Shit! We're now into May and the Ironguard Campaign is starting up again in June, so I need to get my faithful readers caught up! On top of this is the final planning for the start session, after all, 18 months have passed in both the real and game worlds, and lots can happen in that time.
That said, I have prepped the remaining posts, and it looks like things taper off at the 18 mark.
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Original Session Date 7/28/20 -
PCs in attendance:
Klayton - human warlock
Yelrah - halforc barbarian
THE Svetlo - human cleric of Odin
Kirsten - elf
Albrecht - human sorcerer
NPCs:
Ulster - human fighter
Morgan Ironwolf - human fighter
Steve the Mule
unnamed pseudodragon
The morning
was warm, but overcast when the Group awoke.
Preparations for Operation: Capture Podman included purchasing manacles,
ropes, lots of provisions, a cart, and a mule to pull said cart. The mule’s name was Steve.
While
preparations were made, Albrecht visited Mario’s shop and convinced Constanzo
to take his money. For 450gp, Albrecht
walked away with a blue-painted, gold-inlaid bullroarer that was guaranteed to
drive off Owlbears and probably other such things - that said, Constanzo warned that it’s noise might also attract different other things. In
addition to the Bullroarer, Albrecht also purchased a curious display case
containing 6 pinned butterflies, each sporting a different label:
Theodotus of
Byzantium
Epiphanius
Eustathius
of Sebaste
Nestorius
Vettius
Valens
Decimus
Valerius Asiaticus.
(I do love this wiki page for random names).
Mario asked
Albrecht to take it outside if he planned to open it; better safe than sorry,
and all that. After all, “magic is
unpredictable and dangerous,” as NPCs often tell the PCs.
Albrecht
obliged and pulled the pin from the butterfly labeled “Theodotus of Byzantium.”
In a flash of light and puff of smoke appeared a pale man with mesmeric
eyes. He smiled and Albrecht saw his
eyes flash, but made his saving throw versus charm. Not that it mattered, as Albrecht struck up a
conversation.
The pale man
introduced himself as Theodotus of Byzantium, and asked the place and
year. When told, he seemed confused, but
at least recognized the mountains in the distance, so was pleased. As a crowd gathered, he thanked Albrecht for
freeing him and disappeared into a drifting cloud after laying hands on
Albrecht (another saving throw made).
When Theodotus parted, Albrecht realized that the pin he had pulled had
become a silvered stake.
When Albrecht declared he wanted to ‘free them all,’ the other members of the Group intervened and then led Steve the mule to Wyrmsback Ridge. Along the way, they encountered the brownie Jack-in-the-Green, who traded his Acorn Cup Cap to Albrecht for the pretty butterfly collection.
Bets were made
about how badly this trade would turn out, and the DM added VAMPIRE to the
wandering monster chart.
Arriving at
Wyrmsback Ridge, Ulster admitted fear at entering. The Group reached a compromise, with Ulster
and Morgan waiting with Steve the Mule at the entrance. To facilitate communication, Klayton summoned his familiar - a pseudodragon. To
both Klayton and the dragon’s amazement, the summoning called up the physical
body of the wee beastie, and now it won’t (can't) leave. Klayton could tell his voodoo head was excited
at the prospect of being mounted on a dragon.
No one
noticed the gathering squirrels.
Into the
depths the five went, retracing their steps. The Hanging Snagworts had been
replaced/regrown, but the thunderous waterfall drowned out the sound of combat
and nothing investigated THE Group's butchery. Klayton and
Albrecht used cantrips to weaken the ceiling a bit to make planting again
difficult. The Group made a beeline
using the route they had previously walked, pausing only to search the
moldering mound for missed treasure.
Albrecht rolled a 20, discovering a stoppered bottle containing a
purplish liquid that sparkled from the motes of light within it. He tucked it away for later.
Eventually,
the Group found themselves in the cavern where they had rescued Ulster several
weeks prior. To their joy, there were
podmen feeding someone else into the mulcher.
To their dismay, the thing in the cage was STILL there, and roared,
alerting the podmen to danger. All
things considered, it was an anticlimatic fight, but with a podman slain and
the other manacled and bound in ropes, the Group had met the first half of
their goal.
Tragically,
the DM’s dice were unkind for each wandering monster check to this point. Luckily, Albrecht wanted to again visit with
the caged dwarf that roared in a decidedly nonDwarven tongue. As it turns out, the beast had an impressive,
if somewhat limited, vocabulary of curse words in a variety of
languages. When Albrecht stepped close,
it reached for him, its arms transforming into green, spindly things that ended
in clawed fingers. Sadly, it missed.
The DM’s
dice then rolled a wandering monster! A giant centipede!
How
disappointing.
Albrecht
used his session d30 on the Centipede, exploding it like a blood sausage. As the Group left the caves, they encountered
another giant centipede, and Albrecht did for that one, too, albeit less impressively. Once back under
the cloudcover of the overcast day, Klayton learned that his pseudodragon REALLY loves catnip
and both Morgan and Ulster seem to be taken with the pseudodragon.
The Group
moved off a distance to call up Klayton’s cabin (man, this DM regrets that
item), but decided to keep the cart, mule, podman, and 2-person guard shifts
outside. After dinner, Albrecht and
Kirsten had the first shift when suddenly the ground began shaking and trees
came crashing down.
A massive
two-headed giant burst through the trees, lunging for Steve the Mule who was
screaming in fright as it tried frantically to escape, but as it was hobbled for the
night, it could not. The screaming ended quickly as
the Ettin’s morning star crushed the beast.
Noise
(particularly that of Kirsten and Albrecht screaming and pounding on the door)
stirred the others and battle was joined! Yelrah and Klayton used their session
d30s to little effect on damage rolls, but in the end, the beast was felled by
THE Svetlo’s Guiding Strike.
Being THE Group, they beheaded the Ettin for trophies and moved camp. Why they didn’t search it is beyond this humble
DM’s knowledge. Still, morning arrived,
and the Group started back to the keep, the podman over Yelrah’s shoulder, and giant heads over the shoulders of Morgan and Ulster.
Truly, they made a gruesome sight.
Sharing
their adventures with Captain DuBois, she thanked them and told them to stay in
the Keep for the next few days, as she would arrange a meeting with the
Castellan because something was certainly afoot. She also spoke of the Three Chaos Temples -
one to the East beyond the river, one to the North of the Keep, and one to the
South in the swamp - and how she suspected they had been rebuilt. The Captain also planted the thought that an
intelligence was behind the people-mulching, the podpeople, and the horrid
plant life. The members of the Group agreed.
RIP Steve
the Mule
So, join us
next session, when we meet with the Castellan, kit out Ulster and Morgan,
research the temples, and sew a voodoo head on a dead squirrel!
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Moving forward, I want to be using the familiars as described at Goblin Punch in my games. This is at least one thing that has changed in the 18 months. Chaos IS rising, after all.
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