Week 9: How Attractive!

(Alac was absent from this session. Her character is working with the mages guild to help apprehend the corrupt leader of the city guard!)

Our heroes reunited in the city limits to retrieve the sizable bounty on the vanquished Gnoll assassin. Fortunately, they now had the 10,000 gold required to purchase a charter on a military ship, which had been their goal up until now! Artix may be a little apprehensive of the water though, considering he critically failed an Endurance check against a waterborne disease in the first roll of the session...

The party was surprised to once again find High Warlord Octavius, who had sent them on their mission in the first place, waiting on them in the customs office. It seemed that, although he was very grateful for all of the work they had done, Octavius had one final favor to ask them before the party set sail for dangerous waters: a Thalassian spy, responsible for couriering messages between the treacherous guard captain and the enemy nation, must be found and taken alive for questioning.

After a small amount of sleuthing, our heroes set off for the Great Temple of Erathis*, where the spy was believed to have been posing as a monk. The church itself was an imposing sight, with towering minarets of verdigris-tinged bronze and cyclopean stone masonry, but the bishop was more than willing to guide the party through the labyrinthine temple. Mysteriously, Sister Eleanor, the “monk” in question, was not found in her designated workshop, but rather in the clock tower, tinkering with mysterious glass tubes and metal objects.

*In the DnD universe, Erathis is the god of civilization, progress, and innovation.

Rolith explored the rooftops while Ai No Miko, Dumoose, and Artix “casually” watched the exits of the temple, making sure their quarry would not escape. Cysero decided to play it cool and bluff his way into making Eleanor believe that he was on her side, which seemed to work for a while, but Eleanor was not so easily fooled. She led him to the roof where, with her nefarious intentions hidden from Cysero, she hoped to silence the meddling rouge.

Setting up for the upcoming fight...

Of course, she didn’t know that Rolith heard them coming! He, more afraid of confrontation than gravity, precariously dangled himself from the roof, but was able to climb up in the nick of time and score a surprise round on Eleanor! The rest of the party heard the commotion and arrived soon after.

Eleanor was a powerful Thalassian artificer who wielded a clockwork gauntlet capable of creating magnetic fields around both herself and her enemies. The party was in for quite a surprise when each of them received either a positive or negative charge; being adjacent to someone with the same charge sent both players flying away from each other, and being adjacent to someone with the opposite charged caused both players to become slowed! Worse still, Eleanor commanded magnetic orbs which would fly around the combat area, knocking players over and then detonating with a huge blast radius!

The party’s movement was extremely limited in this battle, and they always had to think on their toes (and in some cases, off their toes!) One particularly hilarious predicament happened when Cysero was knocked into Artix, who was standing near Rolith… and all three of them were positively charged. The result? Cysero spinning wildly in the air between the two warriors, suspended by magnetic force until the bond was broken! Even more funny was when Rolith was stricken with one of Cysero’s crossbow bolts and Ai No Miko’s “Gaze of Defiance” spell in rapid succession when they critically failed… ouch!

During the fight, Artix, Dumoose, and Cysero were all knocked unconscious, although no one died thanks to the diligent efforts of Ai No Miko. Her rapid response was so valuable that it kept Cysero healed and fighting through several near-death experiences! Those exploding orb-bots were pretty nasty! Then again, Cysero did say that Eleanor's country was "ugly" and "smelled like dead cats."

Through perseverance, the party managed to achieve their goal despite Eleanor’s considerable lockdown of their movement abilities. The Thalassian spy was knocked unconscious and taken in for questioning. The party even discovered the strange mechanism she was using to transmit her coded messages to Thalassia.

High Warlord Octavius was overjoyed, both for the party’s heroic actions and for the fact that he finally had enough evidence to apprehend Bruno, the corrupt city guard captain. Everyone was awarded a Medal of the Bronze Defender and promised an exclusive magic item from the city’s well-funded armory!

Next stop, the high seas!

Week 8 (Part 2): "You Hit for GNOLL Damage"

The barn was uncannily dark on the inside... quite odd, considering that it was still midday outside. A lone torch cast long, oppressively dim shadows along the dusty floor, and shadow energy seemed to swirl viciously around the party. Suddenly, a wall of black fire appeared at the doorway, blocking out the sweet embrace of sunlight, and prompting a sickening hyena cackle from the surrounding darkness.

"Well, I take it we found our serial killer," Rolith plainly stated.

"Ahahaha... serials killers? No no no... I's is ans artists!" came a reply, seemingly from the darkness itself.

