks with his axe. We made our way slowly towards the lair along the opposite bank of the creek and soon were able to hear the dinging of hammers at a forge. When we broke the bush we saw that across the short wood bridge around the lair doors was an unfinished stone wall being tended to be whipped slaves.

There a few trolls, most of the wild animalistic variety, and a single large troll with a ratling, which appeared to be partially converted into a troll-wife, attached to his collar by a chain. We worked our way to the wood ford and saw the gates to the lair open revealing Blackgut and the black-bellied Otkid shaman. Vorox suddenly charge on his dragonsaur across the creek over the bridge while shouting a personal challenge to Blackgut. His troll-shield had obviously gotten the better of him.

Under the influence of the shield he waited as Blackgut readied his gear as he had laughingly agreed to the challenge. A slave was given the troll-shield to hold during the duel. Vorox came to with the giant troll in front of him wearing his giant horned helmet, scale mail, and wielding a giant heavy flail, a glowing emerald necklace around his slimy neck. The troll-shield was on the sidelines laughing. Still in the bush I cast Portable Hole and readied to teleport. Tweena readied her shortbow.

The duel began when the Blackgut swung at Vorox, I immediately teleported next to the troll-shield bearing slave and swooped the portable hole over it dismissing the spell as soon as the shield was in banishing forever from our world. Tween shot the shaman on the far side of the battlefield causing him lose concentration preventing his casting whatever spell he had ready for us. Vorox hit the troll but did little damage, I shot my trusty acid bolt at the monster admixing some of the Dragonscale plant scales to up the damage. One of the beastial trolls charged me with a double-claw leap attack from atop the wood pile next to the dueling ground. I narrowly avoided that attack teleporting away next to one of the incomplete walls around the double door to the lair. The shaman, with Tweena’s arrow still in him, turned and tried to transmute me into a rabbit as I had appeared just 15 ft. behind him but I was able to resist his primitive spell this time. Vorox parried a hissing blow from Blackgut’s flail with his axe and missed the troll on his counter-attack. I cast Shadow Ribbons catching the shaman. I pulled one of the titanium troll daggers that I had taken from one of his tribesmen and approached. The trolls were charging at Tweena and a slave had joined the fight with a rock-hammer. Blackgut and Vorox were equally matched parrying each other’s powerful swings. Greyshadow bit Blackgut hurting him slightly through his heavy armor.

I got up next to the entangled shaman my dagger thirsting for his throat when a large black arrow shot at me which I avoided but the archer was too well-hidden for me to spot. The shaman struggled and stabbed him in the neck but my blow failed to be coup de grâce I had hoped.

To Be Continued…

A Mage from Poisonwood II Pt.1: Of Rabbits & Dragonsaurs

3 months had passed since our climatic battle with the Red Daggers thieves’ guild. The bounty on Blackgut the troll’s head was increased to 1,000 gp since during the Red Dagger battle he had destroyed the Gris-Mill and has since been raiding the town and farms in Blackwood. The town under orders from Lord Black-Eagle is building a watch-tower by the bridge to prevent the like of the past raid happening again. The Shadow Hands thieves’ guild, our sometimes allies, has since recovered and are growing in number again. The word on the street is that the remainder of the Red Daggers has joined forces with Blackgut and may be looking for revenge.

The staccato of the constant fall rains on the roof of the longhouse just helped to aggravate my hackles at the fact that not all of the Red-Daggers were dead. Tweena and Shieldmaster were away to see the Lord of Rockhollow (Black Eagle) the other two, Nema and Dolis, had left Rockhollow a few days after the raid destination unknown. I had just completed my spell research and finished recording them in my compendium. In the meantime till the others could return I scryed on Blackgut using a silver goblet I had lying around and could see in its waters carrying out the typically cruel and brutal pastimes of a troll, beating a ratling slave over a broken bottle of troll marriage salve, a partially rubbed young female hostage and working in his workshop where he pulled a lever near the door which, I assumed after hearing the triggers clack and click, armed a gauntlet of traps. Feeling a bit mischievous I cast Block of Stone above his head injuring him somewhat when it fell onto his helmeted head. He grasped a glowing necklace and my vision instantly ended. After that I began to straighten up my cellar laboratory and finding a plank of old wood walked up out of the basement.

