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- Title: Crucible of Defense II
- Time Frame: Far Future
- Genre: d20 Grab bag
- DragonStar
- Judge Dredd
- d20 Modern
- Dungeons and Dragons
- Fading Suns
- Darwin's World
- Star Wars
- Call of Cthulhu
- Sovereign Stone
- SpellJammer
- Omega World
- Traveller
- Progress Level: DragonStar (Sci-Fantasy)
- Life: We Are Not Alone! -- Mutants, Cybernetics,
Androids, Robots, Psionics, Dragons, Soul Mechs, and Jedi
- Setting: At the Edge of the DragonStar Galaxy much
closer to the unknwon
- Plot: Just where the heck are we going?
- Goal: To find out what menace is worrying the
ISPD?
- What is happening on G'banrak's planet?
- Why does G'Banrak still seem important?
- What is the ISPD agenda here?
visitors
Now available in Audio form
We are continuing our campaign with DragonStar as the focus, but we will be
allowing characters from most any d20 RPG including DragonStar, Fading Suns, Darwin's World, Star Wars,
Omega World (Gamma World), Traveller, Judge Dredd and any other Sci-Fi related adventure RPG.
We have been
working on how to layout the entire cluster of galaxies and we too have come up
with a Star*Drive, Fading Suns, Star Wars and DragonsStar and Traveller galactic zones.
We will also be introducing all elements of SpellJammer and even Dark Sun
World after a bit of conversion to d20 rules. We have the D&D
supplement on conversions and it is quite straight forward so lookout for
SpellJammer and Dark Sun World conversions coming to a website near you. If
we can't find 'em, we'll convert 'em.
We can't disclose much at this time, but the campaign will take the heroic
characters through a bit of an intro to the humanioid/dragon domain tech/magic
world then toss them into a most interesting yet disturbing world of
non-humanoid forms who come from a far away galaxy. They have been with us
all along, but the heroes will venture to the first humanoid world mysteriously
under attack by these entities. The entities will range from something similar
to Beholders, Shambling Mounds, Gibbering Mouthers, Ocre Jelly and the like
(look for Cthulhu favorites).... imagine millions of years of Green Slime evolution.
The characters will be praying to get out... along the way they will encounter
survivors on this torn world they have come to rescue. Some survivors will be
happy to see the heroes, others won't be so happy.
Using DragonStar and Fading Suns and other d20 RPGs in one campaign opens up new
and different levels of Magic. DragonStar goes on the D&D3 precept of having
Arcane and Divine Magic and even Psionics. Fading Suns treats these as
skills for Psi and Theurgy - similar effects but different reasons. Darwin's
world has mutations too. Lastly, Star Wars has the Force, and we can add Wild
Magic too. These power
implementations will play an important role in the systems the
heroes will visit.
Character Background Profiles
- Name: Zoltan
- Home Community
Zoltan's life on the frontier is Spartan and
dangerous, but it encourages self-sufficiency. Most homesteads include only one or two families.
- Climate
Zoltan's home included swamps, moors, and other low, wet areas. Zoltan
grew up with cold winters, but warm summers. Zoltan learned basic wilderness survival skills.
-
- Education
- Zoltan learned farming and animal
husbandry techniques. Zoltan spent time seeking animal skins or meat in the
wilderness.
- Events
- Flood, famine, plague, or another calamity struck when
Zoltan was a child. Zoltan aided in the defense of the community against
raiders or a marauding monster. Attacks from organized raiders menace Zoltan's
home community over a substantial period of time.
-
- Family
Zoltan's familys ancestors of note are unknown or forgotten. Information about them
could be
revealed in a future adventure, however. Combat is a regular part of
the lives of Zoltan's family. Most adult members are veterans of some
combat, and martial weapons and training are commonplace. Sometimes Zoltan's
family had to beg for food and shelter. They own no property and
income barely covers basic needs. Zoltan's family holds to the letter of
contracts and agreements. Zoltan's family has no specific political
stance. The male members control Zoltan's family. Zoltan's familys ethical reputation matches their private ethics.
Zoltan's family has
a historical conflict with followers of a particular deity (player
decides which) assumed to be disreputable. Zoltan's family is treated in
general with contempt, but occasionally a family member has demonstrated
positive qualities and earned respect. Zoltan's family are like most laborers
and
servants. One or more local monsters view Zoltan as a threat, perhaps
as a result of some minor encounter. Zoltan has 1d10 living relatives.
Zoltan's significant friend is dead or missing. Zoltan remember his grandparents, but they have passed away. A top-notch instructor taught
Zoltan more advanced military, religious, or arcane techniques. Both
of Zoltan's parents are deceased, and the player chooses how the parents
passed away. Zoltan has a fraternal twin, identical twin, or two
triplet siblings.
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- Player: JC
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-
Name: Milo Fasthand
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Environment
Around 450 halflings live in the shire where Milo Fasthand grew
up. Milo Fasthand's feels comfortable with shipboard life and any
island small enough that the dominant terrain feature is the sea that
surrounds it. Milo Fasthand grew up with cold winters, but warm
summers.
-
Family
Both of Milo Fasthand's parents are alive and healthy. Milo
Fasthand has 3 older siblings and 3 younger siblings. Three of Milo's
grandparents are living (his mother's mother died of an illness a few
years back). Milo Fasthand has 2d12 living relatives.
Milo Fasthand's family is poor. Although they have never had to beg
for food and shelter, they own little property other than their
gunsmith shop and their income barely covers basic needs. Milo
Fasthand's family holds to the letter of contracts and agreements.
Milo Fasthand's family supports the current political structure and
rulers. The male members control Milo Fasthand's family. Milo
Fasthand's familys ethical reputation matches their private ethics.
Milo Fasthand's family has worshiped a patron deity (Yondalla) for
years, but may not observe religious commitments consistently. In
general, Milo Fasthand's family is upstanding, but one or more members
of family are known to be disreputable. Milo Fasthand's father is an
expert gunsmith (and the best marksman in the shire).
-
Milo Fasthand's great-grandfather
was an artisan of unmatched skill who left a legacy of excellence that
is still used as a standard gauge of quality. Milo Fasthand's family
frequently use and improve their shooting skills and could be prepared
for combat with a few days of last-minute preparation.
-
Education
Milo Fasthand learned basic wilderness survival skills. Milo
Fasthand learned a craft -- gun-smithing. A top-notch instructor,
Milo's father, taught Milo Fasthand more advanced small firearms
techniques.
-
Major Events
Milo Fasthand took a two-way trip with his oldest brother on a new
caravan route to a trade fair in the capital of his homeworld to learn
about trade, caravans, firearms, and the world.
-
Milo Fasthand edged someone out in
some affair of the heart, and they hold a grudge. Unfortunately, Milo
is now leaving town and in his absence his rival may succeed in
winning the favor of their common desire. Or will she wait for Milo to
return?
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Friends
Milo Fasthand doesnt make friends easily, but Milo Fasthand is
a good friend to those he has. Milo Fasthand has a few close friends.
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Player: Mike
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Name: Syd Runwin
Environment:
Syd grew up on a small, urbanized natural satellite around the planet
Laithe. He lived with his uncle who he was also apprenticed under.
Between the two of them, they ran a small Spell Book and Scroll shop
that had been granted them by their family. Syd is very comfortable
traveling, as he often did between the satellite and the home world. As
he spent most of his time in one climate controlled area or another, he
doesnt care much for natural weather.
Family:
Syds parents are currently alive and well. He has a brother, as well
as several bastard siblings by his father. In addition to these, he has
a number of other familial connections throughout House Runwin.
The Runwin family is a powerful family on the planet
of Laithe. For generations House Runwin has possessed considerable Sorceress
power. With that power came powerful political positions and
sway over large areas of the world. Unfortunately, it seems that House
Runwins luck has run out. Recent generations have produced no Sorcerers
and the remaining ones are beginning to die out. Syd was
expected to be the next Sorcerer Supreme of House Runwin as he showed a
very powerful spark. When he was born, however, his family realized that
although he had a powerful ability in magic, he would never draw upon
the Sorceress arts.
A little known fact about House Runwin (in fact, known
only to the Elders of the House) is that the Sorceress ability the House
has been blessed with for the past several generations is not, in
fact, happenstance. Many, many years ago, Syds ancestor, Cile Runwin
struck a pact with a daemon most foul. In return for some price unknown
to this day, the daemon provided Cile with extraordinary magical
abilities. Apparently these abilities continued on in his bloodline,
because since then, most Runwins have shown some signs of the Power.
Education:
Syd was shuttled to the satellite Kitiin V in shame shortly after his
birth. The knowledge of what he was proved too much for his parents to
bear. Instead Syd was raised by his uncle, Lanir, who was likewise an
almost Sorcerer. From Lanir, Syd not only learned much of the mystical
arts, but he also learned Electronics, and Programming, in order to work
at the small Spell Book and Scroll shop his uncle owned.
Major Events:
When Syd turned 19, he entered a small tournament on the home world that
involved a mage competition. When he reached the final round, his
opponent, Tyros Reffa, proved to be much stronger than him, and when Syd
caught a Lightning Bolt in the face, he nearly died.
More recently, Syd returned from a visit to his place
of birth to attend the wedding of his brother. Upon entering his shop,
he found it ransacked and his uncle missing. Several days later found
Syd preparing to leave world in order to track his uncle down, armed
with his magic and the few things he could scrounge up from the shop.
"I wonder why uncle kept a laser pistol in his dresser?" Syd
mused as he boarded his flight
Friends:
Syd doesnt have too many friends, except perhaps his uncle. There are
a few regulars in the store that Syd would occasionally meet outside for
a drink, or perhaps a friendly spell duel, but they were all
acquaintances at best.
Enemies:
Syd doesnt possess knowledge of any enemies he currently has, nor
does he know why anyone would want to hurt him. Even so, he has long
suspected that Tyros Reffa meant to kill him in the tournament several
years ago, and recent events have only reinforced his suspicions.
Player: David
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Name: Orendil
Climate
Whether its a tangled jungle or sparser pines, trees are the dominant feature of the landscape, that makes Orendil feel at home. Orendil welcomes the cold all year long, although where he comes from seasons are still discernible. The length of day and night changes greatly from season to season.
Education
Orendil learned basic wilderness survival skills. Orendil has advanced studies in a formal church setting. Includes training as an acolyte or special functionary for religious practice. Orendil studied biology and geology.
Events
Orendil had an earthshaking brush with greatness, such as meeting a king or being contacted directly by a god. Orendil found a unique aptitude or talent such as extremely keen vision or a knack for ventriloquism. Orendil's home community is faced with a new faith recently created, a schism tears an existing faith apart, or a prophecy is announced.
Family
Sometimes Orendil's family had to beg for food and shelter. They own no property and income barely covers basic needs. The female members control Orendil's family. Orendil's family maintains a low level of readiness including a few weapons and an occasional discussion of how to defend against raiders or low-level monsters. Orendil's family is known for involvement in the community and acting to help others. Orendil's familys ethical reputation matches their private ethics. Orendil's family has no specific political stance. Orendil's family is deeply committed to a patron deity (you choose which one). Orendil's family is known as stalwart companions. Orendil's family are like most laborers and servants. Orendil's family has no ancestors of note.
Relationships
Both of Orendil's parents are alive and healthy. Orendil is an only child Orendil's fathers parents are deceased. Orendil has other relatives out there somewhere, but doesnt know who or how many. Orendil doesnt make friends easily, but Orendil is a good friend to those he has. Orendil has a few close friends. A particularly good instructor taught Orendil the basic skills (choose alive or dead, note NPC details) Orendil has no known enemies, yet.
I was born into a poor elven family in a forest settlement in the northern regions of (insert location). I grew up amongst the evergreens and snow, learning how to hunt and trap from my father. My mother's
grandparents taught me to follow the ways of (insert appropriate nature deity for setting). Although religion held little interest for me, I did my duty, learning my prayers and my parables. My parents, though respected members of the community, never achieved nor cared particularly for material wealth. It was during a foraging trip that an event occurred which brought change into my life. It was an extremely cold day, and the snow was coming down in large and numerous flakes. I was ready to turn back towards the settlement, but I saw something about 100 meters away in the snow. What it was, I didn't know, but it appeared to be glowing with a bluish-white light. As I approached, the glow diminished, but I saw what appeared to be an animal in the snow. It was a doe, and upon inspection it was clearly sick or internally injured. Killing doe was not allowed at that time of year. Not knowing how I could help, touched the doe's coat and said a quick prayer that my grandmother had taught me. As I turned to walk away, I felt warmth behind me. Turning around, the doe was gone. I confided in my grandmother the story. She insisted that I had the "Gift of (insert deity)".
Player: Ryan
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Name: Alahandra Windchacer
Climate
Highlands, cliff dwellings, and any other rugged terrain makes Alahandra
Windchacer feel at home. Alahandra Windchacer grew up with cold winters,
but warm summers.
Education
Alahandra Windchacer learned basic wilderness survival skills. Alahandra
Windchacer spent time seeking animal skins or meat in the wilderness.
Alahandra Windchacer studied "defenses against the dark arts"
and learned ways to fight monsters and battle the influence of black
magic.
Events
Evil men came and took her from her family when she was a child. She
attempted to aid in the defense of the community against the raiders but
was forcibly taken prisoner and was used in one of the bio wizard weapons. The last she saw of her village was her parents murdered
in front of her. She does not know if anyone made it out alive.
