Game 7 (12/7/06)

Game 8 (December 30th, 2006; First reported in the e-mail "Extra Extra, group doesn't kill kid!")

ATTENDEES:
Alan.......Izzimon
Terry......Gareth
Jeff.........Titus
Darren.....Honshu
Michele...Lilly
Mark.......Fungi, Tree People, Nymphs, Big Woody, Shamans, and God-boy

This game, we are trying to stop an army of shamans from summoning a fire-god named Oakfed from cleaning the continent. Word is that it would require sacrifice of a great many forests and that it requires not only a summoning element but a binding one.

Surveillance of encampment of 500 or so Shamans and Sorcerors leads us to believe that an army marching in there would be completely destroyed; Not because of lack of ability, numbers, or leadership, but because their encampment is atop a low-level manse, which would undoubtedly be tapped for energies and abilities to destroy our mortal troops. So it becomes increasingly clear that we will have to get a group of terrestrials into the building to damage the hearth. Undoubtedly the hearthstone is out and about with its owner, but destroying the hearth should be enough to keep them from tapping the manse.

So we begin the stealth portion of our program. It is benefited by the fact that Izzimon and Gareth can be sneaky. The magistrate, Honshu, has always thought that the law should be omnipresent, so learning to sneak was never on his list. So he splurges for a point of stealth just to do this and Izzimon uses his abilities to assist the party. At this point, note, the party is just three of us. The same rule that says we can't have Jim wall up our enemies when he isn't there is the same rule that says Jeff's big tin suit of marbles doesn't alert enemies when he's not there.

So we make it to what is a copse of thickly grown trees with barely a gap anywhere. Some observation and exploration nets an area through which we may be able to climb. Inside, the place is petrified wood through which a cavern is hewn. Our journey downward leads us to a cavern of lichen, which, upon a brief brush of the elbow of certain guardian of law and justice that shall remain nameless, emits a nasty spore-filled gas into the air. Izzy now has shroom-like growths on his body and some damage.

I'm trying to recall if the "Hallucinogen" happened in that room. I don't think so. I think we came across a room of flowers in a seperate area. Their aroma is loaded with vitamins, iron, and... oh yes, Hallucinogens. Izzimon and Honshu will suffer -2 to Witts, Dex, and Perception for the rest of the adventure, while Gareth resists.

Further on, we come across a curvy passage of petrified wood which also features some live trees grown into the walls. No real choice here but to plow through anyway, and naturally they attack. The trees are covered in hardened wood, thus meaning you do no damage unless you hit a minimum number of dice. By now Titus is with us so he and Gareth do the lion's share of the damage, while Honshu, currently without armor from all the sneaking, is now at huge minuses from all the bashing damage and the damage he came in with from last game (which was substantial!)

They do the tree-shattering thing.

Next we encounter a room with a pool. Quick reminder: This is Mark's campaign, NOT Jeff's.

We're in a Wood Manse, which means it's likely to be either poison or healing. Well, we're all pretty smacked up so Izzy bites the bullet first and touches some to his wounds. The fungi seem to clear away. We all have some.

HONSHU: makes his STA+RES roll and on a D10 rolls a 9. He gains an additional -2 health level, a permanent point of STR, and all of his bashing damage fades! Additionally he turns green and has wooden bones now. He, being air-aspected, should confuse some people now. Essentially, he got all positive effects.

IZZIMON: misses his STA+RES roll and on a D10 rolls an 8. He got all negative effects, but it was relatively small: He's got an allergy to cold iron, much like the fay. And he turns green.

GARETH: makes his STA+RES roll and on a D10 rolls a 7. He loses a -2 health level, a permanent point of STR, and shrinks to 3 feet tall! He now has a +1D to his defensive rolls because of his small size. He turns green. Easy to remember because he's nearly the inverse of what happened to my character. Mixed result, with one positive amidst a bunch of negative.

