"When last we left our intrepid band of adventurers, they had just exited the Feywild through a Fairy Circle, and were confronted by the pixie, Widdershins." was how Craig started off our next session. He always started off our sessions with that line: "When last we left our intrepid band of adventurers...". I enjoyed that. It seemed to tie everything together.
Anyway, Widdershins confronted us and wanted to know where Kai was. I hadn't known about this, but Kai (Toni's human bard) was married to Widdershins. Calatin had taken a ring that Kai wore, and I suppose it was specifically for this purpose, as he handed it over to Widdershins, giving him the bad news about Kai's death at the hands of the shambling mounds. He was not pleased, of course, and left.
We traveled to the nearby human city of Ebrandel, and took the time to identify all the magic we'd found, spend some money on new things, and have Timond create some new magic items for us. The next step in our journey would be to find a portal that would lead us to the Deeping Well... the place where all souls go to as they journey to their final destination. We, of course, wanted to avoid the usual method of arriving there... you know... death, and we discovered that there was one high in the mountains. We set out, climbing the mountain trail, until we reached a vale at the top. There was a mining town we were making for, named Delve, and upon approaching we noticed something very strange. The town glittered in the sun, as if it was covered in diamonds! Reaching the town, we discovered the true reason for this... it was actually covered in ice!
Approaching the town, we didn't see any movement and everything was deathly silent. Stepping through the open gate, we found that all the buildings were coated in ice, and there were actually people here, but they were all frozen in ice, and they were still alive! We set to work as quickly as we could, releasing as many as we could until evening set in. We took everyone outside the city, built up a big fire and sat everyone around it. They told us that a white dragon attacked the town, freezing everyone and everything with its breath!
As we were completing our preparations for the night, and dreading the possibility of facing off against a dragon, when we heard some noise coming from inside the gates... some chattering... and went to investigate.
Poking our heads inside, we saw three small humanoid creatures lurking about near one of the buildings, talking to one another. Trying to get their attention revealed them as illusions, and Zorenthiel made his way over to check things out. He spotted the one creating the illusion, but failed to spot two others... one by the gate, and one up on top of a roof.
While we were distracted by deal with one of them, suddenly, a shadow fell over the area and a huge white dragon descended upon us, breathing a cone of cold over us! During the fight, Zorenthiel noticed something strange, though. Looking up, the creature on the roof was pointing a wand at the dragon. Suspicious, given that we'd already seen one of them generating illusions with a wand, I got everyone to concentrate on that one guy and take him down. Then, to prove to the others that the dragon was an illusion, I had Zorenthiel charge the white dragon! Swinging his staff, it passed right through the dragon, confirming my suspicion and showing the others that it wasn't real. We mopped up the other two little guys, and then went out to the fire, where we discovered that Pate had taken down three more.
One was still alive, so we questioned him. He turned out to be an ice mephit... a kind of elemental creature. The mephit's "Master" had sent them out to coat the town in ice. Apparently a dwarven priest released some great evil in the mines, nearby.
In the morning, the group left town for the mines, with Zorenthiel staying behind to continue efforts in releasing everyone still trapped in the ice (I missed that next session, so it was a convenient excuse. :) ).
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Wild Times
So, there we were, stuck in the Fey Wild. All around us were huge briar patches that matched the size, shape and location of the buildings of Barston.
We met up with Toni's elf ranger then. I think she spotted the portal show up, or just spotted us. I believe she'd been searching for a way out of the Fey Wild ever since she crossed over via a Faerie Circle... but I can't recall exactly. Either way, we were all in the same boat, so she joined our group, and we headed out to find a way back to the "Real World". We journeyed east, though, to get us out of the Eveninglands, so that when we came back into the "Real World", we wouldn't immediately be breaking our vow. I believe that if we did break our vow, we would get sicker and sicker, the longer we defied the vow, until we died.
