Post by ihavetilfive on May 4, 2010 11:31:43 GMT -6
Ahh...finally caught up! From this point, I should be posting the session reports on the mostly-weekly basis that they've been running on. I think we're really starting to hit our stride. The more chaotic players are playing more strategically but are keeping their distinctive personalities. The other, more analytical players are continuing to play sound and immersive.
This session included a bit of a jailbreak situation. I think the party thought it would be a bit simpler and less deadly than it turned out to be. Two PC deaths, both by the same player. Didn't want him to bear the burden, but I also didn't want them to lose the fear of possible death.
___________________________________
In Search of the Unknown Campaign Session #17
Chapter 2 In Search of the City-State of the Invincible Overlord: #3
The party continued to ride the coach south, passing some 60 miles without incident, staying the first night at a farmstead and the next in a roadside shrine. The third night from Kirby, the party is forced to stay outside, finding a stand of trees near a pond filled with tallgrass.
Proteus and Trixie decide to go skinny-dipping. Trixie believes she felt something brush her leg. They make out something scaly, probably reptilian. Before they can react, a lizardman bursts from the water and shouts at them in his reptilian tongue, gesticulating wildly and swinging his arms all about. Trixie darts out of the water as Proteus tries to ascertain the humanoid's body language. Two more reptilians appear behind the first, shouting in anger. By this time, the party starts to come to the lake.
Proteus believes the lizardman wants him to leave the pond immediately and slowly backs out of the water. Several more lizardmen appear behind the three, these now wielding weapons. The party eyes the reptilians, seeing them size up the party, shuddering at their unblinking gaze. As the party backs away from the pond, the lizardmen eventually fall back into the depths themselves.
Shaggy decides a great thing to do would be to find ANOTHER pond and skinny-dip there. He does so, and goes for a swim. He feels something brush against him and tries to leave the pond. Just out of the water, something is faster than he is and bites him from behind. The shock of the gouging wound renders the thief unconscious. Tig hears the yelp from Shaggy, and he, Delva, Beth, and Voltron go to help. Running in strange terrain at night is not easy, and Tig and Voltron get tripped up, falling behind Delva and Beth.
Arriving at the pond, Delva can't see Shaggy but hears a chirping or hissing sound. Lighting a torch, he sees a giant otter some 50 feet away standing right behind a nest of baby otters. Shaggy is floating in the pond, another 50 feet or so from Delva and Beth. Wearing lighter armor, Beth hits the water first, and with some difficulty, gets Shaggy back to land. After a few tense moments, the party and the otter see the last of each other.
At last the party sets up to sleep for the night and take their watches for the night. On Tig's watch, he hears the sound of hoofbeats and the flicker of torches. A group of some size, perhaps a hundred, is coming this way. People wearing robes, some purple, some black, some frosty blue, are marching. A few are carrying banners showing a rough purple spiral on light, frosty blue background. A tall man with a stern and somber demeanor asks the party what they are doing and is told that they are going to the City-State. The tall man says that his people, the followers of the Great North Wind, are travelling there as well.
The man then says, "One of you will come with us." Delva begins to ask the man what exactly that means when Shaggy speaks up. "I'll go if you heal me!" The man motions for Shaggy to come forward, as an old crone in a frost blue robe shuffles over to him. As she slaps her hand to Shaggy's forehead in a claw-like grip, the thief feels freezing cold fill his body. The thief then collapses, unconscious. Two broad-shouldered men in black robes seize the thief and toss him in a covered wagon.
Tig begins to protest, "Hey now, that's one of my friends!" The tall man ignores him as the large men in the black cloaks stand in front of the wagon, both brandishing two-handed broadswords. The coachmen hurry over to the tall man and whisper to him. They announce to the party, "We are leaving and taking the coach to the City-State. Whoever wants to come with us must leave immediately with us. Forget about your friend. He will not come back."