The plank was an old mortarboard bearing an axe crossing a shield, a left over from a former tenant a fighters’ guild and was setting in on the gallery-porch when I saw that Tweena and Shieldmaster were just returning. They told me that the Lord had attached 50 gp per Red-Dagger head on top of the reward for Blackgut and they wanted to take off immediately to start hunting retracing our steps back to the troll’s lair (see A Mage from Poisonwood Pt.2). SO it was left to me to purchase supplies for winter before the town of Rockhollow shut up for winter, the freemen were already leaving in droves back to their homes. I managed to scrounge up 2 hogshead of ale, two 50lb. sacks of grain, two 50lbs. sacks of nuts, one 50lb. sack of stone fruit, 100 lbs. of firewood, 24 pieces of wood ware, 1 barrel of whiskey, one 50lb. sack of salt, 2 barrels of lamp oil, 2 carboys of Southland honey, 6 oil lamps, 100 lbs. of salted & smoked meat, a large iron pot and an iron skillet. After we planned to leave the next morning so we went to the tavern and on the way a faunic bard approached use promoting a fight between the reigning champion of Rockhollow Thistle Battlethorn and his man, Baenox Bloodaxe a half-faun Hill-lander. Shieldmaster tried to get the word on a possible match against the victor from the bard but decided to place a bet instead.

At the Lucky Traveller tavern I did some business with Keenor the fat merchant (see A Mage from Poisonwood Pt.1) contact slinging some lotus powder for 2,000 gp. Foolishly I bought rounds for the whole place afterwards dosing each drink with a dose of red lotus. The next day around high noon I found myself in a somewhat disagreeable state as I stomped along following the fresh and sober Tweena along with the equally mush-brained Vorox Shieldmaster, he was a few gems lighter after being led out the tavern the previous night by an itinerant prostitute though the lug was mounted on his dragonsuarus, Greyshadow. We left behind our longhouse under the care of my four hirelings, farmers’ sons, I was sure to pay them above the minimum wage but in flicks only, no precious metals for those mooks. The long walk was uneventful and by sundown my companions pitched camp. I left my sigil on a tree and teleported back to the longhouse to get a goodnights rest in my own bed.

At first light I teleported back to find the camp in shambles with the smoldering remains scattered abouts. I fanned the stench of burnt troll from my nose. My companions fortunately were none the worse for the wear. We continued eastwards into the woods (which were typical of that of the Westlands) dark, thick and as fall was upon us, very muddy and cold. Greyshadow stopped and twitched. A big faun stepped from the bush onto the road and into our path.

He was had a wolfskin mantle over his shoulders and wielding a wolfteeth club. His belly was painted black. We heard gibbering all around us the rapid, harsh tongue of the Otkid savages. Soon we were surrounded by 6 of the savages wielding clubs and spears draped in dirty animal skins all had their bellies painted black. The big guy charged Vorox Shieldmaster and Greyshadow. I cast Mass Paralyze and got 4 of ‘em while Vorox and the big Otkid exchanged blows badly wounding each other. Another Otkid, their shaman, stepped out from the bush and the next thing I knew was that I was a rabbit and Vorox, a rabbit in the saddle still atop his dragonsaurus warmount.

Wonderful.

To Be Continued…

A Mage from Poisonwood Pt.7: Several Heads in a Gunnysack

Come morning I met back up with the group when they found their way to the Lucky Traveler. They put the iron chest and the bags of treasure taken from the Red-Daggers in my room and stand guard as I went to find Alchemist Ebaik who should have been in town by then. My plan was to rent a back room in his shop so we could split the treasure up in privacy. I easily found him and he consented to let us use the backroom for free but I tossed him a platinum piece as a “shop-warming gift”. My share consisted of 1,070 gp, 64 sp, 226 pp, 10 gtal, 1 star metal ingot, a single 1 lb. mithral bar, 10 large emeralds, 10 alexandrites, 20 diamonds and 5 large rubies. I was able to disarm the Deathbolt magic trap on the chest and Tweena and Dolus worked as a team to open it. Our eyes sparkled as inside we found: 50 gtal (gold talons), 25 large fire garnets (glow with their own fire-like light), 1 superior quality garnet lion figurine worth about 2,500 gp, a platinum ring with a ruby, a gold ring with an opal (both magical as I identified them) and a high quality gold goblet set with seven large diamonds bearing the guild mark of the White Star healers’ guild. My share of this booty was 10 gold talons and 5 large fire garnets.