We figured out how to get out, first. I think it was an arcana check from Timond that did it. Or maybe it was combination of him and I, plus Calatin. I don't remember. In any case, whoever figured it out, we had to find the blood of an "Aberration". The Fey Wild is like taking nature in the real world, from the beauty to the danger, and turning all the dials up to 11. An aberration, an evil creature born from foul magics or even fouler warping of reality, is so alien to the Fey Wild, that the natural tendency of the Fey Wild is to expel such a creature. So, if we sprinkled aberration blood onto a faerie circle, that would act as a portal home.
Using our knowledge of the fact that an aberration would corrupt the Fey Wild around it, we had Calatin ask a passing animal if there was such a corrupted area nearby. However, now that I think about it, all animals could simply talk to us normally. Still, having a druid talk to them made for better conversation. heh. A bird of some kind directed us to a nearby swamp.
I tried to play up how miserable Zorenthiel was here. He's used to dusty libraries, not trudging through swamps. :) We found a carving on a tree of a symbol Craig showed us. A snake with a human-like head.
"A Naga." I said, impulsively. A couple of the others looked at me weird, but I just shrugged. We proceeded in, and partway to the center of the swamp we were attacked by a Tyrannosaurus Rex!!
The fight with this thing was really tough, and someone, I can't remember who, even got picked up in the thing's mouth! (We made sure to stick the character's miniature in the mouth of the T-Rex miniature, of course. heh). We managed to defeat it, then moved on, and eventually found the apparent location of the aberration. It was a small ruined fort of some kind, like an outpost. We found a spiral staircase descending into the darkness, and made our way down.
At the bottom, we found a large cavern. There was an open area of ground ahead of us, then a bridge crossing a large chasm. We could hear a strange clicking noise everywhere. An alarming fact about the bridge was... it was covered in webs, and there was a large mass of web that extended from the bridge off to the left, where it attached to the cavern wall. We could see something moving in the webs. Keeping an eye on that, and thinking it might even be some unfortunate thing caught in there, we started across...
Suddenly, giant spiders crawled up from under the bridge to surround us, and some humanoid creature that was actually MADE OF WEBS, stepped out of that mass of webs to the left, and moved to attack us!
Pate charged the web creature, and Ehrdren made quick work of the spiders with his bow! The funniest part of the fight was right at the end, it was Timond's turn, and he whipped a dagger at the web creature. He hit and ended up killing it! Big round of congrats for the wizard, and Pate's admiration!
Continuing on, we entered a passageway and came upon two pools and another open area. The first pool was of a green viscous substance that we figured was some kind of acid, so we wanted to avoid that one altogether. Beyond it was a 10' section of ground, then a pool of water, 15' across. Pate went first, of course, jumping across the acid pit, then jumping into the water.
Well, the moment he hit the water, two creatures blinked into existence, one on either side of him. On one side was an Earth Elemental and on the other was a Fire Elemental. The heat from the Fire Elemental immediately started boiling the water, which was damaging Pate every round, and both elementals began attacking him! He was taking a bad beating when suddenly Timond cast a spell that swapped him and Pate, so Pate ended up back on the dry ground and Timond was in the water between the elementals. He then levitated up. Pointing a finger at the Earth Elemental, he spoke words of power (a Dismissal spell, I think), and the Elemental crumbled away. We were all VERY impressed by this.
We finished off the Fire Elemental shortly thereafter, and then hunkered down on the small section of dry ground between the pools to rest. We needed to get spells back and heal some before we faced the Naga.
Our rest was interrupted though, as again on Zorenthiel's watch, he had to rouse the others, as he heard a loud hissing noise come from the area beyond the pools. When he had gotten everyone up, we spotted the Naga. She was fifteen feet long, at least, with a black scaly snake body and an ugly human head. Pate rushed forwards, jumping into the pool to swim across to get her, but he was suddenly surrounded by the elementals again! Apparently it was a magical trap that reset while we were resting! While Pate was busy with the elementals, the Naga unleashed a lightning bolt that hit most of the group as we were bunched together in the corridor. Timond responded with a fireball that engulfed the Naga. Pate made it out of the water and went after the Naga, with the elementals following after him. Calatin and Hornet made it across quickly and engaged the Naga as well. Timond flung his spells, and Ehrdren plucked arrows into everything, and Zorenthiel called up a magical Spiritual Weapon (in the form of a quarterstaff), which he set upon the earth elemental pounding on Pate.