Family
For some reason, Alahandra Windchacer's family's economic status was
difficult to measure. Perhaps Alahandra Windchacer lived a solitary life
on the frontier as a trapper or scout, living entirely off the land. The
oldest members control Alahandra Windchacer's family. Alahandra
Windchacer's family relies on magical protection. Alahandra Windchacer's
family is known for involvement in the community and acting to help
others. Alahandra Windchacer's family's ethical reputation matches their
private ethics. Alahandra Windchacer's family has no specific political
stance. Alahandra Windchacer's family is deeply committed to a patron
deity (you choose which one). In general, Alahandra Windchacer's family
is upstanding, but one or more members of family are known to be
disreputable. Alahandra Windchacer's family is considered the
"upper crust" of the home community. Alahandra Windchacer's
family produced a wizard or sorcerer of some repute.
Relationships
Both of Alahandra Windchacer's parents are deceased, murdered at the
hands of the collectors. She has an identical twin who was strangely
absent the day of the attack. Alahandra Windchacer remembers her
grandparents, but they have passed away. Alahandra Windchacer has few
living relatives that she knows of. Alahandra Windchacer's significant
friend is dead or captured. Master Willowtree taught her the basic
skills of fairy magic, and a little sneaking about on the side. One or
more local villains have chosen to direct their hatred toward Alahandra
Windchacer, perhaps because of some minor adventure Alahandra Windchacer
completed.
Player: Mandy
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Name: Wang ?
Home Community
Unknown
Climate
Unknown
Education
Unknown
Events
Unknown
Family
Unknown
Picture not available
Player: Mark
|
Name: Jhelai Lajos
Home Community
Unknown
Climate
Unknown
Education
Unknown
Events
Unknown
Family
Unknown
Picture not available
Player: Andrew
Jhelai is a male human Rogue Paladin. A former mobster
who saw the light, Jhelai is a hostage negotiator
and detective in the Royal Marshal Service paladin
order.
|
Name: Nick Delozier
Home Community
Nick's family lived among the humans (see below).
Climate
Whether it's a tangled jungle or sparser pines, trees are the dominant
feature of the landscape, that makes Nick feel at home. Nick grew up
with cold winters, but warm summers.
Education
Nick showed an affinity for the arcane arts. Nick learned the skills of
a healer or herbalist. Nick studied "defenses against the dark
arts" and learned ways to fight monsters and battle the influence
of black magic.
Events
War ruined Nick's community. Nick aided in the defense of the community
against raiders, but he and his family were forced to flee their home.
Family
Nick and his family are dependents of an officer in the military. This
means little direct income, but the army provides for for Nick's needs.
The male members control Nick's family. Nick's family has no consistent
pattern of preparedness. Some members are very prepared for combat, but
others are unprepared or unwilling to fight. Nick's family has neutral
ethics or no consistent family ethical direction. Nick's family's
ethical reputation matches their private ethics. Nick's family is a part
of the system and supports it. Nick's family has no religious direction.
Nick's family is known as stalwart companions. Nick's family is closely
tied to a group that's generally well regarded by the community, the
local version of the VFW. Nick's family produced a great military leader
(his father Demus) who was eventually defeated.
Relationships
Both of Nick's parents are alive and healthy. Nick is an only child Nick
has 6 living relatives. Nick has several friends who are companions or
associates but who aren't intimately close. A top-notch instructor
taught Nick more advanced arcane techniques, but the school headmaster
looks on Nick with disfavor, due to his lack of manners.
Player: Keith
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Campaign Opening
The characters finds themselves aboard a small Githyanki outpost, captives of
a Drow ISPD Colonel and a Githyanki Commander. The group are about to
embark on an adventure to G'Banrak's home world to investigate a mysterious
menace.
The group must decide if they should trust the Drow or the Githyanki
Commander. Some members don't even trust the Aasimar.
Adventure 15
The group ventures to the location of the Aphex gate. The group goes
through the gate to G'Banrak's planet Thonia. The heroes try to find
out who or what is the menace.
Sitting
in the Frog Town, Tavern called The
Peg-Legged Manticore.
Zoltan, Orendil and most of the gang are here blowing off some steam. Nick
is off at the temple trying to get Jhelai resurrected. Wang just went off
in a boat to show the soldiers some jellyfish-like blobs that we ran
through up the river. Milo, Alahandra and one of the Drow, Amio, are
hiding in the woods outside of city walls. They think we're in jail. Nyuk!
Nyuk! Nyuk! Orendil has just informed Zoltan of some temporary amnesia...
What????
Now, Now, Wait a minute!
You mean to tell me that you don't remember a thing from the last 2
days!?!? Orendil, have you been fooling around with that damn wild magic
again? I told you not to do that, buddy.
All right; Here goes: It
all started a long time ago, on a planet far, far away with these big
giant words flying through the cosmos to a wonderfully fanciful
soundtrack! The New Hope was here, and it was US!...
Note: We greatly
apologize. The writer who has been writing the previous blurb has been
sacked and has been replaced by someone with less flair for the dramatic.
Well, you see, there seems
to be a menace, menacing a G'Banrak's little menacable planet. It's a
'Phantom Menace'!...
Note: We are extremely
sorry. The people responsible for the sacking the writer who was just
sacked have also been sacked. We apologize for any inconvenience. |
Ahem.
You say that you remember being in the prison cells in the Githyanki base.
Damn, I can't believe you forgot this much. Well, we got out because the
Colonel made the Commander believe that she was taking us away to be
executed. So we were escorted to a ship a lot like the prison transport we
were on when we came to the planet. A quick little ride and we were in
space and docking with the Colonel's ship. You were NOT able to get your
stuff off of the planet because Antiphiphia wouldn't stop there. Didn't
you leave your SoulFeeder there? And where's your big blaster?
Well, we got to the ship and she let us roam
around a little. We got some breakfast and sat around and conversed for a
little while. (I guess I shouldn't tell him that Elf Pudding is actually
quite good! I can't wait to get some more! Yumm) We met Nick, who is one
of the elves, and another damn magic user at that. Humph! Over there is
Wang, who is a Chinese human monk who was raised by British dwarves. I
think that makes him 'Blitish'. And finally, there is the Jhelai guy, who
we didn't get to know very well. He had a cute little twin gun rig with
some kind of leather trench coat. Not anymore though... Suits me just
fine, because at first sight he seemed OK, but there was something not
right about him.
Then we met the drow techs that were going to
come with us. They were going to come in all white outfits! HAHAHAHA! We
told them to change and they came back with more sensible clothes. I asked
the Colonel if I could get any more weapons or explosives, and she fitted
me with at least ten pounds of plastique and a masterwork Demo kit! I was
totally thrilled! And I think she got a kick out of it! Hey, do you think
there could be any chemistry there?
Orendil looks very angry.
Did you ever notice how cute she is?
Orendil punches Zoltan. Very Hard. Zoltan comes
back to his senses.
OK! OK. Sorry about that. Then we started to get
ready. We all went to the hangar and started getting into a dropship. They
packed all of our gear into one crate, and I was very thankful that it
didn't get lost. I'll get to that in a minute. We flew off to the planet.
G'Banrak said the portal was high on a remote mountain. When we got to it,
we determined that the dropship couldn't land and we would have to jump
out the back. Well wouldn't you know it, one of the damn drow females
manages to slide her ass off the mountain. Luckily she didn't take any of
the equipment with her. I actually got a multi-scanner from her gear!
We all got our stuff, said a few words, and
proceeded trekking down the small mountain path to the portal. When we got
there, G'Banrak started chanting and there was this big Giant splash of
water and we almost drowned! Nah, just kidding. Actually the portal just
opened. Nobody wanted to go first, but then we all went through. I was
about to blow the portal up but I didn't.
On the other side was a silver room with a door
at one end. When we looked out, we were met with quite an interesting
sight. The wind was blowing and the clouds were really pretty. They were
flying by pretty quick too. The only problem was that they were BELOW us.
There was a narrow walkway ahead with no railings that led to a large
silver globe on talllllllll tower. There were a bunch of these globes, all
connected by narrow walkways. We were going to have to walk across. Milo
was afraid he was going to get blown off. When we got to the next globe,
we found another portal on one side and a door on the other. This went on
and on, as we were led from one globe to another. I had the dead drow s
gear on my back and it was damn heavy. So, I rummaged through found all
the stuff that I wanted, and told everybody else to claim stuff 'cause I
was leaving it.
Finally, we were met by two reps of this place.
They looked like some magic using pansies, and they led us to an elevator.
This took us down to the ground level and they showed us a map. It
actually had arrows saying 'You are here'. I took a look up to see if
there would be anyway that I could destroy these towers, being magic and
all. And, nope. There were no feet. Nothing but clouds.
We then went over to a close-by town, and they
brought you to a temple. They tried to get your level drain fixed, but it
didn t
work apparently. Then, Milo found an antique magic store and cleaned them
out. Apparently they had really cheap magic stuff, but he wouldnt
give any to me, that little pipsqueak! I went and found a store where I
could buy an arm-mounted datapad. Oh, yeah. This is a planet full of
wimps. No GUNS, Man! No weapons of any sort that I could find, short of a
steak knife. Its
all something about a peaceful planet, or some other mumbo jumbo. So, we
found a hotel and rested for the night.
|
Adventure 16
Driving across a strange World |
The next
morning we woke up, and promptly found that it was a planetary holiday. No
stores were open, and we had to eat Breakfast
Jump-Up.
Thats
when we jump up and make our own breakfast. We decided to make a plan. I
actually had to ask the drow if they knew where they wanted to go. They
were frickin clueless! So then I asked them if they could pick up anything on all that
damn equipment they lugged down here. They realized that was a good idea,
and they found that there was a city with a bunch of weird crap in it to
the south. We found it on the map and it was called the City of the Gods!
So we started getting ready.
Jhelai went to go find a temple, which made me a
little more suspicious: why would any self-respecting gunslinger want to
go to a Temple? But, he found it was closed. While Jhelai was out, he
found a rental place that was open, and he bargained to rent us two vans.
When he came back to tell us, Wang and myself joined him to go pick up the
vans while everybody got ready. When we got back with the vehicles,
everybody loaded in. All the magic users in the other bus, and all the
real studs in ours. Now, I know you hate the drow, but one of them looks
like a fellow brother-in-arms: armed to the teeth! I was almost jealous!
So, we set off. Dude, now I said these were vans,
but man they rock! A good 115 miles per hour out of those suckas. We ran
across something about 20 minutes outside of town. And when I say this
thing was BIG, I mean BIG! It looked like a giant floating jellyfish that
was three(3) Miles wide!!
Zoltan holds up Four fingers. Zoltan s
eyes get very big. We realized in session 17 that Zoltan cant
count.
It was fargin
huge! With these big tentacles hanging about 100 feet off of the ground.
Not knowing what to do, we went around. About 12 minutes later we came
across another big floating thing. This one was not as big but it was
singing. We sent the fairy out to talk to it. She said Hi.
It sang to her. Then she asked it where it was from. It sang again. This
time it didnt
stop. It kept on going and going and going and going
I bet it is still singing now. We didnt
get much out of it, so we kept on going. Not 5 minutes later, we came upon
this big giant MegaMaid!
Just kidding, but it might have been her vacuum cleaner. This looked like
a big space vacuum, and it was sucking up a fifty-foot wide swath of land
and trees. Not knowing what to do, we sent the fairy out again. She said Hi,
again. It wasnt
to keen on responding. She asked more questions, and it just sucked more.
We went around it and in 5 minutes we came across
the town of Boggy Bottom. Or at least what was left of it. The buildings
that were left had massive scorch marks that look like they came from
lightning bolts of some sort. The rest of the buildings were gone. Some
people were running around all crazy like. We stopped one and he said that
first this big 3 mile wide jellyfish shocked the crap out of the town, and
then a big vacuum cleaner sucked up the rest of it. I figure he was a
little loony. We got on the Drow radio and found some guy who said he was
from the Temple of the Frog. Yeah, I know, it seems a little silly to
worship a frog, but keep quiet about that. I bet these people don t
like wisecracks about the frog and the hamster, if you know what I mean.
Orendil looks clueless.
Never mind. This guy thought that we were nuts,
and he said they were going to send out a team to investigate. We said,
screw that, and we moved on. You couldn t
miss the big trail that the vacuum cleaner left. So, figuring that the
trail would lead us to the city, we just followed it. We soon came across
a fifty food wide, paper thin, layer of goop on the trail. It was moving
North. I didnt
like this. I was starting to get a real funny feeling, because I dont
like goop. I, driving the blue van, stayed a little ways back. Jhelai,
driving the green van, got a little closer. Again, we sent the fairy. She
threw some rations at it, and it just moved around it. Then somebody got
the bright idea to throw some metal at it. So the fairy throws a gold
piece at it. It then decides to start collecting itself. It quickly starts
to shrink in width and get thicker. Soon, two tentacles looked like they
were forming on the top. I yell at the fairy and Wang to get back in the
buses, and I start moving! Wang had to jump in while the van was moving,
and I was gone. Then, as we were passing the goop, the two tentacles shot
out a good 50 feet at our vans! Luckily we were far enough out of the way
and flooring it, or else it might have gotten more interesting! Nothin
but gasps from the back seats.
At this point, I am getting a little pissed. A
big planet full of wimps. No way to buy new equipment. And big freekin
weird creatures! This sucks!
