March 2012

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Honey Badger Don’t Care

March 18, 2012 in Campaign | No comments

The party wakes up to the sound of Swag being attacked by a honey badger outside.

Encounter:
Honey Badger

Yens and Sariel are casting magicks to aide Swag while Alain crossbows it. Yens uses a force orb on the window, which creates a giant hole in the wall, which he refers to as a “wizard portal”. The honey badger digs into the dirt and kicks it up at Swag’s face. It escapes and the characters make no move to follow to finish it off.

Meanwhile, Rick is comatose inside the inn. Gennal is trying to heal him, but critically fails, missing Rick and hitting the pillow instead. It changes into a goose.

Encounter:
Goose

Gennal has made the goose down whole again, and it’s not happy. Rick wakes up from the goose biting his ear and begins to fight the angry bird. He finally throttles it and shoves his fist down its throat, then proceeds to punch his goose covered fist into the wall. Needless to say, he has goose for breakfast.

Following Kelldan’s information from the night before, the heroes enter an old town that lies in ruin. Rubble fills the streets and the buildings are quite dilapidated. This is the town of Saleria. There is an old temple here, but it has long since been abandoned.  This was one of the first places Galbatorix attacked when he defected to evil. The people never had a chance against him and his dragon. Many hid in the temple, praying their god would save them. Few survived.

The building entryways are mostly blocked, but there is a glint of light from the entryway to the temple, the only building not blocked by rubble. As they reach the steps of the temple, rats begin scurrying out of the shadows of the temple, rushing toward them, their high-pitched squeaks loud amidst the otherwise quiet ruins.

Encounter:
4 Giant Rats
2 Rat Swarms

They enter the temple, but it’s dark and they can’t see anything. It smells of mold and decay. Rick activates a sunrod and light fills the room. There are piles of bones against the walls, a few torch sconces, and an old shrine with a dusty golden ark in front of it. There is an opening in the wall toward the back of the room. The party works together to push off the lid of the ark. The lid clatters to the floor, the sound echoing ominously. Inside the ark, they find some gold, jewels, and a wand with a sapphire in the tip. But before they can inspect it further, they hear soft scraping and rusting around them. The bones are coming together and rising up, forming full skeletons.

Encounter:
4 Decrepit Skeletons
2 Skeletons

After the skeletons are defeated, the party inspects the ark some more. They find a holy symbol of life and bracers of perfect shot.

New Beginnings

March 4, 2012 in Campaign | No comments

Our story takes place in Alagaesia, in the era of the Dragon Riders. One rider, Galbatorix, has defected from the rest to gain power and dark magic. He has killed the king and proclaimed himself ruler of the whole of Alagaesia, his domain being referred to simply as the Empire. He is spreading his influence and killing all who oppose him, including other Dragon Riders. Others have joined him, calling themselves the Forsworn and totaling 13 in number. They are aiding the spread of evil across the land and amassing dark power.

Panic has swept the land, unrest has found residence in every town, all the way from Du Weldenvarden to Surda. The Varden and the Riders are in the process of mounting an attack on the Forsworn and the evil they’ve spread. But they are far from success. They need more power. More good for their cause. More fighters. And more information about their foes.

In the city of Ellesmera, deep in Du Weldenvarden, Gennal the elf cleric and Sariel the Eladrin paladin are worshipping in Pelor’s shrine when a messenger bursts into the temple, breathing heavy, doubled over as he struggles to speak.

“Master Gennal… Lady Sariel… we just received word… from Farthen Dur… Lord Ajihad is sending… warriors to aide… in the fight… against the Forsworn… They’re flying in with the Riders. The queen… requests you receive them… and accompany them on their journeys.”

Gennal and Sariel look at each other, apprehensive at first, then they share a smile.

“Finally, a quest worthy of my greatness!” exclaims Sariel with a wry smile.

“Always looking for a fight aren’t you? Well, I’m game, as always,” Gennal smirks at the paladin.