Pate landed the final blow on the Naga, crushing its skull, just as the earth elemental dealt a staggering blow to him, knocking him to the ground. Zorenthiel's staff and Ehrdren's arrows dropped the elemental. We discovered a huge cache of treasure that the Naga had been hording, and collecting it, and the blood of the Naga, we made our way out again, and trecked cross-country to find a faerie circle. We had an uneventful crossover back to the "Real World", and when we arrived, we were greeted by the pixie, Widdershins.
We met up with Toni's elf ranger then. I think she spotted the portal show up, or just spotted us. I believe she'd been searching for a way out of the Fey Wild ever since she crossed over via a Faerie Circle... but I can't recall exactly. Either way, we were all in the same boat, so she joined our group, and we headed out to find a way back to the "Real World". We journeyed east, though, to get us out of the Eveninglands, so that when we came back into the "Real World", we wouldn't immediately be breaking our vow. I believe that if we did break our vow, we would get sicker and sicker, the longer we defied the vow, until we died.
We figured out how to get out, first. I think it was an arcana check from Timond that did it. Or maybe it was combination of him and I, plus Calatin. I don't remember. In any case, whoever figured it out, we had to find the blood of an "Aberration". The Fey Wild is like taking nature in the real world, from the beauty to the danger, and turning all the dials up to 11. An aberration, an evil creature born from foul magics or even fouler warping of reality, is so alien to the Fey Wild, that the natural tendency of the Fey Wild is to expel such a creature. So, if we sprinkled aberration blood onto a faerie circle, that would act as a portal home.
Using our knowledge of the fact that an aberration would corrupt the Fey Wild around it, we had Calatin ask a passing animal if there was such a corrupted area nearby. However, now that I think about it, all animals could simply talk to us normally. Still, having a druid talk to them made for better conversation. heh. A bird of some kind directed us to a nearby swamp.
I tried to play up how miserable Zorenthiel was here. He's used to dusty libraries, not trudging through swamps. :) We found a carving on a tree of a symbol Craig showed us. A snake with a human-like head.
"A Naga." I said, impulsively. A couple of the others looked at me weird, but I just shrugged. We proceeded in, and partway to the center of the swamp we were attacked by a Tyrannosaurus Rex!!
The fight with this thing was really tough, and someone, I can't remember who, even got picked up in the thing's mouth! (We made sure to stick the character's miniature in the mouth of the T-Rex miniature, of course. heh). We managed to defeat it, then moved on, and eventually found the apparent location of the aberration. It was a small ruined fort of some kind, like an outpost. We found a spiral staircase descending into the darkness, and made our way down. At the bottom, we found a large cavern. There was an open area of ground ahead of us, then a bridge crossing a large chasm. We could hear a strange clicking noise everywhere. An alarming fact about the bridge was... it was covered in webs, and there was a large mass of web that extended from the bridge off to the left, where it attached to the cavern wall. We could see something moving in the webs. Keeping an eye on that, and thinking it might even be some unfortunate thing caught in there, we started across...
Suddenly, giant spiders crawled up from under the bridge to surround us, and some humanoid creature that was actually MADE OF WEBS, stepped out of that mass of webs to the left, and moved to attack us!
Pate charged the web creature, and Ehrdren made quick work of the spiders with his bow! The funniest part of the fight was right at the end, it was Timond's turn, and he whipped a dagger at the web creature. He hit and ended up killing it! Big round of congrats for the wizard, and Pate's admiration!
