White Plume Mountain Part 3 - Interesting Rooms

This time we go through some interesting rooms! Ones with floating rivers, and slippery floors and pits!

White Plume Mountain Part 2 - 2 black puddin', 6 flesh golems, 1 vampire (ran away): 21200 XP

(6 party members 3533 each )

1800 XP for roleplaying and riddle solving

5333 XP TOTAL

STARTING XP: 29271

ENDING XP: 34604 (48000 xp next level)

20 downtime days for the adventure - (160 downtime total)

Our intrepid party over the last two weeks made their way to the fabled White Plume Mountain where Kelvan, the notorious wizard in the area, is holding his mountain open for adventurers and mercenaries to enter and attempt to pillage. After a payment of 5000 gp, and several bet wagered at 25 to 1, the party ventures into the mysterious mountain. So far our group has been the only one that was able to make it through the first trial.
The pirates of penzance . . . errr . . .  the pirates of the cult airship . .. .  err the party group for wednesday DnD,  has had a few near death experiences but has managed to pull through. Nothing seems to stand in their way, not puddin's or golems or vampires OH MY ! They have managed to find the first objective Whelm and magical hammer with wondrous properties.
After answering the riddle for the entrance to the second trial of the journey, (Way to go Occy !!), our brave group heads further into the mountain to encounter more of its treacherous protectors.

Nice job everyone !! LEVEL 8 CONGRATS !!!

-DM OUT !!!!

White Plume Mountain Part 1 - Tattoo's Are Revealed, New Mission to White Plume Mountain, Riddles are figured out... Too late...

A prologue to the adventure:

Arthur sends word for  you to return to his Keep. Upon arrival, he has a message from Goldenface. Goldenface and Zephyros have been able to decipher the runes that each party member has. He refers to a chart that helps your characters understand what each rune means. When you discover the actual meaning of the rune, the runes power becomes clear:

Daniel - Gift of Vengeance - Know Thy Enemy. As a bonus action, pick one enemy within 30 feet of you. You may learn the enemies AC, starting hit points, and any damage immunities, resistances, or vulnerabilities. Once you use this property twice, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.

Scott - Gift of the King. - Ruler’s Command. As an action, you may inspire up to four creatures of your choice within 30 feet of you, and they can get advantage on any one die role for the next 5 minutes. This is completely separate from luck, bardic inspiration, or inspiration. Once you use this property, you can’t use it again until you use a short or long rest.

James - Gift of Death - Animate Dead. As an action, you can cast animate dead. During the time that your undead is 'alive' and does damage with its first attack against any living creature, it will in turn heal you for the damage up to your maximum health as long as you are within 30ft. Once you use this property, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.

Evan - Gift of Cloud. Cloud Carpet. You may cast this as a bonus action, you can spend 1 minute with a fly speed of 80 feet. Once you use this property, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.

Earl - Gift of Storm. Lightning’s Call. As an action up to 4 creatures of your choice within 30ft of you and are holding at least one weapon; each may only have one weapon they are wielding of their choice covered in crackling lightning for 1 minute. During this time the weapons deal an extra 1d6 lightning damage and are magical. A weapon loses these properties if it is dropped or stowed. Once you use this property, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.

These powers are experimental, if they don't work properly for some reason or they seem too broken, I may make small alterations. Any questions, feel free to ask.

A quick update of the financial holdings of the Sky Pirates of Shander... 

Coin: 4 pp, 3100 gp, 75 sp, 147 cp = 3148.97
Gems: 4 @100 gp, 6 @ 25 gp = 550
Objets d'art: 3 @ 25 gp, 5 @ 750 gp = 3825
silver salt and pepper shakers: 25 gp
silver holy symbol (unicorn head): 25 gp
wooden holy symbol engraved with gold: 25 gp
huge frost giant horn: 750 gp
TOTAL GP VALUE = 8348.97
We keep the coin and gems separated out in the Bag of Holding in small convenient pouches.

Magical Items, Consumable: 

5 Potions of Healing 2d4+2 (I think we used one last session? So maybe only 4)
2 Potions of Greater Healing 4d4+4
Potion of Invulnerability (resistance to all damage for 1 minute)
Potion of Stone giant strength (23 str / +7 mod) for 1 hour)
Potion of Diminution (reduce spell for 1d4 hours)
Potion of Speed (haste 1 minute)
Potion of Heroism (+10 temp hp for 1 hour)
3 Potions of flying (fly speed = walking speed 1 hour)
5 Vials of Bitch Monkey Blood that for some reason we still have lying around...

Magical Items, Non-consumable

Cloak of Elvenkind (Brunelda)
Cli Lyre (Brunelda)
TWO +3 Adamantine GithGreatswords (The Baron)
Wand of Wonder (I think Occy has it?)
Rope of Entanglement (I think Tyr has it?)
Boots of Levitation (I think The Baron has them?)

Magical Gifts from Arthur 

Cask of Jeremiah (Brunelda)
Polymorph Key (Brunelda)
_____ (Occy)
_____ (Tyr)
_____ (The Baron)
(I can't remember what y'all got from Arthur when he was overcome with the gift of gifting.)

There's also a Fine Bottle of Brandy that Brunelda's holding onto for a special occasion. Or wait, that's gone missing. Yep, that's it. It's gone. Giants must've snuck up into the airship and nicked it. Tricksy giantses, always stealing our stuff...

Financial Report submitted by Brunelda Hammercrag, Treasurer of the Sky Pirates of Shander who's totally not drinking the Fine Bottle of Brandy because she's drained the Cask of Jeremiah of its ale for the day...

*hic*

We Save The Dwarfs and Aliens Come To Bryn Shander

Saved the dwarfs! Fireballs, Harpoons, and lot of planning did the trick!

Here we do our group planning, with our college math professor showing off his math skillz!

We get back to Bryn Shander and then find out a pack of aliens from another dimension are hunting down the traveling salesman we had been conned from previously is in town! Here we put ourselves into non-fireball formation!

The beginning of the Alien fight!

