SessionTwentyfive

January 31, 2009

Still in the circle/statue room, Chaedi again adds her two cents in about the runes on the square being bad and having something to do with death and resurrection, or undeath. Thanks.

Initially, the party agrees to remove the one stone to see what happens. Alecsa, with Osrik as backup, removes the one stone from the mouth. After a few moments, more beetles start pouring out of all three of the statues' mouths. Alecsa replaces the stone, and that statue stops pouring beetles, but the other two continue. Alecsa wants to watch the beetles to see what they do, but the Dex/Osrik/Chaedi brigade gets all freaked out and wants to cram all three gems into the mouths, not knowing if a specific color works a certain way with a specific statue.

Alecsa runs to the east statue and inserts the spider incubator, while Chaedi runs out and grabs the gem from the door, which was keeping the door open! So, the door shuts, trapping them inside the room with freaky bugs and the circle of undeath. Then, Chaedi thinks it might not have been such a hot idea to take the stone out of the door. Pitons wouldn't have held it open, either.

Alecsa watches the beetles as they slowly move down the channels, while the panicky Osrik and Chaedi (daintily) stomp as many as they can in their channels. A couple of them get on Osrik's axe and bite him on the thumb. He doesn't die.

The insects take positions inside incised circle and runes, but there aren't enough to cover them completely. Alecsa wants to inspect things and try variations with the stones, but Frustratingly, Osrik becomes gung-ho about moving the southern statue away from the door. He drags the ever-reckless Dex to help him, and they risk hernias to move the huge statue. Osrik asks if any of the rest of the party want to help them push the statue, and Cinoi gives him an are-you-kidding-? look.

The door revealed, Osrik hefts his axe, and says, "Form up, everyone! Alcon, here we come!" Really. Actually said that. Alecsa heaves a huge, sigh of frustration. Cinoi is not at all excited about going into the room, and Gloriana is leery of it. Chaedi checks to make sure she didn't get any bug goo on her shoes. She has her priorities.

Since there is a coffin in the next room, Osrik requests Gloriana accompany him. For last rites, maybe. So, Alecsa falls back to guard the rear of the party, which in this case is Cinoi's. She doesn't complain.

To Osrik, the room looks wavery and foggy. The room appears to have a dirt floor, and two halves of a gate are open beyond the doorway. There also seems to be fresh air coming from the room. Osrik steps through the doorway, and he seems to become dim and far away. Cinoi states that he does not want to go through that door.

The room is 20' by 20', and he can see the wrought iron gates have some sort of foxfire crawling on them. He calls out to the party to say he's okay, and he his voice seems to come as if from a great distance. The magic users all think the gate may be some sort of teleportation spell.

No longer worried about the blue aura/discharge crawling along the gates, Osrik inspects the sarcophagus, noting the lid has been slightly pushed aside. It's also empty. Some sort of writing decorates the walls. He turns to the party standing beyond the gate and indicates there is a language he can't read and they need to come look at it. Notice he never asks or says "please." Alecsa makes him step back through the gate to make sure they can return if they need to. Satisfied when he makes it back unharmed, and Alecsa inspects the moved statue to make sure the statue won't reset and shut, the party steps into the tomb.

Once inside the tomb, Alecsa and Cinoi piton the gates open. They then join in inspecting the writing. Osrik goes down a short tunnel that leads outside, noticing a hut and a boar that wakes from its nap when the dwarf shows up. His mouth waters as he thinks of pork chops. Osrik's, not the pig's. The pig eyes him and walks around in a circling sort of manner.

The rest of the party study the writing and determines it is an old form of Eldarin. The writing tells of Queen Ashlana of Civari and her deeds. There are also several prayers to the god Caralon, chief god of the Eldarin, for her quite repose and other death rites.

Nothing else to be learned there, the party returns to the statue room to deface the circle. Alecsa wants to take the gems if possible, but removing any of them causes the tomb doorway to disappear, leaving a blank niche. Taking this problem into consideration, they decide not to deface the circle, since they might just end up trapping themselves in that room.

Alecsa wants to talk to whoever lives in the hut that Osrik saw. So, the party heads back to the short tunnel in the tomb. Osrik and Dex step out of the cave first, keeping an eye on the boar. As Alecsa begins to move, quickly but stealthily, to the hut's door, the boar attacks.