Delva conceives a plan and whispers to Tig to take the coach, and the dwarf agrees. He finds that the girls and Silas and his bodyguards are already in the coach, nervously waiting for the coachmen to ride off.
Delva had planned to snatch Shaggy out of the wagon during a time when the pilgrims had let their guard down. He and Beth pretended to argue as they walked about the camp, trying to empty containers of oil here and there. After dropping one flask loudly, Delva was no longer able to continue his ruse and walked away, pretending to be innocent. Voltron summoned an unseen servant to grab a coal to set the oil aflame, and one pool erupted. Proteus then used his chaos to levitate one of the guards of the wagon above the ground.
The other guard shouted, "Magic! Magic is being used!" As a side effect of the chaos, Voltron's nasal hairs had instantly grown wildly out of his nose, to such a length that he had to constantly avoid tripping over them and entangling himself in them.
A pilgrim saw what was happening, and Beth met him in combat. Delva rushed by the guard who was searching for a superior and entered the wagon. He saw an unconscious Shaggy and the crone within. He picked up the thief and tried to dash out of the wagon, but the old woman reached out her hands and screeched out an invocation. The elf shrugged off an attempt to hold him and climbed out the wagon.
Rushing pilgrims tackled Voltron from behind as he concentrated on telling his unseen servant which oil pool to light next. Proteus looked for a horse to take to flee. Beth finished off her first combatant and flung herself at one of the men holding down Voltron. The magic user was able to mutter the words of his stolen spell, the one which he knew he had no business casting, the one which he knew could go horribly, horribly wrong. He thought he used the proper inflection in Old Eldritch on the second to last fricative.
He was wrong. As the illusory dragon he was hoping for seemed to fly overhead, something was different this time. Instead of belching out dragon's fire about the pilgrim camp, the dragon brushed aside the man holding down Voltron. With a scaly claw, the drake grabbed Voltron and flew into the air. One bite took off the magician's head. The next bite his torso. The dragon tossed the remainder up and chomped it down in the third and final bite.
Delva was almost at his horse when a pilgrim fired a crossbow at him. It missed Delva. It, however, sunk into the body of Shaggy, who was draped about Delva's back. Feeling the lifeforce leave the thief's body, Delva let him to the ground. Proteus, remembering the satchel filled with gold from the werewolves' lair, snatched the bag from Shaggy's body and ran to another horse. The three remaining party members fled on horseback as fast as their steeds could take them. Beth was hit a number of times, but none of them managed to hit any vital areas. Proteus was hit twice, both much less severe than they could have been. Delva managed to escape any harm in the flight from the pilgrims.
On the coach heading south, Tig spoke with Silas about the pilgrims. "Do you know who they are?" "Yes, and you are lucky to to have left while you could. Do not expect to see your friends return. They are the followers of the Great North Wind, the "Grandfather" they speak of. They seize people and offer them for their sacrifices. But some say the Great North Wind is not who they truly worship, no some say it's Tharizdun." Tig wanted to know who Tharizdun was.
"Some people don't even mention his name. He is a power of greatest evil and incredible might. Many gods banded together to banish him. His goal is to end all of existence." Silas told his fellow dwarf plainly. "Look at it this way. When we cash at the City-State, it will be a bigger cut for you." Tig admitted that he hadn't thought of it like that.
For some reason, Tig realized that Ariadne had suddenly become more relevant. Indeed, as he studied her, he realized that he was not just looking at Ariadne the dancer, but also Ariadne the fighting woman!
Some hours later, the escapees from the pilgrims caught up to the coach on the road and told them of the losses of Shaggy and Voltron. The coachmen gave the party the choice to continue on the road and stop when the needed to get a full night's sleep or to turn off and chance their way through the meadows to lose the pilgrims just hours behind. The party chose to go off-road.
The next night, again on Tig's watch, something angry, something familiar paid a visit. Tig knew he heard the snorting sound before, but the tusks were upon him. Wereboars! Though only two in number, the beasts attacked with unrelenting fury. The silver arrows of Beth, the silver hammer of Delva, and the chaos of Proteus proved too much for the outnumbered lycanthropes to handle. Though Tig and Snell the bodyguard took some damage, the party smashed their attackers.