Continuing on, we entered a passageway and came upon two pools and another open area. The first pool was of a green viscous substance that we figured was some kind of acid, so we wanted to avoid that one altogether. Beyond it was a 10' section of ground, then a pool of water, 15' across. Pate went first, of course, jumping across the acid pit, then jumping into the water.
Well, the moment he hit the water, two creatures blinked into existence, one on either side of him. On one side was an Earth Elemental and on the other was a Fire Elemental. The heat from the Fire Elemental immediately started boiling the water, which was damaging Pate every round, and both elementals began attacking him! He was taking a bad beating when suddenly Timond cast a spell that swapped him and Pate, so Pate ended up back on the dry ground and Timond was in the water between the elementals. He then levitated up. Pointing a finger at the Earth Elemental, he spoke words of power (a Dismissal spell, I think), and the Elemental crumbled away. We were all VERY impressed by this.
We finished off the Fire Elemental shortly thereafter, and then hunkered down on the small section of dry ground between the pools to rest. We needed to get spells back and heal some before we faced the Naga.
Our rest was interrupted though, as again on Zorenthiel's watch, he had to rouse the others, as he heard a loud hissing noise come from the area beyond the pools. When he had gotten everyone up, we spotted the Naga. She was fifteen feet long, at least, with a black scaly snake body and an ugly human head. Pate rushed forwards, jumping into the pool to swim across to get her, but he was suddenly surrounded by the elementals again! Apparently it was a magical trap that reset while we were resting! While Pate was busy with the elementals, the Naga unleashed a lightning bolt that hit most of the group as we were bunched together in the corridor. Timond responded with a fireball that engulfed the Naga. Pate made it out of the water and went after the Naga, with the elementals following after him. Calatin and Hornet made it across quickly and engaged the Naga as well. Timond flung his spells, and Ehrdren plucked arrows into everything, and Zorenthiel called up a magical Spiritual Weapon (in the form of a quarterstaff), which he set upon the earth elemental pounding on Pate.
Pate landed the final blow on the Naga, crushing its skull, just as the earth elemental dealt a staggering blow to him, knocking him to the ground. Zorenthiel's staff and Ehrdren's arrows dropped the elemental. We discovered a huge cache of treasure that the Naga had been hording, and collecting it, and the blood of the Naga, we made our way out again, and trecked cross-country to find a faerie circle. We had an uneventful crossover back to the "Real World", and when we arrived, we were greeted by the pixie, Widdershins.
Things get more interesting.
So, after our group was expelled from Barston by the village elders, we camped outside the town in order to figure out what to do.
During the night, during Zorenthiel's watch in fact, we were attacked! Shambling Mounds! This is where I started to see how the group functioned a bit better. The previous sessions, we were all trying to just figure stuff out, so there was a bit of scrambling, and a lot of impulsive "I cast the spell to see what happens!" kind of stuff... no complaint there... that's just how it goes when you're not 'in the know' about a situation, and I did a bunch of it myself. I'm just tellin' it like it was. ;)
Anyway, Pate was very much the "CHARGE!" type, leaping into battle. Timond liked to blast stuff with fire. Ehrdren was a skirmisher, moving around on the battlefield and firing his bow. Calatin and Hornet used teamwork to flank enemies and take them down.
We beat the shambling mounds, but unfortunately, Toni's bard, Kai, was killed in the fight. As Toni rolled up a new character, the rest of us went on to an encounter with some Redcaps. Man, those little guys were tough! They very much lived up to their reputation as vicious little fighters! I don't know if Craig drew them from some source or if he just made them up himself. Either way, whoever created them did a very good job. We were definitely afraid of Redcaps from that point on. We prevailed against the Recaps, but then a Verdant Prince showed up. He was some kind of royal Fey. Like an elf (perhaps an Eladrin for those 4e players), but far more regal and powerful. He dropped a Wall of Thorns around us and called down a lightning storm that HURT. Wow. When he offered the chance to parlay, oh boy were we quick to accept!