Dex moves up to block the pig, since the party doesn't want to kill it, since it seems it might belong to the person in the hut. Gloriana moves out to help out block, as well. Cinoi, from the tunnel entrance, warlock curses the pig and holds any further action. Osrik moves to stand beside Dex and marks the pig. The pig charges for Alecsa - Dex missing with his attack of opportunity - and tries to gore her. Alecsa attacks it and pounds on the hut's door at the same time, which results in an unsurprising miss of the pig.

Dex attempts to stab the pig but misses. Gloriana hits it with a Righteous Brand, giving Osrik a bonus to his next attack. Cinoi's Eldritch Blast misses the pig, as well. Chaedi misses with Cloud of Daggers. Osrik chops the boar, which then turns and tries to gore him but misses. Alecsa slides forward a bit and hits the pig with a torturous strike.

Then, an old lady comes out of the hut, yelling at "Fergus," telling him he's a bad pig. Knowing he's in trouble, Fergus takes off. The lady invites the party to sit and chat with her in the moonlight! How romantic. From her, they learn that they are nowhere near Pel anymore, and they are in the Feywild. She says back in the time of Civari there was only one world, but now there are three. Then, she randomly mentions that the Lamia will find a way to escape one day, and then things will get dangerous. As if the Feywild isn't dangerous enough!

The Lamia issue compels the bored Cinoi to retreat to the tomb, and Alecsa goes with him. When Osrik tells the lady they are heading to Alcon, she points out a road and says it is a much shorter trip than going there through Erithnoi. She says there is powerful magic in the road, and it will lead them to the "Dwarven gates" no matter which world they are in. She cautions them not to stray from the road. She says King Delgar put a spell on the gates of Alcon, making it hard to find.

The party determines that they can get back out of the statue room, but traveling through the Feywild to Alcon will take two days, as opposed to who knows how many through Erithnoi. And, the Alcon gates might be easier to locate from the Feywild side. The lady says the end of the road here comes out in Kirnegh at the gates of Alcon.

The woman says she will seal the tomb gates, and the party will have to get back in through Golnath Haud. She also drops that the Lamia IS IN THERE! She was once an evil mage, daughter of the Green Adept. Followed by the mysterious comment, "The gates are where they want to be." She also gives a parting, "Don't trust the crocodile, either! He's a sly one, and he won't give you much trouble."

The party spends the night in the tomb without a pork chop dinner. After learning there are giant spiders living in the nearby forest, Alecsa protects Cinoi from the scary arachnids, forgoing sleeping in the sarcophagus just to freak out other party members. The spider incubator is just in the next room!

445 XP - And actually lost treasure!

February 7, 2009

The party travels the old dwarven road without encountering any problems. The road looks very old and not well maintained. The day is nice and bright, and the plant life is pleasant. The normal outdoor sounds are heard, no indication that something odd or dangerous is going on around them.

The come to an old stone, dwarven-built bridge. Next to it, sunning on a rock, is a crocodile. Cinoi spots someone hidden in front of the bridge near Dex and points him out to Gloriana. She can see it, but can't determine much about the person, either.

The bugbear decides to show himself and tries to extort money out of them to cross the bridge, wanting 500 gp! Spokesman Osrik tells them that's not going to happen and suggests he fight the bugbear for the right to pass. Cinoi offers the party will leave if the bugbear will feed his arm to the croc.

Gloriana can still see something just beyond Dex, right of the bugbear. She nudges Chaedi and points out the thing she can somewhat see. Alecsa moves up to stand behind Dex to see if she can spot what the others see.

In the meantime, the bugbear tells the party that he guards the bridge for "the dwarves" and will give Osrik a discount of 50gp. The crocodile decides to come up on land and offer to take them across the river and is not interested in gold. (Can you say "Gingerbread Man?") Gloriana notes that the croc isn't actually speaking, and the voice sounds a bit high-pitched. This prompts Chaedi to start looking for pixies...

Their ruse blown, the bugbear offers to arm wrestle Osrik for the crossing. Osrik calls for an impartial third party to referee. Alecsa volunteers. She wants to put the knockout powder on Osrik's glove, but he declines and strips off his gloves and hands them to her, saying such tricks will get them killed. She thinks he's an idiot. She thinks about just tossing his gloves on the ground but stuffs them into her belt. He hands his axe to Dex and tells him not to drop it.

