OUTWORLDERS CAMPAIGN - Recaps

 

 

 

Game 1 (7/25/2015)

For one reason or another we are all called into the HR office in different groups, typically in pairs.  In each case, the guy who called us in, comes in and leaves his breifcase then excuses himself, then, we all end up in a D&D (or rather T&T)esque world.  Almost immediately we are besieged by an Owl Bear (or rather Ursine/Avian, as Michele's character is quick to dub it; Man-Bear-Pig, as Arch is going to call every weird hybrid creature in this world--and probably called them in your T&T games too).

It spends a while gnawing on Coyne, who actually ends up doing all the damage to it while we ineffectually slap-fight it.

We're in a forest.  Those briefcases contain things we had laying around the office plus a few other random supplies.  We set out away from the forest and find a town ahead.  'Tis the village of Homlet!  There, we look funny, but people are not rude to us, they're just speaking gibberish.  It isn't until we're in the local tavern a while and come across the local wizard (the only one known to the area) and he casts a spell to speak to us that we find out the general information.  In the meantime we'd been subsisting on Michele's character's us of her odd metal change that the locals seemed to accept as foreign currency.

The wiz says he'll help us get settled.  He mentions there's work for problem-solving types.  There are goblins and the like causing locals problems and they can't just send the militia out, they'd need backup.  We agree to go do some goblin clean-out if we are loaned some items to do it with.

We do a city crawl in order to find out what all the shops are, get Bear's shirt fixed, find the fletcher, tanner, smith, etc.

That night, we hang out at the local inn and Arch earns some money by getting up on stage with the local musicians (woodwind players) and joining with his guitar.  He does exceptionally well and earns enough money for a suit of leather armor.  Doc Carver's gambling problem gets the best of him at the tables.  We eventually end up calling it a night and setting up watches in both rooms since we've played T&T and know the score.  No one attacks us.

Next day we gather our loaned weapons and gear and head out with six militia people in extremely fast fashion since two of us were leaving.  Turns out the two of us could have left because we didn't have to do anything to win this fight.  It was an ogre and five hobgoblins.  They do inflict some damage on us and nearly take down one of the militia, but we (our warrior types mostly) manage to crush them.

That's when I ran out the door.


 

Game 2 (8/8/15) - WITH JEFF'S CORRECTIONS INCLUDED IN THE TEXT AND AT THE END

A month has passed.  We've done some stuff, including picking up some personal mentors, as all tiny towns in fantasy worlds have one of each retired class profession who hand around just to teach PCs.

It is brought to our attention that one of the mentors is missing.  The drunken mentor of Michele's character (Elmo the Ranger).  I think her last name was Sato, the first word was... Chumani.  Elmo was engaged by the town council to go investigate the old Moat House that is abandoned in the swamp.  We are asked if we can go investigate, because he has been gone for 3 days, which we do.  So we pile into the Mystery Machine and roll out.  Elmo has an infamous drinking problem, so it is thought that after he traveled to the Moathouse he went on another bender and is passed out somewhere, or that he is in trouble (because being gone for 3 days to a place only 1 mile away is highly unusual). 

His footprints lead right up to the door.  We case the joint but find no signs of activity going on right now.  So that leads us to cross the moat on the far side of the building by using a grappling hook and rope to pull ourselves up the side.  The first man up, Coyne, takes a couple arrows from someone watching, then after that we take turns leaping across and either falling into the stinky muck below or climbing up.

Once up top there's a hole in the roof that we make bigger and then we descend.  Now that we're in the enemy's sights, they begin to fire arrows at us.  Rather than do anything cagey, Coyne runs headlong and engages.  It takes a while for some of the rest of us to position ourselves and decide on a course of action while Coyne is out there hacking away.  But since there are 9 of them, we don't take forever.  There isn't a lot of science involved in this one; it's almost all hack and slash, positioning for flanking, and at first--losing.  First to go down are our combat types: Coyne, Bear, and Conrad.  Of course keep in mind we don't have an official level in a character class yet, so they're "theoretical combat types" at this point.

In the process though they took out a few of the other guys.  Chumani takes out three, Arch finishes off two, and Doc keeps trying to heal our guys but the bad guys are getting in his way.  Eventually they are down to one and he tries to flee at which point Chipotle and Arch hit him virtually the same time (though she steals the credit).

We check the place out and find the missing drunk.  Coyne runs back to town at barbarian speed and comes back with a wagon to haul off the defeated.  We raid downstairs and find an old jailer facility that has a few things in it:  Like a swarm of rats, some snakes, and then some kind of lizard creature.  Our first team spells are cast (because we leveled after the first fight).

A thought occurs to us that this could be our facility if we cleaned it back up, but that would take a LOT of work.

The people who fell unconscious have an odd dream that evening about a tree.

People around town are getting sick.  Some investigation leads us to talk to a mentor who informs us that maybe we should talk to the local druid.  We head out to find him and discover there's an overgrowth of plants that poison us by shooting thistles.  They manage to poison (to the point of Delirium) Coyne and... either Conrad or Bear.  Doesn't matter because after we bring the druid back to the local clerics (who can't heal him) and we regroup and come back with intent of burning down the evil weeds, but they fell half the party to lala-land.  There's another regrouping and ultimately a destruction of the weeds using weed-b-gone or somesuch.

