The Dragonslayers III Pt. 3: Zombie Dragons Doom

The group of 10 undead Arboreans continued to march towards the West Gate, these gate-breakers would soon be on the gate and the slayers knew if the gate fell the warriors on their side were both outnumbered and outclassed. It would be a slaughter. They continued to furiously battle the undead strike force that had been teleported in behind the palisades.

Magiia the Ferenoi power attacked the Bone-Lord with the axe she had taken from Bers’ corpse but the blow was parried easily. Vorwulf shot the Arborean zombie that was attacking Magiia. The undead captain, the Bone-Lord, missed Magiia with a clumsy slash of his mean-looking bone-sword. Grom directed his inferior earth elementals to slam the standing Arborean which had little effect due to the hardness of its worm-eaten body.  He then used his sling to take a shot at the “skull knight”, his bullet bouncing harmlessly from the Bone-Lord’s bone-plating. One of the sword-wielding skeletons which Magiia had just smashed down suddenly reassembled its bones and stood next to her ready to attack. The downed deadwood Arborean at the gate began to stir and stood up its body still studded with Vor’s arrows. The other slammed its club-like fists into Maggie (Magiia) whom attempted to dodge but failed. Another blow from the undead captain’s bone-blade was deflected by Maggie the amazon and an arrow from the ranger’s bow thudded into the newly (re)risen Arborean. The newly reassembled skeleton picked up its sword and stuck Maggie with a natural 20 wounding her badly; she made a recovery check to remain standing yet again. Grom sent his elementals to grapple the Arborean at the gate while he shot another sling-stone at the skull of the remaining sword-skelly cracking its skull a good one. Maggie struck the sword-skelly smashing it to pieces sending its cracked skull flying out into the snow. She parried another blow from the Bone-Lords blade and the Arborean that had slammed her earlier went for another but missed completely. The other undead Arborean broke free from the grip of the elementals. Vor put an arrow in the Arborean that was attacking Maggie and another in the one at the gates just before it smashed another hole in them. Grom used his sling to shoot Maggie a healing potion which she easily caught.

The amazon downed the potion after backing out of the reach of her foes. Vorwulf continued to shoot the deadwood Arborean at the gate and Grom turned his attention towards the oncoming gate-breakers as they drew too near for comfort. He called down lightning upon their heads splintering wood and blackening their bark-skins but not dropping a single one of the five he managed to hit. His elementals continued to harry the deadwood zombie at the gate. The Bone-Lord followed the Ferenoi and continued his assault, she easily parried his blows. The Arborean that had been fighting with Maggie, with the Dragon-Blood Warrior out of the way, moved to the gates ready to begin battering them down from the inside. Vor knocked one of his magic arrows, an ice-steel frost-burst arrow, and shot it into the Arborean readying to bash at the gates. Frost burst over its fire-blackened body then Magiia shattered him to splinters with a powerful blow from her axe. The shaman tried to cast another Call Lightning spell but failed but his elementals held fast the last Arborean on their side of gate. The bone-knight swung at Magiia again but she was able to parry him yet again. Vor shot the still-standing Arborean and the amazon hacked into the Bone-Lord whom struck her in a simultaneous attack. He came out the worse. Vor drew his bow again and the bowstring snapped. Grom pulled out a potion of Greater Fireball, essentially an arcane grenade, and used his sling to great effect launching the weapon at the nearing gate-breakers severely damaging 9 of the 10. Vorwulf pulled the longbow from his back and shot at the deadwood Arborean missing it by a mile.

The gate-breakers were now in charging distance of the West Gate. Vorwulf activated the Ring of Orbs spell on one of his many magic rings and launched the acid orb at the “skeleton knight” doing little damage. Magiia power attacked the Bone-Lord who “simuled” her again but she smashed him down the second before his blow could land. Meanwhile across the battlefield the general of the Blackbrow army, one of the two remaining of the three disciples (see The Dragonslayers II: Pt. 5 & Pt.6), was busy trying to cast a spell that would devastate the archers along the top of the palisades, fortunately for all he failed his casting check. Back behind the gate the grappled Arborean broke free and the Bone-Lord leapt back up from the ground worse for the wear but completely reassembled.

Grom: “Oh! Hey! I just remembered I have that magic rod of Quicksand!”

The shaman whipped out an electrum rod from his bag and used one of its charges. The ground directly in front of the gate in a 75 ft radius instantly turned into a slushy quagmire catching all of the gate-breakers whom immediately began to sink, the archers and javelineers on the wall were quick to take advantage. The gate-breakers were toast. Vorwulf launched the fire orb from his ring of orbs which were rotating about his person at the Bone-Lord again dealing little damage. Magiia struck at the lone Arborean cutting it down for the last time. Grom slung a stone at the undead captain doing no damage and Vor followed with a magic alloy arrow which did deal significant damage to it. Magiia followed that up with a blow that knocked it down again. Vorwulf, seeing the fight was now in their favor and under the control of the Dragon-Blood Warrior and the shaman pulled out his spyglass and turned his eye to the enemy line.

He could see the force was being led by a disciple of Blackbrow, a mage (necromancer) dressed in a crimson robe with a red silk hood over his head painted with a black skull on the face and he could see another commander a vampire in bronze armor and a black cloak appearing as a pair of bat-wings levitating above the heads of the man force. The disciple was surrounded by 6 deadwood Arboreans, the vampire had 10 wudu zombies and 10 skeleton warriors beneath him. There was also a lich fighter with the same behind him and a force of 25 soldiers in bronze plate and well-armed beneath the banners of Poisonwood, mercenaries. The line was marching towards the gates. So Vorwulf activated the Thunder-Arrow ability on his longbow launching a storm of crackling arrows composed of pure electricity towards the enemy line which rained down on their heads exploding with the crack of thunder. The disciple halted his forces and pulled them back probably in an effort to get them out of spell range.

Gil (Grom’s player): “Their pulling back? Really?”

Cris (Vorwulf’s player): “Yeah they don’t know what we got.”

Gil: “And they can’t get across to the gate.”

Magiia finished smashing the Bone-Lord to dust after he raised one more time, his magic bone-sword crumbled with the rest of him. Vorwulf took back to his spyglass. After a few seconds he passed it to the shaman. Grom could see the enemy army was staying put; it appeared that they were waiting for something.

Jenn: “Aw, no.”

Cris: “They did have a dragon with them.”

Cris [to me, the GM]: “That runner never came back did he?”

I acknowledged that he did not.

The 20 men along the battlements were cheering after finishing off the gate-breakers with arrows and javelins and were in high spirits some roaring taunts over the palisade they definitely believed they could take on any enemy at that point. The slayers all laughed, they knew better.

