Earlier Sessions Report

General Summary

After arriving in Gelland the not-so-merry band of adventurers decides to take on a quest to repay their trusty ship captain. After speaking with the Empire's Diplomat, he offers a quid pro quo to get the captain's money, the adventurers head out to the old lighthouse where they come across a small band of Gnoll's and a mysterious woman named Rachel whom Tharivol seems to recognize. The group killed two of the Gnolls while the third escaped down a hatch in the lighthouse. Rhogar and Covidius pursued Rachel through the woods but she disappeared. After healing, and majorly pissing off a horse, the group decides to open the trap door and head inside....     The band of merry heroes jumps into the light house to battle head to head with a band of rowdy gnolls, two awful rust creatures, and a new creature that Bran recognizes as a basilisk. Artanis, as per usual, gets several killing blows. They manage to fight their way through several dungeons. Rhogar and Bran fall through a trap while fighting the boss gnoll. They manage to find a their way out, but before they escape they are attacked by 3 snakes which Bran kills handedly. Tharivol has trouble knocking out a gnoll, Covidius and Artanis discover an intricately carved door with the face of a god and an inscription. Since Rhogar was on his last leg the company decided to take a rest in one of the smaller rooms they found. During the rest Covidius sees a hand reaching out behind a flap-door...     As our merry band of adventurers (a fellowship of sorts) rests after their long encounter with a band of Gnolls and the mysterious woman Rachel, Covidius notices an emaciated arm reaching out from behind a flap blocking an entryway to their room. After failing to grab onto the creature he chases after it, quickly followed by Bran and less quickly followed by the rest of the… fellowship. The creature rather creepily referred to itself as "The Watcher" and kept rambling on about a mysterious female being with wings and scales that spit poisonous gas. That didn't sound particularly familiar to any of the group members so they tied up the Watcher and made camp for a long rest in the large room with the god-faced door. Rhogar remembered that the god was called the Unforgiving One and that the light house must have been an abandoned temple. On their watch Tharivol and Bran realize that many of the intricate carvings on the door can move, and subsequently learn that many of them are trapped. After some deliberation and conversation with other members of the group they realize that the inscription over the door is actually a riddle containing clues as to which pieces of the stone faced door to remove. Tharivol takes off an ear and Covidius removes the tongue and the doors swing open. While this is happening Rhogar miraculously remembers that the description of the creature the Watcher was rambling on about fits a dragon and that information combined with some environmental clues, indicates that the band is dealing with a Green dragon. Not feeling like dying, the band decides not to try to kill the dragon, instead Covidius, Tharivol, and Artanis sneak into the dragon's chamber to steal the small box they'd been sent to collect. Artanis managed to steal the box and escape the room but Tharivol, not wanting to leave Covidius, who was in the process of stealing a velvet mask, alone with a dragon stayed by the door. This proved to be disastrous as the dragon saw him and thus commenced several terrifying minutes during which half the fellowship almost died and they ended up having to return all the goodies they'd stolen… But the dragon was merciful and promised to let the group live if they returned the stolen goods and completed a task for her. She had received a letter from someone who offered immortality in exchange for her help but she wanted to know who she was working for. To ensure that the group returned to her, she kept Artanis as muscial collateral. As the pared-down fellowship leaves the dragon's layer they're left with many questions. Who is the mysterious letter sender? How long will it take before the dragon grows tired of the bard? And most critically, who will provide all the killing blows now that Artanis is a prisoner?     Our merry band of adventurers set a somber tone as they left Artanis to an unknown fate in the lair of Nyndin. Not wanting to waste any precious time they quickly travelled back to Cal to replace armor, buy new weapons, and divide up the money they had earned (read: looted) at the lighthouse. This turned into a bigger ordeal than any of them had intended. Rhogar was the most familiar with the ins and outs of the finance world so he took the chest of assorted coins to the bank the Dragon's Horde, which was a little on the nose for some members of the group. What proceeded in the bank was text book bureaucracy as the cashier offered several different banking options for Rhogar to choose from. First he decided to rent a vault to keep the money in, but everyone else had items they wanted to buy; they didn't want their hard earned money rusting in some musty bank vault. Giving in, Rhogar then decided to open a bank account, but similar issues arose as this bank only had the one branch, and if the group deposited all their money in this bank, the odds that someone would cash a note from this bank would exponentially decrease the further they travelled from the city. Finally, after a half hour had passed and Bran's blood pressure had skyrocketed, Rhogar asked the now exasperated bank attendant to just convert all the money into gold pieces which he did, taking 4% off the top. With money in hand Bran, Rhogar, and Tharivol set off to the blacksmith in search of weapons and armor, while Covidius went to look for transportation up river to the stronghold of the mysterious person offering immortality to Nyndin. Bran and Rhogar got new weapons and Rhogar also was fitted for a bran ;) spanking new set of armor. Down at the docks, Covidius had little luck finding reasonably priced and sized transportation for their trip so the group decided to hoof it. On their first day of walking they made it halfway to Riverbend. Before settling in for the night they decided to cross the river by tying themselves together on a rotted out log and swimming across. About halfway across the river, Tharivol and Covidius were caught by surprise by the strength of the current and were knocked off the log. Bran and Rhogar managed to hang on, but only just. Thankfully, Tharivol was able to right himself and swim back to the log, yanking Covidius along with him, who just decided to lay back and let his friends drag him in.   