So we found a guide who would take us to the Grimmerzhul fort. I managed to flummox the DM by immediately identifying him as a werewolf so a couple of us, who had been listening to my suspicions, were ready when he transformed. Give me some blatant hints as to what we're meant to be doing and I'll look around clueless but tell me someone has blackouts and comes around to find his companions dead then I know exactly what's going on.
Before we left we picked up some side-quests and spent some of our hard-earned gold. I now have hedge wizard gloves. I then spent some time turning peoples' clothes pink and changing the taste of their saliva. During the long rest the wizard's pet Pumpkin evolved from a guard drake companion to a rage drake mount. It's going to be nice having exp only shared between five of us.
We left the recuperating guide with our cart in a side passage and walked towards the structure in a chasm. The duergar fort is three separate structures joined together to form a triangle. It is also of ancient minotaur origin and we could tell it was, at least at the front gate, populated by orcs. Based on this information and no visible grey dwarves we were a little dubious that this was the place we wanted but decided to go in wands blazing.
The plan was for the wizard to drop a stinking cloud inside, let the swordmage teleport in and find the lever to open the gate and then block the orcs' available exit, preferably without dying. No plan survives contact with the enemy. In our case no plan seems to survive contact with the party. The wizard dropped the cloud, the swordmage teleported in and then started whacking people, all the while taking absurd damage. Eventually we got the door open and the wizard moved the cloud around to kill off the orcs, leaving a passage right to the exit. Fortunately all the orcs were too dominated to actually take the path (or the DM just took pity on us).
Either way, one fight in and already the swordmage has used up a number of his healing surges. We continued through the fort, finding an armoury (which made our paladin's eyes light up, almost give the quest in and just go back to pick up the cart) the orc living quarters and a smithy. The smith fight was interesting. There was a controller who threw knives at us and burned any metal weapons in our hands (I had a burning torch and a wand in my hand at this point and not my dagger. Win!). Although it wasn't as tough as the first fight the swordmage had to use yet more surges.
There were two exits from the smithy. The interrogated smith said that the boss was at the fort to the north but one of the enemies in the fight had attempted to run the other way. We decided to go to the more southern fort first. Here we found a couple of human captives working the kitchens for the duergar. We went charging into the next room where a couple of dwarves waited. The main guy actually swelled in size when he was bloodied. It was freakish and wrong. We were flanked by invisible scouts from another room. Even the drow ranger who is always about ten paces away from the fight got hurt. The paladin used both of his dailies. We ended the fight when the remaining scout went invisible and ran to the next structure to warn them of us. We finished the session minus a couple of dailies and with the swordmage having a single healing surge left, knowing that the next fight would be large and they'd be waiting for us.
DUN DUN DUN!
Sunday, 19 December 2010
Thursday, 2 December 2010
The story thus far
Keep on the Shadowfell
When we began I was DMing and the party contained Frosty, Seraphin, Varis and Kyeblin. They entered Winterhaven, a small farming village, and agreed to deal with their kobold problem. In an attempt to maximise XP Frosty and Kyeblin were following rumours of a cult that needed dispatching, Varis was looking for his missing mentor and Seraphin had agreed to map the Keep nearby*.
The Kobolds were dispatched, the ruined Keep was visited and a way down to the underground section was found. The goblins were defeated, Albrek arrived looking for his dwarf friend who had been taken prisoner, Jamven was found and hobbled back to town under his own steam. DM and player roles were swapped and when the party came back to town there was a gnome, Bramble, entertaining the locals. Unfortunately she was trying to raise their spirits because the gates had been closed due to undead rising in the graveyard out back. Kyeblin wandered off stage to help with town defenses and Bramble joined the party in the defeating of a handful of skeletons.