The gear we couldn’t sell to Ebaik Tweena and Shieldmaster took to market in the end I got a 585 gold piece cut of that. Meanwhile me and Nami returned the goblet from the chest to the White Star House in the village and were rewarded with an Arch-Cure potion. When we met back up around late afternoon Tweena said she couldn’t unload a large fire sapphire so I suggested that we go to the Fertum lord. Tweena and Nami remained at the Lucky Traveller so Dolus, Shieldmaster and myself went instead to unload the gem and the lion figurine. It turned out to be fruitless and we were referred to the keep where the lord may cut a deal for the items. So by early evening we were on our way to the keep. There we were able to cut a deal handing over the items for a land deed. It was for a plot of land with a deserted old longhouse on it at the far southwest edge of town. I was able to throw down the majority of coin for the rest that we owed after the items traded hands gaining majority share of the land.

That night I began to set my lab in the cellar of the place which needed some work while Shieldmaster went to post an employment notice in the Fertum. I set up my fire garnets for light and teleported to the green tower snatching up the L-shaped table from the lab there bringing it back to the cellar. I then gathered 15,500 gp worth of gems and coin from my hoard and bought magic supplies from the alchemist’s shop. I planned on staying in the cellar, my new lab, for the next 19 days working on developing some new magic. However, the very next night I heard a thud then a commotion followed by an explosion which brought me up into the central chamber. A gunny-sack loaded with the severed heads of Black Hands members and I spied among the purpling gore the faces of Keenor and Ranknor. The room was scorched and I could hear fire bells sounding from the Fertum in the distance. The others yelled to me that a wizard was out there and had blasted the place with a fireball. The others became engaged in combat with a gang of ratlings that streamed in from the windows and the rear hallway. I teleported to the front porch and countered a spell the distant figure in red robes and an ivory skull-mask lobbed at me. A red-masked figure that had been skulking along the porch got up next to me and put his dagger in my back. Luckily I wasn’t badly wounded by his blade. I stepped back and hit him with an acid bolt and teleported away next to the red mage while Shieldmaster emerged, his dragonsuarus had leapt into combat with another gaggle of ratlings just around the north corner, from the longhouse and engaged him chopping him down. I disabled the red-mage with a Shadow Ribbons spell and stabbed him in the throat with my dagger; the one that bore Keenor’s mark. I twisted it a little hoping that he had felt it before he finally died. The battle was over shortly thereafter the yard strewn with ratling bodies. I stripped the wizard taking his gold belt with the ruby belt buckle as my trophy making a bee-line to my cellar after.

End of Part 1 of the Campaign (played between May 2013 and December 2013).

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…

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…

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…

A Mage from Poisonwood Pt.2: Blackgut, Red-Daggers

We three, Drogo the ranger, Tweena the dungeoneer and myself Baerig the mage, ventured along the Old Road and by early afternoon Drogo alerted me and Tweena to a ratling following us. Shortly thereafter a 7 ft.-tall mushroom creature came crashing through the trees towards us along the ratling’s trail whom by the way was nowhere to be seen. The monster was a blood-red mushroom with the cap shaped like a cup rimmed with teeth and four long tentacles dripping with a clear, sticky liquid walking on a dozen or so tentacle-like feelers. I identified it as a Crimson Fungus and we made quick work of it but not before it blasted us with its spore spray. Fortunately none of us suffered the ill-effects. Later in the evening we found ourselves at a deep ravine spanned by a ruined stone bridge.

We decided to descend the slope into the ravine, I teleported down after Drogo was at the bottom. The ranger spotted a cave mouth under the bridge in the side of the ravine so after Tweena was with us we made a beeline to it. Just as we reached the cave Drogo spotted a troll skulking in the shadows attempting to sneak up on us for a surprise attack. The troll was yellow-skinned with a black belly. I dispatched it with my acid bolt eldritch ability at the end of the short battle as well as its servant, a mangy ratling. We thought the troll might have been Blackgut only for a second realizing the troll was bestial and probably a latter generation clone of Blackgut himself. We entered the cavern lair and proceeded forward deeper into the lair and came to a large chamber with a hewn archway in front of us leading into a room with block walls and a large iron door with a sculpture of a troll’s head on it. There were open passages to the right and left as well. We took the left tunnel which descended rapidly and the north path of the fork that it led to and into a large cavern with a bubbling hot spring occupying most of its area. There was an opening to the left and a stairway to the right which led to a locked iron door. We were attacked by a pair of trolls, identical to the first, which burst from the steaming waters as well as two ratling slaves who tried to use the steam as cover in attempted sneak attacks mostly aimed at me, one of which hit its mark wounding me. Drogo was badly wounded in the fight by the trolls’ claws getting rent nearly in two by one of them before we finally defeated them. I cast a couple of Close Wounds spells on myself and Drogo to patch us up while Tweena turned her expert eye to the rusty iron door at the top of the steps.