TITUS: Doesn't drink! Yup. Jeff can dish out the magic pools, but come time to drink, he can't take it. I mock and taunt you.

Next room we come to a room full of rosebushes. A beautiful woman is present and asks who we are? Honshu tries some very weak flattery and then says they are there to get supplies from below for the festivities above. She says, "Then you know the price. Who will pay it?"

Honshu, realizing he's probably the most expendable at the moment, and being the one making the decision here, says "I will". She puckers up. He considers coursing a ton of electricity through her, but decides maybe we can pass without being the aggressors. The current probably would have been better. He fails a fairly tough roll to resist and drops to his knees and sighs. She looks at the group and says that I failed to gain entrance and who else would try? She then performs a movement only found in fantasy porn fan-fiction and ends in a splits, which causes Titus to step forward and lift his visor to give her a kiss. Gareth decides he can't afford to have Titus out of our power, so he intercedes, nipping the hot rose-babe in two. Now Honshu and Titus can each have half! But the other rosebushes present produce more chicks.

At this point, as battle is joined, Lilly shows up, prompting discussion of how she could have kissed the nymphs, alas it is too late. They aren't ready to reason with us now that one of their kin is decorating the floor with blood and sap.

An amazing barrage of thorns are hurled by multiple rose-chicks, prompting Gareth to dodge endlessly. Problem is, when any finally get through, he doesn't have any hardened defenses, so as a result they're going to get a damage roll and should they do a point, they do poison as well. So they scratch up Gareth considerably. Titus of then takes the lead, having broken out of the rose-chick's spell, and becomes the target of their thorns. Honshu won't be available until tick six, when he snaps out of it and uses his area-effect lightning attack, doing minimal damage to them. The injured Gareth and Izzy are wisely staying back and out of sight while Lilly plugs the girls with arrows and Titus draws the fire. As the last one or two try to close on Honshu, who has yet to rise and is firing from his knees, the team continue to take down the rose babes.

We have a discussion about going back to the pool and decide to go back and maybe get healed. Problem is that upon seeing it, Lilly realizes that you can only heal from it once in a while. It could be dangerous to do so again so close to last time. Titus is injured but still passes on it. Lilly isn't injured yet.
We entered into a large cavern with trees, rocks, and a mist that covered the lower 20ft. The ceiling was 150 ft up. Any attempts to sneak are instantly thwarted by, well, us being us. So Lilly hears this chanting. We try to get a fix on the location. Anyone up high out of the fog (Honshu and Izzimon) can eventually spot him. Izzy picks up the injured Gareth and tries to haul him to the exit at the far end, while Lilly takes pot-shots at the individual responsible; A Sorcerer on a ledge 30ft up, on the other side of the cave. She sends one into a pocket of fog that surrounds him, and it shatters like ice against the wall behind him. The next one actually glances off of him just barely. A lightning bolt by Honshu lights up the fog but is dissipated over the curtain of fog that protects him. But it gives everyone a glimpse of where he is. Titus moves in, Lilly fires arrows that actually tag the guy. Our foe is a wood dwarf, he has these insidious claws that he uses to parry the nearby attacks but can't deal with the arrows. The dwarf fells Honshu, who lays sleeping in mid-air, thanks to this air-walking hearthstone. I neglected to mention that Izzimon is low, if not out, of essence by now, so he can't do a whole lot here. The dwarf manages to pierce Titus' armor with his claws, slowly picking away at him. Eventually, the dwarf is felled and we continue onward.

Deeper we go to the hearth room. (At least I don't remember any other encounters until the Hearth room.) Therein, we meet an enormous treant who stands before the empty hearth. The hearth itself is a knothole at which amber normally forms, and the hearthstone itself likely resembles amber. It is recognized before it even attacks that the tree likely has acidic sap and will likely spit it at us.