With the undead defeated a celebration ensued with Bramble getting a little friendly with the village lord's eldest son, Pieter. I will never hear the end of this. One time I flirt with an NPC and Bramble is now labelled as a sexual deviant and a slut. Sigh. Anyway, after finally getting out of bed I followed the other characters back into the Keep and helped to defeat zombies, skeletons, ghouls, clay homunculus, vampires, and bastard cultists. We also saw the passing of Varis, who had begun the adventure trying to thieve off fellow heroes and had therefore caused a bit of trouble. The player felt that he could play a different character better, rather than Varis tamed. The Keep then destroyed itself as we fled, rendering the mapping quest pretty useless anyway.
Thunderspire
On returning to town we found it ruins. Hobgoblin slavers had come and taken several people including Pieter (at least he had a night of fun before he was taken), Jamven (Albrek's friend), a pretty elf girl at the market, the innkeeper, an old farmer who knew the region and six peasants that the DM couldn't be bothered to name. I am making it my personal mission to give peasants in this world the right to a name. The remaining slavers defeated, the arrival of Zechryn (now christened Zeke) and the presence of some pretty evil eladrin who wanted to kill Albrek and made Seraphin's blood burn.
After three pretty massive fights in a row we needed to rest. We then followed slaver tracks for days until we reached a mountain with an ancient Minotaur city underneath. during one "day" we have entered the city, found a slaver outpost and destroyed it, before going in to the labyrinth and destroying the slaver HQ. We have found that it's almost certain that the slaves have been bought by Duergar. We are currently resting after yet another enormous fight and then we will head back to the city to find out if we can follow the trail from the Grimmerzhul outpost there.
* This quest hook was pure bollocks by the way. The whole point is that the Keep is actually in complete ruins. What she actually did was map the structure under the Keep, which wasn't actually the brief.
When we began I was DMing and the party contained Frosty, Seraphin, Varis and Kyeblin. They entered Winterhaven, a small farming village, and agreed to deal with their kobold problem. In an attempt to maximise XP Frosty and Kyeblin were following rumours of a cult that needed dispatching, Varis was looking for his missing mentor and Seraphin had agreed to map the Keep nearby*.
The Kobolds were dispatched, the ruined Keep was visited and a way down to the underground section was found. The goblins were defeated, Albrek arrived looking for his dwarf friend who had been taken prisoner, Jamven was found and hobbled back to town under his own steam. DM and player roles were swapped and when the party came back to town there was a gnome, Bramble, entertaining the locals. Unfortunately she was trying to raise their spirits because the gates had been closed due to undead rising in the graveyard out back. Kyeblin wandered off stage to help with town defenses and Bramble joined the party in the defeating of a handful of skeletons.
With the undead defeated a celebration ensued with Bramble getting a little friendly with the village lord's eldest son, Pieter. I will never hear the end of this. One time I flirt with an NPC and Bramble is now labelled as a sexual deviant and a slut. Sigh. Anyway, after finally getting out of bed I followed the other characters back into the Keep and helped to defeat zombies, skeletons, ghouls, clay homunculus, vampires, and bastard cultists. We also saw the passing of Varis, who had begun the adventure trying to thieve off fellow heroes and had therefore caused a bit of trouble. The player felt that he could play a different character better, rather than Varis tamed. The Keep then destroyed itself as we fled, rendering the mapping quest pretty useless anyway.
Thunderspire
On returning to town we found it ruins. Hobgoblin slavers had come and taken several people including Pieter (at least he had a night of fun before he was taken), Jamven (Albrek's friend), a pretty elf girl at the market, the innkeeper, an old farmer who knew the region and six peasants that the DM couldn't be bothered to name. I am making it my personal mission to give peasants in this world the right to a name. The remaining slavers defeated, the arrival of Zechryn (now christened Zeke) and the presence of some pretty evil eladrin who wanted to kill Albrek and made Seraphin's blood burn.