The upshot of this session is:  We are 3rd level (This level being in a dedicated class), we have some more gold from reselling the goods we took off of the brigands at the moat house, some of us picked up slightly better armor from them (Studded leather).

A month has passed.  We've done some stuff, including picking up some personal mentors, as all tiny towns in fantasy worlds have one of each retired class profession who hand around just to teach PCs.

It is brought to our attention that one of the mentors is missing.  The drunken mentor of Michele's character (whose name I still can't remember.  I think her last name was Sato, the first word was... Chipotle... well, close enough.) has gotten drunk and gone investigating a Moat House that is abandoned in the swamp.  We are asked if we can go investigate, which we do.  So we pile into the Mystery Machine and roll out.

His footprints lead right up to the door.  We case the joint but find no signs of activity going on right now.  So that leads us to cross the moat on the far side of the building by using a grappling hook and rope to pull ourselves up the side.  The first man up, Coyne, takes a couple arrows from someone watching, then after that we take turns leaping across and either falling into the stinky muck below or climbing up.

Once up top there's a hole in the roof that we make bigger and then we descend.  Now that we're in the enemy's sights, they begin to fire arrows at us.  Rather than do anything cagey, Coyne runs headlong and engages.  It takes a while for some of the rest of us to position ourselves and decide on a course of action while Coyne is out there hacking away.  But since there are 9 of them, we don't take forever.  There isn't a lot of science involved in this one; it's almost all hack and slash, positioning for flanking, and at first--losing.  First to go down are our combat types: Coyne, Bear, and Conrad.  Of course keep in mind we don't have an official level in a character class yet, so they're "theoretical combat types" at this point.

In the process though they took out a few of the other guys.  Chipotle takes out three, Arch finishes off two, and Doc keeps trying to heal our guys but the bad guys are getting in his way.  Eventually they are down to one and he tries to flee at which point Chipotle and Arch hit him virtually the same time (though she steals the credit).

We check the place out and find the missing drunk.  Coyne runs back to town at barbarian speed and comes back with a wagon to haul off the defeated.  We raid downstairs and find an old jailer facility that has a few things in it:  Like a swarm of rats, some snakes, and then some kind of lizard creature.  Our first team spells are cast (because we leveled after the first fight).

A thought occurs to us that this could be our facility if we cleaned it back up, but that would take a LOT of work.

The people who fell unconscious have an odd dream that evening about a tree.

People around town are getting sick.  Some investigation leads us to talk to a mentor who informs us that maybe we should talk to the local druid.  We head out to find him and discover there's an overgrowth of plants that poison us by shooting thistles.  They manage to poison (to the point of Delirium) Coyne and... either Conrad or Bear.  Doesn't matter because after we bring the druid back to the local clerics (who can't heal him) and we regroup and come back with intent of burning down the evil weeds, but they fell half the party to lala-land.  There's another regrouping and ultimately a destruction of the weeds using weed-b-gone or somesuch.

The upshot of this session is:  We are 3rd level (This level being in a dedicated class), we have some more gold from reselling the goods we took off of the brigands at the moat house, some of us picked up slightly better armor from them (Studded leather).

JEFF'S ADDENDUM:

Since your characters are not part of the power or governing structure of the town (your group are still foreigners and newcomers), your characters haven’t been privy to any internal town discussions (such as the town council hiring Elmo to check out the moathouse, or the questioning and extradition of the bandits which you brought back as prisoners).  Know thy place.  That being said, your “debt” to the town for their month of hospitality has been paid in full by saving Elmo and ridding the place of the banditos.  You have also gone above and beyond and aided the town in getting rid of the unusual and supernatural thorny bushes that were causing mental infections in the community.  You were paid a reward for that, and are now half way to 4th level.  The town (for the most part) likes and appreciates your group.

While the village does not have characters of every profession (class), it does have retirees of most of the Players Handbook classes (of varying levels) – and those are the folks that act as your mentors.  When I say mentor – I do not mean a confidant and best friendie – I mean a villager that likes and appreciates you (and/or feels sorry for you to some degree), sees potential in you, realizes that your success can be good for the village, and is agreeable to being available to consult with on the mysteries and procedures for gaining experience in a class.  Essentially, they are informal trainers.  Some of your characters will start progressing into classes not found in the PH1, and not found in the village either, but we are fudging that in order to avoid an added set of logistics centering around training.  That being said, I reserve the right to impose the requirement of having to have a trainer (or method of formal training) in order to proceed beyond a certain level – perhaps 9th level.  Not saying it will happen like that, but be prepared (and do not chafe).