Old Halfling Seer Forecasts Doom and Party fly's to Sad Dwarf Encampment

The party goes and visits an old halfling seer regarding their tattoos (The Baron calls it a birthmark, tattoos are for evil buffoons...). Joining them is a new woman named Khapri, who is a swashbuckler/monk/rogue!

She comes across as hard of hearing and can't see that well. Offering everyone tea and biscuits. In which everyone who drank the tea provided received inspiration point.

She says that she doesn't know what the tattoo's represent, but she knows that its tied to something that is in a cave within a cave...

She tells the party about about a group of dwarfs, only 20 surviving now, that are about 40 miles NorthEast of Bryn Shander.

So the party takes the AirShip up to this mountain cave spot. As they approach they can see a battlefield filled with dead Dwarfs and dead Ogres. And there is a camp of Ogres, about 40 of them.

Then they sneak past them with the airship and drop down using feather fall to meet up with the dwarfs. They tell the constructs that run the airship to fly back up and wait for a signal from us to come down and pick up the party. The signal being a sword that is lit with 'light' spell.

The party meets up with the dwarfs that are in a terrible state. They mention how they are starving and having tough time fighting the Ogres. In which they will have 3 dwarfs guarding the cave entrance at any given time. Trying to make sure the don't know their true numbers.

The party then gives food and water to the dwarfs and investigate the back area of the cave. They find a secret door that takes 2 hours to open. Once open they go inside and see a collection of large rocks that are 20 to 50 feet in diameter! This will be hard to take from the cave!

In the middle of the stones is a large coffin, which the party opens since they're bored... After open the coffin a large undead frost giant stands up and starts to fight the party. The party eventually defeats the giant. And after inspecting the body they close the lid back over the coffin.

The door the inner chamber closes as they kill the undead giant. But then Brunelda casts stone to mud and creates a hole through the 3 feet stone door.

The frost giants are attacking!

A wounded rider rides into the center of the keep calling out for help. “The frost giants are attacking. The frost giants are attacking”

Goldenface and the party decided that Goldenface will take the east side and the party members will approach from the north side.

After several battles with the giants, the party was worn down but victorious. They learned that the frost giants were looking for Artus Cimber and as Arthur recalled he had moved to Waterdeep.

The party was awarded several items from the town for assisting them with the attack. During the following weeks of recovery the towns people began rebuilding structures.

The party also learned that a seer in town may know more about the giant runic writings that they have as tattoo’s on their body.

Short and Sweet

DM out!

PS I believe there maybe an addition to the team on wednesday

The Truth of Arthur Is Revealed, Booty is Provided, Bryn Shander is Attacked!

6 bad le fey soldiers: 3600XP 

(4 party members 900 each)
900 XP for roleplaying

1800 XP TOTAL

STARTING XP: 17225

ENDING XP: 19025 (23000 xp next level)

The party's brainstorming began, with a little help from Sir Leon, and soon they developed what appeared to be a fool proof plan to re-acquire their airship. 

They were introduced to captain of Sir Leon's trading vessel, a salty old pirate named Crusty. The party took off in the ship and headed toward pirates bay and awaited their airship (this ship needs a name) waiting for lord protector's men to stop them. As promised, Sir Leon reported his ship missing and some hours later the airship headed toward them. 

Magnus recognized The Baron, Occy and Brunelda during the ensuing battle. The battle was short and sweet, but during the slashing and attacking, Occy and Brunelda noticed two real pirate ships heading toward the Sir Leon's vessel.

Tyr paused long enough in his sword fighting to look up into the sky and yell, " You couldn't just make this easy could ya !?!?!?" (I'm sure he heard the wind snickering back at him.)  

The party quickly defeated Magnus and the guards. As the party finally made it to the airship with all the clockworks and so on, Magnus could be seen shouting obscenities from the deck of Sir Leon's ship but was drowned out by the parties singing. . . . 

"We all set sail for the island of gold
The only ones coming are the brave and the bold 
If you get left behind just know you we're told
Yo ho ho we are pirates"

"Fill all the barrels with whiskey and rum 
The ale and the grog and the meadery drum
We'll sail till we're drunkards and poor as the bums
Yo ho ho we are pirates"

"We rob from the rich and we give to the poor.
Hide all your gold cause we'll break down your door
Give us your jewels and we'll have an accord 
Yo ho ho we are pirates"

"We'll board you ship and we'll take all your loot
We'll bury it deep and we won't give a hoot 
We'll carry the map in the holes of our boots 
Yo ho ho we are pirates..."

(courtesy of Scott)

And off to Bryn Shander they go. Upon arrival, they find the northern keep just outside the city. They land in the keep which appears to be more like a castle and guards that look just a formidable. 

Upon landing, the guards take them to see the Lady Jacquelyn of the house after they asked for Lord Arthur claiming that they have brought his new airship. 

After a conversation leaving both sides in dumbfounded looks and banter that resembled, "My airship?" "Yes" "I didn't order an airship" "Yes Arthur did" "No he didn't" and so forth. The one-armed  Arthur came out looked a little worse for wear, exclaiming that the party was trying to pull something over. After a little more 'splaining because the sum up wasn't going to work, Arthur finally understood and ask the party to wait in the study. Servant were sent to give the characters what they needed. Occy took a bath, Tyr and Brunelda drank and ate, the Baron had milk. 

Occy freaked out at the bathing maidens but that wasn't too new. He was upset that they saw his lily white tushy.

One-armed Arthur finally came in and the party and him had a long conversation about the events of the last couple months, the party realizing a second Arthur was running around. 

Just then a two-armed Arthur came through the back, "Well Arthur I'm glad your awake, I have much to discuss with you .. . ." The party and the one-armed Arthur looking back at him rather perturbed. And the following questions began to get answered:

Yes the daughter was in trouble and need to pay off the demon lord.

Yes both Arthur's are real.

The one-armed Arthur lost all his brothers in the Ice Spire Ogre war and thats where he met Arthur number 2.

The two-armed Arthur is actually a Adult Gold Dragon named Goldenface.