After three pretty massive fights in a row we needed to rest. We then followed slaver tracks for days until we reached a mountain with an ancient Minotaur city underneath. during one "day" we have entered the city, found a slaver outpost and destroyed it, before going in to the labyrinth and destroying the slaver HQ. We have found that it's almost certain that the slaves have been bought by Duergar. We are currently resting after yet another enormous fight and then we will head back to the city to find out if we can follow the trail from the Grimmerzhul outpost there.
* This quest hook was pure bollocks by the way. The whole point is that the Keep is actually in complete ruins. What she actually did was map the structure under the Keep, which wasn't actually the brief.
The introduction
This will be the log of our group's exploits. Our adventuring party is called Less Than Six (because that's what we always end up rolling on initiative).
The players:
Seraphin - Eladrin wizard. She is aloof and quiet. She has a power greater than most wizards.
Frosty - Dragonborn paladin. Enthusiastic follower of The Raven Queen. Somehow he became the hero of our story. No-one is quite sure how, least of all the player.
Albrek - Shadar-kai swordmage/barbarian hybrid. Also a Raven Queen follower. Somewhat suicidal, he gleefully bounces around the battlefield making himself a giant target, much to the despair of other characters.
Zechryn - Drow ranger. Quiet, intent on killing slavers he has come across. New to the party.
Bramble - Gnome bard. Played by yours truly, she delights in causing mischief. She happens to like mushroms, flirting and doing good deeds. She refuses to heal heroes stupid enough to run around the battlefield aggravating the enemies and yet won't use their own healing methods. Albrek does not like this.
Pumpkin - A guard drake tamed by Seraphin a few battles ago. I think most of us a secretly hoping he hurries up and evolves into a mount so he'll stop taking a share of our XP.
Others: Agaric, a mushroom mount for Bramble that we saved from a roasting by hungry barbarians. Varis, an elf rogue that was once part of our party. Varis grabbed the last major boss, Kalarel, and dragged him into the portal he was opening (allowing the player to create Zechryn). Kyeblin, a dragonborn warlord who is cousin to Frosty. He was played by our current DM while I was running the show. When I got fed up of the complaining I gave up the job and he took over. The DM, a sadistic & evil man intent on ending us. I use the fact that he's my boyfriend and he loves me to manipulate him during the week to make the sessions nicer for us :D
The players:
Seraphin - Eladrin wizard. She is aloof and quiet. She has a power greater than most wizards.
Frosty - Dragonborn paladin. Enthusiastic follower of The Raven Queen. Somehow he became the hero of our story. No-one is quite sure how, least of all the player.
Albrek - Shadar-kai swordmage/barbarian hybrid. Also a Raven Queen follower. Somewhat suicidal, he gleefully bounces around the battlefield making himself a giant target, much to the despair of other characters.
Zechryn - Drow ranger. Quiet, intent on killing slavers he has come across. New to the party.
Bramble - Gnome bard. Played by yours truly, she delights in causing mischief. She happens to like mushroms, flirting and doing good deeds. She refuses to heal heroes stupid enough to run around the battlefield aggravating the enemies and yet won't use their own healing methods. Albrek does not like this.
Pumpkin - A guard drake tamed by Seraphin a few battles ago. I think most of us a secretly hoping he hurries up and evolves into a mount so he'll stop taking a share of our XP.
Others: Agaric, a mushroom mount for Bramble that we saved from a roasting by hungry barbarians. Varis, an elf rogue that was once part of our party. Varis grabbed the last major boss, Kalarel, and dragged him into the portal he was opening (allowing the player to create Zechryn). Kyeblin, a dragonborn warlord who is cousin to Frosty. He was played by our current DM while I was running the show. When I got fed up of the complaining I gave up the job and he took over. The DM, a sadistic & evil man intent on ending us. I use the fact that he's my boyfriend and he loves me to manipulate him during the week to make the sessions nicer for us :D
Seraphin
Seraphin is an Eladrin princess who is trained in the arcane arts as a wizard. When she was younger her sister was killed by fomorians and this has motivated Seraphin to become stronger. She is more interested in doing damage, rather than casting status effects. She has a pet drake called Pumpkin who she tamed during a rescue operation.
