A Magic Users tale. More August 25th2007
So, our search for a way out of this unknown area continued. Having traversed the tunnel under the chapel, we took stock of the inner bailey: Rising ominously ahead, the foreboding keep; Left and right the curtain wall embraced the compound with steps up at two points, one near the keep. A further door back into the central buildings lay to the left. Led by the intrepid gnome Aaveneir, we scooted across the yard and up the main steps to the keep, bursting in on a group of less than alert kobolds. These were quickly despatched by our primary strike force of the day, Aaveneir, Dagnar, Thorri, Gordon and Draegon, although for some reason our gnome found it necessary to open the encounter with a mysterious battle cry that sounded very like ‘Hello’ in koboldish..
Into the heart of the keep and a banqueting hall lay deserted before us, Aaveneir Thorri and the monk checked the first of five doors, and all hell broke loose. Hordes of the little blighters poured from every door swarming about our bold fellows and there was several minutes of hard fighting before they broke and fled.* I had taken no part in this engagement, preferring to study a particularly difficult invocation I had been having trouble with, plus my headache was still troubling me. Searching through the keep, a series of guard rooms, then, ambush as we entered the penultimate passage, but fortunately our completely steel covered dwarf was in the lead and they bounced off him as so often in this place.
*The few survivors that is, four escaped.
The chief’s place was beyond but he too was cut down by our killing machine, Thorri the Deathroller. Some treasure recovered from a chest, not a lot of stuff, something that might be a potion though Gordon didn’t recognise it. Aaveneir established that it wasn’t acid by dipping his finger in it. The final passage lead to more chambers including an egg chamber where little kobold eggs were clearly once incubated in gnome corpses. Nothing there now, ladders from the keep roof suggested that the last kobolds had made off into the swamp or forest with the contents of this chamber.
Returning to the chapel, we discovered a crucified gnome, who managed to utter the warning, ‘Don’t…’ before expiring. Poor old Aaveneir was getting very upset at the evident gnomist tendencies of this tribe, and it got worse in the next corridor lined with hides and skulls, a definite gnome majority apparent again. Now we could hear drunken carousing from the next chamber, and the half orc snapped, thundering off down the corridor, brandishing his magic spear from which, he appears inseparable.
Bursting down a short flight of stairs he entered a drunken banquet with even more kobolds than the ambush in the keep. There was a fair amount of carnage, and again the party prevailed, six or seven fleeing this time, Aaveneir leading the pursuit despite being badly wounded*. I have to say, that there was a bad moment for yours truly at this point, as three kobolds surprised us from behind. By chance, I had been contemplating trying my luck with a shocking grasp and was able to seize and shock my opponent, who fell seared to a crisp by my delicate caress. Having just seen their leader’s eyeballs melted from their sockets by cute little old me, the other two took to their heels even as Zionestes gallantly stood to my defence.
*This was compounded by a serious chilli injury that will forever imprint the lesson of washing your hands before taking a pee
Meanwhile, Draegon and Thorri cut down a couple more kobolds from the group that fled into the courtyard. The other drunken group followed by Gordon, Aaveneir and in the lead the speedy monk, had disappeared up stairs to the battlements. Delayed by the ineptitude of Dagnar’s attacks on the last kobold, the group had reached the safety(?) of a tower by the time our group reached the battlements. Entering the tower, the kobolds, reinforced, had rallied, and there was more fighting before again they fled and Gordon and Zionestes arrived to carry out much needed healing on Aaveneir and Dagnar.
Dreagon and Thorri had discovered a training area, with dummies* on posts used for sword practice. They also discovered giant rats which gave them further opportunities to test their sword arms. Draegon received a nasty bite. They then went on to check the tallest, slender tower which prevented them cutting off the fleeing group from the battlements, but did enable them to discover two ghouls, both of which were dealt with by the assassin who fortuitously narrowly avoided paralysation in the process.
*Extremely lifelike…oh, yes real bodies. Of what? You guessed it, gnomes
We rested up for the night having discovered and released three gnome slaves. From our questioning of them we discovered
a) That we have never heard of any of the place names round here
b) They have never heard of anywhere round our way, except
c) Krim, which is pretty famous and they described as being ‘far to the south east on the other side of the Elven lands’
d) That they have seen a transmat key – around the neck of our old friend Devro who was here just a few days ago (which ties up with the sacking of the human village nearby)
We also discovered that the excellent view from the lookout tower reveals a golden spire some miles due north. We agreed that this would be our destination.
Proceeding north into the pine forest in the morning, we made good progress discovering a ruin by mid morning where Thorri and Draegon were attacked by shadows. Zionestes drove them away successfully however. We then managed to get lost (call yourself a ranger Draegon?), though I must admit all these trees look alike. Crossing another road where we parted with the gnomes, we continued north and got lost again, coming across another road where we established that we were travelling south east instead of north. Taking this road north we reached a river and decided to follow the north bank north east away from the road.
Reaching the edge of more swampland, Dagnar shinned up a tree but beyond discovering that we were nearing a large river he could find so sign of any constructed landmark. It then occurred to the dwarf to ask our elf friend to send up Birdie, who immediately established that the building we sought lay almost due west, requiring us to back track to the bridge and strike North West from there. After an uneventful night, we now approach the golden spired construction.
Experience awards:
Gordon
Healing 20
Horde Room 14 46
Kobolds room 25 5
Kobolds Room 21 27
Characterisation and Roleplay 20
Kobolds Room 6 40
Total 158
Dagnar
Horde Room 14 46
Kobolds room 25 5
Kobolds Room 21 27
Kobolds Room 6 40
Suggesting using tower as vantage point 25
Climbing Tree 10
Total 153
Calenderiel
Horde Room 14 46
Total 46
Draegon
Horde Room 14 46
Kobolds room 25 5
Kobolds Room 21 27
Kobolds Room 6 40
Giant Rats 20
Total 138
Kravaine
Horde Room 14 46
Kobold Chief Torturer 10
Asking slaves about transmat key 25
Total 81
Thomas
Horde Room 14 46
Total 46
Thorri
Mapping 10
Characterisation and roleplay 20
Horde Room 14 46
Kobolds room 25 5
Kobolds Room 21 27
Kobolds Room 14 30
Kobolds Room 6 40
Giant Rats 20
Ghouls 170
Discovering freeing and questioning the slaves 30
Remembering Birdie 25
Total 423
Roscoe
Horde Room 14 46
Total 46
Zionestes
Healing 20
Horde Room 14 46
Turning Shadows 300
Total 366
Aaveneir
Characterisation and Roleplay 20
Horde Room 14 46
Kobolds room 25 5
Kobolds Room 21 27
Kobolds Room 6 40
Total
Name Class 2nd Class B/F Cumulative Target Current Level
Kravaine MU* 81 3934 4024 5000 2
Draegon R 138 4300 4438 4500 2
Calenderiel F* 26 MU 23 1429/1298 1455/1321 2000/2500 1/1
Dagnar M 153 3555 3708 4750 2
Gordon F* 87 C* 87 2855/2623 2942/2710 4000/3000 2/2
Roscoe T* 50 4325 4375 5000 3
Thorri F* 233 A 212 2942/2674 3175/2886 4000/3000 2/2
Zionestes C* 403 3032 3435 6000 3
Thomas R 46 350 396 2250 1
Aaveneir F* 152 952 1104 2000 1
*EP Bonus applied
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