Vorwulf was contemplating going back to “the rat” to fetch the superior quality arbalests that they had for dragon-slaying to reinforce the gate-defenses when he and Magiia heard and felt something heavy moving possibly stomping about. They all heard the unmistakable roar of a dragon ripping through the air from the city center. Vorwulf took back his spyglass from the shaman and directed it towards the city center able to see over almost all of the buildings, most were a single story after all, from the battlements. He could see what appeared to be a zombie dragon. He tried but couldn’t quite identify what type it had been in life, it was fighting with the sheriff, his deputies and the Achaánal warriors. The druid tree in the town center was acid blackened and bubbling puddles of acid pocked the site of the battle, a few dead warriors lay strewn about. The fighters seemed to have just retreated to cover most seemed to be terrified and/or nauseated.

The wind was howling now and the snowfall was getting heavier. Vorwulf dismissed the power of the Ring of Orbs and then rubbed some Oil of Mend over his armor and activated his Boots of Haste. The shaman used his healing touch on Magiia and she donned the chain mail she had taken from Bers’ corpse. They also finally got around to letting her know that the helmet was magic and had the ability of Shield on it.

Gil: “Man guys, I’m out of spells, that’s it for the day.”

Grom pulled out his Mace of Supernatural Power.

The Blackwings abandoned the palisades and ran towards the city center. After several minutes, Vor waited to engage the dragon until the others caught up to him, they made it to where their quarry was and charged it as soon as they got the chance. It spat a gout of acid at them which Vorwulf was able to evade and the other two dodged. They chopped the zombie dragon down in record time. Every time that it had rose back up they simply hacked it back down.

Jenn: “It didn’t even get to hit anybody.”

After the dragon was done Vorwulf surveyed the area for any additional enemies. He spotted a robed shadow with one arm fleeing down an alleyway then suddenly disappearing in a flash of green. He guessed it was Zancor. He was right.

The slayers made their way back to “the rat” and delivered the arbalests to the guards on the West Gate. They found that the forces of Blackbrow were retreating from the field, for now. After that they took their leave to rest in their tavern, they had been relieved by the Achaánal clan warriors, they had lost 2 of their number but were still a formidable force (against the average mortal foe that is), who had volunteered to hold the gate while the Blackwings rested. Grom retreated to his quarters to pass out, he was utterly spent. Later in the day the snow and wind ceased and the a few breaks in the clouds let in a few golden shafts of sunlight. Vor took Magiia to the secret vault where they had stored their treasure chests in order to equip her with some more powerful items. He found two of the chests, the ones they had bashed the locks off of before trying the keys they had on the third, were light on gems and coin by about half.

Gil: “Aw! What the hell!”

Cris: “It was the ratlings.”

Gil: “What!? Really? Didn’t we pay them off!?”

Cris: “Yes. It was the ratlings. It was too much for them [to ignore].”

 

To Be Continued…

The Dragonslayers III Pt. 2: Under the Pitch Black Moon Part 2

Straight from the GM's Notebook
Straight from the GM’s Notebook

Vorwulf chopped Dead-Eye down for the second time only to have him reassemble his rotten and now badly splintered bones before he could hit the ground. Magiia power attacked Bers with her own axe but the blow was easily parried. Grom activated the Heal All ability on his helmet and restored Magiia to full health at the same time flooding the undead Bers with positive energy causing her dead flesh to suddenly rot and to ooze off of her bones. Bers swung with a powerful blow at Magiia but missed nearly throwing her sword but splattering the shaman and the Feren amazon with foul smelling slime and bits of gelatinous flesh. Vorwulf continued the duel with his former master in the alley exchanging blows one for one and taking some extra damage from the crackling purplish static that surrounded its body as he struck. Magiia landed a massive blow into the dripping corpse of her predecessor finally dropping the thing. Grom readied for the corpse to suddenly jump back up, it didn’t so Magiia began to loot the body.

GM (me): “Ya’know the armor’s gonna be foul with the juice from the corpse.”

Cris: “Aw who cares! You could just wash it off! I wouldn’t let go of a superior quality magic silver chainmail!”

Vor finally dropped the creature that had been his master the shadow-flesh all chopped away and the bones splintered. After taking the time for a breath he put Dead-Eye’s remains (with gear) into a gunny-sack. When he emerged from the alley he found that he had been left behind. The shaman had run to the west gate with Magiia following almost immediately behind following as soon as she had stowed the goopy armor and weapons looted from Bers’ corpse in her pack. She found the helmet that Bers had been wearing to be acceptable enough to don and did so while chasing after him and was now wielding the star metal shield. Vorwulf used his silver scimitar slashing the air its Dimension Door ability allowing him to step directly from the alley to the palisade above the West Gate through the dimensional gash.

The shaman and the Ferenoi ran into the runner that had been assigned to the West Gate, he was slick with sweat, his wet hair steaming. Gasping he saw and recognized them, “Oh there you are.” He huffed in relief and relayed that the other runners had been alerted to the enemy being at this gate and he took up his position near the buildings ready for orders but until then he leaned there catching his breath.

Vor was standing on the walk behind the wooden battlements over the west gate between the two timber watch towers that stood on either side of the still patchwork gate. He activated the Eyes and Ears of the Dragon ability on his magic coif as he gazed over the battlements readying his bow. He was already letting loose as Magiia and the shaman climbed the ladders to join him, the tinkling of glass which sounded as if in time with a rapid march, or charge drifted over the palisades. The first of the bottle stuffed skeletons charging the gate exploded as soon as the pair of dragon-slayers could see them. They could see there were 10 skeletons with several bottles of varying alchemical substances tied to the insides of each of their ribcages charging towards the gate. The first that Vorwulf had shot had exploded with a blinding flash splattering fire and acid in a wide radius about it setting off four others. It was easy to tell that each of those skellys packed enough punch to blow the gate sky high if even one made it to the gate. As the alchemical flames burnt out in the snow they could also see what the troops guarding the gate had been engaging were a troop of about 50 animated corpses bearing axes, hammers and shovels (nothing but workers) aimlessly meandering about occasionally striking blindly at the wooden palisades. Magiia pulled her shortbow and shot but missed as the skeletons flew towards the gate through the snow. Grom tried to cast Call Lightning but failed the magic getting away from him and causing the clouds above, through which they could still see the hideous black moon like a hole in the sky, to erupt with lightning. Vorwulf shot again nailing a single skeleton near enough the gate to rattle the battlements when it blew. Magiia shot and missed again then Grom finally got his spell off properly and blasted the last four away which were as close as the previous had been the flash lighting up the battlements as bright as day but only for an instant. They surveyed the battlefield steaming craters marked where the bomber-skeletons had been and the animated corpses which were meandering about the palisades were studded with javelins and arrows to little effect but they could see something coming in from Sirti Road. It was a group of 10 of what appeared to be zombie Arboreans marching towards the gate. Vorwulf and Magiia spotted a bright green flash in the distance behind the enemy lines beneath the war banners of Blackbrow and the mercs of Poisonwood. They both caught the flash that came an instant after behind them as did the bowmen on the palisade whom turned and began shouting.

Vorwulf: “Archers! Archers!” He pointed at the group of creatures that had just teleported in on their side of the palisade near the gate. He then changed his mind and told them to fire on the Arboreans marching towards the gate and shouted to the guardsmen to get their spears on the enemies that had just appeared on their side of the battlements. He downed a healing potion. The runner had already torn off through the snow towards the beerhall to alert the Achaánal Clan warriors that the enemy had breached the palisades.