She attempted to disarm the spring loaded blades on the door before trying to pick the lock. A loud click sounded and the blades sprung she narrowly avoided them by blocking with her steel buckler which was nearly destroyed. She eventually opened the door which we found opened into the brick-walled room we first happened upon when entering the cave. She inspected the chamber floor but found no traps and Drogo followed her towards the troll-head door. I decided to play it safe and wait in the archway by the open iron door. She didn’t find a trap and decided to try to open it but got blasted with a cone of lightning bolts which burst from the mouth of the troll’s head. Twice. She was badly wounded and I had to use a healing spell on her. My magic was by this time beginning to sap my vitality (exceeded my arcane spells per day and each spell after was inflicting Knockout Point damage). She decided to move on to the other iron door in the north wall. She easily opened the door and found a troll standing directly behind it ready to slash at her with its claws.

We retreated from the door and as the troll charged into the room we found he had a companion which followed after. I stayed at the door and blasted at them with my acid bolt as Drogo went heads up and Tweena tried to put some distance between herself and the filthy monsters so she could shoot at them with her crossbow which she wasn’t particularly skilled with btw. After a couple of rounds the trolls were dead and their corpses burning. We found they had ascended a set of stone steps which led down into a large cavern with an exit at its far end which turned south that we assumed wound back to the entrance passageway. Tweena and Drogo descended while I kept guard at the top of the steps while they checked the chamber. They were ambushed by a trio of ratling slaves and we made quick work of them.

After the skirmish Tweena began to check the south passage when the sound of a massive latch clacking as it was unlocked and the high pitched squeal of metal echoed throughout the cavernous lair. I could see that the troll-door in the brick-walled chamber was swinging slowly open and teleported to the bottom of the stairs as a precaution as Drogo prowled up to the top to see what was going on. Out of the door came 1 large troll assumed to be Blackgut who was armed with a heavy flail followed by a ratling in a crimson cape with an eye-patch over his right eye bearing a spear. Behind those two were another large but bestial troll with a chest on his shoulder and a ratling slave wearing a collar chained to the troll’s waist who was lugging a full sack on his back. I walked halfway up the steps so I could meet the whites of their eyes and shouted, “come meet your doom ya stinkin’ troll!”

In response Blackgut yelled back in a deep, gravelly voice crackling with phlegm, “I’ll kill you later.” With that he inserted a large gold key in a hidden keyhole and all of the doors including the two smaller iron doors which we had opened along with the troll-door slammed shut sealing us off from the brick-walled chamber. So we ran south with Tweena in the lead.

We spotted the yellow backside of the animalistic troll passing out of the now torch lit entrance into darkness of night. By the time the ranger reached the mouth of the lair they were gone and out of sight. I teleported to the cave mouth and cast Illuminate but they were indeed gone. My light however did allow Drogo to pick up their trail and us to track them down. After about an hour we approached a small clearing in the Blackwood where we could see they were meeting with a group of Red Daggers with two prisoners in the clearing between the two groups. The prisoners were a ratling and a female faun dressed in the black robes of a necromancer. Drogo began to move towards the clearing approaching a position that would allow him to use his bow. He was spotted by a ratling sentry hidden in the bushes who whistled a warning to our enemies. The fight was a disaster though we were able to free the two prisoners.

Blackgut had barely been scratched and only two of the Red Daggers, some lowly thugs, had been the only casualties on our enemies’ side. I had been gravely wounded and Drogo had been knocked unconscious. The last time I saw Tweena she too was badly hurt and ducking into the bushes with the two freed prisoners. I grabbed the ranger by the collar and teleported us both back to the edge of town. I banged on the barred door of the tavern until someone opened it and bribed them with a gold piece to let us sleep on the floor where I could see two barbarians snoring in puddles of vomit and beer. I healed up Drogo’s wounds as best I could or at least so he wouldn’t die anyway and the last of my vitality spent I collapsed into sleep on that filthy floor.