We kept moving and we got up to the mountain
pass. We are still quite a ways away, when we see a green snake like
creature with 8 pink tentacles coming off the sides of its head. Now, this
didn t
really bother me, too much, except that it was 40 feet long. Then I hear
from the back seat and over the intercom that these guys want to take it.
I was in total shock. Somebody gets the bright idea to go up the road and
wait for it to come by and ambush it. I was in shock, again. I actually
did what they said. Nobody even listened to my plan, which was to stop,
wait for it to pass, and move on behind it.
Well, we went up the road a bit, and hid the two
vans about 10 feet off of the road behind a tree. The green van was
parallel to the road and we were parked right next to the green van. We
weren t
really hidden too well. Neither were we prepared to ambush it: We were
still in the vans. A lot of people, including you, got the jump on me and
got to attack first. Syd tried to cast something but he turned invisible
instead. The only odd thing was that his clothes and gear didnt.
Zoltan snorts a laugh.
Luckily, the snake got beaten up really quickly.
Then something happened. Apparently, right before I blasted the crap out
of it, it did a mind-transference on Jhelai. Then G Banrak
noticed it and yelled out that Jhelai didnt
look right: It was the creature! I didnt
hear that, though (Or Did I?), and blew Jhelai-in-Big-Snake-Body away.
Jhelai looked fierce, too. He had the Eye of the
Tiger, and he was about to open up some real WhupAss on the green van
inhabitants. Glad I wasn t
in there. As soon as GBanrak
yelled out, Nick was jumping out of the van door; He really likes jumping
out of vehicles, I have determined. Moving or stationary, too. Kinda Cute.
Then he tries to cast a web on Jhelai and gets his first taste of Wild
Magic.
Orendil tears up. Zoltan pats him on the back.
It s
OK, Big O.
Everybody realizes once in his or her life that magic is truly unnatural
and nasty.
Well, the web turns into some kind of stasis
field, so Jhelai is frozen. He can t
move; he cant
do anything. So you know what they do? They keep casting! The Elf Female
casts something and falls in love with Jhelai. Milo tries some kind of
magic rod, and it starts growing 8 snakes out of it! Heh, Heh. I liked
that one! Nick runs around the bus, goes up to the drivers
window and tries to grab Jhelais
twin pistols. His hands get stuck in the Stasis field too. You try to go
pull him out, and you almost pull his hands off. Nick also somehow ruined
his amulet of spiked armor by casting something else. Now, I know these
stasis fields dont
last too long, so I get in front of the bus and ready a shot for when he
gets free. Somebody gets the bright idea of firing a blaster at him. It
gets frozen too, just inches from his face. So, then everybody, but me,
decided to frag the poor bastard, so that when he gets free, he will be
turned into slag.
Sure enough, the next 30 seconds were filled with
people pumping the stasis field full of blaster shots, and Nick almost
soiling his armor; He didn t
want to get hit by a stray blaster. Stasis field disappears, you pull nick
to the ground, and J gets turned into soggy bits. Nick and others loot the
body, and the female elf, over there, starts crying. Now, I thought that
blaster shots always cauterized the wounds that they inflict. But man,
four or five blaster shots hitting someones
head at the same time, and that sucker EXPLODES! Whoa, what a sight!
The next little while was a blur. Most cleared
the soggy bits out of the front seat, while Milo decided to go cut off the
snakes head. It was a big head. I mean bigger than Milo. Actually, it s
hanging out in the garden over yonder, we can go see it later, to see if
it jogs your memory. You and Milo cut off the snakes head, and then we
noticed that the snake was still moving! It was as if something was inside
of it! Wait a minute, Its
a baby! Kill It! Kill It! Kill It!
Zoltan starts jumping up and down. Zoltan
makes a scene. Orendil yells at Zoltan to calm down.
Oh. Sorry. I think Milo actually thought it was a
baby human, but I think he was a little delirious. Then I killed it. So we
cut its head off too. Now we have a giant snake head, a baby snake head
and soggy Jhelai bits.
|
Adventure 17
Visit to Frog town |
Then we got on
the radio and called our radio buddy from earlier. We told him about what
we found. He still thought we were crazy, but we asked if there was
anybody there who could resurrect somebody. He said maybe, but they were
off today. Then he asked us who the hell are we and why do we call
ourselves tourists. We got off the radio, and decided to head that way. It
was only going to take about an hour, and it was only about 10:00. You had
to drive the green van.
So were
riding along, and off in the distance we notice a blurry humanoid figure
walking straight toward us. Everybody wanted to stop but me; I wanted to
buzz him and scare him a little bit. So we stop about 100 feet away and he
disappears. See, thats
what you get for not having any fun. We didnt
know what happened so we kept on moving. Then in the green van, GBanrak
yells "Theres
something in the back seat!".
Everybody in the green van starts freakin.
Nick was ready to jump out of the van, even though it was moving 115 miles
per hour. See what I mean? You were wondering what the hell they were
talking about, and so were we. You couldnt
see anything there; it must have been invisible. It was actually funny to
see everybody up in the front seat. We yell out over the intercom to try
and talk to it. The fairy says Hi.
Nobody else says anything. I tell the drow to start scanning the other
van, to make sure that they arent
going nuts. They actually detected some kind of humanoid presence sitting
in the back seat, next to the bodies. It was not from this planet.
But, nobody wanted to do
anything, so we kept on moving to the Temple of the Frog. A couple of
minutes later, while traveling over the river, 7 or so blobs start rising
out in front of the water in front of us. We were able to dodge most of
them, but we each hit one dead on. SPLAT! Pink blob guts all over the
windshield. Yuck!
We kept on moving.
We were coming upon a line of trees to our left. Then, BLAM! A massive
blaster shot hits each van dead on. All we could tell was that they came
from over the tree line. Totaled each van! Yours pretty much started to
quit right there; hell, you didnt
even have much of roof anymore. I couldnt
tell where it came from, but I knew it was high up, and I wanted to get
under it. Pedal to the Metal!
Right down the beach
at 115 miles per hour! I wanted to whip around that line of trees and get
right up to it. My passengers, on the other hand, wouldnt
hear of it. But, I didnt
care! I was going for it anyway! 10 seconds to the turn. Milo says, "STOP!"
9 seconds to the turn. The Drow go crazy mad! 8 seconds to the turn. Wang
says, "Your
Clazy!" 7
seconds to the turn! Everybody yells, "STOP!!!"
It was so loud, that it actually got to me, and I had a change of heart.
Knowing that I had to stop quick, I slammed on the brakes. As soon as it
stopped, I jumped out and went running into the line of trees that are
covering us, so I could get a better look. Nick, Wang, Milo, Syd and a
couple others join me, but you stayed behind to guard the Drow. That
creature was still in the back seat.
We saw a huge wall,
30 feet high, with giant turrets up on towers on the corners. There were
people with binoculars trying to look for us. These turrets were massive,
like large anti-vehicular blasters. The wall went on down to the south for
hundreds of feet. Milo, who always learns the hard way, tried to jump
using his ring of jump. He went up a good 35 feet, and was immediately
shot at by the turret. Then, he was lucky, I think, that he had his ring
of featherfall on, except that when activated, it permanently made him
unable to taste apples. I bet hes
sorry he used magic now!
Then the Drow noticed a
tank coming many yards down the tree line. We all tried to hide in the
trees and swampy bushes. Oh yes, it was quite swampy out there. Nick
actually tried to dig a hole and got filthy. Milo got on the radio while
the tank was getting close. He talked to the same guy again, and the guy
asked if that was us in the vans. Well, Yeah! Meanwhile, the tank then
stops right in front of us. It aims its gun at one of the vans and fires;
it fell short with a thump. Milo asked the guy why they were shooting at
us, and he replied that we were flying real fast towards the temple and
they thought we were hostile. Then he asked us again if we were tourists.
Finally, Milo told him that we were hiding from the tank. He asked why, if
we were tourists, we were hiding in the first place!
At that point, I
placed my assault blaster on my back and walked out of the trees up to the
tank with my hands up. Almost immediately, somebody pops out of the hatch
and levels a gun at me. He got me to drop my guns and then grilled me
about what I was doing here, and so on. He spotted 3 others in the trees
and asked everyone to get out. Wang was trying to sneak around back of the
tank to sneak up on the guy, but he wasnt
too graceful about it. Finally the soldier asks me how many are in our
group. After thinking about it, I said 10. With that he got more people to
come out, including you, and got them to drop their guns. They were a
little taken aback by Syd
the Invisible Man.
Then we noticed a
boat pulling up down by the vans, and two soldiers getting out and coming
our way. One of them had this really wicked looking gun, and both of them
had at least two backup guns. They came up and ordered us to the boat.
Most of us went to the boat. I stayed behind to ask the guy about his
weapon. He wasnt
too thrilled. The two soldiers collected all of the gear and put it up in
the tank. The tank commander then saw another 3 people in the woods. He
asked me why I said there were ten of us. I told him the truth: I cant
count. Wang then asked the tank commander why they didnt
actually blow up the van with their gun earlier. He said the plain and
simple, obvious truth: "We
missed."
OK, dont
let anybody know it, but Milo, Alahandra, and one of the Drow are still
out there hiding in the woods. We got on the boat and took a trip to the
garden, which is inside the walls. It was here that we explained our side
of the story. We also found out about this place. This is the Temple of
the Frog, and it has been here for a very long time. In the past, the
walls were built to protect the town from the denizens of the swamp: crocs
and other nasties. It all seems a little overblown to me. Their rep is a
Three Frog officer in the local militia. They answer to a dude named St.
Steven, who is a Ten Frog General. We asked if we could see this Ten
Froggy dude, and he said he might let us see him. We asked about the
patrol that was sent to Boggy Bottom and they said it hadnt
returned yet. He asked which of us was the one using the radio. Knowing
that Milo wasnt
here, I said it was Wang, who at the exact same moment was saying that he
didnt know
how to use a radio and pointed at me. We quickly changed the subject.
So, the guy then
asked us where the body was to get resurrected. Uh, its
in the van still. He was a little miffed. You volunteered to go back to
the van to grab the body parts and the heads. While you were there, you
noticed the invisible dude was still there, but you couldnt
make him leave. When you got back, you waited there with the snake heads,
while Nick went with Jhelais
body to get it resurrected. I think he was going to get cleaned up too.
Some guards came out and videoed the heads, and you left the heads with
them. I think that they might try to hide the evidence, but no biggie.
The rest of us took
a jaunt across the wooden bridge into Frog Town: A small, old time village
with wooden huts and buildings. It was quite a change from the high tech
guards who have guns coming out of every orifice. Oh, and there are guards
everywhere, as if this place is hiding something. I dont
trust them at all, but I want to get some weapons from them. Just a few
minutes ago, Wang went with some more soldiers on a boat ride to show them
the blobs that we saw down the river. And we also just saw a boat pull up
with some prisoners who were led into that building across the street.
Oh, you ought to go
check out the animal skin shop down the road. Thats
where I got this nice rabbit skin for my helmet.
Zoltan points to the
rabbit skin affixed to his helmet.
So, thats
about it. Does any of this ring a bell? Ahh, well just stay away from
those magic users and youll
be OK. Lemme buy you a drink. |
Meanwhile...
Milo, Alahandra and Amio are out in the woods.
The tank just pulled out a little while ago, and they are sitting and
trying to think of a plan to get us out. They saw a boat come out to the
vans, and it looked like Orendil got off and picked up the dead bodies and
heads. He got back on the boat and left. Milo suggested following the tank
tracks to try and get in the back way. The only flaw was that it might be
a guarded door. They see the boats coming and going every once in a while;
maybe there is a way to sneak under the guns and get in through the front.
Is there a wall there or is it open?
Alahandra scouts across the little channel and
sees that there is a pier and some woods, but no wall and no major doors.
She flies back and tells them. Then, they see another boat going out, and
they see Wang on it this time. They are not sure what is going on, but
they have to free their comrades! Milo suggests waiting until nightfall,
swimming across the channel and then trying to infiltrate the compound.
Then, once inside, they can determine what actions will be necessary to
free the others.
Elsewhere...
Nick has taken Jhelai s
body and is bringing it to the Temple. The Three Frog Officer has offered
him a chance to clean up, so he is led up to the Temple, but then diverted
to the right. He crosses over a drawbridge and then is led to a small room
where he is allowed to clean up. The room is small with very little
furnishings; it might be where training priests live. When he is done, he
goes with the officer back to the Temple. The officer tells him to take
the body inside, and they will know what to do.
Once inside, he sees a large open Temple with a
huge altar and many pews. There are six priests of various humanoid races
up by the altar and they approach Nick as he enters. They inquire about
the body and instruct Nick to place it on the altar. Then, they surround
the body in a circle, and the head priest tells Nick to either leave or
wait in the pews: this will take a long time. Nick, being curious, decides
to wait in the pews and soak in the surroundings. He also listens closely
to what is being said and figures out that they are not spell casting, but
instead praying to the Great Frog in the Sky.
This lasts a long while, until they then pick up
the body and swiftly take it behind the altar. Nick decides to follow as
deftly and quietly as he can. They take the body upstairs and into a
library where there is another priest, but this one looks different: he
must be in charge. Right as Nick peers around the corner, he sees the high
priest pull a device of some sort out of his robe. He uses this to revive
Jhelai, who then starts moving and waking up! Nick runs back to the pews.
After a few minutes, the priests come out from behind the altar with
Jhelai in tow. He is a little dazed and confused, but otherwise he is OK.