The enemy strike force was below them where they had magically appeared in the snow not too far from the inside of the gate. The strike force consisted of two skeletons wielding superior quality longswords wearing bronze scale-mail and bearing bronze shields and two unarmed (relatively speaking) undead Arboreans all four of these being led by a slightly larger skeleton with bones grafted over it forming into a sort of grim plate-mail. This fiendish commander was wielding a jagged bladed sword seemingly carved (or sculpted) from polished bone. Grom used his magic ring which had a single use Heal All spell on it that he had bought in Chago from a brownie (a minor detail omitted from that entry; whoops) in an attempt to fortify his allies and wound the enemy. The illusion that was on the ring that had made it appear as if it were a ring of Heal All disappeared; it turned out to be just a twist of rusted wire. It was then Magiia let loose a blood-curdling Amazonian battle-cry and leapt from the palisades with a power attack her sword crashing into the leader of the undead strike force smashing him to bits. The two sword bearing skeletons slashed at the Ferenoi wounding her slightly and then the pile of plate-like bones reassembled themselves. One of the zombie Arboreans moved to the gate and prepared to begin bashing at it with its clubbing dead-wood fists the other slammed its fists into Magiia’s unarmored body. Vorwulf turned his bow to the Arborean at the gate wasting two of his Ice-Steel Frost-Burst Magic Arrows which missed their target disappearing into the snow drifts on either side of it with muted blue flashes. Grom summoned 2 inferior earth elementals which erupted from beneath the snow as semi-humanoid piles of dirt which grappled the Arborean at the gates. Magiia endured blows from the skeletons and the other Arborean. The leader struck at her with its bone sword which glowed a deep purple as it struck passing through her chain mail slicing into her flesh completely bypassing the armor and that was when her chain mail shirt suddenly rusted and disintegrated off of her body leaving her completely naked. The shaman blasted the Arborean attacking Magiia with flames and held them on the creature hoping to set its dry, dead-wood body aflame.

Magiia disarmed one of the sword wielding skeletons. Vorwulf concentrated his sights on the Arborean by the gate which was able to break free and smash a small hole into the gate before being grappled again. Grom used his healing touch on Vorwulf. The Bone-Lord, leader of the undead strike force, slashed repeatedly at Magiia whom parried desperately. Grom summoned two more inferior earth elementals and sent them at one of the sword-wielding skeletons. They easily grappled it. Vor thumped his arrows into the Arborean by the gate finally doing enough damage to drop it. Magiia smashed through one skeleton reducing it to flinders then into the other which collapsed into a pile in the snow. The Bone-Lord hit Magiia his evil blade cutting deep forcing her to make a recovery check to stay standing and conscious. Magiia didn’t know that the helmet that she was wearing had the Shield ability on it.

Jenn: “Yes I do!”

Cris: “No ya wouldn’t. None of us had chance to tell ya yet.”

The GM (me): “Nope.”

Jenn: “Damn it.”

There was Magiia facing the Bone-Lord and the lone Dead-Wood Arborean the true status of the other undead creatures unknown. She was badly wounded, dripping with sweat and blood, steaming in the snow.

Jenn: “I charged in without thinking didn’t I?”

Then the lights in the dining room went out.

The power had been knocked out for the entire neighborhood suddenly leaving us in the dark and stranding Cris’, Gil’s and Jenn’s characters in the midst of battle. It was raining. Jenn went into the living room and looked through the curtains. She said she could see lightning in the distance. All of us sat around talking, waiting for the power to come back up and when it didn’t Jenn lit some candles and we continued the game by candlelight.

To Be Continued…

The Dragonslayers III Pt. 1: Under the Pitch Black Moon Part 1

There was a light snowfall as the slayers, now consisting of Grom the Shaman (played by Gil) and the Feren Dragon Blood Warrior Magiia (played by Jenn) both being led by Vorwulf the ranger/dragonslayer (played by Cris), trundled through the snow to the hall of the Elder Council seat of the authority of the civil authority of Merdna. There they were briefed on the currently unfolding situation. Achoran south of the Nirix river has fallen, Asternor north of the river overwhelmed with refugees and plague is under siege and will fall soon cut-off by a large contingent of undead troops and there was a black army of the undead on the move to Merdna accompanied by a black dragon marching under the war banner of Blackbrow (a black mailed fist gripping a white multi-pointed star against a purple field) their intentions obvious. Another banner among those forces also reveals that Blackbrow is reinforced with mercenaries from Poisonwood bearing the standard of a black scorpion entwined in the coils of a green serpent against a red field. It would be mere hours before those forces would be at the gates. Due to the battle with the trolls of Trollguard at the beginning of fall Merdna’s forces are much weakened some of which have been sent to reinforce Fertum Vorahd the seat of Furst Vorahd (sole lord of Hirok-Nor’s warrior-caste). The remaining forces within the city walls are 3 units of the Merdna Town Guard each unit consisting of 10 freeman archers (hey arrows for undead and foreigners) and 10 guardsmen (armed with shortspears, shortswords with medium wood shields, steel caps on their heads and chain mail shirts) which will be on each of the three gates to the city (the east is bordered by the city’s harbors and Mer-Lake). The Clothworker’s guild (with a force of 15 crossbow men and 20 maul-men) will be manning the south gate around which their circular two-story guild house is built around and the Wood Cutters’ guild (with a force of 15 crossbow men and 22 axe-men) will be on the south gate where their guild house sits. The sheriff of Merdna with his 9 deputies will take post at the ridge above the lakeshore by the Council House and Lord Vorahd’s Manor reinforced by 10 warriors loyal to Vorahd meant to steward his properties within the city walls. A fleet of runners will be the communication lines between the city’s defenders. The Blackwings Dragonslayers’ Guild will be defending the west gate (the Sirti road entrance), the weakest point in Merdna’s defenses where the gate is between two wood guard towers with a narrow walkway over the gate behind the palisades along with the city guard unit assigned to the same gate. It is the gate which they helped to defend against a horde of trolls and helped to repair afterwards (see The Dragonslayers II Pts. 2 & 3). There are also 12 Hill-Lander warriors of the Achaánal Clan, a Hill-Lander clan expelled from their ancestral lands somewhere to the immediate north/north-west by a Lowlander rebellion a few years ago but they have pledged their swords only if the enemy gets inside of the walls.