Arthur saved Goldenface's wrymling and they became fast friends and have been for many years. 

The party had been given free run of the armory where they re-equiped themselves and it appears after several eldritch blasts .. . 

"You Lied"

"Oww Occy that hurts"

"But you lied"

"Occy that hurts."

"Liar"

"Owww"

"Liar"

"Owww .. .  ok here's a present"

"I forgive you."
Occy has forgiven Goldenface. 

After a very peaceful nights sleep, the city of Bryn Shander is attacked by Frost Giants and is in peril. How does this stuff keep happening to our party?!?!?"

Nuff Said . .. .  DM OUT !!!

Get Heartstone back, track down Human Traffickers

4 bad le fey soldiers: 1800XP 
(4 party members 450 each)
900 XP for roleplaying
1350 XP TOTAL
STARTING XP: 15875
ENDING XP: 17225 (23000 xp next level)

The Guard Sergeant, Magnus, sneers at the party about how much he loves riding in the airship. Smelling like jerky beef and ale, he laughs as he tells the party, “Those pirates are slippery, I told my father we may need that ship for a while.”

The party convinced him that stones were place inside the ship to control the elementals and without constant rituals every 8 hours or so that they maybe unstable and the elementals would escape and destroy everything on the ship.

Magnus told the party he would go and check and sure enough came back several minutes later with the stone. “I found the guy who took it off the ship. Quickly do something!” The party retrieved the stone and was told that the ship would be back in 6 hours or so and they could stabilize the elementals then.

The party decided to kill a few hours by going to the market place in the older section of town where the fissure from the underdark was repaired. While in the marketplace they spotted several armored individuals with Le Fey’s sigil walking amongst the crowd. The party followed them to see what they were up to.

They entered a house and wagon pulled up to the alley closest to the house. The covered wagon was being pulled by two horses and the armored driver wore the same symbol. Le Fey’s people walked to the back alley behind the wagon and began loading things from the house’s back window into the back of the cart. The bags they were loading looked suspiciously like small humans, maybe halflings or young dwarves, maybe children.

Assuming there was kidnapping, the party attacked Le Fey’s people and quickly dominated them. They went to knock on the house only to have an elderly woman open the door and quickly close it, “I don’t know what’s in the bags !!” Having the door slammed in their face the party forced their way in and looked around. The guards were called and responded. The party found children in the back of the wagon, apparently drugged and unconscious.

The elderly folk claimed that the party and their friends (Le Fey’s people) were making a ruckus outside and that’s why they were called.

Brunelda uncovered their secret room by tripping over into their table and pulling up a rug which revealed a trap door to their basement. After investigating the secret room, evidence looked bad for the elderly couple.

They guards took everyone into custody before the magistrate so everyone could tell their side of the story. After a day in jail, the party was cleared. Several children woke up and pointed out the elderly couple as their captors. The elderly couple were promptly sent to the gallows the following morning.

Sir Leon met with the party and brought them back to his keep. They ate and drank and formulated plans on getting back the airship. Potions were given,some talk about Arthur transpired and some interesting things revealed. I will leave the rest to have the players discuss on Wednesday...

Airship Taken from Neverember, Kill Hydra under Neverwinter

Let me ‘splain…No, there is too much. Let me sum up ...
1 Young Adult Hydra: 3900 XP
(4 party members 975 each)
900 XP for roleplaying
1875 XP TOTAL
STARTING XP: 14000
ENDING XP: 15875 (23000 xp next level)

As we explore under Neverwinter, we found a Hydra!

After being welcomed into Sir Leon's home, before eating and drinking their way into a merry slumber, their meal had been interrupted by none other than THE HERALD SYMORE of the lord protector of Neverwinter.

"Ahem ahem by order of the lord protector Dauglt Neverember pronounced Nevee-rem-ber, I hereby issue this decree":

According to Act 2 of the  City Protection Act, Paragraph 4 States:

Any vessel owned by or within the confines of the borders of Neverwinter and any person whether citizen of Neverwinter or otherwise, who benefits from the protection of Neverwinter, or who is under the protection of said city, must, during a state of protection of the city of Neverwinter, relinquish any vessel to the authorities who then may temporarily use said vessel in the cities protection. This vessel may be returned when the authorities deem that its usefulness has been completed.

Sir Leon chose to argue with the herald who shrugged his shoulders and basically implied 'It ain't my fault bro. I didn't write the damn thing.' The lord protector was on his way to 'borrow' the parties airship.

So the party and Sir Leon and a elf hireling in the corner continued to drink till the lord protector showed up.

The Baron chose to try and get the airship out of the barn but that proved difficult considering the size of the ship. He and the clockworks were moving it rather slow.

The lord protector, Dauglt, is a real butthead. He reiterated the law under which he was able to procure the flying ship. Negotiations were tense but Dauglt made an offer to the party. Provide protection services to our mappers and repair apprentices so they can do repair work on the drains in the sewers and he would minimize the use of the airship and see that they got it back in two days.

The party agreed to that and to the sum of 125gp each for five people for their troubles (they thought of Tyr the whole time even though he was probably out whoring or something)

The guards that arrived with Dauglt ran back inside claiming the "clockworks were giving them troubles." Occy took the opportunity to run into the ship and put half a heartstone in the storage area of the ship but forgot to mention it to everyone else. (What happens if Occy dies later and didn't tell anyone about his special tracking device on the ship)

The party true to their word showed up the next day on sewer dooty. (hehe)
They worked their way through the large drainage areas of the city but found a interesting area where the 'water' didn't flow very well.

The visiting tiefling warlock sent his companion to scout and it promptly died in an area where it became much larger. It was unable to discern what killed it.

The party escorted  the two apprentice wizards and the mapper while the tiefling got his companion back and the party returned after escorting the non combatants to the entrance of the tunnels before the potential fight.

As they regrouped, a young adult hydra appeared and after a vicious battle where Brunelda ended up face down in poopy water and all the others not so bad off, the party emerged victorious. They promptly cut off all the hydra heads and looked for a taxidermist. At 25gp for each head, it looks like there will be some decor on the boat if they ever get their ship back.