The priests say that all is done, and they are ready to go. The priests
request that they come back the next day to see the service, take the tour
and consider the Way of the Frog. On the way back through the Garden, Nick
fills Jhelai in with the details from the past 8 hours since he died.
At the river...
The boat with Wang and the 5 soldiers pulls up to
the beach where the vans ran into the flying jellyfish. They tell Wang to
go get some evidence. Wang refuses. He says he can t
swim, and he would have to swim to the beach to collect the specimen. They
think he nuts, but Wang sticks his ground. One of the soldiers then says, "
Hey, the water is only 3 feet deep here!"
Wang lost, but he made them tie a rope around him. He gets out and he soon
finds some remnants, but he is not about to touch the stuff so he comes
back. He asks for a container of some sort, but they didnt
have any. Then he asks one of the soldiers for his helmet. The guy thought
he was crazy, but then Wang used some Zoltan Logic on him to convince him
to give up his helmet.
As Wang is climbing back into the boat with the
sample, he notices 5 flying jellyfish coming up from behind the boat and
none of the others notice. Wang freaks and jumps back in the water and
starts swimming away! They get mad and pull him back into the boat. He
jumps out again. Finally, one of the soldiers mind blasts him and they get
him back in the boat. Once Wang stands up, he yells "Jerryfish!"
and immediately gets stunned by one of the jellyfish. The soldiers take
care of the jellyfish very easily. Wang wakes up as they are on the way
back.
Wang makes his way back to the Inn and meets Nick
and Jhelai on the road. There was much rejoicing and they were greeted
with cheers when they got to the Inn. Everybody was very happy to see
Jhelai and Wang was telling stories about how he kicked jellyfish butt. |
Adventure 18
A Night at Frog town |
A little later...
At the Inn, everyone has eaten and is now hanging
out in the tavern. Zoltan and Wang have been drinking heavily
Out in the woods, it looks like it s
the right time. Everythings
real quiet. The plan is this: Alahandra will fly across and tell Amio and
Milo if the coast is clear. Amio will swim across and Milo will try to use
his ring of Water Walking. Milo offers his ring of swimming to Amio, but
he doesnt
take; he thinks he can make it on his own. Alahandra flies across and
gives the OK. Amio starts swimming and Milo starts walking over the water.
Milo is totally thrilled that he can walk on water, but he doesnt
notice the side effect that he is coming under. Alahandra looks back to
see if they are OK and notices that Milo looks really scary; he looks
undead! She can t
believe her eyes once he gets to the shore. He has turned into an undead
creature! As Amio is swimming across, he looks up for a split second and
sees Milo too. He almost stops, but instead keeps going. Once he gets
there he asks, "What
happened to you?!"
Milo isnt
totally sure but he figures it must be Wild Magic again. He feels totally
OK; he doesnt
feel like he is undead, so he suggests going on with the plan.
For visual note, he looks like a Bodak.
Alahandra scouts up a little further, while the
other two hang back in the woods. She comes across an iron fence with a
gate and two soldiers, a Gnome and a Human, on watch. She approaches and
is halted at the gate.
Soldier1: "Who
are you and what are you doing here?"
Alahandra: "Im
a fairy, and Ive
come to see the Temple."
Soldier1: "Where
are you from?"
Alahandra: "Im
from the forest: from Fairyland."
Soldier1: "Why
didnt
you come in from the town?"
pointing to the town to the west.
Alahandra: "I
came from the other way!"
Soldier2: "Hey,
lets
kill it!"
Soldier1: "No,
man. You need to leave now."
Alahandra: "Why?"
Soldier1: "You
shouldnt
be here. Leave Now!"
Soldier2: "Yeah,
it will be good for target practice!"
Alahandra: "All
right! Screw You!"
As she turns around and flies back, the soldier
fires at her but misses. The other one then calls on the radio and asks
for a scouting team. She gets back and tells the others. They consider
sneaking into the town, but Amio said that he wouldn t
be able to swim that far. They were getting ready to try and sneak past
the guards when Amio sees two scouts, a Dwarf and a Human, coming to look
for them. The fairy decides to run a diversion while the other two hide.
Alahandra darts in front of the two soldiers and
starts flying away from the gate and towards the town. They try to follow
but she is too erratic. She then passes over a waterway, which they can t
cross, and into the town. Her first instincts, though, are to find a place
to sleep and not to find a way in for the other two. She sees an Inn not
far from where she is, which also has a lot of noise coming from it, so
she decides to enter. As soon as she flies in, she sees the rest of the
group. They all see her and yell out "The
Fairy!"
Quickly they rejoice and start asking where the other two are. She is
totally thrilled to see that they arent
in jail and then goes back to tell Milo and Amio the news.
Milo has meanwhile thought of a plan: They have
seen the second wall and they can see the drawbridge, which allows
movement between the garden and Frog Town. Milo is going to use his ring
of Climbing to climb up the wall, move along the top, then climb down the
wall, and past the guards who are going to be distracted by Alahandra.
When Alahandra gets back, she informs them of the fate of the rest of the
group. Amio is a little suspicious, and not being part of the plan,
decides to stay there. Milo decides to continue with his plan and puts on
his rings of Climbing and Feather Fall. He climbs up the first wall with
no problems, and makes his way down the length of the wall. Then as he
starts to climb down the wall over the drawbridge, he feels his climbing
ability is gone and falls off. Luckily, his Feather Fall activates. But as
soon as he start falling, a blade barrier appears right under him!
Somehow, by the time he lands, he totally avoids being hit by using his
great reflexes, and he jumps right into the river. The guards, and
Alahandra, are just stunned looking at the blade barrier. Milo swims to
shore and gets to the other side of the water. He sneaks through the gate
right past the guards and he and Alahandra make their way into Frog Town.
They sneak their way through the buildings, not
wanting to be seen. It is late, so there aren t
too many people out, and as they approach the tavern, they can hear the
activity inside. Alahandra decides to go inside and warn everyone about
Milo. She goes in and tells everyone about Milos
condition, but not everybody listens: Zoltan especially. Zoltan, Wang and
some of the locals have been drinking very heavily. Then she goes and
brings Milo in, as there are gasps from the whole room. Milo says, "
Hi, it's me. Milo!" Just to be sure, Jhelai casts Detect Evil on him,
and tells everyone that he is not evil, but all of a sudden Milo
s shadow start moving on its
own and making obscene gestures. Most people start laughing at Milo, and
he gets a little confused. Then, Zoltan notices the undead creature that
just came in the door, and refuses to believe that its
Milo. Zoltan says, "What
the Hell is That!?!?!?"
Everybody says, "Its
just Milo; dont
worry about it."
"No its
not!"
Zoltan yells as he starts charging at the undead creature! Milo is even
more confused as he sees a drunken bull charging at him. He aims his gun
at him but doesnt
fire, and instead dodges out of the way as Zoltan goes right by him and
out the door!
Milo is now a little unsure of the drunken Zoltan,
so he moves as far away from the door as he can. Nick is now a little
pissed off at the buffoon, so he readies a Wall of Force spell to cast
right in front of Zoltan in case he comes back in. Sure enough, Zoltan
slams the door open, scanning the room for the creature. Nick fires it
off, and Wild Magic takes it s
toll again; The wall doesnt
go off, and Nick, 55",
and Zoltan, 66",
then switch places with each other and are now wearing each others
clothes! Zoltan screams bloody murder! Nick is wearing combat armor that
is way too many sizes to large and Zoltan is busting out of Nicks
clothes. That was not the problem though: Zoltan was wearing Nicks
magic rings now!
Zoltan pulls off Nick s
ring of Spell Storing and is about to destroy it. Nick asks anybody for a
gun so he can stop this imbecile, and Milo throws him a pistol. Milo warns
Zoltan to stop what he is doing or he will get shot! Nick seconds the
threat, but that doesnt
stop Zoltan. He throws the ring on the floor and stomps on it with all his
might! Milo shoots him and gives him a minor flesh wound and Nick shoots
at him and puts a hole in the wall. This doesnt
seem to deter Zoltan, though, so Orendil rushes up and tries to grab him,
but cant
get a hold on him. Some of the bar maids run out the door screaming, while
most of the other patrons and the bartender watch with zeal. Zoltan tries
again to break the ring, and Milo threatens him a second time. This time,
drunken Wang decides to get involved because they just shot his drinking
buddy. He staggers up and tries to throw Milo out the door and ends up
throwing himself out the door! Nick threatens Zoltan again, but cant
shoot because he doesnt
want to hit Orendil. Nick then announces that he will cast everything hes
got to stop Zoltan, and everybody scrambles. Syd gets ready to back Nick
up, and Alahandra starts flying over to give Zoltan a piece of her mind!
Finally, Orendil gets a hold of Zoltan, and he starts calming down. He
gives up fighting except he pulls the other ring off and beams it at Nick,
who is rushing over to protect his magic rings. They quickly start
exchanging clothes as the remaining bar maids start giggling.
When they finally get all their clothes on and
everything else is settled, Zoltan turns to Nick and says slowly, "If
you ever cast magic on me again, you wont
live to cast again."
Nick returns Zoltans
stare and with a sneer says, "Ill
be watching you!"
The battle of wills had begun. Alahandra, hearing Zoltans
threat, flew up to Zoltan and kicked him in the back. He returns the favor
by spinning around and trying to swat her to the floor but misses. She
gets really angry and casts Fairy Fire on him and instead teleports 50
feet away as Zoltan laughs. As shes
coming back, 5 town guards enter the tavern. Milo hides and Nick puts his
hand over the blaster hole in the wall, trying to look nonchalant. They
ask if everything is OK and the bartender just laughs. The guards leave,
and Zoltan walks up to the bar and thanks the bartender for his good sense
of humor. Zoltan orders a round of drinks for everybody in the bar and
gets a room for the night. Everybody else just tries to calm down.
Alahandra gets back, and stays away from Zoltan. Outside, Wang finally
gets up and, feeling embarrassed, he staggers off to another bar. He ends
up right back at the same tavern, but he doesnt
realize it for 30 minutes. People start retiring for the night to get
ready for tomorrow. |
The Next day...
A little at a time, everyone comes down and gets
some breakfast. Milo, thankfully, doesn t
look strange anymore, but his shadow still has a mind of its own. Jhelai
and Nick say they are going to visit the Temple and most everyone else
decides to join them. All of the drow techs, except for the Lieutenant,
decide to stay behind and inspect their equipment. Zoltan says he is going
to go fishing and hell
see everyone later. After breakfast, everyone else proceeds to the Temple.
Zoltan goes back to the Fur Store and buys a wolf
skin cape and tries to find a way to wear it. Then he goes to the pier and
buys some fishing gear. While there, he asks one of the locals about the
city, the walls and the guards. He really didn t
have any clue. Then, Zoltan asked about the people being led from the
boats, and the local said that Slavery is a big industry in this town.
They have slave auctions up in the town often. Zoltan asked who needs all
of these slaves and the local didnt
know. So, he proceeded to the pier and tried his luck at fishing. As long
as he didnt
see any jellyfish, he would be able to get some long needed rest and
relaxation.
Everyone walking to the Temple soon got to see
Milo s
aftermath from the night before; The Blade Barrier was still up and the
guards werent
letting anyone through. The guards suggested taking the ferry. They go
down to the piers and find a ferry that quickly transports them over to
the Garden. While walking through the garden and soaking up the scenery,
they hear a whisper; it is Amio, and he is hiding in the Garden and
watching and waiting. They tell him to stay put, and continue on to the
Temple. When they get there, a priest meets them and they tell him what
they want. The priest tells them that it is healing time, and anyone who
wants to get healing can come in; everyone else will have to wait a little
while.
Orendil and Milo proceed into the Temple and they
see some priests attending to some of the locals up by the altar. As they
approach, one of the priests asks them what they need. Orendil goes first
and he is directed to another priest off to the right. Here, Orendil tells
the priest of his loss. The priest understands and proceeds to cast a
Restore Level spell. It works, but all of a sudden, four different colored
balls appear and start flying around the priests head. Orendil, dodging
the flying balls, is very grateful to him and starts to back away, as he
is a little confused. The priest is quite a spectacle; so one of the
locals goes up to him and starts asking about what is going on. He is then
hit by the Green Ball, which flies right through him and leaves him and
all his clothes very Green.
Now that everyone has seen what the balls do,
they are very wary. Milo goes up to him and asks him to fix his shadow,
which is still making obscene gestures. The priest tries to cast
something, but it doesn t
work; instead, in a 30-foot radius around the priest, shrubberies start
growing out of the floor. Milo gets even more wary of this guy and walks
out to the front to meet Orendil and everyone else. The other priests
dismiss everyone and start trying to remove the plants before the next
service.
Outside, another priest approaches and offers a
tour for anyone interested in the Order of the Frog. Alahandra sneaks into
Nick s
backpack, as Syd, Nick, Jhelai, Milo and the Drow Lieutenant accept the
offer. They do a tour where they see the Temple and the Training
Facilities. They are then led into a meeting room on the first floor of
the Temple. The priest then explains the Way of the Frog and what it
entails. The Drow Lieutenant does a scan of the priest when he is not
looking, and she determines that he is not entirely human. She whispers
this to Nick who tries not to react noticeably. Milo then asks about the
slaves and how they fit into the Way. The priest says that the slaves are
there for testing, so Milo asks if there are any female Halflings while
his shadow makes a particularly lewd gesture. The priest said he didnt
know, and he was starting to get impatient. He asked if anyone would be
willing to join the order, adding that if they didnt
want to then they can leave, as he is a busy man. All but Nick seemed
disinterested in the priests
offer, so he tells them to leave. Nick wants to infiltrate the Order but
he says he will think about it till tomorrow, so the priest escorts him
out and says to come back tomorrow if he wants to join.