Kyr Bonegnaw, a legendary gnoll assassin, now appeared before them, his body coalescing from bare shadows. His vacant eyes darted around the room, as the patchwork armor of human bones clinked around his neck. Kyr's gaze finally settled on Artix, and he began to playfully twirl a spiked blade from a chain.

"I loves your bones's... I's thinks I's will takes thems!"

He lunged forward, assailing the party. His blows were devastating, concealing his form with illusionary shadow magic while cutting into his victims with a permeating icy chill. His command of the shadows was indeed impressive, allowing him to literally teleport from shadow to shadow instead of moving by foot, making it hard for the party to pin down his exact location. Nevertheless, our heroes bravely ventured into the darkness and landed several solid blows on the fiend, although the entire party remained precariously wounded.

Artix, turning the fight around, defiantly instructed comrades to stand and fight! With all of the inspiring drama he could muster, he was able to keep the party alive and well through repeated mortal wounds. Kyr, not without a few tricks of his own, responded by conjuring a shadowy duplicate of himself and surrounding his bone armor with a layer of protective darkness. Undaunted, Cysero and Alac continued with a steady stream of damage on their bounty.

The gnoll assassin moved from party member to party member with his attacks, before finally casting "Target for Death" on Rolith. Kyr teleported behind a wall and, relentlessly flinging his chain into the darkness itself, pulled Rolith through his own shadow, causing the hapless fighter to appear directly between the cackling assassin and his shadowy duplicate! Uh oh...

The party, after seeing their comrade just disappear into nothingness, followed Rolith's frantic cries for help to their source, determined to rescue their friend. Rolith held his own, assuming an aggressive stance and defeating the shadowy duplicate with the help of Cysero and Alac.

Kyr, with a nervous twitch, turned invisible and teleported away, trying to trick the party into separating. More blows were struck, and with Artix's healing abilities exhausted, the battle came down to attrition.

Finally, Kyr made one final desperate attempt to slay Rolith. With all of his remaining strength and a frantic whirl of his chain, he whipped the weapon forward, his gaze fixed lasciviously on Rolith's bone structure. However, there was no chain, no spiked blade, no furious outcry of shadow magic from Kyr; only his hand remained frozen in the air. His gaze broke from Rolith, and as his lifeless eyes traveled downward, he found something quite unusual: his own weapon embedded firmly in his gut. Critical failure!

"Aha... haha... hehehehe... AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

Kyr Bonegnaw died in a fit of uncontrollable hyena laughter, slain by his own hand.

Week 8 (Part 1): "Kittens and Gnolls"

(Dumoose and Ai No Miko were absent this session. Their characters are, respectively, meditating in the wilderness and searching for leads via the city's clergy.)

With one final bounty on their list, Rolith felt it pertinent for him to have a giant bullseye on the back of his helm, seeing as how often he gets hit in that general area. Cysero facilitated this by stealing a deluxe set of paints from an artisan, and Alac's character reluctantly agreed to paint the design, although not before Rolith's character completely offended her. Alac's character and Rolith's character don't get along very well!

And so, Rolith now has a pink kitten painted on the back of his helm.

Tracking down their final bounty to a plot of farmland to the south, the party discovered a tragic sight: a family of poor Gnoll* farmers, guilty of nothing more than being the same race as the most wanted assassin in the country, had fallen upon hard times at the hands of xenophobic prejudice. Paranoid citizens were constantly harassing them, salting their farmland and vandalizing their home, and as such, the family was apprehensive at the approach of more well-armed "man-things."

*Gnolls are a race of semi-intelligent, bipedal, hyena-like creatures native to the DnD universe.

The party was able to convince the farmers that they meant no harm, and Alac was even able to charm one of the shy gnoll younglings with a playful magic trick. The little gnoll then regaled the party with a tale of "other gnolls" and "black fire" in the woods, which her mother chalked up to a young, overactive imagination. The party decided to act on this lead, venturing into the woods and camping for the night. While Artix and Alac tended to the camp, Rolith went hunting and bagged a rabbit! Meanwhile, Cysero scouted further into the woods, spying shadowy humanoid figures far off in the darkness.

The next morning, the party continued their hike, finding a quiet forest clearing leading up to an abandoned barn on a hill. Although they cautiously proceeded forward, the party was ambushed by a gnoll hunting party, who had grown wise to being spotted by Cysero the following night!

The leader, a Gnoll Scourge, released his body guards, a vicious duo of Gnoll Clawfighters. They charged Cysero, striking for a ferocious amount of damage! Meanwhile, a Gnoll Huntmaster fired arrows at the party from a distance. Cysero was close to death several times, whipping the gnolls into a frenzy of blood lust! Luckily, the party quickly finished off the Gnoll Scourge, and Artix used his inspiring healing powers to keep Cysero alive, despite critically failing on one of his healing abilities (which, of course, ended up healing the enemies!).