Two days later, the party shows up to the lord protectors castle and are stopped by the guards. They are paid their wages but the lord protector isn't finished with airship so they will have to wait.

Not happy, Occy confesses what he stored in the airship but realizes that the half of the crystal is coming toward them but no airship to be seen. Four guards are providing relief for the current shift and Occy realizes that one of them has found the heartstone. They all smell of ale and the largest and beefiest of the guards, a spoiled young man named Magnus, apparently has Occy's stone.

To be continued . . .. . .

NUFF SAID !! DM OUT !!

Forest Bandits, Neverwinter, Airship

Let me ‘splain…No, there is too much. Let me sum up ...

5 dead bandit, 1 Leader bandit got away: 3200 XP
(4 party members 800 each)
900 XP for roleplaying
2835 XP Bonus - players need next level before they die because the next adventure is really scary bonus
4535 XP TOTAL
STARTING XP: 9465
ENDING XP: 14000 (23000 xp next level)

The party ate dinner with Arthur. Grum previous leader of the hill giants had become increasingly angry. "He no goldenface. He faker. No believe him anymore. He brings tricks and now he brings foods that we no eat. Makes us eat plants 'stead of meats."
Arthur explained his concerns about the giants and how he felt that he had endangered the party by bringing them here. Arthur found that his 350 year old dwarven whiskey had been opened and became very worried. He had made a deal with the demon lord of night to release his youngest daughter from his grasp in trade for that 250,000 gp cask. After a very suspicious explanation from the party, Arthur resolved to getting the last one in the land from a old acquaintance, Tristen of Triboar.He encouraged the party to leave during the night to continue their quest to Neverwinter. Arthur has left a present there, a ship to help them on their journey.

With reluctance, the party agreed to head toward Neverwinter and meet Arthur at his home in Bryn Shander.

On the way to Neverwinter, the party met some small twig tree like creatures (children of the briar). The numbers were scary so the party moved on but kept an eye on them.

After several days of traveling, the party ran into 6 well armed men on horseback chasing three children. The slowest and fattest of the group fell behind and was promptly slaughtered by a horseman. Piggy will be missed. The two other children spotted the party in front of them and became frightened and ran into the forest.

The most formidable brigand, Captain Jackson, orders four to attack and one to kill the children. One brigand runs into the forest and kills a kid, and less then a minute later, Captain Jackson runs away. The party takes one hostage.

Tyr realizes they wear the symbol of Mordred Lefey, a cult leader from his past. After a few minutes of questioning, the brigand gives up all the little knowledge he had. The was paid to guard children that were being experimented on in the hopes of making them powerful magicians. Occy then had a melt down and slaughtered him realizing his past was catching up to him.

After this rather blooding ordeal, the party made their way to Neverwinter without further incident. They met with Darwin Morinn, Priest of Ilmater who introduced them to Sir Leon Stormbringer. Sir Leon brought the party to his house outside the outskirts of Neverwinter and showed them to the large barn where their ship was being kept.

After the shock of their ship being in the middle of land, and wondering how they were going to get it 50 miles to sea, the party opened the door to a large dragon cult airship complete with elementals to power the ship and four clockworks to guard and man the vessel. Needless to say the party seemed quite happy with Arthur's taste in traveling. Maybe the group might even name the ship " The Anton" if it so suits them in remembrance of the beloved bard (hint).

Congrats on LEVEL 6 -  LEVEL UP !!

NUFF SAID - DM OUT !!!

Let me ‘splain…No, there is too much. Let me sum up ..

2 dead Gith, 2 Gith got away: 2100 XP (4 party members 525 each)
900 XP for roleplaying - great entertainment1425 XP TOTAL
STARTING XP: 8060
ENDING XP: 9465 (14000 xp next level)

After a few days, the party makes their way toward Longsaddle, a frontier trading town. The party finds out that the town has been worn down over the last month. 

Four weeks ago, a gang of dwarves led by a Worvil Forkbeard aka The Weevil, rampaged through Longsaddle leaving little in their wake. They began to rebuild only to succumb to a hill giant attack two and a half weeks ago which left almost nothing, and now most recently, just when they are on the cusp of a little rebuilding, six strangely dressed, well armed, tall individuals led by a surly creature named Arandi began harassing people in the town looking for the clockwork salesman, Moncrieff Waring. Its enough to make a grown man cry.

The group began with breakfast, scared the waiter, and meanwhile, Occy decided to take a walk.

Occy decided to walk the bazaar looking for different items when he came across the 6 Gith and their 4 mean clockwork dogs. Arandi had been sold four defective dogs when "attack" command was yelled, they flopped on their backs and kicked their legs like they had been giving the good kinda scratching. Seeing that Occy had a similar dog, Arandi approached him and asked him about the clockwork salesman, to which Occy told him that Moncrieff was his, "paterfamilias". Arandi not happy with this response placed his very large sword on Occy's shoulder before he could r-u-n-n-o-f-t. 

Baron left the bar to see what Occy was up to and noticed that there was trouble a brewin.
The battle was dicey but the heroes came out on top. It was a pity Arandi managed to escape with some of his buddies, more than likely to re-emerged later in a more untimely fashion and ultimately causing our heroes an even bigger inconvenience. (FORESHADOWING)
Occy had meltdown and Tyr and Baron made nice with the armorer. Brunelda got drunk. 

After being resupplied, they finally left town and headed toward the downed castle. After about a week they met with a relatively well-dressed hill giant. (he looked like a fat kid, in a vest and shorts made of bear skins). The giant made a very clumsily worded invitation to have a "plant water" dinner with the chief of his tribe, Goldenface. Brunelda seeing something comforting in the proper way this hill giant was comporting himself encourage the party to go. They accepted.