To Be Continued…

A Mage from Poisonwood Pt.1: Head First

After a few days spent in the town of Rockhollow I, Baerig Scarborn Tanglenite-mage, bought the first round of ale at the village tavern and guzzled a tankard of ale forced to nudge aside my bronze mask exposing a portion of my deformed and scarred visage. Dismiising it as “some minor scarring” I went over to the game tables to play at dice with the lone gambler. A fat man in fine clothes and a body guard on either side. His name was Keenor and when he asked me what had brought me so far west as he recognized me for a denizen of the Poisonwood I told him the truth “regime change”. I bought a dose of yellow lotus from him while Tweena the dungeoneer talked with the Westlander bard and Drogo chatted up the prostitutes. I talked to the bartender named Cornor and his barmaid Trixie (Cris is the GM btw) and procured a private room for myself. After purchasing a big meal Cornor told me about a troll called Blackgut in the Blackwood so I commit to conquering the scum for the benefit of the land and its people then proceeded to gorge myself while the other two collected some more info. While I ate the bard came over and served himself up a plate for a song. I dropped a silver piece on his plate as a bonus. A stranger appeared at the tavern door and a ratling and human that were sitting at a table suddenly stood up and chased the man into the back through the tavern into a back alley which served as the latrine for the place both had the symbol of a red dagger on their cloaks. The bard fled the taproom drawing my attention to Tweena who was chasing after red-daggers. So I followed.

As soon as I and Tweena appeared in the blind alley followed shortly by Drogo the two red-daggers turned on us shouting that were the guy’s (the one they had chased and cornered) friends. Things were tense, we demanded to know what was going on and they were determined to brutalize the poor guy whom was cowering. So I blasted them both in turn with my acid bolt killing them and that’s when another unseen rogue took a shot at me with his crossbow. I dodged teleporting back to my table and took the food and ale back up confident that my companions would deal the last thug. A few minutes later the guy that the red-daggers were chasing walked up and introduced himself as Ranknor. I tried to question him but he kept changing the subject. He paid for the drinks the rest of the night and Tweena kept at him but got nowhere. The bard rejoined us, his name was Rant while Ranknor told us about tombs found outside of town and warned us that the Red Daggers Thieves Guild would probably be after us now since we killed three of them, the guys that were chasing him. The tombs were cleared we were told by a passerby (Illcor and company had already done that) and then were told of an old ruined fort at the creek in the south. Later that night in my room I dosed myself with the lotus and reap the visions it may have provide.

The next morning we collectively decided to pursue the troll of the Blackwood named Blackgut and left town traveling along the East Road. We had to engage some of the local wildlife when 3 raptors attacked us me scoring tow kills. Later at mid-day a group of 5 red-dagger thugs led by another guy wearing a red hood leapt from the bushes in front of us. The leader, the red-hood, demanded the whereabouts of Ranknor as he knew we were his friends. We engaged them in combat and I was able to intimidate the red-hood by lifting my mask and frightened he ran away with his tail between his legs whistling the retreat as he fled. Tweena had been knocked out by a sleep-arrow while pursuing a target into the bushes and was robbed of her money and gear. My final tally was 3 red-daggers using my trusty acid bolt. We looted what was left of the corpses and were each a little richer after the split. After the sleep toxin wore off of Tweena we traveled into the woods to camp for the night.

In the morning we made our way to the village in the Blackwood and spoke with the village marshal a gruff half-giant. He told us the place was rife with red-daggers which the local lord Black Eagle, wasn’t overly fond of and warned us they were abouts in the tavern. We went into the village beer hall a banner bearing the black eagle hung by the door. Drogo went to talk with the bartender and I sat by myself and drank as the town was a Forvyln town, a Westlander ethnicity that can be particularly bigoted against my kind, Tweena sat next to me. She spotted a group of red-daggers at a nearby table in disguise. I shot the closest with my acid bolt. We got into it with them with me killing two of the three fairly quickly while Drogo yelled for the marshal and the last red-dagger bolted for the door. Tweena tackled him to the ground. The marshal later took him away. I purchased my room as did the others.

The next morning Drogo told me that he had been awakened by something fumbling at his room door and opened it to find a ratling skulking away. We decided to continue to hunt for Blackgut and on our way from town we passed the red-dagger we had turned over to the authorities hanging in a cage. I made a wide berth around the cage but the other two didn’t. The rogue spat at them and spat in Tweena’s face when she tried to question him while offering him water. We continued on the Old Road leaving the ranting scumbag behind us.

To Be Continued…