We spread out to avoid any kind of area attack, and the crew jump in. Most of us are ineffective, but Lilly manages to harm the hearth rather than attacking the creature! Then Mark forgets that she should be the main target and instead attacks his biggest pain, Gareth, who cracks open the tree and shatters him into splinters. We damage the hearth, but just enough that it will take weeks to repair, that way when we are done with the wizards above we can reclaim the manse for us (via XP points). Seems Gareth needs a hearthstone, and since he's done much of the "heavy lifting" on this one I think no one objects.

We get out and the army is a day away. When they arrive, the combat goes well. There is however one small 5-man contingent (A "scale") that seems to have suddenly rallied and starts hurting our troops. So we break off and go after them. We send troops out to stop the "fire starters" in the field who will otherwise cause an enormous fire as sacrifice to Oakfed.

The scale turn out to be 4 sorcerors and a boy. A familiar boy. 'Tis Obad-Hai, the boy who was given to Izzimon as his charge by the old woman at the parade in Harborhead's capital. He seems different, agitated... on fire! Yes, tears of fire are coming from his eyes as he shouts at us to be gone. One of the sorcerers moves up to calm him and instead is turned to ash for his trouble by the boy's particularly nasty anima.

Izzimon takes the fore, trying to calm the boy, to remind him that he is here to help him and that he has pledge to help. The boy is resistant, saying that he wants freedom and that our kind would deny his family their freedom. To aid in this vision, the sorcerers feed him all kinds of lies/truth about us. One of the sorcerers, a twitchy one, decides to fire on Izzimon, but the boy takes umbrage and ashes this sorcerer too. Now there's two plus the boy.

There's a prolonged argument really between us and the sorcerer for the soul of the boy. A condition of this discussion even taking place is that both sides halt their war, even though we have the now massive advantage. Titus holds his troops, the sorcerers stop their attempts to set a wildfire. At the end of this attempt at detante, the sorcerer asks to speak to Obad-hai alone. None of us are happy about that, but the boy says it's up to him and Izzy agrees. Izzy warns him to be wary of this man and that if things are going badly for him, he will kill Obad-Hai and free the demon Oakfed from within him. The boy and he discuss heatedly and then the sorcerer reaches into his robe; the boy realizes what is happening and cooks the sorcerer and then says that we are ALL against him.

He tries to flee, but Izzy can keep up with him. The war commences and we clean house. Meanwhile Izzy finds the place where Obad-Hai has stopped and he briefly talks with the boy, but in the end, lets him go, reminding him that if he ever needs him he can contact him.

Our last move of the night is tracking down the boy's relatives. His father is long dead since before his birth. His mother was sold and has vanished somewhere far away, we know not where. His sister is sold into slavery and we manage to track her down and purchase her back. We find the "grandmother" who raised Obad-Hai and Izzy turns over Obad-Hai's sister to her to care for. Last thing she points out is that "We failed", meaning we didn't protect the boy as promised. Izzy points out that she wasn't exactly forthcoming with what the boy was all about.

OBAD-HAI/OAKFED: Seems long ago, when the fey marched on mankind, the only defense was to call on Oakfed, a great and terribly demon of wildfire. He could fight back the fey but he demanded that all forests be sacrificed to him. It turns out that his appetite grew as his power grew, and thus his appetite could likley never be satiated. An anathema shown up on the scene and used his abilities to bind the demon into the only vessel that could hold him; a living being. And thus as each generation has passed, that demon has been passed down through the lineage. The rebellion here has decided to purge Harborhead of us (the Imperial dragon blooded) by burning us out, and during that time they would try to figure out a means to recapture him once that task was done.

No appearance yet by the Golden Lion, the anathema who makes the weapons, but it seems that he seeded the rebellion and then never showed to fight alongside those he encouraged.

The wood manse is level one, being bought by Gareth. It features a hearthstone, taken off of a body of someone defeated in the battle, and a pool that is no longer as magical, though it may heal one lethal level.

NEXT GAME: No word. Be it known that a push for Gumby Christmas is coming soon, and could likely interfere if a Saturday is selected.