The bugbear sets aside his spiked glove, pull his tree stump stool over, and declares he has a judge. He claims a gnome lives in the nearby trees and won't cheat because the bugbear will eat him. Anyone who buys this, raise your hands! The gnome announces that he will be a good judge because gnomes like arm wrestling. That's original.

The gnome approaches and stands near the wrestler for a good view. Alecsa moves up near him and keeps and eye on him, the gator, and tries to see whatever the others were so worried about earlier. The gnome looks at Alecsa, and gives him a hand gesture that indicates he should turn around and watch the bout.

Once the match is underway, Alecsa feels someone breathing down her neck. She turns her head and sees what she thinks is another bugbear, but the distortion is still in the area. Osrik quickly starts losing to the bugbear, so Alecsa decides to try creating a distraction. She turns to fully face the other bugbear and makes a move toward it.

Cinoi is able to look intimidating enough for the gnome to tell the bugbear that Osrik looks pretty tough and he should let them pass for 25 gp. So, Osrik decides to offer them both a bit of knockout powder, saying it will make them feel rally good if the bugbear lets him win. He calls for Alecsa as if she's his slave, but she's busy trying to follow the second bugbear. Having lost track of the obscured bugbear with Osrik's current antics, she stomps back over to him to give them the powder.

Wally, the gnome, says he will look at it that evening and give Hairy's, the bugbear, his share if it's ok. He says he's got work to do but doesn't go anywhere. Hairy tells them he is the last bugbear and it is market day. Alecsa pushes the bugbear to admit this is another one and what they are up to. Cinoi, who is also suspicious of an ambush, stays with her, as does Gloriana. The other three, however, take off without them and cajole them to get going. It's a fine example of our a certain, pushy part of the party got them stuck out there in the first place! After being stonewalled by the little bastard, he and gnome just fade out. She looks a bit more and knows they are still there. She scoffs at them and leaves to cross the bridge with her two-member backup!

They continue down the long road until they come upon the tents and stalls of the market around lunchtime. Chaedi warns everyone not to be too trusting and not to lose their tempers. Apparently, she's just reciting that bit of advice for herself.

They first encounter a priest of Lir, who asks Gloriana if she has found the holy altar stone, the missing gemstone heart of Golnath Haud that is needed to drive back the shadow back into the realm of Death. (Whatever all that is.) It is described as "a topaz of the largest size, inscribed with the sign of Lir." When she asks for a description, he says Ulgar tore it from the altar of Golnath Haud when he overran the land. He's looking for the stone so he can bring back the temple of Lir. He says the stone is carved with the sunburst of Lir and it's magic is mighty. He tells Gloriana to tell Lady Elom of the Olom Koi that Markus is still on the quest.

In the meantime, the bored Osrik fails to stir up the guards, who ignore him. Cinoi comes to the "rescue" of a goat being harassed by pixies. Osrik stomps over to stand beside his "buddy" Cinoi. In fact, Osrik tries to dope up the pixies with the knockout powder. Lucky for them them, Amarka, an Eldarin, shews the pixies away.

Osrik trots off to buy new razor armor while the others stop to get a meal. The men at the table are humans who are discussing treasure division. They aren't receptive to conversation. Chaedi leans against Dex and tells him he was so brave against the bugbear at the bridge. Alecsa nearly chokes on her ale. Both of them were of the three that took of and abandoned their comrades interrogating the bugbear!

After eating, Osrik points Alecsa and Gloriana to the armorer and Chaedi to a magics tent. Osrik, Dex, and Chaedi go look at some lizard men and their big lizard. Chaedi then drags Dex to the magic shop. She buys one each of blinding bomb, dragonfire tar, and tanglefoot bags. Alecsa buys Sylvan armor and Gloriana buys Eldarin chain that sparkles in any light. She also trades out her heavy shield for a lighter one, so she can hold her life symbol in that hand, too. Cinoi finds himself a cloak of resistance +1. Chaedi doles out her buy to several party members [Alecsa gets the tanglefoot bag, and Chaedi keeps the dragonfire tar; she gives Dex (her current sweetie) the blinding bomb].