The group starts heading back, as they discuss
what they have learned. G Banrak
gets very angry when she hears about the slaving of her people; she wants
to do something about it. They tell Amio to stay put and take the ferry
back to the other side, as the Blade Barrier is still in effect. They see
Zoltan at the pier, and he actually has a half-dozen fish. They walk back
to the Inn, Zoltan gives his fish to the Keeper and they go to one of the
larger rooms upstairs to discuss things. Most of the party wants to leave
the town and continue on the original mission. GBanrak
is extremely pissed because she wants to get to the bottom of this and
stop the slavery. A couple of the others, like Nick, want to stay to
investigate the Order further. Zoltan wants to get his weapons back, and
he doesnt
think that they can use the vans to get up to the City of the Gods. Milo
wants to see if they can get them fixed. Milo also wants to buy a slave to
see if they would join us. Almost as soon as he says this, there is a
knock on the door. Syd answers it and a servant says that they are wanted
downstairs immediately.
As they get downstairs, they are greeted by many
guards and a Two Frog Officer. The Officer reports that of the scouting
team that went out to Boggy Bottom, only one returned, and he seemed a
little crazy. He spoke of the town being destroyed with half of the
buildings gone and no people, living or dead. The Drow Lieutenant offered
up the videos of the scenery for viewing, and Zoltan told a quick rundown
of the events. The Officer asked what they did in response and why they
were there in the first place. They repeated what they said yesterday, and
were asked, again, why they said they were tourists. The group, getting a
little frustrated at the same questions, finally asked about the guy on
the radio. All the Officer said was that he would deal with the radio man.
Then, he added that they the group was not to leave the city until this
incident was fully investigated. Protesting, Milo asked to see St. Steve.
Maybe, came the reply. As the Officer was leaving, Zoltan finally asked
the question he has wanted to ask since he got here:
Zoltan: "I
have a quick question: Why do you have so many Guards here?"
Milo: "Zoltan!
Shhh!"
Zoltan: "Why
do you have such artillery and weaponry if all you are doing here is
fending off crocs?"
Syd: "Zoltan!"
Zoltan: "Either
your crocs are 3 stories tall..."
Everyone: "ZOLTAN!"
Zoltan: "Or
you are hiding something!"
The Officer said nothing, but shot a steely look
at Zoltan as he walked out with the guards following. |
Adventure 19
Further Exploration of Frog town |
Well, Zoltan was at the bar drinking when his boots went
off.
Luckily Syd and Wang had moved to another table earlier and escaped the
explosion. Everyone else had a couple of burns on their feet and everyone
involved got weird looks from the rest of the bar.
Later that day Zoltan went and matched his rabbit hat with rabbit shoes
though, so its no big worry.
Milo: "All this discussing is worthwhile, but G'Banrak may not
have much
time. We really need to decide QUICKLY on a single, coherent plan for
taking out the temple gang, AND have someone who calls the shots on the
fly
when things start going wrong, as they always do. Syd's the genius here;
why don't we let him lead this mission?"
Orendil: "I agree with Milo. The situation demands immediate
action, and I'll defer to Syd's planning skills."
We don't have any of our stuff back yet, unfortunately. The Zoltan
blowing
buildings up comment was somewhat assuming that we will find our stuff
somewhere along the way.
Your boots exploded for some mysterious reason Zoltan was unable to
decipher. He suspects Magic was afoot so to speak but is unable to prove
anything.
G'Banrak went out to scout for information at the same time as Jheli,
Alahandra, and Milo. Alahandra and Milo scouted the base out physically
and Milo actually got into a fight with some frogmen.
Jheli and G'Banrak went to other establishments in the area and tried
to
gather some information from the natives. Jheli managed to meet up with a
waitress slave who gave him a ring that she claims will
unlock some of the doors in the temple. G'Banrak never came back.
Jheli and Wang tracked G'Banrak to a bordello. Thinking that she may
have
been pressed into service, they both went upstairs and took in various
peep
shows (Wang even spent a little time with a special lady) before leaving a
little happier and several hundred credits shorter.
Ao went off on his own later on, after we told the drow to stay
together in
pairs, in order to buy a rabbit hat. He was never seen again.
North of Frog Town is what amounts to a military base of about double
the
size of Frog Town. The amount of soldiers is uncertain, but if even half
of
the buildings are living quarters the Temple has a sizeable force.
The walls around the entire complex are studded with turreted
auto-cannons.
There are a few of the size of the ones that took out our vans, but most
are
smaller. Still, they are probably extremely deadly.
While we discussed the Wild Magic a little more, we currently have no
solution. Somewhat hard to get Remove Curse cast on you when the spell
goes
wild when cast in your presence.
Alahandra suggested we try splitting up at a later date to try and see
if
only one person was exuding Wild Magic and to determine what its maximum
range is. While this would be a great help, Syd doubts we will get a
chance
to devote the time this would take (not to mention the amount of space it
would need) anytime soon.
Syd, Orendil, Milo, and Alahandra have retrieved Amio from his hiding
spot within the garden. He has loaned one of his assault blasters to
Orendil
but refuses to let anyone use his backup (he has three total.)
Milo tried to get him to give it to you (since three maniacs with
assault
blasters is better than two) but he was adamant on keeping it (he said he
would rather shoot Milo than give it to you.)
If you have questions, feel free to ask. Like I said, the summary was
just
that, pretty short and lacking of a lot of details. In fact, I didn't even
mention Wang in the whorehouse with the prostitute. Quite a funny scene.
Syd and Orendil went into the barracks area to meet up with Guard
Captain with whom we had made the deal to get our weapons back for
fighting the menace (or whoever he was - I wasn't present that night).
He claimed that he didn't remember us, and a sense motive check
indicated that he was telling the truth. Because of this, Orendil
believes that the frog priests may have the soldiers under some sort of
enchantment.
|
More dialog in the tavern
Milo says, "Maybe their mind-control enchantment is the 'gift'
they received from St. Steven."
Syd replied, "We can only hope. Much better for them to be mind
controlled than for them to have abilities we know nothing about."
"I think it's obvious the Temple plans to keep us here and disappear
us one
by one. If we sit here and wait for them, I doubt any of us will be alive
or
free within the week.
Obviously their barracks area is too well protected and staffed for .
We have to hit the temple. I suggest we all enter any assault in order
eliminate our guide and roam the temple freely. We should go to pray, or
perhaps receive healing. Once inside we can try to find Saint Steven and
find out what is really going on within the Temple.
If they are truly feeding slaves to these frogmen, we cannot let them
continue. At the most extreme we can use Zoltan's explosives to level a
few buildings while we make our escape. We need to try to avoid taking on
the entire base at once, however, so something a little less obvious would
be preferred."
Alahandra shrugs her shoulders indifferently. "I really don't care
as long as Zoltan isn't the leader."
Zoltan: "I should Lead! All you magical fools do is get us into
trouble!"
Zoltan Thinking: "Wait a minute though. That would mean that I
would be in a position of deciding what is best for magic users. Hmmm, I
don't like that! I don't want to be responsible for these bums!"
Zoltan: "On second thought, I will let someone else take charge.
But don't you sissies think that I am going to take any orders from ya! If
I don't agree with what you want to do, then I'm doing my own thing!"
"I like this plan, though. I would love to kick some ass and get
some extra crap. But, what exactly happened today, again?"
Zoltan: "Screw slavery. Like I care about that... I just want to
find out what there really hiding back there. Money? Guns? Frogmen? See,
Frogmen just doesn't seem to fit, unless these are some bestiality freaks
or something. I think there is something powerful back there. I want to
get my hands on it or destroy it!"
Orendil said, "I meant that Syd is the guy who comes up with the
plans, but you're not going to be able to completely stop the group from
expressing their 'judicial opinions' or using their 'veto power' if the
plan is something they strongly object to."
|
Adventure 20
Attacking the Temple of the Frog |
The next night or
morning....
Jhelai: "If we all go to the temple together, I think we have a
good
chance at taking it. It's well-guarded from the outside, but once
inside the walls there's only a few guards in the temple itself. We
don't have many weapons now, but it shouldn't be too hard to take out
the few guards inside the temple with some automatic blaster fire.
Then we can scavenge weapons from them and hold up the priests. They
will be at a disadvantage because their spellcasting will be
disrupted by the wild magic field. Now, we need to plan this out.
I've been on raids like this before, so I think my experience can be
applied here. How does this sound:
"First thing in the morning, we assemble in the garden. Once we're
all together, we head down to the temple, claim that we wish to
recieve healing, and go inside. We should enter the temple and close
its doors behind us as soon and with as little noise as possible. We
should bar them or lock them if we can. Then, someone should open
the door to the room that Milo saw the guards in while someone sprays
automatic fire into the room. It hopefully won't take long to take
out the guards this way. Someone else should keep the priests busy,
preferably not actually shooting them unless they make the first
move. Once the guards are down, we take as many weapons as we can.
"Now, I have a few problems with just going in there and blasting
everything. I'm opposed to using violence unless it furthers justice
somehow. I don't see how killing the priests will help free the
slaves. I'm also not convinced that the frog soldiers are being mind-
controlled. Killing the priests might just make the soldiers angry.
I'm going along with this because this place is dangerous and we need
to take decisive action to get out. Self-preservation is the other
circumstance where violence becomes reasonable, so here we are.
"How does the plan sound to you all?"
"I think you may be underestimating the priests in allowing them
to live.
Even with Wild Magic, they can be very, VERY dangerous. Remember the Blade
Storm that even now is blocking the first bridge?
Imagine that appearing around all of us. I don't like killing without
reason
either, but in this case I would say we are justified. These are priests
of
a religion that feeds slaves to some kind of frog, afterall. I find it
unlikely that any of them are truly innocent."
Milo: "Sounds to me like Syd's got a good general plan so far, and
Jhelai's got some good tactical suggestions. How are we going to
convince them that we ALL need healing without raising suspicion?
Perhaps we could claim that we've all come down with some sort of common
sickness that we must have picked up out in the wilds? Maybe some sort
of painful stomach nausea? They might just let us all in at once
without suspecting trouble if we look like we're barely able to walk.
We might even put Ameo on a stretcher for good measure -- and he could
hide his weapons more easily under the blanket."
"If we claim we need healing, however, we might also need a
back-up
plan. We might get there and they'll tell us they're not doing any
healing (because they're still trying to figure out the wild magic
problem). So maybe then we tell them that WE have figured out the wild
magic problem, and we'll trade our knowledge for their healing? Or
maybe we just ask to pray as a group in the temple? I don't know..."
"Or, here's an idea -- instead of pretending to need healing,
maybe we
tell them that two of our drow want to get married in the temple, and
that all of us want to attend the wedding! But then, we don't know if
they even do weddings..."
Syd: "Instead of requesting
healing, perhaps we should all tell them we are
interested in joining. Last time, they were quick to let us all in when we
said we might join."
Lt. Val: "I like the idea about asking to join. They were very
accomodating and we can get in a room with one Brother of the Frog.
Apparently they aren't from this planet anyway." "Two may enter
a
few minutes later and bar the door and take out the front door
guards."
Zoltan: "How many guards were inside the temple? Outside? Where
were they positioned?
Since Amio won't give me a weapon, I suggest that Amio and Orendil
focus fire on one guard, while myself and others run a distracion.
Then when the first guard falls I can get armed and help take out the
rest.
Was the door bar-able? Were there any electronic locks? Do we know
of any other ways into the temple?
Hummmm, wait a minute...
Does anyone know if there is a passage between the barracks and the
Temple? We might not be able to secure any part of the temple,
especially if there is a quick passage from the barracks to the
temple. If we go in and bar the doors, we might be able to take out
the few guards in the front REALLY easily. But then we might just be
surrounded by guards from the inside, and the rest is history.
So, on second thought, I like the plan to go join and get into the
upper levels. Then we might be able to find our way to St. Steven,
and if he is captured or killed, then we might have more bargaining
power. All assuming that St. Steven is even in there.
By the way, Amio, I hope you are as good a shot as you make yourself
out to be! I don't know your reason for not giving me a weapon, but
I am the best shot in this party. Don't be surprised, if the tide
turns against us, for me to grab your backup and show you how to
really shoot it! And remember, these guards are better than your
basic little Githyanki peons. They look equivalent to the Knights
that we faced, and are even more dangerous if they have automatic
weapons. Two good shooters, and Milo as backup, might not be enough
to overpower a large group. You casters need to keep casting to a
minimum, too."
Orendil: "I think the idea of asking to join the order sounds most
promising, but the "gift of the frog" worries me. Last time a
magic user gave me a gift, it left me reeling for days."
Milo: "If I remember right, they let all of us who said we were
interested
in joining into the interview room on the first floor, but then they said
they would only take us one-by-one to be formally inducted into the order
(wherever they do that). That's the point at which Nick and I said we
needed more time to think about joining. So saying we want to join seems
like it should have a good chance of getting us in the main door, and into
a
first floor interview room, but I think that's all we should expect."
Alahandra: Well, I have been good at creating distractions lately,
buzzing the guards and whatnot. I could always try to get them to chace me
again.
Syd: "Thats all I think we need."
After hearing the following from Zoltan...