The Huntmaster now called in a pack of hyenas to protect him! Once the party finished off the Clawfighters, they charged foward, surrounding Rolith! Alac's character, with a wry grin, cast "Scorching Burst" ON ROLITH, which not only engulfed him in flames, but vanquished all of the hyenas! Did I mention that their characters aren't fond of each other? I suppose you could see a pattern at this point...

The party finished off the now defenseless Huntmaster and continued up the hill toward the old barn. When Artix tried to pry the barn door open, he triggered not one, but TWO traps, taking a nice chunk out of his HP. Ouch, talk about bad luck...

To be continued...

Week 7 (Part 2): "It's the MACHINE, man!"

Next on the "most wanted" list was Xavier the Mage Engineer, wanted for the (most likely fraudulent) charge of transmuting lead into gold. Alac, on good word from the Mages Guild, had sworn to protect Xavier from the corrupt government official who had fabricated the ridiculous charges against Xavier. But first, they had to find the reclusive artificer.

Told that his tower was behind a smelting factory, the party arrived a dusty alleyway, with nothing but a pigeon roost occupying the derelict space. Upon closer inspection, Alac and Cysero found that the pigeons inside the roost were actually clockwork constructs designed to carry coded messages. Cysero, after evoking his magical armor and assuming to form of a rat, decided to explore a bit. Climbing down a pneumatic tube, the curious rodent found Xavier's hidden workshop, but only succeeded in setting off an alarm!

Rolith, unintentionally helping, tripped over a trap door in the ally. Alac, after some amount of effort, used her Knock ritual to open the hatch, leading downward deep underground. It seemed the tower itself was inverted; the perfect hiding spot!

After trudging down a metal spiral staircase, the stone walls of the tower gave way to metallic plating and clockwork mechanisms. The party approached a great furnace, and Artix unsealed the hatch, leading the party inside. The alarm that Cysero had set off earlier preceded them, and huge bellows of flame rhythmically pulsed from slats in the walls.

A small camera construct floated down from the ceiling and projected an image of Xavier to "greet" them. The mage engineer, clearly out of his rational mind, seemed convinced that they were there to kill him and "steal his inventions" to aid some sort of conspiracy that he referred to as "the machine." Dumoose and Alac could hardly get a word in edge-wise before the little construct zipped off, summoning 4 Warforged Furnace Workers and a Warforged Captain to confront the party.

Deftly dodging the furnace flames, Artix charged forward, only to critically fail on his attack, getting shoulder-checked by the Warforged Captain. The captain, in return, commanded the Workers to surround and attack the hapless Artix. It was clear to the party that, so long as the captain was alive, the Warforged constructs had a strategic advantage and would surround the most threatening group member, taking them all out one by one. Rolith tried to retreat, his confidence shattered by the organized mob of metal golems.

The rest of the group, acting swiftly, was able to focus fire the captain just as he began to repair himself. The Workers, now leaderless, lost their resolve and were taken out with little effort. However, the group got careless toward the end of the fight; Dumoose critically failed and sent an arrow right into the back of Rolith's head! On the very next turn, Alac ALSO critically failed and sent her SECOND magic missile of the season into Rolith. Perhaps it was karma for his cowardice... either way, Rolith took more damage from his allies than he ever did from the Warforged!

The next floor down, the party entered a giant electric generator, buzzing both literally with arches of electric energy, and metaphorically with dozens of tiny, flying welding bots, constantly toiling away at a huge construct at the far end of the room.

Rolith spied a protective suit of welding armor in the room and elected to try it on; this action alerted the construct and, upon seeing that the man in the suit wasn't its master, prompted it to attack! The gargantuan steamtank first activated a defensive perimeter... the room was slowly being encased in a crackling cage of lightning! The party would have to act fast and devise a way to strip the steamtank of its impressive armor if they were to have any hope of surviving.

Dumoose, with a keen eye and deadly bow, was undaunted by the golem's protective plating, sending several devastating blows toward the steamtank over several turns, all the while dodging the retaliating cannonball blasts. Rolith, protected with heavy welding armor, and Alac, naturally gifted with fire spells, hammered away a the steam-powered goliath using heat, which caused an overload in the steamtank's system. Its protective armor began to glow white-hot, and was ejected, revealing his vulnerable clockwork interior. Ai No Miko sent a nova of holy light into the metal guts of the beast, prompting it to activate emergency defenses. Meanwhile, the lightning cage was still closing in, tighter and tighter, surrounding our heroes. Now was the time to strike!