The party finds the Vilmains of the Golden Orb tribe they had met in Lad. For whatever reason, Chaedi asks to speak with Madame Zorba and is escorted to her wagon.

Alecsa, Gloriana, and Cinoi wander over to take a look at a huge tortoise. When Cinoi tries to determine if taking a sliver off the shell would bother anyone, they discover the tortoise is a sentient creature selling vegetables. The conversions devolves into brain twisting after that, and Alecsa decides to ask the Vilmains if they know where the nearest temple of Lir is. And wonders how that tortoise knows of the quest ... that they aren't even on! They are not so helpful, either.

--While there was money spent all around, there was no treasure to be had!

February 14, 2009

Still in the fey marketplace, Chaedi is led to Madame Zorba's tent, where she pays 2 silver pieces for a horoscope reading. Zorba asks for her date and place of work then consults her charts. She tells Chaedi that she will travels a long way and meet danger underground. How unexpected. Then, Zorba tells Chaedi she thinks she will find her true love. She ends with the caveat that the stars tell all. When Chaedi asks if her true love will still be so when she finds him, Zorba tells her his heart is true. [But will Chaedi's?!]

While Chaedi plays psychic connection, the rest of the party buys provisions and any other things they might need. Alecsa buys caltrops and three pounds of flour. Osrik buys three pounds of coal dust. Since the day is moving in to the afternoon, they learn there is an inn called The Golden Stag down the road. The party's goal is to stop there for the night.

They travel the road for several hours, noting the road as been built on an embankment further along and gets narrower. Trees grow thickly down below, leading to an area of dead trees and the land opening up beyond them. The area is a swamp, and they can see some sort of structure up ahead. They can also see a tower at the north edge of the road.

The party sees at least one crocodile, and on the far side of the road they see the bones of a dragon. Knowing the bones could be valuable they party tries to figure out how to get some of them. Chaedi uses made hand to work out a tooth, and Alecsa snags a bone with her grappling hook. [Not sure if Cinoi wants one ... or a sliver of one] As Alecsa starts dragging a snagged bone towards her, Osrik spots two lizard men, who seem connected with the crocodile. He waves at them... One of the lizard me yells something charges after Alecsa.

Chaedi leaves off with her magic hand and readies her icy terrain spell. Osrik up throws his hands and says "peace" in dwarvish and softly tells Alecsa to drop the rope. Isn't he helpful? Cinoi curses the lizard man closest to him, #L1, then moves back to conceal himself. This lizard man runs up to Osrik, who tries to be diplomatic and talk them out of trouble. Seeing that Osrik is not attacking, the #L1 just menaces him with its spear. Osrik keeps his hand up and mines to Alecsa to roll the rope up. She mimes him a Well-Duh! Dex stands pat, and Chaedi sends her mage hand to return the grappling hook back to the party, sans bone. Alecsa slowly and deliberately winds the rope and reattaches it to her pack. Gloriana holds her palms out to both sides of the road, and says, "Peace, brothers. We meant no harm."

The vine horror that had shuffled up to stand about ten feet from Osrik, saying how dare they disturb the bones of the Ancient One! Osrik talks to the vine horror, who tells them the lizard men hold the bones in reverence but he personally doesn't care one way of the other. Asking what the party can do to make a atonement to the lizard man, the vine says they should give over Alecsa to be a sacrifice to their god. Osrik refusing, and the vine says he thirsts for the blood of men, elves, darves. Combat begins when Osrik declares the vine isn't slaking its thirst that day!

The vine begins triggering a power, causing magical vines to spring up and wrap around the legs of everyone, except Cinoi. He's so thrilled to be left to fight on his own. The vines inflict damage and hold them in place. A crocodile, C1, moves up closer to the party to stand near the second lizard man, L2. Cinoi warlock curses C1 and attacks the vine and the second crocodile, C2, with eldritch rain, missing the vine but hitting the croc. Then moves to conceal. L1 (with Osrik standing right in front of him!) attacks and misses Alecsa. Despite the injuries from the holding vines, Osrik hits L1 with a sweeping strike, knocking the lizard prone. He also marks the vine horror. L2 tries to stab Dex but misses. However, Dex hits him in return and is able to rip free of the restraining vines. C1 bites Chaedi and holds her in its jaws. But, Chaedi teleports out of the croc's mouth and beyond the vine's spell's area of effect to stand near Cinoi. She then casts freezing cloud on the vine horror, L2, and C2, hitting the vine and L2. Unable to move, Alecsa throws a shuriken over Osrik's head to hit the vine with a trick strike, sliding the vine back. She is unable to pull free of the vines holding her legs. Unable to move, Gloriana performs a Healing Strike, hitting C1 and healing Alecsa, but is unable to free herself from the vines.