Straight from the Game Master's Notebook
Straight from the Game Master’s Notebook

The slayers along with the rest of those within the town hall rushed from the meeting; the slayers to the Hopping Rat to prepare. Grom prepared some warpaint for them while Vorwulf put the manual he had been gradually working through during the long winter days with the rest of his things in his attic quarters. The first to be painted was Magiia the Feren. She was sent by the Blackwings of Chago, a member in good standing she is a native of the Feren Archipelago and racially an amazon. Her expertise in mixing up alchemical concoctions from the blood of dragons in order to give herself supernatural abilities (al ’a chemical super-soldier) is invaluable and sending her to a place where dragons are endemic in order to harvest as much raw material as she can seemed like a good idea to guildmaster Douamo at the time. The shaman painted himself last after finishing with Vorwulf, all were eager to get to the battlements. They extinguished the candles in the tavern/guild house and lit their lanterns as they marched out into the dark and cold. They were making their way along Sirti street to the west gate when Vorwulf caught a faint voice on the chill winter winds. He turned to see an old man in a beggar’s cloak waving his hand at them accompanied by another larger warrior-type completely wrapped in an old dirty hooded cloak.

“Hail friends! Where are you headed?”

Cris: *sound of disgust* “I hate this guy.”

Vorwulf recognized the old man as Zancor the one-armed. Suspicious he looked over the old necromancer’s companion. He immediately (N20) recognized the fighter for Bers’ reanimated corpse.

“Wait! I found her wandering abroad and well… I haven’t had time to return her to you guys since I had to flee Asternor before the noose tightened!” The sly old bastard got a natural 20 to bluff. Vorwulf spotted the Gauntlet of Transmutation on the old man’s hand. The two sides were eyeballing one another each unsure of what to do next.

Jenn: “Uhm. Should we be getting to the gate?”

Gil: “I guess we go to the gate then?”

Vorwulf: “We aren’t going anywhere, we’re burying Bers HERE!” He whipped out his sword. The expression on Zancor’s face hardened into a sneer as he began to step back.

Suddenly, an arrow whizzed out from an alley about a 100 ft. away behind the necromancer and the zombie-creeper Bers imbedding itself in the snow at Vorwulf’s feet. He recognized the arrow and the decayed fletching of his former master, Dead-Eye.

Grom unleashed his Primal Scream catching zombie Bers and Zancor the necromancer in the cone of frightening sound. Blood erupted from the old man’s ears and nose and fear replaced the evil sneer. The half-frozen slab of rotten meat that had been Bers was unaffected. The zombie-creeper swung a powerful but clumsy blow with its great axe at the shaman fortunately missing him. Magiia moved in slashing at Bers but her blow was deflected off of the zombie’s star metal shield. Zancor fled into the increasing snowfall disappearing from sight. Vorwulf slashed at Bers his blow glancing of her shield. A bone white arrow came shrieking from the alley a hundred feet away nailing Vor. The shaman backed off shaken by the scream that blasted him from the dreadful magic arrow and with bleeding ears cast Dispel Fear on himself. Bers nailed the amazon with her axe opening a nasty wound the blood steamed as it colored the snow. The zombie parried the amazon’s retort.

Gil: “Man! That guy [referring to Dead-Eye] is gonna keep nailing us!”

Cris: “Damn,damn. I know I know. Well, it has to be like this.”

Vorwulf took off streaking towards the position of his former master. He spotted the cloaked shape duck back into the alley. The battle in the snow between the two Blackwings and what was once Bers, now zombie-creeper minion of Blackbrow, raged on. Magiia suffered several deep wounds but finally managed to disarm Bers whom simply pulled her back up weapon the superior quality silver-bladed great sword Bers had originally looted from the ruins of the tower of Blackbrow (see The Dragonslayers I: Pt. 6). Grom shot a stream of fire at the creature forcing it to keep its shield raised against his flames as it battled against the amazon the silver chainmail of the zombie absorbing some her strongest blows with ease. Meanwhile in the alley Vorwulf was dueling his master. Vorwulf wielded a cutlass and longsword and his former master wielded the bowie knife and longsword combination that had been his trademark in life. They traded several blows nearly matched in sword skill. Vorwulf’s blows sliced into a pitch black substance which seemed to flesh the bones which he could feel the blades ring off of from every blow.

Grom unleashed blast after blast of Wind Rush at zombie Bers whom was forced to dodge which she did easily. This allowed Magiia to move out of her reach and snatch up the battle axe and drink a healing potion, she was badly wounded.

Vorwulf had finally hacked away all of the black, shadowy stuff form the bones of his former master and will a couple of quick but powerful blows (double Natural 20’s; go figure) shattered the bones of the grinning skeleton that was left. It dropped into a pile of rags and yellow-grey flinders. He stepped over to catch a glance at the battle in the street in time to see the shaman call down lightning onto the head of the zombie damaging it horribly. Vorwulf sucked down a healing potion, he too was badly wounded.

Grom healed the amazon with his shamanic touch who had by now moved close to him. She redoubled her efforts at chopping down Bers with her own axe. Jenn (Magiia’s player) sighed in relief when Bers finally fell.

Jenn: “Finally! Yaay!”

Gil: “Alright! Yeah!”

Cris just sighed.

Dead-Eyes bones leapt back to life, reassembled themselves and prepared to continue the duel to the death with Vorwulf. The brawny (and well-equipped) corpse of Bers rose still wielding its silver sword and star metal shield.

Cris: “It’s what they do [in response to the expressions on Jenn’s & Gil’s faces]. This is why I hate undead. Damn ghoulies.”

The Blackwings heard the sounds of battle from the direction of the west gate, shouting, ringing steel, twanging bowstrings, and splintering wood.

To Be Continued…

The Dragonslayers Campaign III: Intro

Well we’ve come to the third, and possibly final, part of the Dragon-Slayers campaign. Bers, the last of the original pair of characters from the first campaign has been killed by a Death Demon sent by the Lich of Blackbrow (a natural 1 will do it every time) leaving Vorwulf the human ranger/dragon-slayer as the head of the slayers and top ranked of the Blackwing of the dragonslayers guild in Hirok-Nor. Grom the shaman endures and the new kid on the block is a Dragon-Blood Warrior (an alchemical super-soldier and a specialist class found in the upcoming Character Codex IV) Feren (amazon) played by Jenn.

The Black Moon of Eu is high and winter is in full swing with drifts of snow in the streets as high as the thatch. They have yet to be able to get into and read the Tome of Dragon-Slaying, Grom is still having nightmares of the red dragon that obliterated his people and a giant glowing mushroom, and there is a 10,000 gold piece bounty on Xanto the Wasp’s head placed by the Black Wings Dragon Slayers’ Guild of Chago. The latter information related to them by a messenger before the first snow.

Well, this concludes this brief introduction. My next dragon-slayer post will begin with the first session as they follow the messenger into the freezing night.

A Mage from Poisonwood II Pt.9: And Everything Had Been Going So Well…

A few days after finding our way back to Rockhollow we were again out in the wilderness this time on the hunt for the suspect ratling which had evidently hired the goons that took out our companions. The gold talons we found on their bodies had the stamp of Blackgut but it was defaced with a strange scratch design scribed next to the defaced stamp reminiscent of ratling-scratch. The ratling was probably one of Blackgut’s minions that had escaped us whne we raided his lair who now obviously controlled a hidden cache somewhere. We had followed the map we obtained from one of the corpses of our would-be assassins, the marks at the bottom the same ratling-scratch marks as on the gold. I was watching Vorox the monster rider trying to figure out how to open a large, locked bronze double-door with a danse macabre motif on it. We had crawled through a spider-hole in a ruin with a single intact chamber which had newly stocked with supplies, the bags and chest bearing the same symbols as the map and gold. The spider-hole lead down into a mostly collapsed room with only the double-doors as a feature besides dirt, cobwebs and rubble that is. Having not sensed any magic emanating from the doors and since I didn’t have any spells which could be of any use towards our endeavors to get through them, I pulled out the pair of dragon-bone dice with jeweled pips that I had been carrying for a while.