"By the way, Amio, I hope you are as good a shot as you make
yourself
out to be! I don't know your reason for not giving me a weapon, but
I am the best shot in this party. Don't be surprised, if the tide
turns against us, for me to grab your backup and show you how to
really shoot it! And remember, these guards are better than your
basic little Githyanki peons. They look equivalent to the Knights
that we faced, and are even more dangerous if they have automatic
weapons. Two good shooters, and Milo as backup, might not be enough
to overpower a large group. You casters need to keep casting to a
minimum, too."
Amio snarls something under his breath and leaves the tavern abruptly.
Amio does leave an Assault Blaster for Orendil with 3
power packs of ammo.
After a brief discussion, the party started to enact their plan and
entered the Temple saying we were there to join. Amio had never returned
after he left the night before, so the party didn't have his help.
As soon as everyone was inside, Zoltan and Milo began to shoot the
guide who was leading us. Wang ran and locked the large double doors shut.
Unfortunetly, the Drow that was supposed to kick in the door for Orendil
to blast the guards was caught off balance and Orendil did nothing (pretty
much all of the Drow had 1's for Init.)
The guide Zoltan and Milo were shooting proved to be a highly armored
and trained Fighter and he whipped out a Blaster Rifle and proceeded to
lay some smack down himself. Nick noticed that there was a halfling guard
sitting in the pews.
Orendil tried to kick the door in but failed. He then opened it using
the handle. Syd started casting at the guide who was putting up a really
good fight between Zoltan, Milo, and Alahandra. Nick started shooting at
the guard in the pews. This was when Keith left.
Keith, the round after you left Nick was dropped to 3 HPs (technically
he went to negative something, but Manny was nice and let him live. Don't
let Mandy play your character.) Nick began to cast spells at the guard at
this point.
The guide finally went down and Milo and Zoltan were able to turn their
attention to the guard. He was much harder than the guide. Wang charged
the guard as Syd continued to cast.
The guards in the room began to fight Orendil and Jheli. At one point,
they launched a grenade into the middle of Alahandra, Syd, Milo, Zoltan
and Wang. The grenade managed to kill the Drow Liutenant.
Wang tried to grapple the halfling guard but found himself easily
bested. The guard continued to blast everyone. Syd and Nick continued to
cast spells (they cast a spell pretty much every round.)
Zoltan fired a full burst into the halfling guard but one of Syd's Wild
Surges had made all damage the guard took transfer to Syd. Syd was now at
0. Wang punched the halfling guard and did 12, killing Syd.
The halfling guard finally began to run and Wang chased. Nick cast a
spell and the Wild Surge caused him, the halfling guard, Wang, and a gnome
commoner to change places.
All of this time, Orendil and Jheli were still fighting two guards in
the small guard room Milo had found on his first trip.
Zoltan, Milo, and Alahandra began to shoot at the halfling guard who
was now in Nick's clothing. Nick's magical amulet caused a Wild Surge that
turned a nearby column into a Stone Golem. The Golem wapped the halfling
guard as he ran away, then began advancing on Nick.
Zoltan opened up on the fleeing halfling (after nearly shooting Wang,
who was in the spot the halfling had been in) and managed to kill him.
Wang had pulled a grenade from all of the stuff he had teleported into
(the halfling guard's gear) and already activated it.
Since the halfling was dead he threw at the Golem. He missed and the
grenade bounced a little bit. It went off damaging the Golem, as well as
Zoltan and Nick. Nick, being seriously wounded from earlier, fell over
dead. (Wang killed not one but two, yes TWO, PCs tonight.)
Zoltan managed to blow the golem to little bits and Orendil and Jheli
finished off the two guards. In the guard room they found two prisoners,
at least one of which seems ready to grab a gun and avenge his capture.
There is also a wounded guard who was scared by one of Syd's Wild Surges
and is trapped in a room.
The party has not left the first floor, but Alahandra knows for sure at
least one more guard is one the second floor. The Temple has at least four
floors.
Currently, most of the party is seriously wounded. Zoltan is out of
Fast Healing for the day. I think Milo may be out of patches, although Syd
still has a good bit. Ammo is beginning to become a problem for several
party members, especially those who are using guns looted from bodies.
Nick and Syd are both currently dead, although Milo knows about the
Ressurection device.
The party is still on the first floor and most likely cannot leave the
Temple (we passed seven guards on the way in.)
|
Encounter Synopsis and Answers to a few Player Questions
about the situation.
People on the 2nd floor if not others on the 1st floor.
Yes, there is still at least one guard upstairs praying (pretty
sure he was a ... UBER Halfling! :) Maybe an UBER pixie!
Healing ... Plenty of Healing, but is there time?
Yes, Orendil would not have surrendered mere health patches
Yes, Syd's corpse has patches
Gathering Equipment
Yes, Wang is definitely carry some stuff
Yes, I believe Wang is rifling through Syd's stuff
Yes, Jhelai searched the 2 guards in the room
Yes, The male prisoner is now wearing a guard uniform and cloak
Yes, Eniavio the Drow, has the Recruiter's stuff
Yes, Blaster cells are the same for all Blaster DS weapons
Correct, no one has searched the guard quarters yet, just the guards and
the cells
Other items of interest
Yes, you can now here people banging on the bronze doors from outside
No, the halfling was not that powerful, he had plenty of armor
There is noise coming from behind most of the doors in the temple 1st
floor
Fun and Follies
3 Drow rolled 1's on INIT
1 Drow rolled a 2
Milo missed the recruiter and hit Alahandra who had just popped out of
Nick's knapsack
The Lt. Drow burned to a crisp by a grenade
Wang punched the halfling right after Syd cast the ice knife with damage
swap, therefore killing Syd
Wang tossed a grenade at the Stone Golem, missed and nearly killed Zoltan,
Alahandra, but he didn't miss Nick
Wild Magic and who caused it....I can't keep up
Syd's ice knife did cause the damage swap with the halfling and himself
Nick's fireball did cause the positional swap between Wang, the halfling,
the frog town member, and himself
The halfling wearing Nick's amulet brought about the halfling sized Stone
Golem
Syd lit himself up like a wild magic show
Syd's and Nick's spells caused all kinds of calamities
Nick enchanted something in the temple with the ability to cast lightning
bolts
Nick changed all gold coins and credit chips within 300' to have his
likeness stamped on them (therefore now unacceptable currency)
Syd's electricity protection ring went off and cursed him moments before
he died.
Syd's ring also made an image of his mother appear scolding his dead
corpse for 3 rounds. |
|
Adventure 21
Going Up... Temple of the Frog |
After less than 5
minutes of fighting the group gathered together everything they could from
the mass of dead bodies and proceeded up the stairs a Drow pointed
out. Milo spent a few seconds hiding Syd and Nick's bodies under
behind the pews.
Orendil proceeded up the stairs first with Jhelai right behind
him. A guard was waiting for them with an automatic rifle.
Orendil and Jhelai each took a good dose of lead. Orendil retreated
downstairs as Wang ran by to attack the guard. After Alahandra
accidentally hit Wang with a blaster shot, Wang and the others finally
killed the guard.
Orendil went downstairs back to the first level and found Milo running
towards him. Just then, they heard many doors starting to be
unlocked and opened. Milo quickly jumped to the 2nd floor balcony,
and this caused the area to be overcome with a big top band music, spot
lights, and the smell of popcorn, candy apples, and cotton candy.
The area had a distinct circus feel.
Orendil backed up to a strategic location near the stairwell and
started firing grenades like a "Zoltan." Orendil blasted
groups of guards who were running towards him, while the others, Zoltan,
Alahandra, Milo layed down deadly fire from above. Milo through a
bunch of tanglefoot bags to prevent the guards from accessing the
stairwells.
One guard came close enough to the stairwell and was trapped in the
tanglefoot goo. Upon firing his weapon, 39 kittens appeared around
him, and they also got stuck in the tanglefoot goo. Alahandra flew
off the balcony and fired at the stuck guard, she killed 7 kittens.
Orendil was a little less subtle and just placed a set grenade in the goo
and immediately ran up the stairs. Kitten guts went flying,
Alahandra was covered with kitten remains. The guard dropped what
appeared to be a special blaster pistol. Orendil picked it up to
realize it was a Lawful Good Intelligent blaster.
Jheli and Wang spent some time searching for a way to the next
level. Jheli and Wang tried to dress themselves up as priests of the
frog but really, REALLY didn't pull off the look. Two guards quickly
saw them for who they were and attacked.
Wang managed to keep a grapple with a dwarf using a blaster. The dwarf
kept
breaking out, but Wang would just reel him back in. Eventually everyone
else
gunned him down.
Zoltan took many shots and rested to be healed up to near max (low 90s)
but he is down to 6 shots left in his Blaster.
Most of the other party is still badly wounded, and ammo is becoming a
major
concern. Unfortunately almost all of the mooks are downstairs and the
stairways are currently blocked by tanglefoot bags.
The group is currently on the second floor in a room to the left. The
room itself has a stairway leading to it from the first floor (but that
stairway is blocked by a tanglefoot bag.) It also has some stairs
leading up to the next level.
There are 4 mooks left alive on the first floor, but they are ammo less
(unbeknownst to the party.) Orendil fired a wave grenade into the
lot of them. The mooks retreated back to the room they came from.
Oh, and I think everyone banging on the door from outside is about to
bust in.
After many rounds of combat.... the results were about 12 or so dead
mooks. Many of them were from Zoltan, although they were softened up
considerably from Orendil's grenade barrage (one barrage for 18d6!) as
well as Alahandra's rampant sneak attacks (3d8 + 4d6 three times a
round!)
39 thoroughly dead kittens.
The group remains in a cloak room
awaiting orders and resting.
|
Waiting for a treasure
haul.... |
Adventure 22
Exploring the Temple further... |
Not long
after....
Alahandra flew down and collected a large amount of ammo for the party,
Milo set fire in the stairwell leading to the third floor.
Leaving the drow to guard our backs, the rest of the party went up to
the third floor and got into a fight with a man wielding a double orc axe
and another with a blaster rifle. The man with the axe nearly killed
Alahandra, forcing her to run away.
Milo's use of his bolas proved very effective and the party dispatched
both opponents. Alahandra meanwhile was on the fourth floor, attempting to
pick a lock.
The group investigated the third floor while Jhelai went upstairs to
see if his ring could open the door Alahandra was at. All of the doors on
the third floor are locked, requiring Jhelai's ring. Milo still manages to
pick open one door, but all that is inside is a bedroom.
Milo and Zoltan move up one set of stairs while Orendil and Wang join
Jhelai and Alahandra in the other stairwell. Jhelai opens the door
Alahandra has found and that group enters inside.
Wang issues a distress call that the party is under attack. Zoltan and
Milo quickly begin running towards them. Orendil inspects a pool of water
in the room while Jhelai looks at another door in the room.
Opening the door, Jhelai sees two men with guns.
"Who are you!" they shout.
"Jhelai" says Jhelai.
"Plumbers" says Orendil.
"New recruits" says Orendil.
"Where are your robes?" say the guys.
"We were looking for them." says Orendil.
"We lost them" pipes Alahandra.
"Where did you get that ring?" say the guys.
"Grandpa left it to me." says Jhelai.
"You should have told them that Wang gave it to you" says
Mike.
"You should have said you took it from a corpse" says Ryan.
The guys open fire.
There are actually four guys in the room and they lay down heavy fire
on Jhelai and Alahandra.
Zoltan and Milo arrive. The guys begin throwing flash-bang grenades.
The entire party is stunned.
The four guys begin trying to bull rush the stunned party into the
fountain. Zoltan rolls a 1 and goes straight in. All of his gear gives him
around a -60 to swim. Zoltan sinks like a rock. Wang is standing next to
the pool. He gets pushed right in too.
There were two other guards in the room next to the room with the pool
of water. They kicked our asses, pretty much with Flash-Bang
grenades.
Most of the party were thrown into the water, and got sucked into a
cavern. A dark cavern with lots of frog sounds.
Milo remained and fled the room. He sovereign glued the door shut
and went back for the 3 Drow waiting in the stairwell.
Jhelai, Orendil, and Milo resist their attacker. Jhelai begins to fire
back as he comes out of the stun.
And for the record, Jhelai did try to use his wand of cure wounds when
he was dropped down to 0 hit points.
Not knowing what was down the well, except that the guards were
throwing
party members in there, Jhelai tried to cure himself with his wand. He
instead knocked himself unconscious and was summarily thrown in.
The guys shoot Jhelai and knock him to 0. Jhelai attempts to heal
himself, fails, and goes unconscious. They drag Jhelai to the water and
throw him in.
The water begins to be sucked out through a bottom tube. The entire
party realizes they are being flushed down a huge toilet.
They grab Alahandra and throw her in. Wang puts on his ring of water
walking but is instead slowed. He slowly begins trying to remove the ring.
Orendil and Milo begin to fight with the guys. Orendil's sword gets
stuck in one of the guys.
Zoltan tumbles out into a small cavern. Its dark so he puts on his
night vision goggles. He hears frogs all around him.
Wang puts his ring of water walking on again. He is surrounded by a
prismatic sphere. He tumbles into the room with Zoltan. As does Alahandra
and Jhelai. Jhelai is barely alive but Zoltan applies two of his cure
light patches to him, bringing him back to consciousness. He then uses his
last patch on himself. Selfish bastard.
Orendil and Milo continue to duel with the guards. Milo starts floating
when he activates his rod of fire extinguishing.