He took us to a house, where we sat down to talk. He offered us our lives and one request, in return for our blood oath that we would never again set foot in "The Eveningland". We had no idea what The Eveningland was, other than that we were currently there. We guessed that it meant that the lands ahead of the advancing forest were in decline. We agreed to his proposal. The others asked for various things... I don't remember exactly what everyone requested. I do remember Mike E. asking for some kind of weapon for Calatin. Magical claws of some kind that were more powerful against fey creatures... ones that he could use while in animal form. I think Roy asked for more spells for Timond, or maybe more knowledge about how to use the staff he had. Me? Since Zorenthiel was lawful good, and was still trying to look out for the people of Barston, I had him make a deal with the Verdant Prince. He didn't want any items. If the group was going to be forced to leave and never return, he wanted the Verdant Prince to take his fey with him and leave, never to return or bother Barston again.
He agreed to that, and everything else. Then he let us out the back door of the house. When we walked out, we realized that it was a gateway to the Fey Wild. He definitely made sure that we left The Eveningland! (That Jerk! heh)
There, we met Toni's new character, an elven ranger with a horse as her animal companion. Zorenthiel was happy to have another elf in the group. Next was finding a way out of the Fey Wild. That would prove to be interesting. :)
During the night, during Zorenthiel's watch in fact, we were attacked! Shambling Mounds! This is where I started to see how the group functioned a bit better. The previous sessions, we were all trying to just figure stuff out, so there was a bit of scrambling, and a lot of impulsive "I cast the spell to see what happens!" kind of stuff... no complaint there... that's just how it goes when you're not 'in the know' about a situation, and I did a bunch of it myself. I'm just tellin' it like it was. ;)
Anyway, Pate was very much the "CHARGE!" type, leaping into battle. Timond liked to blast stuff with fire. Ehrdren was a skirmisher, moving around on the battlefield and firing his bow. Calatin and Hornet used teamwork to flank enemies and take them down.
We beat the shambling mounds, but unfortunately, Toni's bard, Kai, was killed in the fight. As Toni rolled up a new character, the rest of us went on to an encounter with some Redcaps. Man, those little guys were tough! They very much lived up to their reputation as vicious little fighters! I don't know if Craig drew them from some source or if he just made them up himself. Either way, whoever created them did a very good job. We were definitely afraid of Redcaps from that point on. We prevailed against the Recaps, but then a Verdant Prince showed up. He was some kind of royal Fey. Like an elf (perhaps an Eladrin for those 4e players), but far more regal and powerful. He dropped a Wall of Thorns around us and called down a lightning storm that HURT. Wow. When he offered the chance to parlay, oh boy were we quick to accept!
He took us to a house, where we sat down to talk. He offered us our lives and one request, in return for our blood oath that we would never again set foot in "The Eveningland". We had no idea what The Eveningland was, other than that we were currently there. We guessed that it meant that the lands ahead of the advancing forest were in decline. We agreed to his proposal. The others asked for various things... I don't remember exactly what everyone requested. I do remember Mike E. asking for some kind of weapon for Calatin. Magical claws of some kind that were more powerful against fey creatures... ones that he could use while in animal form. I think Roy asked for more spells for Timond, or maybe more knowledge about how to use the staff he had. Me? Since Zorenthiel was lawful good, and was still trying to look out for the people of Barston, I had him make a deal with the Verdant Prince. He didn't want any items. If the group was going to be forced to leave and never return, he wanted the Verdant Prince to take his fey with him and leave, never to return or bother Barston again.
He agreed to that, and everything else. Then he let us out the back door of the house. When we walked out, we realized that it was a gateway to the Fey Wild. He definitely made sure that we left The Eveningland! (That Jerk! heh)
There, we met Toni's new character, an elven ranger with a horse as her animal companion. Zorenthiel was happy to have another elf in the group. Next was finding a way out of the Fey Wild. That would prove to be interesting. :)
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