We had buried our companions behind the mostly finished forge the previous day raising a cairn above each of their graves. We put Tweena to rest with the gear she had been wearing and split the rest of her money and her remaining items as we knew she would have wanted it. Both I and Vorox were shocked as to the shear amount of wealth she had hoarded. My share was: a set of Highest Quality Thief’s Tools & lock-picks,  a superior quality Pick Axe, 10 spare bowstrings, 10 torches, 1 bottle of superior quality wine, a silver goblet, a potions of See All, Fly, See Invisibility and Stone to Flesh; a quiver of torch arrows, 4 quivers of arrows, 4 quivers of high quality arrows, 2 potions of healing, a superior quality magic alloy arrow, 3,700 gold pieces, 3,584 silver pieces, 298 copper pieces, 130 gold talons, 124 platinum pieces, 9 rubies, 8 pieces of tiger eye, 1 diamond, 4 iron pigs, a Manual of Design, 16 large rubies, 2 alexandrites, 8 star metal pieces, a superior quality composite shortbow, and a quiver of magic arrows. My dream of altering Greenskull (the giant green lotus) with the troll marital salve I had acquired in our campaign against Blackgut, a bit of the Death’s Head Lotus and with a piece from a living Arborean the last item I still had yet to acquire. Of course slicing off a piece of a living tree-man in order to create a humanoid, intelligent lotus with the abilities of a Death’s Head creature probably would have traveled a little way into morally questionable territory. I had just transplanted Greenskull and a large number of various types of lotus from the Green Tower to the planters on the battlements of my tower. I tossed the dice against door while Vorox was trying to find purchase with his crowbar.

The dice glowed and it felt as if they had unleashed a burst of positive energy possibly healing us completely had we been injured. Puzzled, I threw them against the door again. Vorox was had just found purchase on the doors and was beginning to pry. A burst of blinding light exploded from the magic dice. I knew I was in trouble when a muted scream ripped through my brain and the emerald around my neck shattered into powder. There was a clatter as the crowbar hit the ground and I saw Vorox crumple into a pile of dust. As I disintegrated seemingly in slow motion all I could think was I could really use a little snuff of lotus right about n…

End of the Campaign (played between August 2014 and January 2015).

A Mage from Poisonwood II Pt.8: The Tower of the Lotus

Near the advent of spring and the end of winter at the first melt, I had another vision from the life of the spirit, the Druid Norolk, which inhabited the emerald around my neck. I saw him saving villagers from an attacking white dragon during a harsh winter long ago. I contemplated this and decided what I would do about the artifact. I had to set those plans briefly aside however when the owner of the property directly adjacent to my tower forced me to purchase it as my tower was directly up against it and may have impinged a little bit onto his land.

After the spring was in full gear and business in Rockhollow was preparing to roll forward I paid the local woodcarver to craved a small superior quality box which I could enchant later (with the Temporal Stasis spell I recently acquired) to assist in the mastery of the artifact. Unfortunately it would take 3 weeks to be finished. A few days later I was busy getting things arranged and stocking my tower while both Tweena and Vorox were away putting in orders for an anvil, probably to be imported from the west coast, and hiring laborers and buying lumber to build a fully functional forge next to the longhouse/lodge when I heard someone yelling their fool head off outside.

I poked my head out of the only available aperture in my place, the single arrow slit above the gate. It turned out to be one of Keenor’s servants summoning me to the suspect merchant’s warehouse on the other side of town. It turned out to be a meeting working out the wedding plans and dowry for his daughter, apparently I agreed to a spring wedding over some freshly imported and very strong Hill-Lander whiskey. The wedding was appointed for the following month. I left his place with 1 bottle of superior quality wine, 3 bottles of the high quality Hill-Lander whiskey we had been drinking, 1 bag of fresh fruit, a bag of onions, a bag of potatoes, 1 cask of ale, 1 sack of nuts, 1 sack of grain and a carboy of honey. All of which were deposited into my tower’s larder.

I finished the day and worked through the night, transplanting the Death’s Head Lotus into the planter in the antechamber of my tower, which I had dubbed the “Tower of the Lotus”, and scribed the runes for the Control Plant spell along the curbing.

A couple of weeks passed, Tweena’s forge was built but she was still waiting for the anvil, I had spent the time transplanting as many lotus flowers form the Green Tower as I could into the planters on the top of the tower and among the battlements as I could. The next morning I was still brushing the broccoli from my eyes before the arrow slit, I was taking in a breath of the cool morning air, when I heard a crash from outside in the direction of the lodge.

I saw a group of Hill-Landers, obviously hired muscle, outside; looked like we had some enemies that were still alive. A half-giant/half-faun was charging into the longhouse, the doors had already been busted in. A human in chainmail was standing in between the lodge and my tower; he appeared to be a mage of some kind. At my gates was a pair of well-equipped thugs. I realized then I had forgotten to bar the gate the night before. The half-giant charged into the lodge out of my sight and the sounds of battle echoed from within, obviously there were other hired goons within that I hadn’t seen. The mage in chainmail shot a lightning bolt at me and I ducked behind the edge of the arrow slit just in time to avoid it. I heard another loud crash and shattering wood along with Greyshadow’s roar from within the lodge. I risked my head to get a gander at the situation outside and saw the two thugs enter my gates. The mage in chainmail was out of sight. Figuring the Death’s Head Lotus would make short work of those two I teleported down to where I had last seen the mage in chainmail. I spotted the mage on the porch of the house. Suddenly, something swooped in on me and nailed me with its poisoned sword. I used a feature on my blue-steel skullcap and turned invisible. That’s when I saw what had hit me. It was a draconian, an alchemically mutilated humanoid dragon. It landed close to where I was at and began trying to sniff me out. I quickly blasted it with a lightning bolt admixed with some shadow energy. It didn’t do as much damage as I had hoped. I moved away from the monster and cast Neutralize Poison on myself to loosen up my rapidly mortifying joints.

I saw one of the thugs that had charged into my tower emerge with a panicked expression and the draconian swung at me missing by a hair’s breadth. I teleported next to the thug and entangled him in Shadow Ribbons and slit his throat. I definitely heard several heavy bodies hit the floor in rapid succession and the blast of the fireball that was shot into the lodge by the mage after. The mage in chainmail retreated from the porch in my direction but I could tell he couldn’t see me so I teleported over to where he was and caught him up in shadows as I did the trespassing thug. I stabbed him once but since that failed to kill him I blasted him in the face with an acid bolt which finally did him in. The draconian leapt into the air and flew off towards the east. I ran into the longhouse to survey the damage.