One of the guys is killed, but Orendil is seriously wounded. Throwing
an incendiary grenade, he jumps into the water.
All the bad guys get blown up by the grenade. While they are on fire,
Milo runs out of the room and sovereign glues the door shut. He is going
back for the drow.
The rest of the party is in a cave in parts unknown, with some kind of
frogs in the area.
There were four bad guys, but one was killed, so three are left. Most
of
the party was pushed or thrown into the water. Orendil jumped in
because he
was seriously hurt and by that time we knew people were surviving on the
other end. Orendil did manage to throw an incendiary grenade at the
remaining guards.
It's not clear what Milo's going to do. The pool room had a second
door, but it is locked. Could be the three guards in there will come out
at some point and leave a door open. |
|
Adventure 23a
Escaping the Caverns of the Frog |
Meanwhile below the
Temple....
The party (minus Milo) found themselves stranded in a large cave
surrounded by frogs. The only light was from Wang who was a walking
Prismatic Sphere.
Moving about, it wasn't long before the party heard someone faintly
screaming from one of the walls. After a brief conversation, Zoltan began
to blow a hole through the wall.
Durning this time, several of the man-frogs left the water in the cave
and advanced on the party. They were easily blown away by Zoltan, Orendil,
Jhelai, and Alahandra, however.
Moving back to the wall, Zoltan shot a few more times and then Orendil
created a lever and pulled the door open.
Behind the door was a long hallway that branched into two rooms.
Listening to the yells for help, the party followed the shouts to a set of
iron bars.
Alahandra flew through the bars and found a series of prison blocks.
Not only was Alahandra there, but so was the individual shouting, a man
named Gordon. Alahandra released everyone in the cells (including a third
stranger) although she was reluctant to let out Gordon (he had to offer up
some healing patches first.)
G'Banrak attempted to use magic to open the bars at the end of the
hallway, and when that failed she teleported through with Alahandra and
herself.
Gordon pointed out two pillars that were suspicious and the party soon
found a switch that lowered the pillars. Jhelai had to use his frog
ring.
Moving back to the other split in the hallway, the party entered a room
full of bones. This was where prisoners were tossed to be fed to the
frogs. The ones who survived were locked in cells. This is how
G'Banrak and Gordon were treated.
Backtracking, the group passed the pillars again. They soon found two
doors, both leading to what looked like some giant's living quarter. Huge
beds and clothes were found in both rooms. Jhelai figured the giants were
about 16 foot tall.
A computer system in the hallway further on proved of little use,
mostly because no one in the party is especially skilled with
computers. Milo was upstairs.
Further in the hallway still was an elevator leading up. To operate the
lift, the party would need to use the frog ring Jhelai had found.
Scouting up to the top, the invisible Alahandra found three guards
sitting about. The party discussed what exactly to do about the guards,
before Wang volunteered to go up finally. It wasn't as brave as it sounds,
considering he was still protected by a Prismatic Sphere.
Up top Wang quickly demanded the name and rank of the three guards.
"Don't you know we have hostiles in the temple! They're right
behind me!" he shouted pointing down.
Grabbing their grenade launchers, the three guards quickly released a
volley into the room below.
The first grenade was a wave grenade, discharging all electronics of
the party, including all mini-cells. The second grenade was a magic
missile grenade which seriously damaged Zoltan and Orendil. Orendil
fell to the ground dying.
At that point G'Banrak and Gordon sprang into action. G'Banrak tried to
cast a spell to teleport her and Orendil away, while Gordon blurred into
action and quickly applied two healing patches to Orendil.
The third grenade hit and it was a stinking cloud grenade.
Upstairs, Wang realized the party couldn't take another salvo of
grenades and began charging at the guards, killing each one instantly the
moment they passed through the sphere surrounding him.
The rest of the party retreated, and Jhelai offered magical healing if
anyone was willing to risk wild magic. G'Banrak volunteered and was
promptly turned into a gaseous cloud.
Alahandra called on her magical skill and attempted to dispel the magic
on G'Banrak. Before she managed to do so though, G'Banrak sprouted a pair
of gaseous wings.
Gordon offered a few more healing patches to the various living party
members. The third stranger from the jail cells had been struck dead by
the magic missile grenade.
Lowering the elevator, the group all moved into the top room, which
they found strangely empty. Everyone eyed Wang a little suspiciously,
remembering how Nick had died earlier and no one saw any dead guards, only
Wang surrounded by a prismatic sphere.
The group proceeded to open a door that led to a long hallway that
ended in another set of doors. |
Zoltan wants to check out the caverns, of course. He is
pissed at Wang, and definitely doesn't want to go near him. He is also
ready to take on anything and anybody: he wants to get back up to that
room if at all possible to settle the score.
Jhelai said, "Three words: we need healing."
"Four words: we need healing badly."
"Five words: we need healing REALLY BADLY!"
Jhelai was horrified when he tried to heal G'Banrak and she turned into
a cloud of smoke. He thought he'd accidentally killed her! Naturally, he
won't be trying anymore magical healing until the wild magic is gone. It's
a real shame; he has a fully charged (well, one charge short of fully
charged, but I digress) wand of Cure Light Wounds, the whole party is down
on hit points, and we're nowhere near finished this adventure. |
Adventure 23b
Milo and the Band of Drow Techs (Red Shirts) |
Meanwhile still in the
Temple....
Milo had returned the drow and was hiding in a room in the temple. He
could communicate with the other group on and off. What guards were
left were obviously tending to their injuries, as he was unchallenged
where he went. The two stairwells leading down seemed to be leading out of
the temple strangely enough. Obviously emergency exits. Milo
and the drow opened the door and jammed it open.
And that's about where he left off. |
Adventure 23c
Adventure 24
Still below the Frog Temple |
The party continued on from the room where Wang had
supposedly gotten rid of the three guards.
Wang found another guard hidden behind a curtain and eliminated him
too.
Wang went into a room down a hall and eliminated yet two more guards.
Other guards began running for it. Gordon and Orendil chased them down
where they were shot and or stabbed. I think two or three still managed to
escape.
The party was in a hallway with several locked doors. Jhelai opened a
large door and found a huge room with two hover tanks, 15 mooks, and
several crates of stuff.
We slammed the door shut, got Wang over to it, opened it back up, then
slammed it shut behind him.
Wang ran around killing guards with his prismatic sphere. One guard had
a magic item, though, and wild magic made Wang's sphere start filling with
water. Very quickly Wang was drowning! The paradox was that Wang
still wore the ring of water walking.
The two tanks began driving away while Wang started asking the party
for help. Jhelai convinced him to remove his stuff, and when he took off
his Ring of Water Walking, the Prismatic Sphere came down.
Gordon and Zoltan chased after the two hover tanks. Blowing open the
hatches, Gordon killed the driver while Zoltan let his driver go (not for
lack of trying to kill him. He was just out of ammo. He did stump knife
the second driver a few times.)
Heading back to the room, Alahandra began opening all the crates. Very
quickly the group realized all of the crates were trapped. Unfortunately,
no one was skilled enough to really disable the traps and so the party had
to fall back on simply setting them off.
However, the last trap proved to be a crushing ceiling trap and the
group only had enough time to pull out two crates before the rest were
crushed under the ceiling.
Inside of the two crates were Syd and Zoltan's weapons as well as Ao
and Thamio's sensor equipment. Everyone else's stuff was smashed by the
ceiling.
The group is now at the back of the Temple with two operable tanks and
no way to get back in. Milo is at another exit on the Eastern side, I
believe.
What we do next is still unknown ... |
Zoltan gets his stuff back!
Milo thought Gordon already handed Zoltan back his stuff. It resulted
in Zoltan having two assault blasters, so he loaned one to Orendil.
Strangely enough, Gordon already has an Assault Blaster that Zoltan
gave him earlier. So he's not really concerned with the stuff Zoltan has
just recovered.
He's pretty dissapointed about not recovering his stuff though. |
Adventure 25
Escape from the Temple of the Frog |
Jhelai said, "OK, we have Transportation, we have some
of our equipment (though why anyone would put a crushing ceiling trap in
their garage/storage area that could potentially store everything in there
is beyond me) and we have some weapons. All we need to do is get Milo and
the drow and go to the City of the Gods. We might still have some chance
at succeeding at this mission, though I know that Lt. Antiphiphia won't
appreciate what we've put her underlings through. however, before we do
anything, we have to make a decision: do we want to just haul as, or are
we going to finish what we started here? This has been hard, but I would
really like to at least try to free the people of Frogtown, and I don't
see how we can do that without destroying the leadership of the Frog
Cult."
"I think we should go back up, get Milo and the drow, and
penetrate the cult's inner sanctum. We've done pretty well so far, in
spite of the terrible odds and the obstacles in our way. There's likely
not much left of the Frog Cult's muscle, and the frog priests will be
hampered by wild magic. If we can find medicine in the temple, we'll be
good to go."
"On the other hand, I can understand perfectly well if some of
you, or even all of you, just want to get as far away from here as
possible. We've been pretty badly hurt, we've had a few scares, and we've
been badly outnumbered. So I'll go along if the rest of you want to
go."
"Now let's take a vote. Who wants to clean this place out, and who
wants to get out of here?"
Gordon said, "I would feel safer if I knew those wackos weren't
still out here kidnapping people. And I wouldn't mind a little pay back. I
say we should head back in. Hell, we have tanks. Might as well use 'em."
Jhelai said, "Anyway, planning. What I've got so far is, send
Alhandra out to see how many of the turrets have a direct line of fire on
out escape route. Then we could man the tanks, two people to a tank (pilot
and gunner.) The pilots would drive the tanks out while the gunners would
have the guns turned in the direction of the turrets and would
have actions readied to fire on the turrets as soon as they're in sight.
If the turrets are manned by gunners who are out in the open and
unprotected, Milo may be able to snipe one. Gordon already offered to take
one out. While Jhelai isn't sure Gordon can do that single-handedly, he's
seen the stranger's powers in action and is
willing to give it a try. But first we need to decide if we're just going
to escape, or if we're going to try to take down the frog cult. If we
choose the latter, we have to go back into the temple first. The tanks
might be able to go in the front doors, but they
certainly can't get up to the third and fourth floor where the priests are
likely to be."
Milo said, "I'm up for ridding this world of these awful frog
worshippers while we can. I think I can get back into the main part of the
temple and scout it out a bit -- I might even be able to open the front
doors for you. And I'm willing to sneak out the temple, up the walls, and
capture one of the turrets, if that fits your plan -- but that would have
to be done at night. Just let me know what you want me to do."
Gordon was for planning ...
Is it possible for the majority of the party to re-enter the Temple
through the exit we have left from? Or is the ceiling essentially creating
a wall blocking us from the there?
How far is it to the wall from where we are? How high of a climb would
it
be, and how hard does it look?
Gordon wants to head back in, although he understands the group has had
a rough time in there. He thinks he may be able to climb up the wall and
kill some of the guards manning the turrets, although he wants to appraise
the situation a little bit before attempting to do so. Perhaps it would be
best if he waited for night.
Maybe Jhelai's ring could help us get back in?
Orendil said, "As much as I'd like to take down these slavers, I'm
not sure we're properly equipped to do it at this point. I'm pretty
wounded and low on ammo, and I don't think the rest of you have fared much
better. I think our first priority is to get Milo out of there. He's
tough, but I'm still concerned for the little guy. Those worthless drow
won't be able to save him in a fight. Zoltan, did you find your explosives
in that chest? Maybe we can use them to take down the temple with as
little risk to ourselves as possible. Just remember, it doesn't help those
slaves, or this planet, if we die."
Basically, Orendil doesn't like the odds of a frontal assault. We
already tried that once and we ended up getting flushed.
Alahandra said, "I think that Zoltan should use his
reclaimed plastic explosives and blow the temple sky high." |
|
After some debate, the party quickly ran
from the Temple, stealing the Temple's two hover tanks in the process.
Milo managed to escape from the Temple by stealing a boat, although one
of the drow were nearly killed in the process.
Milo attempted to take away Wang's communicator. When Wang resisted
Milo gunned him down, although barely Wang survived.
After more debate as to whether the party should return to the Temple
or not, not was decided and the party traveled to Southport in the two
tanks and Milo's boat.
Southport being destroyed, the party moved to the next closest city
Gillian.
That city was destroyed as well but people were still there. A cleric
healed up most of the party; although Wang didn't want any, but was
unconscious to argue the point.
The group started trying to rid themselves of the Wild Magic using
Remove Curses. Success was uncertain.
The cleric then attempted several divinations on the party's behalf.
The Wild Magic is tied to a person in the party.
The Wild Magic is tied to an item in the party.
The Wild Magic can be removed by magical means.
The City of the Gods is more important than the Temple of the Frog
(well, gee, Manny has only been trying to make us go there for ... how
many months?)
Anyway, Alahandra began venturing into the forest and casting Faerie
Fire with different combinations of items and party members in an attempt
to see what was causing the Wild Magic.
In the process, a Stone Golem was created. Gordon gunned it down.
Alahandra has decided to take every item in the party and go into the
forest and cast with it. Manny is in the process of writing a program to
compute the chances of Wild Magic during all of this. She might just
explode.
Wang, you're back to full health. Zoltan, if you are cursed with
permanent Wild Magic, you can't actually get uncursed without losing your
powers. I've never thought of it before, but curses are just downright
deadly to Forsakers. Damned if they do, damned if they don't. |
Journey to the City of the Gods |
Not long
after....