After a day of travel, they finally found Arthur. YAY. Apparently, he made nice with the hill giant tribe. He is now their leader. WHAT? They seem scared of him with the exception of the old chief, Grum,  who seems quite perturb that he has been de-throwned and forced to become a vegetarian and eat vegetable stew. BOO. 

The gang has been reunited but who knows for how long . . .

Nuff Said. DM OUT !!!

Tyr finds a Book, Half-Elf/Deer People Make Trade, Demon Baboons, and a Clockwork Salesman!

A quick summary of the party's resources:

CASH MONEY:

4 pp, 332 gp, 75 sp, 147 cp
OTHER VALUABLES:

4 gems (100 gp each)
silver salt and pepper shakers (25 gp each)
silver holy symbol of a unicorn's head (??? gp)
wooden holy symbol with inlaid gold (??? gp)
leather case with thieves' tools (??? gp)
CONSUMABLES:

potion of stone giant strength
potion of invulnerability
potion of healing
2x potion of greater healing
5x vial of bitch monkey 'roids
OTHER MAGICAL ITEMS:

Bag of Holding

Let me ‘splain…No, there is too much. Let me sum up ...

5 dead Behtu, 3 Behtu got away: 2925 XP (5 party members 585 each)

900 XP for roleplaying - great entertainment

1485 XP TOTAL

STARTING XP: 6575

ENDING XP: 8060 (14000 xp next level)

The party cleans up for the morning before disembarking. Tyr finds a strange book with glyphs on the binding among Arthur's things. A dog eared passage sticks out and Tyr reads it to the group . . .

The first page reads Fortunes and Favor 2000 years, stories of the seer

"Content to rule the skies the storm giant king, Unthlion, never bothered with the dealings of small people. His best friend and advisor, formir, was the seer who first brought to light the foretelling of the broken ordning and the chaos that would disrupt it. Unthlion not knowing when this would take place found himself looking to a alliance with a ruler in the small peoples kingdom. Deals and pacts were made and the only thing that was certain was that when this disruption took place the chosen, Horundflur, champions of the small people would be the giants saviors."

Further reading revealed . ..  .

"These saviors would be branded with the giants magic . . . "

Tyr accidentally thinks of the one old book he knew and it instantly changes into that: "Cult Basics 101: Mommy issues and how joining a cult can cure them"

The party joins with a half-orc adventurer that enjoys drinking his morning breakfast. They instantly hit it off.

AND THEN . . .upset with Occy's fireworks, a group of Alseid (Half-Elf/Deer people) demand that Occy be turn over for trial. They accept Occy's ring as favor for his mistake. The group quickly moves eastward and begins their long trek through the magical forest of Neverwinter.

They quickly find the forest is not a friendly place and after a long drinking game that ended up in a threesome, a triad, a trio of half-orc, human, dwarf drinking spooning, regurgitation, and general debauchery, the group finds themselves holed up for the day. Baron scouts out for the party and possibly prays for the souls of his sinning brothers. Tyr did something but I can't remember . . ..

AND THEN . . .  Bright eyed (not really) and bushy tailed (hung over), the party ventures on. After a couple days, they run into a small raiding party of Behtu (Baboon, boar, demonic humanoids) that don't taste like chicken. After a long battle, Brunelda manages to convince them to leave (they were losing badly anyway). The party continues on for several days nearly reaching the end of the forest when they  meet a nice looking gentleman in a suit.

Moncrieff Waring the Clockwork Salesman . . . "It's Not what I need dear gentlemen . . . Its what you need and I, Moncrieff Waring, have the wares that you didn't know you needed."

After several hours of hard negotiation, the party came away with 5 clockwork beetles and and clockwork dog for Occy. A very interesting wednesday  . . .oh  . . .what a night!

Oh  . . .What A Night . . . Late December back in '63 . . . what a very special time for me, as I remember what I night . . . . .

Nuff Said !!! DM OUT !!!!

Zephros's Flying Cloud Castle Crash Lands

Let me ‘splain…No, there is too much. Let me sum up ...
1 carrion beetle: 3900 XP (4 party members 975 each)
900 XP for roleplaying - good deductive reasoning and entertainment
1875 XP TOTAL
STARTING XP: 4700
ENDING XP: 6575 (14000 xp next level)

Well it seems that Zephros had to contemplate with Lord Arthur advising him as to whether to accept the generous offer of the 9 guests. Occy, Brunelda, Baron, and Tyr were very suspicious of them (as well they should have been). Brunelda . . . they are not thirsty and don't like it when you keep asking !!!
With the assistance of the squire, Baron found out they were seeding the cloud with white sand (and it tastes bitter). After eating the sand, Baron reported to the other members and what happened to Tyr's horsey ?!?!?

When confronted, the cultist acted offended and attempted to leave. Tyre grabbed a water skin and poured out the white powder as proof. They attempted to leave in a hurry and several party members tried to detain them and managed to stop a few from getting on their steeds.

The leader, once airborne, called  out the magic words and the cloud holding the great tower began to dissipate. Oh no the cloud is now falling 1000 feet to its doom. Baron grabs a cultist and leaps off the great cloud nearly falling to their doom before he spreads his wings. The cultist after throwing up many times passes out.

Zephros' griffins get the party to safety and then go back for their master. The party watches as the cloud tower falls into a nearby mountain range and loses view.

Being in the forest is scary. Occy shoots the first moving thing and misses. The party finds an abandoned keep with a single tower and mausoleum. They meet some half elf/deer but talk to them and scare them away. The tower proves old and decrepit and generally useless.

The mausoleum has a disturbed sarcophagus and two skeletons and a beautiful necklace which Brunelda refused to pick up. Boo. But had the captive cultist pick up instead. Yay. Cultist turns into a big bad beetle but the party kills it and the cultist turns back into a winy, asshole cultist again.

Baron scoops the cursed necklace so they can do some shenanigans later, Occy started hearing Arthur as the good voice in his head, Tyr couldn't stop rolling 1's and should have been a halfling, and Brunelda escaped becoming a large unsightly beetle and possibly killing the party.

Nuff said.

CONGRATS ON LEVEL 5 . . . . LEVEL UP FOR NEXT WEEK.