The vine moves back up and claws at Osrik, missing. However, the vine was injured by moving within Chaedi's spell. C2 tries to bite Dex but misses. Cinoi curses C2 and hits C1 with his eldritch blast, then moves for concealment. L1 stands and tries to stab Osrik but misses. Osrik chops the vine horror in half with a brute strike. Meaning, it's dead. He's also finally about to rip free of the vines holding him in place and heals himself. L2 tries to stab Dex but misses. Dex misses L2 in return. C1 tries to bite Gloriana but misses. Chaedi hits both lizard men with icy rays. Alecsa kills C1 with a torturous strike. So long, Ralphie! She also finally manages to break free of the vines holding her in place. Still unable to move, Gloriana heals herself with Healing Word but is still stuck in place.

C2 tries to bite Dex but misses. Cinoi curses the last bad guy, L2, and hits L1 with an eldritch blast. Then, he moves to conceal himself. L1 is actually able to stab Osrik! Osrik chops it in return. L2 stabs Dex, who uses a second wind to heal himself. Chaedi's cloud of daggers misses L2. Alecsa's shuriken thrown at L1 misses as it tries to flee back into the swamp. Gloriana uses her last Healing Word on Osrik and is FINALLY able to get free of the damaging vines.

C2 bites a grabs Dex. Cinoi kills L1 with an eldritch blast. Osrik moves down to attack L2, misses, but marks him. However, he is able to hit the lizard when it shifts to stab him. L2 hits him then tries to run back into the swamp. Dex clumsily swings from inside C2's jaws but misses. Chaedi's cloud of dagger misses C2. Alecsa shoots L2 with a crossbow bolt, killing it. Gloriana hit C2 with a Righteous Brand, giving Osrik a bonus to his attack. C2 chomps down on Dex again and takes off into the swamp. Gloriana and Osrik both hit him when he turns to flee with their party member.

Cinoi hits C2 with eldritch blast and nearly kills it. Osrik tries to hit C2 with a crossbow bolt but misses. Chaedi finishes off C2, aka George, with cloud of daggers.

Chaedi teleports down to pull Dex's body from George's mouth. When Gloriana catches up to her, she heals Dex and uses a cure light wounds prayer. Dex is then able to do some healing surges on himself.

While Dex is being healed and the party resting, some members gather some dragon bones. When Dex is feeling better, he skins George's tail and gets him some croc meat for later. He thanks the party for saving him.

--If it weren't for dragon bones, there'd be no treasure at all.--

A very LONG gap here before the next posting (on the main page). Tod may post some of the raw transcripts for sessions in between.

In very quick summary - we finally got to the North, found a dwarf mining colony, roughly located Alcon, tried to find it, stumbled on a white dragon's lair and a goblin fort. We rescued Osrik's father and a bunch of other slaves. Then we found Alcon, invaded it, stopped the bug lady from carrying out an evil plot, rescued Dudley and two other people (Melisizwe and Thorinn), and Osrik found a really cool demon-fighting axe. Cinoi gets sa piece of starstone. We discovered that Dex was not at all who we thought he was, and parted ways. Chaedi and her "truelove" Dudley reunite, happily. The rest of us go back to the Dwarf Mine town briefly, get a token from a ranger of Otilis named Murthond, and then head back for Tislock. At this point, our only goals are fairly nebulous. Osrik wants to find his kidnapped brother in the Forest of Grinn. Alecsa wants to have a good time. Cinoi wants to find out more about starstones and the Well of Stars. He hopes that in the Green Adept's lair there might be more starstones or such.Thorinn has no real goals as far as I can tell... Melisizwe is a diplomat, sent to "unite the goblins" for some reason we don't understand, and aren't sure we like...