Your group left off preparing for a “camping trip” to explore some hills with river to find the location of 3 hills near a river – which is from an inscription scraped onto the side of a quartz crystal that your group found in the bandits’ loot.  I forgot if any of you asked anyone in town about the inscription/location on the crystal?  Be that as it may, you do learn that there are 3 possible areas where a river (or stream) closely traverses hills (3 in this case) as shown on the inscription, in this area.  (Of course, there are probably hundreds, if not thousands, of potential locations worldwide where a river crosses near 3 hills – but this is D&D and we do things differently with geography in the D&D world.)  Two possible locations are to the west:  One is southwest in an area you have not explored.  One is west towards those trees where your group went wood chop chopping – around the place where you saw the 2 Goblins hiding and watching your group.  The third possible location is a few miles beyond the moathouse area.  Now when I say location, I don’t mean one specific GPS point.  I mean an area of hills with river runs thru it.  Meaning it will take upwards of a week to search each area in order to examine, with a modicum of certitude, whether there are any locations which match that on the crystal.  Being D&D, chances are that if your group picks the correct area to search, they will likely find the specific location eventually.  But many dangers await.  Some areas worse than others (as in one area is for level 3-4, another for 5-6, another for 7-9).  Pick the wrong area, and you could be in over your heads.  Pick the right area, and maybe you hear the bells of the slot machine ringing your fortunes.


Game 3 - (8/22/15)

Erik (Joe), Bear (Paul), Doc (Jim), Conrad (Alan), Nimble (Mark), Arch (Darren)

This won't take long, I think.

We've had a month or so to do things.  We're all 3rd level.  Now we know of a few places around the area that could use some exploration and which are potential sources of treasure and such.
There's a brief discussion of whether we are trying to find our way out of this universe to "home" or whether we're staying.  Most seem to favor a trip home, and those who don't are still willing to help them get there, whether they follow or not.

Of the three places worth exploring, one is close by (the moat house) and we've pretty much done that.  Another is further away and according to Doc (Adept of the luck goddess) has a potential for danger.  The third one is much further away and less of a problem.  We go for that second one.

As we get close we start finding hidden entrances to an underground lair, as well has human-sized foot prints.  Any of these entrances that we uncover (One is beneath a fake tree stump, another is beneath a rock, the third is just a hole in the ground) would seem to leave us open to attack if we drop in individually.  Nimble convinces us to move on, which no one feels strongly so we do.
At the place further to the south we are sleeping when another group of adventurers descends upon us.  They try to bait Nimble away with a quiet "c'mere" while everyone is sleeping but he doesn't fall for that, instead shouting for everyone to wake up.  It's 6 of us on 4 of them, and we take 'em down.  One is killed outright during the fight (obliterated by Erik, I think), and the others are captured.  We interrogate the only female and find that we just looked like easy targets.  They also have a map on them.  We elect to let her go, without any of her goods.  She and her friends can try to make their way back to someplace safe without benefit of their stuff.  Supposedly the map leads to the location of an "abandoned dragon treasure hoard".

We follow their map to the location marked and it seems we're probably headed for the same thing as on our map.  When we find the entrance to this dungeon it is followed by a series of traps, often with a puzzle/clue component.

There's a room with a mirror and some skeletons.  They weren't true undead but rather stone facsimiles of undead.  Nimble cut down the odds by tricking two of the skeletons into thinking they were walled off, while the rest of us beat on the other two.

There's a puzzle that had to do with excluding the letter "I" from the word and that left us a password: TransportUsAll (or some such).  Saying that causes the mirror to become a portal.  When we pass through we wind up in a flip-flopped version of the room we were in.  There is treasure here, but any attempt to move toward it causes it to coalesce into a dragon made of coins!  We, being lowly beginners, are not full of magic weapons.  In fact, the only one we have available is the one that is leaped on immediately (I think it was either Erik or Nimble that did that).  The next many turns involve us chipping away at it with the one weapon that hurts it (and two weakass magic missiles).  Then we hit upon a strategy that helps... Paul notices the "Aid other" section of the PhB which allows us to add bonuses to an ally's to hit or AC.  Through this method we take turns with the sword, flanking, and adding bonuses to hit form the Aid function.  A couple of us go down briefly but are brought to consciousness by Doc.  Ultimately, the beast is defeated and clatters to the floor.
What we picked up:  A stack of empty spell books (suitable for resale), a regular scimitar, a regular pair of daggers, the magic sword (Longsword), a bunch of gems and coins, and a greatsword.  We earlier picked up a left glove, which turns out to be one of the two magic items we have.

The sword's name escapes me.  "Hoard" something.  It's a +1 sword, but if you stick it in a pile of treasure it creates a guardian dragon like the one we fought.  Also, once per day, it detects the largest coin collection within 60'.  Since I use a longsword and expressed interest, Arch currently has the sword.  The greatsword is there for the Barbarian (who left at the beginning of the game never to be heard from again).  Now the glove... it's allows the wearer to hid one object of up to 20# in the person's left hand in a suspended state.  So you conceal a torch, a sword, etc, and produce it at will.
Note to Nimble:  We did not make it out with the Rust Monster unless you have some trick for hauling him away.  There was a lot of engineering involved in getting him across pits, etc.  So you'd have to come up with the means; we just didn't care.  Even though "Rustmonster on a stick" is now part of our list of great adventuring gear.


Game 4 - 9/5/2015

Full house!  Except for the Barbarian, who abstained.

Two or three times a year a caravan comes through Homlet, loaded with goods.  We end up buying a few things individually, and some potions for the group, bringing us low on party cash.  There are two major endeavors among the party going on:  Conrad (and to some extent Nimble) have decided to open a brothel.  They need money first, so they are collecting cash and "interviewing" women.  The other activity is that Erik is trying to cultivate pot and needs a farm.  So there's an idea of maybe setting up a house of ill repute and pot farm at the moat house.  In the mean time we've got a house with multiple rooms.