With time running out, the party brought the steamtank to its knees with uncanny resolve. Not to be denied victory, the construct viciously punched Artix, sending him headlong into the lightning wall! Ai No Miko, Alac, and Cysero were also engulfed by the encroaching field of crackling energy! Our heroes just barely edged out a victory; as the steamtank shortcircuited and slumped into disrepair, it sent forth a blast of electromagnetic energy, dispelling the cage of lightning and assuring the survival of the party.

The party finally confronted the Mage Engineer, still lost in his delusional paranoia. Our heroes managed to calm the conspiracy theorist enough for his mad ramblings about "the machine" to begin to make sense. "Sense" being a relative
term, of course.

After witnessing via his camera construct the so-called "impressive caution" that Rolith displayed in the first fight against the Warforged, and the skill in which he utilized the welding armor in the battle against the steamtank, Xavier trusted the cowardly warrior more than any of the other party members. He entrusted Rolith with a plated blunderbuss of his own design, and a vital piece of evidence that the party needs to rout the corrupt captain of the Chivilian Guard.

So, with one more bounty more or less "checked off their list," and with one more piece of a mounting pile of evidence against corruption in the city guard, the party presses ever onward, determined to satisfy their country, their honor, and their pocketbook!

Week 7 (Part 1): "Tying up Loose Ends"

After looting Verminhide's library (and finding a new pair of healing gloves for Ai No Miko), the party hauled Verminhide's corpse to the surface. Instead of a warm sunny day, they were greeted only by ominous storm clouds and a torrential downpour.

While the majority of the party continued toward the prison to collect Verminhide's bounty, Dumoose spotted two mysterious hooded characters milling about, and decided that it would be a good idea to trail them. He and Artix discovered that they were bounty hunters who were also after Verminhide (or at least, that's what they said). The two hooded Tieflings, visibly annoyed that they were too late to catch their quarry, stormed off, leaving Dumoose and Artix standing in the rain. Perhaps they'll meet again some day...

Meanwhile, Cysero and Alac were trying to pass off Verminhide as being "alive" so they could collect the larger bounty. Using some fast talking and illusionary skill, they were almost able to convince the inquisitor that the foul necromancer was still alive... almost. When their plan fell through, they were able to feign ignorance, narrowly escaping conviction for defrauding a government organization! Chivil is a city of beurocracy; suffice to say, they would have been up to their necks in paperwork and jail time had the inquisitor discovered that they were lying!

After collecting the modest reward for turning in the dead necromancer, Rolith bought a crossbow in the town square, Artix bought a Lucky Charm from a shady dealer, and Alac learned the "Knock" ritual from the Mage's Guild, allowing her to unlock doors.

(To be continued...)

Moving Soon.

This blog will be moving to the official Dragon Fable website soon! Just a head's up!

http://www.dragonfable.com/

Week 6: "Necromancy and a Flight of Stairs"

This week, our heroes had tracked down Verminhide, a vile Kobold Necromancer, to his base of operations inside the infamous Catacombs of Chivil!

They entered into a dimly-lit antechamber, its walls and vaulted ceilings cobbled with generations upon generations of humanoid bones; the remnants of citizens who wanted a coveted place in the exalted catacombs! Pretty dangerous place for a Necromancer to hide out, if you ask me...

Before venturing further into the dark tomb, Cysero stumbled upon a secret, hidden Thieves Guild outpost. Just in time for his character to (reluctantly) pay his guild fees!

By passing the four Blood Trials of the guild (members of the Thieves Guild pay their dues in skill, not gold!), Cysero's character was welcomed back to the organization... but with an unexpected price! It's now Erwise's turn to assume the role of "Baron Andre," the "ringleader" of the Thieves Guild! Ever democratic (and ever cautious), the Thieve's Guild passes leadership every month, and now it's time for Cysero to call the shots!

Venturing into the catacombs, the party comes across a large burial chamber, pocketed with a honeycomb structure of stone sarcophagi, and flanked by a large parapet structure for religious rites. Suddenly, the party is ambushed by zombies, as flaming skeletons rain fire down from the parapet above! The zombies are dispatched quickly and easily, but the skeletons are still causing trouble. Artix charges up the stairs and takes a swing, but loses his balance and falls right back down! Dumoose also suffers a serious blunder, his bow twanging backwards, hitting himself in the face! Determined to reconcile these failures, the party rallies together and storms the parapet, lead by Rolith and Cysero. Ai No Miko follows, and with the wave of her hand, casts Turn Undead on one of the flaming skeletons, who crumbles into dust at the display of holy power! The other skeletons are swiftly vanquished by the unrelenting assault.