Both Greyshadow and Tweena were dead and Vorox had just extinguished the flames which had blackened the main room of the lodge during the battle. Vorox was badly wounded and without his armor as he hadn’t time to don it before the attack, everyone had still been asleep, but we both decided to chase down the draconian immediately so he drank down a few potions of healing and I cast Commune with Nature and concentrated to get a bead on the unnatural monster which was the draconian as soon I was able to pinpoint the creature’s location I teleported both myself and Vorox there.

We were engaged in battle with the monster very soon after. Both Vorox and I had to back off a few times in order to drink down some healing potions as the creature scored some devastating blows, the battle turned however after I was able to disarm it of its sword with a Tornado Disc spell flinging the weapon far out of sight into the bush. Evetnually Vorox scored a powerful hit and killed it, fortunately he was able to pull his axe out of the monster before it turned into stone then melted into a puddle of acid.

It was after the monster was destroyed that we surveyed our surroundings. We were in a small clearing in an unfamiliar part of the woods. That’s when we realized we were lost.

 

To Be Continued…

A Mage from Poisonwood II Pt.7: The Burning Emerald

I spent most of the week before Lord Black Eagle’s Fall Feast building my tower. Tweena was busy apprenticing with Rockhollow’s weaponsmith and Vorox the monster rider was missing in action. By the time the day of the feast rolled around the winter snows began. Fortunately I had just finished the ground and sub-level of my tower just the day prior.

The necklace I had taken possession of from the troll brigand Blackgut, the emerald necklace carved with the magic runes for the Arch Protection, Summon Defender Monster, and Heal spells had revealed some of itself in my dreams, in part I suspect, due to my habitual use of yellow lotus in conjunction with certain mind-expanding techniques. I had received visions of the valley in a time when it was still wild and unsettled and of an old druid named Norolk in his cave, and it is his spirit that is contained within the gem. The necklace in effect is an intelligent item but its spirit, in the vision, seemed groggy and not yet fully awakened. I contemplated this new information and that of my realization that the two Keenors may be one in the same as I accompanied Tweena to the feast.

The hall was large and crowded with carefully arranged tables and a throng of the finest folk of the valley. The nobility ate at the Lord’s table at the north end of the hall where an Ivoran noble with what was apparently his daughter bearing the crest of a mounted blue knight with a white sword against a blue field on his clothes sat next to Black Eagle, the warriors and men-at-arms at ate at the tables occupying the center of the hall around the open fires where a bull, stag and boar roasted. Next the Ivoran was his champion on whose chestplate was the image of a conch with a white sword through it. A fair sized group of the warriors were Ivorans appearing more as swashbucklers than their Westlander counterparts. I spied Vorox among the Westlanders already drunk with a face full of greasy meat. Tweena and I were sat at the south side of the hall with all of the merchants and guildsmen.

I had Tweena on my right and to my left was Keenor. I kept an eye on him at all times and suffered his small talk. At certain point he had mentioned that one of his daughters was ready for marriage. Throughout the evening I ate some and drank little, Tweena on the other hand drank her fill and stuffed her face. Rumors abounded across the board due to the ill-omen of the early snowfall about a white dragon named Frostfang, Icegak the frost-troll and ice-demons or beasts coming down from the Gohmar Mountains. There was much talk and fear of the things that long winters bring. At the first opportunity I beat it and after I was a sufficient distance outside of the Furst’s Hall teleported away to the Green Tower.

Over the next three days I meditated and imbibed in the virtues of the yellow lotus harvesting fresh powder from the Green Lotus’s patch after I ran out of the refined stuff I was packing. I returned to the lodge after coming upon an idea. I needed to refine some more yellow lotus making the effects more potent while mellowing the negative of the drug to induce more visions. At the same time I paid Tweena 5 gold talons to forge a front gate out of bronze for my tower. The following morning I teleported back to the tower and dosed myself. It took a few tries before I was able to focus but I eventually induced a vision probably another emanating from the emerald necklace.

In this vision I saw three green-hooded individuals, druids, 2 men and 1 woman. The woman bore my necklace and the two mugs were creating forgeries very nearly identical to mine. When they began to enchant the fakes I was able to discern the spells that they worked into them, the Shadow Glyph and Temporal Stasis spells. I also was able to make out they were doing this in order to “trick the green mage Zradenor”. I put 2 and 2 together and spent the next few hours learning the spells from the vision. Armed with these I made my way to the throne of the Green Tower and began to work the counter spells on the comatose plant-wizard behind the magic barrier. It took me a few tries before success and even then I realized it would not last long.

When he awakened he noticed my necklace and cried, “they tricked me!” He tried to cast a spell but either failed or couldn’t due to the magic barrier. I was able to get the name of the giant green lotus of the tower, to which he answered Greenskull, but when I tried to convince him to bequeath the conservatorship of the tower over to me he cursed at and fell back under the druids’ spell. He was especially miffed when he saw that the Death’s Head Lotus next to his throne was stripped nearly bare. I was disappointed at my failure to coax the care of the tower from the green mage and losing out on any possible mystical benefits that may have entailed but I endeavored to move as many of the lotus plants to my tower and a special chamber which I would finish by the end of winter.

I spoke to Greenskull the green lotus and convinced it that its master had entrusted its and the other lotus flowers to my care. The lodge was supplied for winter and me and companions were content to wait out the winter, I working on my tower, Tweena working the forge and Vorox, well, doing whatever it is he does outside of meat-shield. The only incident of interest occurred about midwinter when a raiding party of Yeti attacked the longhouse, I was able to kill two and frighten the other two off with a blast of Phantom Flames essentially saving the day.

 

To Be Continued…

A Mage from Poisonwood II Pt.6: Down, Down Under Bandit’s Well

I stood over the corpse of the wyvern I had just slain using the newest spell in my arsenal, Spinning Blades. Its breath weapon, nightmare gas, failed to affect me like it affected Tweena, the dungeoneer had run away into a side chamber. I harnessed some nightmare juice from the dead dragon while Vorox the monster rider, Greyshadow his dragonsaurus mount had to wait outside at the surface by the well along with the trio of followers he had just recruited (named Feak, Zar, and Zevor), went to deal with the temporarily insane Tweena. We were about a hundred feet or so underground in the ruins of a secret dungeon accessed through what’s referred to by the locals as Bandit’s Well. The intel I had gotten on the Red Daggers guided us here, the travel from Rockhollow occupying the past few days. After Tweena recovered, Vorox must’ve dumped a potion down her throat, we began our crawl through the seemingly abandoned human-sized chambers, over rusting catwalks suspended over vast bodies of black water.