	Game 8 (December 30th, 2006; First reported in the e-mail "Extra Extra, group doesn't kill kid!")
ATTENDEES: Alan.......Izzimon Terry......Gareth Jeff.........Titus Darren.....Honshu Michele...Lilly Mark.......Fungi, Tree People, Nymphs, Big Woody, Shamans, and God-boy This game, we are trying to stop an army of shamans from summoning a fire-god named Oakfed from cleaning the continent. Word is that it would require sacrifice of a great many forests and that it requires not only a summoning element but a binding one. Surveillance of encampment of 500 or so Shamans and Sorcerors leads us to believe that an army marching in there would be completely destroyed; Not because of lack of ability, numbers, or leadership, but because their encampment is atop a low-level manse, which would undoubtedly be tapped for energies and abilities to destroy our mortal troops. So it becomes increasingly clear that we will have to get a group of terrestrials into the building to damage the hearth. Undoubtedly the hearthstone is out and about with its owner, but destroying the hearth should be enough to keep them from tapping the manse. So we begin the stealth portion of our program. It is benefited by the fact that Izzimon and Gareth can be sneaky. The magistrate, Honshu, has always thought that the law should be omnipresent, so learning to sneak was never on his list. So he splurges for a point of stealth just to do this and Izzimon uses his abilities to assist the party. At this point, note, the party is just three of us. The same rule that says we can't have Jim wall up our enemies when he isn't there is the same rule that says Jeff's big tin suit of marbles doesn't alert enemies when he's not there. So we make it to what is a copse of thickly grown trees with barely a gap anywhere. Some observation and exploration nets an area through which we may be able to climb. Inside, the place is petrified wood through which a cavern is hewn. Our journey downward leads us to a cavern of lichen, which, upon a brief brush of the elbow of certain guardian of law and justice that shall remain nameless, emits a nasty spore-filled gas into the air. Izzy now has shroom-like growths on his body and some damage. I'm trying to recall if the "Hallucinogen" happened in that room. I don't think so. I think we came across a room of flowers in a seperate area. Their aroma is loaded with vitamins, iron, and... oh yes, Hallucinogens. Izzimon and Honshu will suffer -2 to Witts, Dex, and Perception for the rest of the adventure, while Gareth resists. Further on, we come across a curvy passage of petrified wood which also features some live trees grown into the walls. No real choice here but to plow through anyway, and naturally they attack. The trees are covered in hardened wood, thus meaning you do no damage unless you hit a minimum number of dice. By now Titus is with us so he and Gareth do the lion's share of the damage, while Honshu, currently without armor from all the sneaking, is now at huge minuses from all the bashing damage and the damage he came in with from last game (which was substantial!) They do the tree-shattering thing. Next we encounter a room with a pool. Quick reminder: This is Mark's campaign, NOT Jeff's. We're in a Wood Manse, which means it's likely to be either poison or healing. Well, we're all pretty smacked up so Izzy bites the bullet first and touches some to his wounds. The fungi seem to clear away. We all have some. HONSHU: makes his STA+RES roll and on a D10 rolls a 9. He gains an additional -2 health level, a permanent point of STR, and all of his bashing damage fades! Additionally he turns green and has wooden bones now. He, being air-aspected, should confuse some people now. Essentially, he got all positive effects. IZZIMON: misses his STA+RES roll and on a D10 rolls an 8. He got all negative effects, but it was relatively small: He's got an allergy to cold iron, much like the fay. And he turns green. GARETH: makes his STA+RES roll and on a D10 rolls a 7. He loses a -2 health level, a permanent point of STR, and shrinks to 3 feet tall! He now has a +1D to his defensive rolls because of his small size. He turns green. Easy to remember because he's nearly the inverse of what happened to my character. Mixed result, with one positive amidst a bunch of negative. TITUS: Doesn't drink! Yup. Jeff can dish out the magic pools, but come time to drink, he can't take it. I mock and taunt you. Next room we come to a room full of rosebushes. A beautiful