But in order to do any of this we need cash.  So we set out to get money.  We have a few possibilities.  We've investigated two of three spots on our map, but the closest one we haven't done yet.  The other possibility is that we found a couple of maps at the caravans and bought them, but we aren't sure yet where they apply to, so we've set them aside.  So it's off to the place beyond the moat house.

Along the way we are ambushed by a lone scorpion, which gets mangled quickly.

Further on, we see a bugbear creature who warns us to go away.  Rather than do so, we say we are just passing by.  He tells us to go away again.  Then Nimble approaches him with coins.  Bugbear says to leave the coins and go!  That's when two other bugbears come out and now he decides to use a sleep spell on them, and he puts two of them down.  Most of the team are sneaking around back, Conrad is running away from the bugbears, so with two of them sleeping, Arch runs in.  He's quickly recalled by Chumani who does not want this to turn into a fight.  So there's some uneasy discussion and then the group passes by, some of them seemingly materializing out of nowhere because they were sneaking really well.  There were more bugbears, and beyond those there was the rest of their tribe, including children.

There's a discussion about needing to pick fights with everyone vs just invading their dungeon lairs and robbing them.

We finally find where we think the spot is that we are looking for.  Bear spots some tracks that look like lion tracks.  So we follow them to a cave and he sneaks in to look around.  He hears growling and decides to back out.  We try to draw them out and they turn out to be more than lions... They are Howlers, essentially lions with porcupine quills.  We jockey for position around them for flanking purposes and that puts Conrad in the water (this is next to a stream).  He gets knocked over by the water flow and despite many misses Erik gets the kill shots on both.  Inside the cavern we find a trapdoor which leads to a forgotten dungeon.  

In the dungeon we find what appears to be a temple of Gruumsh, the one-eyed Orc god.  We fight and eliminate a few ghouls.  A scan for treasure using "Hoardmaster" determines there is treasure in the direction of the altar.  It looks like it might be worth some bucks, but there's also a trapdoor there.  There's also a door in this room that detect magic determines there is writing above, and read magic determines there are two glyphs here: One is about explosions and one is about making something materialize.  We spend some time trying to open it remotely with ropes and other trickery.  Finally, it opens and triggers an explosion that takes out the walls adjacent to the door.  A hellhound materializes, and behind the crumpled wall is a host of skeletons and a wraith!

Nimble retains the skeletons distance by putting up an illusionary wall.  The ghost is only harmed by magic, and even then there's a miss chance if it's a magic weapon.  So Arch does some damage to it with the sword and magic missiles, passes the sword to Erik, who does some more.  It goes down via magic missile.  The Hellhound had already been taken out at the start of the fight after it bit and scorched a few of us.

The door behind the altar leads to a hallway full of sludge.  Once we start wading in and get halfway down the corridor, a gray ooze rears up and begins attacking.  That leaves our folks at the front to deal with it, so that's Bear and Conrad.  When the creature is defeated we search his chamber and find a bit of treasure in the form of a dagger deep in the muck, and a jeweled eye from the statue of Gruumsh.

We rest and before we leave we end up with a Dire Boar blocking our exit.  We open the hatch and let it force its way through then we start smacking it around.  The boar shreds(!) Conrad, putting him below negative CON with one shot.  The GM gives Doc a mercy shot at saving him.  The heal does sufficient damage to take him up past negative CON.  We get back to town with fresh boar and some cash, and get everyone back to health.

We picked up a +2 Ring of Protection (Likely going to a frontline fighter), a +1 Battleaxe, a book of spells, a scroll, a love potion, and a few other things.


Game 5 - 10/3/2015

The Party: Bear, Coyne, Conrad, and Arch

Bear's funky training as SwordSage had to come from somewhere, and it turns out it's due to three travelers through town. They teach him to do a number of tricks and then before the leave town they give us a chore for which they will pay. It seems they are waiting on a delivery to the scummy town of Nolb (I think it was called Nolb). But they won't be around when it arrives so they ask us to help out, for a fee.

So we go to Nolb, a day early, so we can poke around town, and also in case we run into trouble on the way. It's an 8-hour journey.

We get there and hit the bars then get rooms. Three of the four of us find some female company, Bear abstaining. Next day we go to the dock and check in and do some wandering through town to check out the shops. It's a smaller physical area than Homlet, not being all spread out, but it's dense and more built-up.

When the ship arrives, it comes with a thick, spooky fog. When no one appears on deck or throws a line over, we volunteer to go up. No one is on deck. In a few places below deck we find blood. Checking one room, we find a zombie, but Bear slams the door before it can come out. We check the rest of the ship and end up encountering some zombies below deck, which of course turns into a fight. For a while Bear holds two doors closed to keep more from coming out, while Coyne and Conrad smack zombies around. Arch lobs Disrupt Undead spells from afar. Once all the ones on that level are done, the two from upstairs that were locked in make their way down and we finish them off.

Everybody lives, we find what we came for, and from the Captain's log it seems they were probably overtaken two days into a four day voyage. No explanation as to how it navigated into port.