A little while later we had gone deeper down a few flights of stairs to what appeared to be the back side of a secret door with Tweena again in the lead. I was busy rolling up my Portable Hole into which I had been dumping everything we had been looting along the way. A gush of stale, dusty air invaded my nostrils as she opened the door. The front side of the secret door was a superior quality white marble statue of a mage bearing a jet staff in one hand and a large fire amethyst in the other. The statue’s face had a maniacal expression on it as it gazed into the fire gem. The door opened into a long dark hallway the floor of which was covered in a thick layer of dust and detritus. Another similar statue as that which served as the door sat further down the hall, the gems of both statues providing the only light. Tweena unhinged the statue-door at my behest and I swept the portable-hole over it as well as the other statue when we came to it stowing them in the inter-dimensional space where I would put all the other booty.

We discovered a maze of dusty chambers and ruined halls which were populated with animated statue after statue bearing magical arms, a few skeletons, some giant spiders, pair of giant centipedes and a spider swarm from which we had to flee shutting it up behind a secret door. We found rest in a damp chamber the door of which bore the Wayfarer’s Mark where we licked our wounds all of us were pretty bad-off, after barricading the door. The next morning (we assumed it was morning) we wended our way to the final chamber where we fought a long battle against animated armor bearing magical arms and a magic helmet. The treasure which the armor had been guarding was almost completely collapsed and Vorox and I left it up to Tweena to crawl into the spider hole we found behind the door and pull out the treasure she had found in a locked and trapped chest.

Afterwards we decided to work our way back up to the wyvern’s lair and try to find its hoard. In all I had stowed away in the hole 16 wizard statues of white marble with a jet staff in one hand a large fire amethyst in the other and a maniacal expression on the face, 8 other wizard statues sans fire gems, 3 small white marble statues with ruby eyes and holding an iron spear, a black marble statue with an iron spear and shield, a small solid platinum gold & silver embossed jewel-studded harpy statue, a magic table bearing an illusory banquet, 3 superior quality quartz studded silver candelabras, 8 silver plates with matching silverware, and whole mass of both magical and non-magical but still precious gear. We easily found the rest of the wyvern’s lair across the black water which I was easily able to teleport both Tweena and Vorox, one at a time, into the cavern. We smote the wyvern hatchlings we encountered there and met a wandering and barely coherent berserker named Orn who took a small cut of the hoard after we found it and ran off after we exited the well. We rejoined Vorox’s dragonsaur and all three of his new followers, fortunately the monster rider keeps Greyshadow well-fed. We bivouacked by the well and settled into our bedrolls for a well-deserved rest.

I was awakened suddenly. “Harpies!” shrieked Feak just before he got snatched up in a harpy’s talons. We were able to rescue Feak, Tweena and Vorox took it down before it could carry him off, and fought the other two off of the attack. We managed to kill two of the she-beasts but the third was able to flee flying towards the distant mountains. The next morning we started back to Rockhollow. It started to rain by midday.

By evening while the others set camp I continued on for a couple of miles in the rain and dark so as to be able to teleport back to town and our lodge and a nice warm fire and hot food. My rest was deep and I had a dream concerning Blackgut’s emerald necklace (it was in the wyvern’s horde of all places) and something about the land meaning the valley of Rockhollow, needed to be “protected” whatever that meant. The others marched into town the next day.

We split the gems and coinage evenly and took up the magic items we individually wanted and could use the rest we decided to fence through my contact, Ebaik the alchemist. We set up a special auction in one of his back rooms which attracted some of the richest “collectors” in the valley including a shady mercenary and the fat merchant Keenor (see Pt.1). At the conclusion I slipped Keenor a dose of yellow lotus and took my fair share of the money and retired to my cellar lab at the lodge. That’s when it hit me.

Keenor was dead (see A Mage from Poisonwood: Pt. 7). I really need to lay off the lotus.

 

To Be Continued…

A Mage from Poisonwood II Pt.5: A Day Late and a Troll Hoard Richer

The day after we fought the young Crimson Reaver in a torrential downpour we stood in the entrance passage of Black Gut’s lair. Our wounds mostly healed from the previous day’s battle with the young dragon. After Vorox had dropped it I managed to harvest a vial of venom from the corpse. Tweena was in the lead wielding the key-ring she snatched from Blackgut’s body before we torched it. Greyshadow, Vorox’s dragonsaur mount, was left to guard the tunnel entrance as he was simply too big to follow. I of course was taking up the rear of the party.

We followed Tweena down the roughly and freshly hewn stone 20 ft.-wide passage crossing a 20 ft.-wide pit crossed by a narrow but thick plank of wood at abouts halfway, past a couple of forking, primitively dug dirt tunnels and stopped briefly at a 15 ft. well-masoned archway where Tweena detected a trap door in the floor. Vorox crossed after she disarmed it and I simply teleported to a flagstone deemed safe by the dungeoneer. We found ourselves in a large rectangular chamber with stone-block walls. There were iron doors to the west and east and a large polished bronze door dead ahead. This door she opened with her keys and through the door we could see a green glow emanating poisonously from the west of the chamber behind and a large troll wearing a war-belt and wielding a warhammer near the rear wall of that chamber.

Tweena pegged the troll with a crossbow bolt and unwilling to walk into the chamber for fear of traps Vorox taunted the creature in an effort to draw it out. I zapped it with a lightning bolt and it retreated to the east out of our line of sight. Tweena quickly checked the floor in the doorway and found another trapdoor in the floor so I teleported to where the troll had been standing and gazing towards where the troll had run I spied a familiar hallway. It was the hall I had scryed several days earlier (see A Mage from Poisonwood II Pt.1). The troll with the warhammer was just disappearing into a dark room at the end of the hall. I tried to catch him with my shadow ribbons spell but was too late. I hear the words, “Pull the lever!” No doubt gurgled from the diseased throat of the hammer-wielding coward followed by a series of mechanical clanks. Spikes came out of the ceiling and I was able to dodge the crushing ceiling to where I could remember seeing the lever. Unfortunately I found myself right next to a second troll.

I blinded the troll with a blinding flash and pulled the lever resetting the trap clearing the way for my pals. I spotted the silhouette of a troll-wife in the archway to the north which I knew was the torch-lit workshop of the recently late Blackgut. The lever-troll blindly lashed out clawing me but good, I teleported to the other side of the chamber, the first troll moved out of the shadows blocking my exit into the hall by the lever. Tweena and Vorox rounded the corner into my view and Vorox charged the first troll, the one wielding the warhammer. I attempted to cast phantom flame but it fizzled. The second and still completely blinded troll attempted to grab for the lever. Tweena dashed into the room and Vorox hacked down the warhammer troll in a single powerful strike. I used my gold magic ring, the one set with a ruby, unleashing an elemental blast of fire roasting the troll-wife a little. I then blasted her with a lightning bolt finally doing her in with a couple of acid bolts. Tweena jabbed the final troll with her dagger and Vorox finished him off. I zapped the leftover troll-meat with acid bolts ending the battle.