Seraphin has the exceptional ability to use all the daily powers in her spellbook. This is a potentially world-changing effect. During a run-in with evil eldarin worshippers of Orcus the captain of the troop stimulated something in her blood that makes her all lose control over her own powers, casting spells wildly. The enormous power of her magic must be in her blood and she is yet to find the cause of this.
Seraphin has the exceptional ability to use all the daily powers in her spellbook. This is a potentially world-changing effect. During a run-in with evil eldarin worshippers of Orcus the captain of the troop stimulated something in her blood that makes her all lose control over her own powers, casting spells wildly. The enormous power of her magic must be in her blood and she is yet to find the cause of this.
Frosty
Frostbite XIII has had an eventful life. Now a dragonborn paladin, he spent most of his time oblivious to his roots. From a long line of Frostbites he was lost as a child just after birth. His childhood was a mixture of unsavoury adult influences and the desperate search for food. Eventually he found his own kind and for a time was happy. After losing his wife to undead he became a paladin of The Raven Queen and shows great zeal in the cleansing of all forms of undeath from the world.
Frosty is a very serious person. His initial reaction to most challenges is to intimidate others into doing what he wants. He shows particular ruthlessness in interrogations, frequently killing the captured if they seem uncooperative.
Frosty is a very serious person. His initial reaction to most challenges is to intimidate others into doing what he wants. He shows particular ruthlessness in interrogations, frequently killing the captured if they seem uncooperative.
Albrek
Albrek is a Shadar-kai Swordmage/Barbarian hybrid. He can be frequently seen teleporting around a battlefield antagonising many enemies at once. A risky strategy, he does fall foul of the hostile attention from time to time. Albrek is considered something of a suicide risk to the party and they can be unwilling to trust his judgement in matters of group actions.
Frequently seen with Frosty during interrogations, he has a penchant for the more gruesome side of finding information.
In the not-to-distant past he and some companions entered an eladrin city that had been transported to the Shadowfell and worshipped Orcus. Albrek took the control stone from the city, rendering it powerless. However, on leaving the city the stone lost all magical energy and no-one believed his dramatic tale of infiltration and heroism.
Frequently seen with Frosty during interrogations, he has a penchant for the more gruesome side of finding information.
In the not-to-distant past he and some companions entered an eladrin city that had been transported to the Shadowfell and worshipped Orcus. Albrek took the control stone from the city, rendering it powerless. However, on leaving the city the stone lost all magical energy and no-one believed his dramatic tale of infiltration and heroism.
Bramble
Bramble is a feisty if good-natured gnome who enjoys a good time. Chirpy and humourous she can be fairly intolerant of people with little common sense, occasionally putting her at odds with Albrek.
From a family of artisans, as a young adult her brother was killed and the magical instrument he was creating was stolen. She travels the world in search of it, while at the same time using her tricks as a performer to make a living.
Bramble came about when the player behind Frosty declared that Frosty had minor racism against gnomes and I wanted to see if the party could take some minor antagonism. As it turns out it's only when I out-intimidate Frosty that he gets upset with Bramble. Fitting to some stereotypes, Bramble has a fondness for mushrooms, specifically sitting on them and has a large mushroom ride called Agaric that the party saved from some hungry barbarians one time.
From a family of artisans, as a young adult her brother was killed and the magical instrument he was creating was stolen. She travels the world in search of it, while at the same time using her tricks as a performer to make a living.
Bramble came about when the player behind Frosty declared that Frosty had minor racism against gnomes and I wanted to see if the party could take some minor antagonism. As it turns out it's only when I out-intimidate Frosty that he gets upset with Bramble. Fitting to some stereotypes, Bramble has a fondness for mushrooms, specifically sitting on them and has a large mushroom ride called Agaric that the party saved from some hungry barbarians one time.
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