DM OUT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Buttercup marries humperdink in little less than half an hour ....

1 Ala: 3900 XP (4 party members 975 each)

400 XP for roleplaying

1375 XP TOTAL

STARTING XP: 3325

ENDING XP: 4700 (6500 xp next level)

On the morning that the party was supposed to leave Nightstone, Lord Arthur went missing. Morak, bartender and interim mayor of the town, explains that Arthur went back to the dripping caves after realizing the giant probably had killed the rest of the goblins and all there was left would be treasure. Ummmm NOPE. Trapped between a small party of goblins and a fey, Ala, the party finds Arthur running out of the caves with a chest in hand. Run Arthur! Run! The party rescues him once again.
They finally were able to make their way toward Bryn Shander by horseback. Along the way, finding out interesting facts about their new host. After several weeks on the road, they met with a friend of Arthur's, Zephros. This cloud giant seemed friendly enough and invited them into his cloud castle.
After a few days, 9 eagles with worshipers of the Yan C Bin met with the giant and made him an offer.

And there we have it . . . . to be continued . . ..  .

Let me ‘splain…No, there is too much. Let me sum up ...

2 hill giants, 1 ogres, 1 goblin: 4800 xp (4 party members 1200 each)

200 xp for roleplaying

1400 XP TOTAL

STARTING XP: 1525

ENDING XP: 3325 (6500 xp next level)

After finishing off the two ogres, Ugg and She-Ugg, the party headed east into the cavern in a noisy and completely un-stealthy fashion but  fortunately the deaf giant could hear shit. Finally they came upon a hill giant eating several people from the village of Nightstone.

Tyr explained in a most eloquent fashion in the language of giant that goblins had poisoned the humans and in turn had poisoned the poor hill giant. Being extremely stupid, and after some very good rolls by Scott and terrible rolls by Mark, the hill giant ran out to kill all the goblins for trying to poison him.

The villagers were rescued. Yay. The next day said hill giant showed up finally realizing that he had been duped. Boo. The party kills the hill giant and the one goblin who spoke enough giant to escape the giants wrath. Boo.

The party decided to accept Lord Arthur's invitation for employment and after making sure the village was secured, is now heading to the great city of Bryn Shander. Yay.

'Nuff said  ............DM out !!

Speaking of sums...
If we're even splits in the loots, we've each the following:
75 gp in rewards from Mayor Corrin and Sir Tristan of Triboar,
1 pp, 4 gp, 1 gem worth 100gp in loot from the Zhentarim riders, and
5 sp and 15 cp from the goblin occupying force.
For the loot that can't be split, we have as a group
2 extra gp and 1 potion of invulnerability from the Zhentarim riders and
2 potions of greater healing from Mazy for our excursion to the Dripping Caves.
Now that we've got some spending cash it's time to see what Bryn Shandor has to offer.

Occy Back Story

Race: Human (Variant)
Class: Wild Magic Sorcerer
Background: Haunted One
Feats: Magic Initiate (Warlock) and War Caster
Mysterious Tattoo Location: Nape
Description:-Buzz Cut
-Pale Skin
-Dark Circles
-Wears a loose, hooded, light brown robe that goes down to his waist
-Covers his head with a hood and wraps the upper-right side of his face with cloth whenever he's around people.
-Glyph Marks on both hands that are used as Arcane Focus (Will use Gothic Trinket (Tobi) as back up in case hands get chopped off)
-Avoids exposing his body in front of people and gets upset when people ask about it.

Backstory: Occy was only 10 when he was taken from the orphanage by a shady mage organization that had an underground lab right beneath a fairly populated town. The mage organization had a goal to infuse arcane energy into a mundane person and turn them into powerful magic users. They believe that this is the only way that all races can evolve into the next stage. After going through many cruel experiments that ended up being unsuccessful, Occy started to hear voices in his head that he believes are the demons that lives in his soul.
(For Mark: If you can, can you help me do the negative voices in my head that makes me hate myself? If not, then I can try to do it.
When the mage organization performed a forbidden arcane ritual on him, Occy finally became one with magic. However, the ritual was so unstable that it blew up the underground lab and the town, killing hundreds of people and possibly leaving no survivors. Occy doesn't feel guilty for all the deaths from this incident. He believes that the mage organization caused this incident.

Personality:-Constantly feeling depressed and rarely ever smiles.
                   -Likes the idea of being a hero.
                   -Acts shy when dealing with good people. Acts aggressively when dealing with bad guys.

Ideals: Helping someone in need is a brave and suicidal act when I'm the one that saving from my demons, but I'm still willing to do it

Bonds:One of the professors was kind to me during my imprisonment and treated me like a human being. He was the one that gave me Tobi so that I felt like I had a friend in this terrible world. I don't know if he survived the explosion.

Flaws:-I can be a little hesitant to cast spells because I'm afraid that I'll blow up and kill all of my friends.
-I have a bad habit of panicking during stressful situations.

The Baron Backstory

Paladin

Background: Guild Artisan

Trait: Always looking to help out others and further develop his skills in Metalworking.

Ideal: ??? I have it written down at home…

Bond: ??? I have it written down at home…

Flaw: ??? I have it written down at home…

Tattoo Location: Top of right hand, but he keeps it covered with a glove all the time...

Bernard Beaudiuex was born from a human family that lived in a nice little village about a days fast march from Baulder's Gate. He was the youngest kid, with two older sisters. He really enjoyed his childhood with his parents and sisters. 

As Bernard grew up he loved his family very much, in which he learned the skills to be a fighter for the local guard.

But then one day there was a raid on his town by a group of Goblins, Kobolds, Orcs, and Bugbears. They killed his parents. He was able to successfully escape the raid with his two sisters.

After he survived this ordeal, he went into deep depression. In which he couldn’t do much except scavenge for food. That is when he became an member of the Church of Ilmater. With that he became a devoted member of the Church. The order the church helped him recover from his depression and he went back to his village and help re-build his home with his sisters and help the village. As he did these efforts they started to refer to him as ‘The Baron’ due to his tallness and broad shoulders.