This session included a bit of a jailbreak situation. I think the party thought it would be a bit simpler and less deadly than it turned out to be. Two PC deaths, both by the same player. Didn't want him to bear the burden, but I also didn't want them to lose the fear of possible death.
___________________________________
In Search of the Unknown Campaign Session #17
Chapter 2 In Search of the City-State of the Invincible Overlord: #3
The party continued to ride the coach south, passing some 60 miles without incident, staying the first night at a farmstead and the next in a roadside shrine. The third night from Kirby, the party is forced to stay outside, finding a stand of trees near a pond filled with tallgrass.
Proteus and Trixie decide to go skinny-dipping. Trixie believes she felt something brush her leg. They make out something scaly, probably reptilian. Before they can react, a lizardman bursts from the water and shouts at them in his reptilian tongue, gesticulating wildly and swinging his arms all about. Trixie darts out of the water as Proteus tries to ascertain the humanoid's body language. Two more reptilians appear behind the first, shouting in anger. By this time, the party starts to come to the lake.
Proteus believes the lizardman wants him to leave the pond immediately and slowly backs out of the water. Several more lizardmen appear behind the three, these now wielding weapons. The party eyes the reptilians, seeing them size up the party, shuddering at their unblinking gaze. As the party backs away from the pond, the lizardmen eventually fall back into the depths themselves.
Shaggy decides a great thing to do would be to find ANOTHER pond and skinny-dip there. He does so, and goes for a swim. He feels something brush against him and tries to leave the pond. Just out of the water, something is faster than he is and bites him from behind. The shock of the gouging wound renders the thief unconscious. Tig hears the yelp from Shaggy, and he, Delva, Beth, and Voltron go to help. Running in strange terrain at night is not easy, and Tig and Voltron get tripped up, falling behind Delva and Beth.
Arriving at the pond, Delva can't see Shaggy but hears a chirping or hissing sound. Lighting a torch, he sees a giant otter some 50 feet away standing right behind a nest of baby otters. Shaggy is floating in the pond, another 50 feet or so from Delva and Beth. Wearing lighter armor, Beth hits the water first, and with some difficulty, gets Shaggy back to land. After a few tense moments, the party and the otter see the last of each other.
At last the party sets up to sleep for the night and take their watches for the night. On Tig's watch, he hears the sound of hoofbeats and the flicker of torches. A group of some size, perhaps a hundred, is coming this way. People wearing robes, some purple, some black, some frosty blue, are marching. A few are carrying banners showing a rough purple spiral on light, frosty blue background. A tall man with a stern and somber demeanor asks the party what they are doing and is told that they are going to the City-State. The tall man says that his people, the followers of the Great North Wind, are travelling there as well.
The man then says, "One of you will come with us." Delva begins to ask the man what exactly that means when Shaggy speaks up. "I'll go if you heal me!" The man motions for Shaggy to come forward, as an old crone in a frost blue robe shuffles over to him. As she slaps her hand to Shaggy's forehead in a claw-like grip, the thief feels freezing cold fill his body. The thief then collapses, unconscious. Two broad-shouldered men in black robes seize the thief and toss him in a covered wagon.
Tig begins to protest, "Hey now, that's one of my friends!" The tall man ignores him as the large men in the black cloaks stand in front of the wagon, both brandishing two-handed broadswords. The coachmen hurry over to the tall man and whisper to him. They announce to the party, "We are leaving and taking the coach to the City-State. Whoever wants to come with us must leave immediately with us. Forget about your friend. He will not come back."
Delva conceives a plan and whispers to Tig to take the coach, and the dwarf agrees. He finds that the girls and Silas and his bodyguards are already in the coach, nervously waiting for the coachmen to ride off.