We got what we needed so we bail for now back to Homlet. But there are plenty of adventure leads in Nolb. It's worth noting that if Zombies keep picking off the ships that could impact Homlet directly since Nolb Trades with Homlet.

Meanwhile, back in town, we are told of the rising of the goblins. They seem to be encroaching further on our area, coming from those chutes that we went out of our way to ignore. Now they are becoming a legitimate threat to the locals so we are given the opportunity to go out and take them out and granted 8 guard-like helpers (six 1st level fighters, one 2nd level fighter, one 3rd level fighter). We arrive at the tunnels and pick one, then we devise a plan in which Bear drops down there (He's good at that) and we come down on knotted ropes right after, and we leave some guards up top.

Bear hurts himself a tiny bit on the fall because there's a pit with spikes at the bottom of the drop. He engages some orcs and we drop down one at a time and assist. It actually goes pretty well for the first two groups (both groups guard entrance tunnels).

But the biggest group are yet to come. There are conservative ways to do combat, strategic ways, ways that give one an advantage. We did not observe those ways. Instead we engaged them in the open in their tunnels en masse. Coyne stands out front and smacks on them, Conrad takes advantage of his (spear) reach to poke them at a small range, Bear gives everyone flanking due to one of his new abilities, and Arch fires magic missiles until he runs out and then moves in to hand-to-hand combat. The soldiers do as we bid and move up to hold the line on defense. Most goblins are easily handled but they do tend to slowly pick off a couple of our guys. Coyne gets whittled down to 0 HP, whereupon Conrad drags him out and potions him.

Arch takes some up close and personal damage from their boss and makes a bunch of misses up front but rallies to finally start hurting their leader, just in time for their shaman to heal their boss. Coyne goes down a second time but only because at 1hp he fakes them out and falls on top of a guy he knows has a potion, he then surreptitiously drinks said potion and rises again, like an angry cleaving phoenix and proceeds to start cutting through them two at a time.

It was a pretty good showing all around for a straight up combat, with us eventually dealing with just their Boss and Cleric and then with just the Cleric.

From this we got some gold, a few goodies (A scroll that we sold, a couple masterwork items, a suit of +1 studded leather that Arch took, a handful of healing potions, pearl necklaces, expensive spices, a rather nasty black great axe which they used for sacrifices but which we have given to our Barbarian. 


Game 6 - 10/17/15

The Transplants: Joe, Jim, Paul, Alan, Darren, and sometimes Robert.

Fresh off of our successful cleaning out of the goblin hangout and our leveling (ding!) to 6th, we are in town. A caravan comes through and while we don't have the money to buy the kinds of cool stuff we'd like, Jim picks through their goods and finds a few interesting things. One is an old wanted poster for a famed war criminal from the last great war of the area, with a 2k gp reward. We're not bounty hunters, but it's good to know. The other thing he finds is an actual USB drive. Yup, something from our world.

With some repairing spells and the use of the laptop of our (absent) illusionist, we were able to find some partial data. The following facts are determined:

Word has come to us that Lizard men have besieged the Moathouse where work was underway to repair it. Humans have been seized. The guy who comes to deliver the message tells us there's a ransom: We must agree to stay out of the swamp at and beyond the moathouse, and in return we will get our people. We discuss the options. Many of us have no problem with just slaughtering them, but we fear for the well-being of the prisoners. Of course the idea of agreeing to their terms and then once we get the people back we can turn on them and hunt them down--is not all that reviled. As a group we generally feel that this wouldn't be unreasonable, but we don't know how many of them there are and we can't protect everybody in our town. If we do that we might start a war that could cost innocent locals' lives.

So ultimately we take a negotiator from the town and go to the moathouse and discuss it. We meet one of their kind, a lizardman riding a giant attack hornet. Our people are still alive. We discuss terms and during this we find out that the Lizardmen have come to this area mostly because they are being attacked by ships, they also intend to retaliate against the people who send the ships. The terms are ultimately agreed upon: We get all our people back, they go back into the swamp, we stay out of their way.

But who are the people in ships? Closest port is Nolb. We could send word to Nolb, but instead we decide since it's close and since we might be able to find out some information about that wanted war criminal from a veteran of the war who now lives in Nolb, we will go there ourselves. We deliver word to their baron, who is happy enough with us that he gives us a room credit at the Inn, and tells us about the wanted man:

We go to the Inn and barely initiate debauchery when we get word: Coincidentally(?) gnolls have been spotted outside town!

They gather up their people and go out. We tag along. Every time we do something it's because of the following chain of events: Virtually everyone is indifferent except for Bear (Paul). Bear decides to join in, which automatically puts Arch (Darren) in because doing something > doing nothing. Then Everyone else jumps in and we do things. So thanks, Paul, for engaging the enemy.

Yes, there are gnolls in the hills. We send out the sneak patrol (Bear, Conrad, Cupid... Oh, did I fail to mention that Robin, Joe's character, is now calling himself Cupid?) and they watch the Gnolls spy on the town, then when the Gnolls go back they follow them to their source.

The city tries to hire people to go take them out. We're not as heroic as we should be so again we kind of "Meh", until Bear joins the party and we all go. It's basically us and a 6th level NPC ranger.

The rest of the game is a dungeon siege.