woman is present and asks who we are? Honshu tries some very weak flattery and then says they are there to get supplies from below for the festivities above. She says, "Then you know the price. Who will pay it?" Honshu, realizing he's probably the most expendable at the moment, and being the one making the decision here, says "I will". She puckers up. He considers coursing a ton of electricity through her, but decides maybe we can pass without being the aggressors. The current probably would have been better. He fails a fairly tough roll to resist and drops to his knees and sighs. She looks at the group and says that I failed to gain entrance and who else would try? She then performs a movement only found in fantasy porn fan-fiction and ends in a splits, which causes Titus to step forward and lift his visor to give her a kiss. Gareth decides he can't afford to have Titus out of our power, so he intercedes, nipping the hot rose-babe in two. Now Honshu and Titus can each have half! But the other rosebushes present produce more chicks. At this point, as battle is joined, Lilly shows up, prompting discussion of how she could have kissed the nymphs, alas it is too late. They aren't ready to reason with us now that one of their kin is decorating the floor with blood and sap. An amazing barrage of thorns are hurled by multiple rose-chicks, prompting Gareth to dodge endlessly. Problem is, when any finally get through, he doesn't have any hardened defenses, so as a result they're going to get a damage roll and should they do a point, they do poison as well. So they scratch up Gareth considerably. Titus of then takes the lead, having broken out of the rose-chick's spell, and becomes the target of their thorns. Honshu won't be available until tick six, when he snaps out of it and uses his area-effect lightning attack, doing minimal damage to them. The injured Gareth and Izzy are wisely staying back and out of sight while Lilly plugs the girls with arrows and Titus draws the fire. As the last one or two try to close on Honshu, who has yet to rise and is firing from his knees, the team continue to take down the rose babes. We have a discussion about going back to the pool and decide to go back and maybe get healed. Problem is that upon seeing it, Lilly realizes that you can only heal from it once in a while. It could be dangerous to do so again so close to last time. Titus is injured but still passes on it. Lilly isn't injured yet. We entered into a large cavern with trees, rocks, and a mist that covered the lower 20ft. The ceiling was 150 ft up. Any attempts to sneak are instantly thwarted by, well, us being us. So Lilly hears this chanting. We try to get a fix on the location. Anyone up high out of the fog (Honshu and Izzimon) can eventually spot him. Izzy picks up the injured Gareth and tries to haul him to the exit at the far end, while Lilly takes pot-shots at the individual responsible; A Sorcerer on a ledge 30ft up, on the other side of the cave. She sends one into a pocket of fog that surrounds him, and it shatters like ice against the wall behind him. The next one actually glances off of him just barely. A lightning bolt by Honshu lights up the fog but is dissipated over the curtain of fog that protects him. But it gives everyone a glimpse of where he is. Titus moves in, Lilly fires arrows that actually tag the guy. Our foe is a wood dwarf, he has these insidious claws that he uses to parry the nearby attacks but can't deal with the arrows. The dwarf fells Honshu, who lays sleeping in mid-air, thanks to this air-walking hearthstone. I neglected to mention that Izzimon is low, if not out, of essence by now, so he can't do a whole lot here. The dwarf manages to pierce Titus' armor with his claws, slowly picking away at him. Eventually, the dwarf is felled and we continue onward. Deeper we go to the hearth room. (At least I don't remember any other encounters until the Hearth room.) Therein, we meet an enormous treant who stands before the empty hearth. The hearth itself is a knothole at which amber normally forms, and the hearthstone itself likely resembles amber. It is recognized before it even attacks that the tree likely has acidic sap and will likely spit it at us. We spread out to avoid any kind of area attack, and the crew jump in. Most of us are ineffective, but Lilly manages to harm the hearth rather than attacking the creature! Then Mark forgets that she should be the main target and instead attacks his biggest