The order of Paladins of Ilmater noticed his abilities and taught him to be a Paladin. But some members of the Paladin order made fun on his Aasimar heritage. This lead to a fight that Bernard and the bullies that were making fun his skin and eyes. Bernard seriously hurt some of the bullies and was kicked out of the Church in Baulder’s Gate.

The Baron went back to his small village, and became leader. In which he had townsfolk started calling him ‘The Baron’, and he would continuously wear a large white cloak that covers his head and shields others from seeing his face and eyes. Bernard hoped that he would someday rebuild the forge that is in the village. Currently it is just an ancient ruin, just a large pile of rocks.

But his sisters felt uncomfortable with his humility, being that they had grown up wealthy. During his absence one of the sisters had married a kind of wealthy young man from a neighboring village named Aiden. The new husband's family was very jealous by nature and immediately starting plotting against The Baron. Aiden respected The Baron and all of his accomplishments improving the village, but his family came first. So Aiden with the help of his new wife and family, forced The Baron to leave town in disgrace. What they made up has somewhat been forgotten, but the betrayal of his sister hurt more than anything, so now The Baron has become an adventurer.

Tyr Shadebane Back Story

Warpriest / Fighter

Background: Acolyte
Trait: Intolerant of other faiths and condemn the worship of other gods.
Ideal: We must help bring about the changes the gods are constantly working in the world.
Bond: I will someday get revenge on the corrupt temple hierarchy who branded me a heretic.
Flaw: I am suspicious of strangers and expect the worst of them.

Tyr joined the cult of the priests of the raging inferno very young and was brainwashed by their leader Mordred LeFey.

After several emotional outbursts and challenging authority, Tyrs family was beaten in front of him as punishment for disobedience.

Tyr tried to escape a dozen times but was caught and punished again. This time his family was beheaded.

After five years of this tyr finally discovered his resistance to fire. He trained himself to fight with a halberd so people couldn't get close to him.
 So in one last attempt to escape,  tyr set compound on fire while everyone was asleep.

Tyr locked all the doors and stood to watch everyone burn alive.

Tyr then went to Mordred's cabin only to find a trap door hidden under all that ash. It was then tyr knew he had to run.

On the move for three days, tyr made it to a small town. He was able to work at the tavern for room and board. He also healed people for money.

Tyr woke up to the town on fire and thought it was Mordred coming for him. So he joined a group of random adventurers in haste.....

Brunelda Hammercrag Back Story

Brunelda Hammercrag, youngest child and only daughter of Madoran and Moira Hammercrag

Mountain dwarf, Bard of the College of Lore, Entertainer (actor, poet, singer, instrumentalist)

Appearance. Brunelda stands at just under four and a half feet tall and weighs in at just under twelve stone. (Mum says I must get the skinny from me Da.) She wears several braids in her long red hair (That’ll be a gift from both sides.), and often keeps it tied back. (Best t’ be ready fer anythin’!) Her face is freckled and decorated with bright blue eyes. (Those I got from me mum.) She has a mysterious tattoo upon her inner left forearm. (That I got from who-knows-where.)

Brunelda still wears the blue and green Hammercrag tartan about her waist, and a plain leather vest over a mail byrnie. (Style has always come easy to us Hammercrags!) At her waist hang a trio of handaxes (Blasted goblins!), across her back a leather case holding her prized cittern (At’s a beauty, innit!), and in her hand a traditional dwarven walking stick (battleaxe).

Personality. I know a story relevant to almost any situation. Also, whenever I come to a new place, I like to collect the local rumors.

Ideal: Tradition. The stories, songs and legends of the past must never be forgotten, for they teach us who we are.

Bond: I would do anything for the members of my old troupe. 

Flaw: I one satirized a noble who still wants my head. It was a mistake I am likely to repeat.

Background. Brunelda was apprenticed at a young age to the renown blacksmith Thargas Ironhammer to carry on one of the great Hammercrag family traditions, (That would be minin’, smithin’ and jewelin’.) and showed some promise. But she couldn’t help but be enchanted by her brother Thalstad’s tales from his soldiering. Her dreams of a quiet life at home were quickly replaced by dreams of adventure in the wide world. Before she knew it, she would get her chance.

It was on a trading trip to a human city when Brunelda saw Nicodaemus Wonderstone’s World-Famous (According to Nicodaemus, anyway.) Mobile Carnival of Merriment and Ballyhoo™. Enraptured by the wonders of the circus and the thought of seeing the Whole of the Sword Coast and Maybe Even Beyond™, she couldn’t resist! She bid Thargas farewell, handed him a letter to deliver to her mum and da, and joined Nicodaemus’ troupe.

At first, Brunelda was a simple carnie, doing whatever job needed doing whenever it needed doing, including putting some of her blacksmithing skills to work. But she watched all the acts very closely and practiced the routines every day. It wasn’t long before she was called upon to perform with the other players - acting in the ribald comic scenes, singing the bawdy tavern songs, and spinning raunchy tales! She even began learning magical secrets from the troupe’s fortune-teller, Madame Kali.

The troupe soon learned that satire is a tricky business. Although some nobles are endowed with hides thick enough to withstand a few barbs from a pack of lowly commoners, others of a more thin-skinned variety prove themselves rather sensitive to the lightest of pricks. Others still match their thin-skins with short tempers, and pair those short tempers with streaks of violence… and enough cash to hire a gaggle of thugs to crush packs of lowly commoners who think they’re funny.

And so the wanderings of Nicodaemus Wonderstone’s World-Famous Mobile Carnival of Merriment and Ballyhoo™ came to their ignominious end. The members of the troupe (those who yet lived, anyway) were scattered to the winds to seek their fortunes otherwise. Some say that the noble whose irresponsibly deep pettiness brought the troupe low still seeks the surviving members. Some say that a mysterious gnome is forming a new troupe with which to take his revenge. All we know is that Brunelda is on the road again.