We pick up some more masterwork stuff, but there's a lot more floor to explore, so we return to town with the heads of the fallen gnolls (they are worth cash) and next game we will go clear the rest.


Game 7 - 11/14/2015

Players: Robert, Paul, Alan, Joe, Darren

We left off last time in the Gnolls' dungeon home, having cleared the upper level, and so we delve into the lower levels.  We dispatch a couple of guards at a downward ladder, then we find a glyph that emits fire--the way we discover most things, which is by accident.  It sets Bear on fire, but he's fine.  However, based on the fact that it's doing Flamestrike, a fairly damaging spell, we know the rest of us won't make it through.  So we backtrack and check out the rest of the level.  We get into a large open room with an orderly pile of skulls in one corner and several exits.  After searching and lurking too long we are hit with a sleet spell from down one of the passages.  While some (Conrad and the NPC Ranger) hope to wait-out the sleet, and some (Arch) hope to clumsily and slowly rejoin the group from the other side of the sleet, most opt to run blindly down the tunnel and engage the enemy.

At the bottom of the passage is their primary spellcaster and a collection of gnolls with bows, which they put to use.  It takes a while for everyone to get down there, for various reasons, but Coyne (now calling himself "Gold") is cutting through enemies and cleaving their friends.  Rather than go blow-for-blow I'll let you know that their caster was protected by a blade barrier, and cast a tentacle spell over the area, but was eventually taken down by reach weapons, arrows, and the wand of burning hands, while the rest of the gnolls are mercilessly plugged full of arrows, cut and cleaved!

We find some good cash and lots of masterwork strength-bows and such, and haul it out in multiple trips.

Back in Nolb, from which this adventure had sprung, we are hailed as heroes, and we hear about how the local lighthouse has been procured by a pirate witch named Black Molly.  She and her band are ransoming the lighthouse keepers and the lighthouse itself.  We are asked to either deliver the treasure for ransom or to kick her booty.

So a half-baked unclear "are we going to attack or not?" plan is hatched where we take them the treasure and get the three captives back.  the exchanged actually takes place and when the captives make it out, we find out enemy numbers from them, send the skiff back from the shore, then the non-sneaky types remain on shore while the sneaky types advance on the tower.

Bear tries to scale it and falls.  Then we decide to take apart the door.  Bells can barely be heard, which are apparently their means of communication with the ship off-shore.  Once inside there's some running of the stairs and then eventually we find some opponents to fight.  Here's the problem:  Black Molly is not human... she's an actually sea hag.  Thing is, she looks familiar.  Hey, haven't we seen this woman before?  Turns out Black Molly is from our world, a fellow corporate wage slave who transformed into a hag during her transition.

Sea Hags have the annoying capability of causing fear or charming you into service.  Now there are 10 of us... 5 PCs and 5 NPCs (one played by each of us) and we have various and sundry made and failed saves.  Those who are charmed (Cupid and Arch) are ordered to try to break up the fight.  Minions who failed just stand there.  The rest of us attack and there's a protracted fight which ends in the hag being cut down along with her 4 ogre helpers... but only for a while.  You see, more guys have shown up for us to beat up and we move out of the room to get them and the Hag heals back enough to get up and start ordering anyone around who is convenient.  So at one point, while she's moved further on into another room, we have guys on both sides of the door to this room--some trying to break into the room and others trying to hold them out.

When we catch up with the Sea Hag she is cut down because the "keep her alive for questioning" strategy last time resulted in her getting up and mind controlling people.

The ship flees.



Game 8 - 01/10/2016

Dungeon Fodder:  Doc (for the first few hours), Conrad, Coyne, Bear, Phil, Erik, and Arch.

This is a pretty simple writeup since most of it is just “then we fight”.  As it should be!

On the heels of having completed taking down the sea hag pirate bitch, we return home.  In the next few (hand-waved) months of activity, some of us have potential activities come up.  For example, Arch is offered a month of playing music in the capital for good money, and Erik is made aware of an archery contest in the capital.  Four of us have things come up related to the capital.  I think Bear had something come up about a black sword, probably kept at bone hill.  Doc is asked to clear out the undead from Bone hill.  It’s not far so we do the Bone Hill thing.

We find a bugbear upstairs and some lesser foes.  They’re easily taken care of.  We find some undead and they’re taken care of.  What we couldn’t handle was the Wraith.  A bastard of a wraith.  We end up having to retreat because Doc had to leave (He had an event to attend where he had a chance to stay alive, compared to hanging out with us.)

Down a cleric and facing something that could EASILY kick our asses, we go back to town to 1-800-rent-a-cleric.  We find two priests:  One is Death/Knowledge based (Sounds good!) the other is Sun/Plant based.  Sun is good for taking down evil undeadness, in the absence of boomsticks.  (Damn Spellcheck keeps trying to fix all my made-up words!)

We load up with as much prep as we can manage, and since Mark’s guy is going to be useless during this, he opts to play the NPC Cleric too.  We head in and our main problem is that we peaked too early: Expecting a fight with the wraith early on we loaded up on spells.  This means we have an easy time with everything else but by the time we reach the wraith, who is further down in hell than we expected, we’ve used most of our good stuff (Ghost touch spells, cat’s grace, and other short-term buffs).