Tweena jaunted into the second archway to the north which led to a stinking, filthy kitchen. She said she had seen a ratling run in there during the fighting. I silently moved into the workshop and casting illuminate I spied and collected 6 gold talons, 10 silver talons, a talon mold, 10 iron pigs, and 1 titanium ingot from an open chest while the others hunted ratling in the troll’s mess. When the my companions entered after a little while, and long after I concealed my hard won booty, I pointed out a locked iron bound chest in the corner. I stepped just outside of the room. Tweena opened the chest lock avoiding the blade trap she triggered while doing so. She found a scale-mail vest with titanium inlay, 50 pieces of tiger eye, and 10 alexandrites. We went back south to the southernmost doorway with Tweena in the lead into what could only be described in the most banal terms as Blackgut’s bedchamber. The dungeoneer buzzed straight to the giant locked chest she spotted in the corner opposite the corner with the bucket/chamber-pot.

She thought it wasn’t trapped and picked the lock catching her hands in a spring-loaded blade trap nearly losing the fingers on both hands. Vorox had to rub some healing salve she had tucked away on her hands for her. Her hands were basically useless for the rest of the day. Within the chest we found a large sack filled with 500 gold pieces, 50 rubies, 1,000 silver pieces, 10 platinum pieces, and 50 copper pieces. There was also a high quality troll-make greatsword with a serpentine magic-alloy blade, a high quality troll-make dagger with a serpentine magic-alloy blade, a high quality titanium buckler, 5 bronze pigs, 50 gold talons, a manual on runes, 2 matching superior quality magic alloy battle axes with single large fire-emeralds on the heads and ironwood silver-wire wrapped grips, a superior quality large troll-make magic alloy greatsword, a high quality blue steel skull cap with star metal rivets inlaid with star metal, a high quality silver dagger with a jewel-encrusted grip, a highest quality platinum pectoral plate featuring a sculpted demon’s head bearing a large onyx gem in its multi-fanged mouth, 2 potions of healing, a potion of dampen magic, 1 oil of feather light, and several unlabeled bottles (2 of powder, 1 of oil and 2 of potions). Tweena also found a hidden compartment in one of the walls in which she found a lionel-hide bag of holding containing a medium silver shield with blood metal rivets, and dragon-hide bracers studded with dragon-bone. We began on our way out with Tweena still in the lead.

She led us to the source of the green glow and found a rather large fire-emerald which she appraised at around 8,000 gold pieces in value. We left it where it was as the ceiling and floor of the hallway at which the tempting, glowing gem was at the end of were made of solid steel. We all spent the night in the stone passage outside the lair entrance; a light sprinkle was coming down.

The next morning was marked by a torrential downpour so instead of traveling Tweena decided to make a go at the larger emerald, I was of course included in her plan to snatch it. I held out for the bag of holding. Her plan was to have me next to her when she grabbed the gem and I would teleport her out hopefully with the gem in her hands outside of the lair. SO the plan failed to capture the gem which was magically trapped with the Electrical Field spell and I lost one of my daggers, it had been stuck to the magnetized floor, when I teleported us out of there. The emerald was attached to its pedestal at the end of the steel hallway. It took about 2 days to get back to Rockhollow with a 1 day stopover in Blackwood and Druid Blackleaf’s tree through sporadic icy, cold showers.

It was still raining when we walked into town. Without pause I led the others to meet up with my alchemist contact, Ebaik, and paid him to identify the gear I couldn’t. The titanium buckler was a buckler of deflection and defence. The paired battle-axes had the ability to unleash the doom scythe spell on a critical strike. The skull cap was capable of casting the invisibility II and guardian shield spells. The pectoral plate was evil so the group agreed to let the alchemist “unmake” it. The silver shield was a simple magic shield and bracers were bracers of true-striking. The oil was an Oil of Stench; the powders were of Eagle Form and Conjure Flame. The potions were of Owl’s Wisdom and Fleet of Foot. After divvying up the equipment we went to deliver Blackgut’s horned helmet to Lord Black Eagle and collect our reward. We got 1,000 gold pieces for the bounty and an invite to Lord Black Eagle’s fall feast in 3 weeks. We left and were eager to get back to the longhouse in order to divvy up the remaining gems and coinage besides I was cold, tired and soaked to the bone. I was giving the teleport thing a rest.

Nailed to the front door with a crossbow bolt was poster bearing the mark of the Red Daggers and the words: 1,000 gold pieces for the head of Baerig Bronze Mask.

Great.

 

To Be Continued…

A Mage from Poisonwood II Pt.4: …And on and on.

Vorox the monster rider and Blackgut the troll-boss were having at each other before the boulder that blocked the entrance to the troll’s lair and Tweena shot the black ratling that had harried me causing him to flee. The troll slave-master was busy backing up his boss against Vorox and the dragonsaurus so I teleported to the top of the wood pile and prepared to cast Phantom Flames again. The archer troll emerged from the bush his green cloak waving in the evening breeze; he appeared to be out of those big, black arrows. I unleashed my magic over the battlefield dropping Blackgut and the slave-master. Seeing this, the archer bolted. The seemingly deformed ratling, a proto-trollwife, chained to the lave-master was still alive and squealed as the remaining slaves attacked and killed her. Vorox and I finished the two crossbow wielding thugs. The bodies were looted and we burned used the wood pile to burn the troll bodies. The clouds moved in cutting off any moonlight and it started to rain.

I cast Mold & Shape Stone working a 12 ft. tunnel in the boulder both for shelter and in preparation for our foray into the lair on the morrow. I packed away my share of the spoils which was 76 gp, 3 gtal (gold talons), 1 vial containing a black sludge (4 doses of troll marital salve), several troll-make titanium daggers with serpentine blades, a pair of dragon-bone dice with jeweled pips, and a glowing starmetal amulet set with a large aquamarine. I donned the latter in order to find out what it did, it fortified my sense of willpower. After this I washed down some trail ration with the last of my wine and quickly dropped off into a deep sleep at the rear of the tunnel.

A roar from Greyshadow jolted me awake. Bleary eyed I could see my buddies fighting the troll-archer and the red-faced ratling. Both Tweena and Vorox appeared to be badly wounded. I came to my senses and the dragonsaurus charged into battle leaving the entrance to the tunnel where he had been standing guard. I pulled out a small vial of Paralyze II spell powder combining it with a casting of Mass Paralyze. My magic failed to take hold but feeling its power the troll archer turned tail and ran away. Vorox shouted a taunt attempting to draw him back into battle as he could not keep up with his enemy. Tweena shouted that she lost sight of the ratling and indeed he seemingly disappeared from the field. I cast Crown of Eyes but the magic got away from me and went wild. All of us including the dragonsaurus were crowned with a floating, rotating circlet of eyes above our heads. After scoping out the area Tweena and Vorox were sure that the pair had fled then when they returned to the tunnel Tweena found that the door to the lair was open just a crack and there were ratling tracks leading in.

Come dawn the slaves left and we prepared to camp out for another day as both Tweena and Vorox were still badly wounded and needed some rest, they had drunk most of their potions and were smeared from head to toe in Blackleaf’s medicinal salve. By lunch it had started to rain again which was coming down in gray torrents causing the creek to flood effectively isolating us from the other side. Not long after Tweena alerted us to the young Crimson Reaver that had come to perch on top of what was left of the wood pile near the remnants of the troll bonfire.

 

To Be Continued…