TL; DR: I ran away and joined the circus. 

Bad Guys Come to Town, Team Ruins Ogre Dinner

Loot

4 pp

18 gp

4 gems @ 100 gp ea

Potion of Invulnerability

5 riding horses, 5 saddlebags, 6 scimitars

2 Potions of Greater Healing from Mazy

cash-wise, we still have 20 sp and 60 cp from the gobbos

Bad Guys Come to Town

Occy is awoken early in the morning by a tap, tap, tap on his door. He wakes up and speaks with a Tavern Maid who is very distressed. She asks him to come down stairs and talk to him. Oci wakes up 'The Baron' who quickly puts on his armor and gets his weapons. They go downstairs and she starts to tell him about a band of ruffians that came to town late last night.

As soon as The Baron hears about some bad guys in town he goes back up and knocks on the hotel room that Tyr and Bru are staying in. Bru is awoken and once he hears that some trouble is brewing he wakes up Tyr. They all come back downstairs.

While The Baron was upstairs the Tavern Maid tells Occy that the bad guys are staying in room right next to us! And they refused to pay any money for their rooms, being very harsh and brandishing weapons.

Once the party is together downstairs they start to hear loud noises from upstairs. So then Brunelda, Tyr, and Occy go upstairs to investigate. The Baron is slow to go investigate as well due to him reading up on Protection Aasimars, who have special abilities that are different from the other two Aasimar subtypes!

Then they get into a fight in the middle of the Tavern upstairs. In which the guards are easily disposed of, but their leader is a little harder to deal with. The Baron casts a spell on him to have their leader focus in actions on him, while Occy fired off a couple of Fire Bolts into The Barons back, causing him to go unconscious...

As the fight takes place the party hears Kella from room #6 take off with one of the 7 horses that were outside.

Ogre Party

The party investigates the Dripping Caves and finds two Ogres about to cook two nice people. We start to stop them from doing so.

End of Round 3 of the Orgre dinner party

Goblins Destroy Caravan, Giants Destroy Town

Loot

• 4 short bows and lots of arrows (poor quality, use with disadvantage)
• 4 blocks of incense (to make the mood just right! ;)  )
• Silver sculpture of a Unicorn Head
• 3 empty vials of holy water
• 60 copper pieces
• 20 Silver pieces
• 4 copper pies
• A shield - rather fancy - held by The Baron
• A chain shirt, appropriated by Brunelda to replace her blood-soaked leather armor (thanks, Occy). This new armor was, of course, promptly bloodsoaked as well (thanks, Occy).
• Healing potion, currently held by Brunelda to be distributed to an appropriately damaged party member (it's non-alcoholic, so it'll be safe in her care lest anyone else want to carry it)
• An inn key to room six of the Nightstone Inn, currently occupied by a berobed elven woman named Kella. She seems possessed of little interest in coming out.

Summary

This time I am now a player in a SKT based adventure. We rolled level 3 characters with some minor enhancements. Each player has a tattoo of some special Giant Rune on their body somewhere.

• Tyr - Fighter/Cleric - Has tattoo on his face
• Occy - Sorcerer - Not sure where
• Brunelda - Dwarf Bard - mark in on her inner left... forearm.
• The Baron - Aasimar Paladin - Chose to have tattoo on his right hand, which he keeps covered with gloves.

I'm playing a Aasimar Paladin named 'The Baron'! Who is focused on raising money for his Guild and construct an expensive forge to make good quality and maybe even magical weapons.

The party is with a caravan that is bound for Nightstone. Then a raid of roughly 80 goblins attack the caravan and we are the only ones that survived the attack. We do some survival checks and are able to hike through the forest to the town of Nightstone.

When we reach the town we find it abandoned. Yet we hear a very loud bell sound from the Temple. We investigate the temple and find a group of goblins ransacking the inside. We fight them and kill them. Then we opened the door to the bell tower and find 2 more goblins enjoying themselves with the rope to the large bell that is making all the noise in the town. We kill one of them and then the other says to us that he'll take us to him loot.

He takes the party to his loot that is in a large building referred to as 'The Stables'. In here we do actually find a large bounty of stuff the goblins were hoarding here. So we let the goblin go.

Unfortunately he comes back with a dozen of goblins to get back his bounty. The party kills all of them and then discovers a building full of the townsfolk that have survived the attack on the town. The party was able to save a nice large wagon from the stables before it burned down. My character 'The Baron' (or just Baron) drags the goblin corpses into the burning building and burns the bodies.

The party speaks with the townsfolk and find out a large number of huge boulders landed in the city as the goblins were attacking. Many people died.

Now we have choices of going to the East Bridge and scouting around to see where the remaining goblin army is.

Or going west bridge that leads to a forest with mountains and caves!?!

The party spends the rest of the day helping out the Inn and fixing where they can. Here are some things that you manage to find out while spending a few hours around town and after a long nights rest:

Nightstone is named after a large obsidian rock that lay half buried on the north part of town. Its very large standing at nearly 10ft tall and 5 ft in diameter. No one knows how deep it goes or how long its been there.

The wealthy merchant, Bardo, at the Nightstone Inn came with two personal guards, (only one is left). He is from a place called Golden Fields.

Mazy, the Innkeeper's widow, is very thankful for your assistance and constantly offers free food, wine and lodging while you stay. She thinks that during the attack she saw guards and villagers heading east towards the mountains.

The Elvish woman's name in room #6 is Kella. She never left the inn during the attack.

A young human male, Torem is the only town guard that survived. He swears he saw a flying castle over the town and claimed, "That's where the boulders came from . .. ". Also he claims that he saw four huge grey giants in the north part of town near the Nightstone. He is obviously traumatized and has not stopped drinking since you rescued him and the others. By the morning, he is well past wasted and stumbles off into the town.

Seven riders on horseback came into the town during the early morning. The drawbridge was down so its unclear how they managed to get in. The took some rooms on the second floor.

The two children Doris and Gesten are being taken care of by Mazy but seem in good spirits. They seem to be missing their parents.