Mr Wraith nearly makes a meal of our cleric, since he’s a CON drainer, which means we’re taking the double hit of losing stat and hit points in addition to the regular hit point damage.  He goes down momentarily but Erik fills him full of potion and we rally a little.  We can’t seem to get him into the open where we can all deal with him, it’s always in a corridor where he can pop out and and attack from the walls.

We end up retreating since we’re down so much and he’s being cagey.  Before we get back to the surface, we arrive at the exit door and it’s blocked by bugbears on the other side.  There’s a struggle to clear the way before the Wraith catches up with us.  Bear, who can teleport himself, gets through the narrow doorway and clears some space, some others fire through the opening.  When the wraith shows up, Arch is at the back of the pack and uses the last of his magic missiles.  The Wraith goes after our cleric but eventually flees because he’s below his safety threshold for hit points.

We break out the rest of the way and head for safety.  I’m sure Jim could have come up with some way to defeat the wraith, but its likely two clerics were needed for this guy.  A turn attempt on him that affected 12 Hit Dice wasn’t enough to send him away.



Game 9 - 01/24/2016

Disgruntled Employees: Link (Joe), Lemmy (Darren), Gold (Robert), Nimble (Mark), Conrad (Alan).

In the wake of our stalemate with the Wraith we make other plans: Do we clear the rest of that building and stay above ground, thus getting rid of the bugbears, or do we run off to Capital City (The Windy Apple) to do the many other things we need to do?

We clean house first. This is a fairly simple proposition as we plow through Bugbears en mass. At the end there's only one Bugbear, which Nimble had charmed/befriended, so he sets it free with a warning that he's cursed the bugbears that if the return or harm humans they will die. He seems to buy it, which is good enough for now.

We are at the tavern, making plans, when someone wanders in... someone wearing TECH! In his own subtle way, Barbarian Gold shouts across the room, "Hey, are you guys modern?" in English. They guys come over and want to talk outside. Why, we don't know, unless it's to fight, because no one here understands us when we speak English.

Outside there's a discussion of how we vanished a WEEK ago in our world... it's been a YEAR here. They came to take out the CEO, who it seems has become increasingly powerful. Cuz corporate power corrupts, D&D power corrupts absolutely. He's freaky and different and a serious hazard, supposedly. Some of us are painted with targeting scope red-dots. But before any sort of fight happens, a figure appears out of nowhere:

Tis the COO (aka Alan's character's dad), in a sort of semi responsive state. As herald to Galactus, he comes to tell us that we should meet with the CEO and he hands Conrad a shiny silver cylindrical 10" object (Presumably with a round end and an end that has an on/off switch and battery compartment). "Form a circle and break this to come to him," he says.

Then out of nowhere a handful of little guys appear resembling jawas. They point each of us. We take a couple of them down but next round they vanish. We have a long discussion about what that was about. Finally, a Detect Magic on us reveals we have a slight aura of transmutation; spell-thief Conrad takes the effect from one of us and we discover that an oppressive feeling we weren't even aware of until it's gone was present.

There's an endless, confusing (even to the GM), and convoluted attempt to play "hide the phallic object". Conrad wants it hidden but wants the soldiers to think it's hidden elsewhere. Or did he want it on him but want the soldiers to think it's elsewhere? Whatever. The upshot is this:

We end up on our way to the capital with the soldiers in tow, and it is noticed that Gold (Aka Coyne, Aka Bear, Aka Robert, aka Miguel Sanchez, aka Dr. Nguyen van Fauk) is missing. When tracked down, it seems he's decided he MUST go to the CEO using the stick. He doesn't want to screw around anymore. This ENDLESSLY pisses off Conrad and Nimble. Nimble doesn't like that he's made this decision for everyone, Conrad doesn't like that this could be his one shot to get home and we're possibly using it before we figure out what's going on. Gold says, "You're either coming with me or you aren't" and all decline except for the soldiers and Lemmy, who is more than happy to go find a fight, even if it's with half a party.

Bad News is that once broken the Stick causes us to teleport into the inside of what seems like a fairly modern office building (or a faux version thereof), without the guards, and including the guys who'd elected not to go. So the whole party is there. We surmised earlier that the "tagging" done by the little darkness creatures was so that when we break the stick only the tagged people get transported--and that seems to be what actually happened, since the soldiers had not been tagged and the're not here.

The building is full of motivational posters. We (Gold and Lemmy) go down the hall and open the door to the HR Manager's office and inside is a hideous chaotically altered parody of an HR Manager, who puts some fear into Gold, then puts both Lemmy and Link to sleep. There's a fight. He/she orders Gold to go to the boardroom down the hall (which he does), and the rest of us fight. Most noteworthy thing is that while the badguy has up Blur, Lemmy assumes his AoE burning hands wand will hurt the badguy and Conrad will be able to get out of the way, but exactly the opposite happens; he sets Conrad on fire and the HR Manager has enough magic resistance to shrug off a wand (even though I roll a 19 on the die to overcome the MR). Link double-taps the HR Manager and we're safe.

Turns out Gold and Link do all the damage in this group, Conrad and Nimble do the tricky things, and Lemmy just kind of means well.

We go find the Barbarian, in the boardroom, and he's there with a half-dozen others who have their hands on the boardroom table.