Delva had planned to snatch Shaggy out of the wagon during a time when the pilgrims had let their guard down. He and Beth pretended to argue as they walked about the camp, trying to empty containers of oil here and there. After dropping one flask loudly, Delva was no longer able to continue his ruse and walked away, pretending to be innocent. Voltron summoned an unseen servant to grab a coal to set the oil aflame, and one pool erupted. Proteus then used his chaos to levitate one of the guards of the wagon above the ground.
The other guard shouted, "Magic! Magic is being used!" As a side effect of the chaos, Voltron's nasal hairs had instantly grown wildly out of his nose, to such a length that he had to constantly avoid tripping over them and entangling himself in them.
A pilgrim saw what was happening, and Beth met him in combat. Delva rushed by the guard who was searching for a superior and entered the wagon. He saw an unconscious Shaggy and the crone within. He picked up the thief and tried to dash out of the wagon, but the old woman reached out her hands and screeched out an invocation. The elf shrugged off an attempt to hold him and climbed out the wagon.
Rushing pilgrims tackled Voltron from behind as he concentrated on telling his unseen servant which oil pool to light next. Proteus looked for a horse to take to flee. Beth finished off her first combatant and flung herself at one of the men holding down Voltron. The magic user was able to mutter the words of his stolen spell, the one which he knew he had no business casting, the one which he knew could go horribly, horribly wrong. He thought he used the proper inflection in Old Eldritch on the second to last fricative.
He was wrong. As the illusory dragon he was hoping for seemed to fly overhead, something was different this time. Instead of belching out dragon's fire about the pilgrim camp, the dragon brushed aside the man holding down Voltron. With a scaly claw, the drake grabbed Voltron and flew into the air. One bite took off the magician's head. The next bite his torso. The dragon tossed the remainder up and chomped it down in the third and final bite.
Delva was almost at his horse when a pilgrim fired a crossbow at him. It missed Delva. It, however, sunk into the body of Shaggy, who was draped about Delva's back. Feeling the lifeforce leave the thief's body, Delva let him to the ground. Proteus, remembering the satchel filled with gold from the werewolves' lair, snatched the bag from Shaggy's body and ran to another horse. The three remaining party members fled on horseback as fast as their steeds could take them. Beth was hit a number of times, but none of them managed to hit any vital areas. Proteus was hit twice, both much less severe than they could have been. Delva managed to escape any harm in the flight from the pilgrims.
On the coach heading south, Tig spoke with Silas about the pilgrims. "Do you know who they are?" "Yes, and you are lucky to to have left while you could. Do not expect to see your friends return. They are the followers of the Great North Wind, the "Grandfather" they speak of. They seize people and offer them for their sacrifices. But some say the Great North Wind is not who they truly worship, no some say it's Tharizdun." Tig wanted to know who Tharizdun was.
"Some people don't even mention his name. He is a power of greatest evil and incredible might. Many gods banded together to banish him. His goal is to end all of existence." Silas told his fellow dwarf plainly. "Look at it this way. When we cash at the City-State, it will be a bigger cut for you." Tig admitted that he hadn't thought of it like that.
For some reason, Tig realized that Ariadne had suddenly become more relevant. Indeed, as he studied her, he realized that he was not just looking at Ariadne the dancer, but also Ariadne the fighting woman!
Some hours later, the escapees from the pilgrims caught up to the coach on the road and told them of the losses of Shaggy and Voltron. The coachmen gave the party the choice to continue on the road and stop when the needed to get a full night's sleep or to turn off and chance their way through the meadows to lose the pilgrims just hours behind. The party chose to go off-road.
The next night, again on Tig's watch, something angry, something familiar paid a visit. Tig knew he heard the snorting sound before, but the tusks were upon him. Wereboars! Though only two in number, the beasts attacked with unrelenting fury. The silver arrows of Beth, the silver hammer of Delva, and the chaos of Proteus proved too much for the outnumbered lycanthropes to handle. Though Tig and Snell the bodyguard took some damage, the party smashed their attackers.