pain, Gareth, who cracks open the tree and shatters him into splinters. We damage the hearth, but just enough that it will take weeks to repair, that way when we are done with the wizards above we can reclaim the manse for us (via XP points). Seems Gareth needs a hearthstone, and since he's done much of the "heavy lifting" on this one I think no one objects. We get out and the army is a day away. When they arrive, the combat goes well. There is however one small 5-man contingent (A "scale") that seems to have suddenly rallied and starts hurting our troops. So we break off and go after them. We send troops out to stop the "fire starters" in the field who will otherwise cause an enormous fire as sacrifice to Oakfed. The scale turn out to be 4 sorcerors and a boy. A familiar boy. 'Tis Obad-Hai, the boy who was given to Izzimon as his charge by the old woman at the parade in Harborhead's capital. He seems different, agitated... on fire! Yes, tears of fire are coming from his eyes as he shouts at us to be gone. One of the sorcerers moves up to calm him and instead is turned to ash for his trouble by the boy's particularly nasty anima. Izzimon takes the fore, trying to calm the boy, to remind him that he is here to help him and that he has pledge to help. The boy is resistant, saying that he wants freedom and that our kind would deny his family their freedom. To aid in this vision, the sorcerers feed him all kinds of lies/truth about us. One of the sorcerers, a twitchy one, decides to fire on Izzimon, but the boy takes umbrage and ashes this sorcerer too. Now there's two plus the boy. There's a prolonged argument really between us and the sorcerer for the soul of the boy. A condition of this discussion even taking place is that both sides halt their war, even though we have the now massive advantage. Titus holds his troops, the sorcerers stop their attempts to set a wildfire. At the end of this attempt at detante, the sorcerer asks to speak to Obad-hai alone. None of us are happy about that, but the boy says it's up to him and Izzy agrees. Izzy warns him to be wary of this man and that if things are going badly for him, he will kill Obad-Hai and free the demon Oakfed from within him. The boy and he discuss heatedly and then the sorcerer reaches into his robe; the boy realizes what is happening and cooks the sorcerer and then says that we are ALL against him. He tries to flee, but Izzy can keep up with him. The war commences and we clean house. Meanwhile Izzy finds the place where Obad-Hai has stopped and he briefly talks with the boy, but in the end, lets him go, reminding him that if he ever needs him he can contact him. Our last move of the night is tracking down the boy's relatives. His father is long dead since before his birth. His mother was sold and has vanished somewhere far away, we know not where. His sister is sold into slavery and we manage to track her down and purchase her back. We find the "grandmother" who raised Obad-Hai and Izzy turns over Obad-Hai's sister to her to care for. Last thing she points out is that "We failed", meaning we didn't protect the boy as promised. Izzy points out that she wasn't exactly forthcoming with what the boy was all about. OBAD-HAI/OAKFED: Seems long ago, when the fey marched on mankind, the only defense was to call on Oakfed, a great and terribly demon of wildfire. He could fight back the fey but he demanded that all forests be sacrificed to him. It turns out that his appetite grew as his power grew, and thus his appetite could likley never be satiated. An anathema shown up on the scene and used his abilities to bind the demon into the only vessel that could hold him; a living being. And thus as each generation has passed, that demon has been passed down through the lineage. The rebellion here has decided to purge Harborhead of us (the Imperial dragon blooded) by burning us out, and during that time they would try to figure out a means to recapture him once that task was done. No appearance yet by the Golden Lion, the anathema who makes the weapons, but it seems that he seeded the rebellion and then never showed to fight alongside those he encouraged. The wood manse is level one, being bought by Gareth. It features a hearthstone, taken off of a body of someone defeated in the battle, and a pool that is no longer as magical, though it may heal one lethal level. NEXT GAME: No word. Be it known that a push for Gumby Christmas is coming soon, and could likely interfere if a Saturday is selected.