Jeff gets notification that he has to go pickup the kids, so we do a quick handwavery on the following facts: Separate someone from the table and they resort to their old selves, so the people in that room are from our world and are now "awake".


 

Game 10 - 02/07/16

We are in the business-hell from last game. Jeff does some go-backsies and instead of the people at the conference room table being harmless they decide to attack us. When they punch they deliver a combination of physical and electrical damage. When we defeat them we go to the COO's office--the COO being father of Alan's character, Conrad. In there we find a computer with a saved message for us on it. When instructions on screen are followed, the computer manufactures a thumbdrive out of nowhere and fills it with instructions for how to defeat the CEO.

We manage to get the elevator to let us out in a field. we've been gone 2 months it turns out. we are welcomed home.

Now it's time for the IN-FIGHTING! As you may recall last game, Coyne decided he didn't care that everyone forbid him to break the stick that would teleport us to the hell we just escaped. Nimble says Coyne goes or he goes. Doc tries to point out what he views in Nimble's argument as hypocrisy. Conrad is also upset. It's a sore spot for Arch that he was once voted out of a band that went on to be famous and he refuses to vote either of them out and wants them both there, and brings up the point that maybe it requires ALL of us to orchestrate an exit. Best we end up with is a sort of "keep the band together for a while" result.

The thumbdrive includes instructions on how to defeat the CEO. Basically you're making a powder out of a bunch of ingredients, some of which we don't currently have, all of which are valuable and would be a big loss.

We briefly try to travel to the capital but on route Conrad has a dream in which his dad warns him they're going there too soon and that they need more experience first. "The CEO owns the capital and you need to stay away." So we pick another destination for adventure. Where doesn't matter, you just have to know that we travel to Nolb (the port city where we found the pirate hag) and while there we hear of how the Tombsteppe, a graveyard and mausoleum to the north of Nolb, has been breached and there's at least one spectral figure lurking about. After negotiating with the city of Nolb for expenses and some help, we go to the Tombsteppe. We know how to reset the ward there and it involves moving some stones back into a specific pattern.

At the front of the place are constructs: Various statuary converge and attack. We make it through them. At the primary building we encounter guardian dog skeletons. One is destroyed and the others are stymied by Nimble's illusionary walls. We end up fighting the ghost/wraith/whathaveya who is hanging around and a lot of that involves winning 50/50 chances to hit and magic missiles, etc. We start putting the stones back into place and out of the blue some enormous frankenstein-like creature shows up and attacks. It shrugs off magic missiles and most attacks are somewhat blunted by its defenses. An illusionary wall keeps him from charging us and makes him attack a fake door. We win the fight and explore the rest of the place.

Among the things found are a black ooze (we leave him alone), a metamagic wand which allows the user to extend duration on a spell 10 times, and more importantly, what is probably the legendary "Black Razor", a sword that is +4, but +6 versus undead. HOLY CRAP!

We go back and collect our reward from the town. Part of the money was being held by Harken, one of the town officials. When Conrad goes to collect it, he finds the Harken residence empty, but the gold there waiting. There's some consideration for it being a trick, then we start to think that maybe the person who triggered the escape of the ghost in the crypt is this guy.



Game 11 - 03/05/16

Bear, Nimble, Doc, Conrad, Arch

Bear is contacted by his three buddies who train him in his special brand of crazy-fightin'. They have a little quest he needs to do in order to further his abilities and to allow him to self train (or some such). It involves traveling a ways and looking for the lost nail-weapon thingy that belonged to a legendary dwarven fighter. We go along because fighting.

Some advanced recon tells us the place is troll heavy and that we are better off with acid and fire as weapons. We spot some in the wild and try to bait them into a trap, which sort of works. Either way, we take on four half-troll types in the forest and manage to defeat 3 (the fourth fleeing at troll speed to warn his friends below that we are out and about). The victory is due to setting a pit trap to lure them into, and lots of good old fashioned smack-and-burn.

It helps that Doc McPriest keeps us alive with that regen spell.

Doc attempts recon on the inside of the lair by sending in rats with "chain of eyes" attached to them so he can pass off his remote viewing from target to target. once he has an idea of the place, Nimble tries to lure trolls out using an illusion of an injured elf woman. The troll sees it but doesn't want to leave his lair. It's likely that he's got the minimum intelligence that tells him that with the warning that there are people around this is probably a trap.

Ultimately we end up invading their lair. The smaller ones are not so bad. The bigger ones are quite a chore. We are aided by 1) Burning Sword spell (cast on Bear's sword, and later Arch's), 2) A fireball from a necklace of fireballs, hurled into the largest mass of trolls by Conrad (It was a gift from a villager), 3) Lots of healin' from the Doc, 4) Illusionary walls to cut off the enemies, 5) Summoned bears to lend flanking, 6) Some magic missiles, 7) lots of hacking and slashing.

The last desperate fight involved trolls on both sides of us and a continuation after the dinner break. Fight didn't end until after 11, when we knew the floor was clear. There are probably lower areas to search.

When I left (an hour after I was supposed to) we hadn't found the Dwarven fighting nail thingy and these guys don't carry much treasure so this is purely an XP haul so far.



Game 12 - 03/19/16