They follow the messenger to a clearing, where scores of elves and eladrin have gathered to see the Riders and the warriors arrive. After much milling about and muttering, someone in the crowd spots the riders in the sky and shouts. Everyone looks to the sky, where 3 dark shapes are rapidly growing as they descend to the clearing. The crowd parts to make room for their landing, surrounding the clearing. There are two people on each dragon, one Rider and one stranger.

Gennal eyes them suspiciously. “These are the mighty warriors from Farthen Dur?!” he hisses quietly.

“They look more like arrow fodder to me. And what’s with the short one? Look at his hair!” Sariel replies, just above a whisper.

The six dismount the dragons and are received by the elf queen, Islanzadi. She thanks the Riders and welcomes the others to Ellesmera. The messenger from the temple is standing off to her left, hands folded, head down. The queen motions to him, he snaps to her side. She bends and murmurs something to him. He nods quickly and looks around the crowd before approaching Gennal and Sariel and beckoning them forward. They follow the boy to the center of the clearing, stop before the queen, and bow to her and the Riders.

The queen introduces the three strangers as Yens Van der Handle, Alain Whaler, and Swag Cloakdust. Yens and Swag come from Du Vrangr Gata, the Varden’s group of magicians. Ajihad assigned Alain to accompany them and protect them with his dagger and crossbow.  Islanzadi instructs the 2 elves to show their visitors around Ellesmera and to become better acquainted. The 5 set off into the trees.

After almost an hour of wandering and talking, the tension eases and the group stops for a moment to rest. They talk, share stories, and even a few laughs until there is laughter from among the treetops. They look up as a man clothed in green leathers jumps out of the leafy canopy, landing deftly in the middle of them. He introduces himself as Rick Ronin, a lone adventuring ranger from the western forest. He has heard of the heroes’ charge and wishes to join in the fight. The group accepts his help and they all return to Islanzadi, in the heart of Ellesmera.

She informs the party of Varden contact points that are in many towns they will visit on their travels, requesting they send progress reports and receive news as often as possible as the scholars and researchers of Ellesmera will be working to find helpful information for the journey. The party collects supplies and sets off to eradicate evil from the land.

They go east through the forest, passing through a particularly thick area of foliage. There’s a light rustling and goblins burst out of the bushes with cries of “Kill the infidel!” and “Kill them all!”

Rick laughs uncomfortably. “So I kinda forgot to mention something… I may have pissed off a clan of goblins earlier… by desecrating one of their idols… by peeing on it.”

Encounter: 
2 Goblin Warriors
3 Goblin Blackblades
4 Goblin Cutters

At some point in the encounter, a psychic attack missed a target and hit a nearby tree, which started loudly screaming inside the minds of all around it. Yens conjured a barrier to change it to just white noise, but no one knows why the psychic tree was screaming. So much screaming…

Encounter:
Cave Bear

Rick is on high alert after the bear attack and is checking his surroundings incessantly. But he fails to notice the steep hill nearby and he slips, falling down the hill and sliding into a wererat.

Encounter:
Wererat

Swag throws a grappling hook at Rick, hooking his shoulder. The heroes work to pull him up the hill, then Sariel helps and critically succeeds. But it’s too much force. Rick is thrown through the air and slammed against a tree. Then he uses his bow for the first time since the characters have met, hitting his mark impressively.

They get to a town to rest. They go to the bar/inn and the bartender/innkeeper, Kelldan, tells Rick he needs to shower before sleeping in one of his beds. He says that he’s had some pretty stinky clientele, but Rick is just too potent. Kelldan hands him some soap. It’s lavender. Rick wanders off to the showers. Everyone else, except Swag, goes upstairs to sleep. But Swag wants hooch. He gets into an argument with the bartender and tries intimidation to get the stronger booze. He takes the wererat’s head out of his backpack and sticks it on the bar, slides it around, then puts it away. Kelldan is not amused. Swag gets muscled out of the bar and sleeps outside.