Safely ashore, the group made camp. Halfway through the second watch Rhogar hears a twig snap and gets Tharivol's attention to let him know they aren't alone. With his excellent dark vision, Tharivol spots two men sitting in the underbrush behind him and a third man making his way around the camp. Rhogar kicks Bran awake, who then proceeds to wake Covidius up. As Covidius awakens he mumbles something about "flattening the curve" and "hand washing". This disturbance triggers the assailants who launch a volley of crossbow bolts and a javelin... all of which miss terribly. The group jumps into action easily downing all three assailants, however one of the assailants pierced Covidius' socially distanced heart. Covidius knocked the man out with his charm and wit (what he calls his fists) and drug him to the fire. Meanwhile the rest of the group searched the men and Tharivol found a wolf's head emblem with red eye's on each of the men; the sign of Balthazar the Bloodied, Tharivol's old enemy. They decided to wake Covidius' would-be lover and after some definitely not good aligned behavior get the man to tell them why he and his fellow bandits attacked and whether or not more would be coming. He tells them that his boss thought the group would be easy pickings and that they shouldn't encounter anyone else on the road. They let the man go with nothing but a hit point and a javelin to keep him safe. Covidius watched him go with a longing look in his eyes, perhaps dreaming of a life that could have been.     After handedly defeating the men that tried to ambush them, our fellowship of adventurers finishes their night's rest. The next day they finish their journey to the mysterious stronghold. They come out of the woods to a massive lake with a monolithic fortress jutting out of the water like the fist of a drowned god. Making its way haphazardly across the lake was a rowboat being maneuvered by Jester, Covidius' one, true love. Feeling thrice scorned Covidius dove into the water and swam after the boat and quite majestically dolphin kicked himself out of the water and super-hero landed right in front of Jester, knocking him out with a well placed punch. After Covidius brought the boat back to shore they band decided on a secret approach where Tharivol, Bran, and Rhogar would row the boat and Covidius would make his way under the water. After some surveillance and not finding any easier way into the fortress, they decide to go for the direct approach and knock on the front door. When they hailed the front gate, a voice answered them and asked what their business was. They mischievous band of adventurers convinced the faceless voice that they were ruthless mercs who were told by Jester and his buddies that they could make good coin at this fortress. The voice was clearly pissed at Jester and Co. but opened the gate nonetheless. As the group rowed the boat into the keep (and Covidius swam in under the rowboat) they were able to see where the voice was coming from. It was none other than Rachel, the woman that managed to slip away from them at the Nyndin's lighthouse! She obviously recognized them (and Tharivol still couldn't place where he had seen Rachel before) and as the group exited the boat they entered into a tense standoff with Rachel and her orc lover. Tharivol, ever the diplomat, attempted to ease tensions between the group. However, Bran was itching to to use is new Trusty Not-So-Rusty Sword and kept stoking the fires of enmity. Tharivol, quickly realizing the futility of diplomacy drew his sword and the fighting began.   Tharivol gets off to a rocky start taking some seriously heavy blows from the royally pissed off orc. (Only you can stop Orc on Elf Violence). Bran and Rhogar dole out some serious damage to Rachael and Covidius once again manages to do some rather fantastic water acrobatics and kick some bad guy butt. Tharivol, realizing that he should really stick to the ranged attacks jumps back into the rowboat and pushes off from the dock, putting himself at some distance from the enraged orc. In the meantime Covidius, Bran, and Rhogar manage to dish out some serious heat on the bad guys, bringing a few down and causing Rachel to try to bolt. Before she can get through the door Tharivol hits her with an arrow, slowing her progress. After firing that arrow, Tharivol's eyes seem to glaze over and for the rest fo the encounter he appears to be in some kind of trance. The rest fo the group assume he just didn't get a good night's sleep.   The mighty band of adventurers makes short work of the remaining baddies, taking down Rachel, the orc, and the archers firing down on them from the parapets. Tharivol tries to get back to the dock but ends up accidentally going for a swim instead. A new group of baddies comes along just as Brans rage wears off and the gang starts kicking ass again. And because this is already long enough and time is running short before our next session here is the blow-by-blow from our Reporter in the Field, Kerrick van Asselt. Take it away Kerrick!   Bran then continues his axe throwing prowess. Rhogar misses and misses. Covidius continues dealing damage. The bandits turn tail and run from rhogar and covidius. The rat man bites and swings his sword but misses like a loser. Bran disengages and runs away from the wererat. Rhogar dashes and turns Brans Great Axe magical. Bran gets bit but shakes off the effect. But takes some hits. The wererat turns chicken and sprints away after taking damage from Bran. Rhogar commands him to grovel. Bran wails on him angrily. Covidius goes and opens another door, finds a chest, picks the lock, catches the crossbow bolt shot from a trap, and like a true shadow monk, no one sees a thing. Tharivol takes a bite. But shakes it off. The rat escapes, but might Bran chases him down and ends him with his magical axe. Rhogar takes the orcs armor, which conforms to his size and fits him perfectly. It’s magic y’all. We find some monies, a scroll, and some gems. There’s a big ol Giant sounding yell. And a big ol thud. We see a baddie running for his life. We follow suit. Everyone piles into the big boat and we escape the keep rowing for our lives. Covidius places a rock to prop the portcullis from closing completely underwater. And scene.   Stay tuned for traffic on the 5s with Cart Befur Hörse.

Notes

May 1 - May 14, 967