With an enchanted portcullis impeding the party's progress, Alac discovered a subterranean chapel devoted to the sun god Pelor, which had been defiled by foul necromancy! She is spotted by three henchmen of Verminhide:

Darkskull, a flaming black skull imbued with Necrotic magic.

Femurpile, a swirling, cyclonic cloud of razor-sharp bone fragments.

Marrowshard, a skeletal Dragonborn grafted with rusted metal shards.

Alac ran back and warned everyone else, who took defensive positions in the burial chamber (Rolith elected to “strategically” hide himself in a sarcophagus, and had to be goaded out by Artix). The henchmen bided their time, determined to strike all at once. With a sickening shriek, they rushed forward, with Femurpile charging through Rolith and Artix at incredible speed, Marrowshard stabbing at Rolith with rusty spikes, and Darkskull trapping Artix within a writhing, ghostly prison. Not to be denied victory, Dumoose scored a keen critical strike with one of his most powerful skills, instantly vanquishing the swirling Femurpile, and severely wounding the stout Marrowshard, who was quickly finished off by the other party members. Darkskull’s plan, now thoroughly foiled, tried to turn invisible and escape, but was backed into a corner and vanquished, unlocking the magic rune on the nearby portcullis.

A long, dusty hallway now stretched before our heroes, a gauntlet of swinging pendulum traps and masses of zombies ready to slow their advance. At the other end of hall was Verminhide, cackling madly as he summoned two flaming skeletons to fling flaming orbs at the party while they navigated the trap-filled hallway. It was a treacherous advance, with zombies continuously rising to grab the heroes, but Cysero was able to spot MOST of the traps. However, the final pendulum blade snagged a few of the party members who foolishly stumbled into its path. Still, through perseverance, the party succeeded in pushing through the gauntlet.

Our heroes exit the gauntlet and enter Verminhide's Library.

With nowhere left to run, Verminhide made a final stand in his library. Flanked by four zombie minions and surrounded by an unholy aura of green vapors from his fuming censer, he engaged the party, determined to make them his slaves in undeath! Rolith, showing uncanny bravery, lead the assault, and challenged Verminhide in combat! The foul Necromancer chose to slink away, and left Rolith at the mercy of his four zombie bodyguards. Ai No Miko tried to invoke her holy powers, but the Necromancer’s aura must have been too strong for her for her character, as her dice rolls were not at all favorable. Artix was the next to approach Verminhide, and the rest of the party elected to free Rolith from the grasping claws of the zombies. Finally, Alac struck at the Necromancer with a magic missile, and he in return afflicted her with a terrible illness which hindered her spellcasting!

Verminhide, seeing that he was surrounded, cackled madly. He swung his censer furiously, as the fumes shifted from green to pitch black. Artix, Rolith, and Cysero were violently choked (literally!) by the living fumes, leaving Rolith and Cysero gravely wounded and Artix on death’s door, with only 3 HP left! Artix, still choking, tried to heal himself, but was stifled by the evil fumes, reducing his healing to measly one point! Meanwhile, the rest of the party continued to hammer away at Verminhide and the remaining zombies, but they did so with the upmost caution; Verminhide was worth much more to the authorities alive than dead. This caution must have thrown off Ai No Miko, who critically failed on her Lance of Faith ability, sending it spiraling into Rolith!

Dumoose, in an act of unmatched heroism, chose to forgo attacking during his turn, and instead drug Artix out of the necrotic fumes, just barely saving his life! With Artix safe and healed, he rejoined the fight, but his character must have been traumatized from the harrowing experience, rolling a 1 (critical fail!) on his Warlord Strike! Then on his next turn, he rolled ANOTHER critical fail on his most powerful ability, inspiring Verminhide to continue fighting! Finally, on what would have been a deathblow for Rolith, Artix finally snapped out of his malaise, cutting deep into Verminhide and saving Rolith’s life! However, the hastiness of Artix’s brave actions proved to be too much to simply render the necromancer unconscious, and he fell to the ground, dead from his wounds.

Truly, it was night of both a series of hilarious (for me, at least) blunders on the characters’ part, but also a night of emboldening (for them, at least) self-sacrifice and heroic rescues. And so, with the necrotic scourge dealt with once and for all, our heroes (now level 6!) stand in the Necromancer’s former base of operations, ready to learn of the secrets he held during his former life…

Welcome!

It has come to my attention that several of our fans are curious about our DnD adventures... well look no further than this blog for all the critical hits and critical fails!

Character descriptions and the log of our sixth and most exciting adventure to be uploaded tomorrow!

-Lim

http://www.aqworlds.com/