Alahandra's Wild Magic test results discover ....
1st Item Found - Orendil's clothing Alahandra becomes a Half-Fiend
Alahandra gains the half-fiend template for 3 days.
2nd Item Found - Alahandra's Bracers of Defense Greater Spell Failure
The mage gains a greater spell failure rate. 2d6x5 %. The effect is
permanent. GM rolled 25% spell failure. We let Mandy Roll 2d6 Mandy rolled
6 Alahandra now has 30% spell failure from this point forward.
3rd Item Found - Alahandra's holdout laser pistol Cause Plague Many
plagues and storms descend on the region and lasts 1d20 weeks. No one will
be able to trace it to Alahandra. GM rolled 17 weeks Mandy rolled 10
weeks
4th Item Found - Zoltan's combat armor
Zombies All dead creatures within 1d8 miles that died in the last month
animate as zombies. This includes the entire town of Gillian. Yes, 77% of
the towns people were killed, and 95% were animated.
GM rolled 4 miles Mandy rolled 7 miles
Fairie Fire still worked and Alahandra had no knowledge of the Zombie
incident, so she continued casting.
Sex Change Caster changes sex permanently. Mandy rolled a 7 and
Alahandra failed her save.
Alahandra returns to the group feeling depressed.
As soon as Alahandra returns with Zoltan's armor, the group starts to
notice that many of the destroyed buildings are moaning. They also notice
that the gravesite mounds are moving. The group may also make a spot check
from the tavern or wherever they are to see a group of zombies approaching
the hover tanks.
|
Zoltan sees a male half-fiend fairy approach and
immediately tries to swat it. Then he realizes that it is Alahandra, so he
swats at her/him/it again and starts laughing. Then she tells him that his
armor is cursed.
Zoltan, totally exhilarated: "Yahoo! YES! Oh Man! I can't believe
it. I LOVE THIS ARMOR! Woo-Hoo! I am never going to give it up! I can just
stay close to a magic user and I can kick his ass because of the wild
magic!"
He immediately puts his armor on, and notices that the surroundings are
starting to look like a bad horror movie!
Zoltan says, "Oh great. Zombies! Well, there goes the
neighborhood"
Zoltan says, "Hey guys, I'm not in the mood for 'Return of the
Living Dead 6,000'! I say we get the hell out of here. No need to waste
ammo on this crap!"
Jhelai, hearing moaning sounds, knows that there is trouble going down.
He isn't interested in finding out what happened, but he knows what caused
it.
He sees Alahandra flying back, and as she (now he) arrives he yells,
"You!" As Alahandra gets closer, Jhelai sees there's something
different and looks at her sort of sideways for a moment before
continuing. "I tried to tell you this was a bad idea. Now we've gotta
get out of here!"
Jhelai will try to get everyone together and into the tanks to escape
the huge numbers of undead. He'll try to get the cleric to come along,
too. He knows that this will make one of the tanks crowded, but he's not
about to leave someone who has helped him behind when the town is overrun
with zombies.
Alahandra- Nooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!
Alahandra - "Remember Zoltan, that armor may have been cursed by
magical means..."
Gordon says "Just hope that what's causing the Wild Magic isn't a
spell in itself.
Forsaker abilities and magic armor don't mix."
Gordon says, "We can't just leave these people to be eaten by
zombies. Something has to be causing this infestation. Better to find it
and stamp it out before we leave. After all, undead armies seem to have a
habit of growing larger with
every victory. Better to end this army here."
|
Well, in a nutshell the following happened.
Alahandra determined that some items were cursed with a Wild Magic
Surge.
After "Al"ahandra, the Half-Fiendish Male Faerie reported
which items were cursed, the party noticed the horde of zombies coming
towards them.
Alahandra animated over 5000 recently deceased and they became zombies.
The zombies were closing in on the city of Gillian. She actually affected
two cities.
The group drove the two tanks out of Gillian with the cleric on the
hood blasting through zombies. Jumping into the tanks (with the
Cleric) the party zoomed off, running several zombies down while the
Cleric threw out Turnings from on top of the tank.
Storm clouds followed the group.
The group went to a town just south of Gillian and dropped Orendil's
love off. At the next town there was a tearful farewell between
Orendil and the Cleric (who had fallen in love from an earlier Wild
Surge.) The rest of the party went shopping and bought a bunch of items
while a gardener trimmed one of the tanks (which had grown a profusion of
grass as the result of another Wild Surge.)
Al cast a spell at Zoltan which caused plants to overgrow the tank.
Everyone bailed except Wang. Milo tried to poison the plant with Syd's old
cloak. Jhelai paid someone to throw a herbicide grenade in the tank to
clean it out, after Wang got out.
This town looked like it was in one piece. Milo led the group on a
shopping spree. They forgot healing patches again.
The group left after Zoltan blew the horn in the tank to hurry them up.
Armed and armored, the party set out for the City of the Gods. At one
point a large red cloud was spotted. Gordon opened fire with the tank's
cannon but the cloud seemed undamaged and simply settled around the tank
Gordon was in. Since the cloud didn't seem to be doing anything, the party
drove on.
The group drove a few minutes east to encounter a red storm cloud.
Gordon and Orendil shot at it. Orendil hit Zoltan's tank accidentally. The
red cloud hovered around Zoltan's tank. They kept going, it didn't hurt
anyone.
The group sees what appears to be the remains of a city totally leveled.
Ash and soot cover the area.
When the party got to Freeth (Frieth?), they found the city completely
leveled. And then they found the thing that had done it. A Black Cloud of Vengeance
descended on the party and began to attack.
After Orendil accidentally shot Gordon's tank, the tank was completely totaled
by the Cloud and the passengers had to evacuate.
Orendil and Gordon fired the tank's cannon, while Milo kept putting out
the fires that the cloud created.
A black cloud attacked the group with wind and fire. It nearly
destroyed both tanks. Zoltan's tank was burnt to a crisp. Milo tried to
extinguish the flame, but lightning bolted the crew. Milo killed the 2
drow Thamios and his buddy. Milo created a 10' wide pit. G'Banrak caused
an earthquake and Zoltan fell in, luckily he had his jetpack ready and he
narrowly escaped. Everyone's hair turned bright orange when Milo tried to
repair the remaining tank. It was badly damaged.
When Milo tried to extinguish the fire on Gordon's tank, a Lightning
Bolt shot out instead and killed the two drow inside. G'Banrak attempted
to extinguish the remaining tank's fire, but in the process a Wild Surge
turned everyone's hair bright orange. Eventually the Black Cloud passed
and Milo tried to repair the other tank, which was likewise badly damaged.
In the process he caused another Wild Surge, creating an earthquake in
the area. Zoltan fell into a deep fissure, and only escaped death by
managing to activate his jet pack in time.
The cloud left for the city the group had just left.
The group continued towards the CotG. Zoltan flying and Gordon running
along side the remaining tank driven by Jhelai.
The group encountered a DeepSpawn or something and it shot at and
disabled Jhelai's tank. The crew luckily didn't take any damage. Zoltan
opened up and blew the thing to bits. Orendil scraped up the remaining
gold pieces. These did not have the likeness of Nick.
With Zoltan flying (via the jetpack), Gordon running, and Wang riding
on top, the last tank moved into the mountains toward the City of the
Gods.
Partway through a pass, a deepspawn ambushed the party, toting two huge
guns.
Taking fire, the deepspawn quickly finished off the last tank, just
before Zoltan blew it away from the air.
The group rests the night in the mountain pass. It had been a long day. |
Forced to go on foot, the party now is getting ready to
trudge on to the City of the Gods. |
Adventure 27
Walking to the City of the Gods |
The party, now minus both tanks, walked
towards the City of the Gods.
On the way we encountered a group of robotic silverfish. It was quickly
apparent they possessed some kind of energy shield rendering them immune
to energy attacks. Pulling stump knives and daggers the party set into
them with glee.
Alahandra fires a magic blaster and he changes back to a she.
What a lucky fairy.
Several smashed robotic bodies and a few minutes later, the party came
upon a colossal Witchlight Marauder. For those
unfamiliar with the beast, the Marauder is a Colossal slug-like creature.
Just the sight causes horror and disgust (and vomiting in all but Gordon,
Zoltan, Jhelai, and Alahandra.)
Rumbling down the mountain towards the party, the Marauder takes a good
bit of damage as the party unloads into it. Then
the Marauder disgorges six mini-Marauders which rumble down the
mountainside as well.
Wang grabs one of the smaller ones and throws it behind him, directly
into the center of the party. The mini-Marauder proceeds to eat the last
remaining drow, Valasial. Valasial is slain as her head ends up in
the Marauder's maw.
The group began to engage the mini-Marauders in combat while the large
one remained relatively unscathed, actually Gordon continued to blast the
hell out of it, but he was the only one attacking it besides Wang.
G'Banrak got a Wild Surge and disintegrated all non-living matter in a
10 foot radius. Luckily Orendil's and Gordon's armor and weapons survived,
but everything lighter and less sturdy didn't.
Milo attempted to throw the Poison Cloak onto the Marauder but instead
slipped and wrapped himself into it. Luckily Wild Magic made the Cloak's
magic fail.
The mini-Marauders fly by attacking, but almost all miss this dexterous
party.
G'Banrak uttered one word and the Marauder that slayed Valasial lay
dead.
The Colossal Marauder spit out six more mini-Marauders, which also
closed with the party.
Wang began punching the Primary Marauder. Zoltan managed to kill one
mini-Marauder by a large number of blaster shots.
Gordon broke his assault blaster and Jhelai broke his submachine gun.
Jhelai is reduced to punching the mini-Marauders, Gordon is down to his
Laser Pistol.
Wang is on the ground bleeding from the six bites the Marauder attacked
him with (and the six bites did minimum damage possible too!)
G'Banrak's magic has unlocked and opened everything in a 60 foot
radius, including Wang's demon in a bottle. |
What does the demon in a bottle do?
Will Gordon flee?
What happens now that the last Drow is dead? Will
Antiphiphia be angry or upset?
Stay tuned... |
Adventure 28
Pass to the Valley of the Ancients |
The party battled with the Witchlight Marauders for
multiple rounds.
Wang died along the way, and the demon in the bottle was released.
Alahandra was nearly swallowed, but her new lover, G'Banrak, managed to
teleport her from the Marauder's mouth.
The demon was destroyed and the Marauder began to retreat due to
grievous wounds (and excessive time consumption.)
Amio drove up in a tank and most of the group jumped in, hoping to use
the tank cannon to destroy the Marauder. Unfortunately, the tank cannon
was broken. As everyone started to drive away, Gordon blew away 4
mini-Marauders before running after.
Upon reaching Qom, the party learned that the City of the Gods is
protected by a force field that is being projected from the Tower of
Glass. But there appears to be a hole in the force field that the party
may be able to exploit.
Everyone rested and feasted and shopped in Qom. Next week we begin
trying to break through the force field to reach the City of the Gods.
Oh, Amio
found everyone's stuff that was taken by the Brothers of the Frog.
Including Gordon's guns and more Drow electronic surveillance gear.
|
Adventure 29
Leaving the City of Qom |
Alahandra wished to buy some bracers of
armor, the highest enchant they have.
No
weapons, no weapon enchantments; "Planetary Tradition."
They do
sell Armor though. You should have to buy multiple power supplies
if you purchase powered armor.
I'll have
to look up the Vestment later.
G'Banrak:
Is anyone going to mention patches?
Amio:
I want some better armor too.
They do
have a spellware clinic, a cybernetic clinic, and a psionic tatoo
parlor.
Jhelai: "Well, I'm glad that someplace on this planet hasn't been
blown away. Now we need to figure out how to get to the City of the
Gods.
"We basically have to options: find a tunnel to the Tower of Glass,
or fly around the force field to the break near the CotG. If we
choose the second option, we'll probably have to fight a lot of
invaders. Judging by the strength of that last thing we encountered,
I don't think we would last long. Of course, we could just run away
if we enocounter anything that nasty again. It might be a long trip,
but we'll be real close to the CotG once we get around the force
field.
"The tunnel option is a big unknown. I don't know anything about the
underground of this planet, what kind of dangers we would encounter
in the tunnels, or if the invading creatures have gotten underground
yet. It may or may not be a direct route, and we may or may not be
able to bring vehicles down there. Maybe we can ask around this
place for more information."
Gordon: I wouldn't discount the hole in the Tower's force field
automatically.
If the insides of the force field is swarming with monsters, crossing from
the Tower to the City of the Gods could be as hazardous as trying to force
our way through the opening.
Not to mention that none of us has any experience spelunking (that I am
aware.)
Alahandra has the intelligent blaster pistol.
Orendil says that you have plenty of money if we cash in the many
gems we stole from the frog cult.
Amio has quite a bit of gems and equipment as well. He looted the
entire frog temple, found the 3rd tank and tried following the
group. He was a few days behind the group, and was slowly catching
up when he found your tanks. Amio found and buried the two Drow left
in Zoltan's tank. He wasn't too happy about you guys leaving the
bodies. He also wasn't happy to leave Valasial's body near the
Witchlight Maurauders either.
Milo can probably finish his gun if he concentrates and takes it easy
for the next 9 days while the rest of the party shops, gets healed,
gets spellware/cybernetics etc...
Gordon gives Milo his gun back.
G'Banrak suggests the group tries for the break in the force field.
Amio suggests the caverns to the tower.
The city guide shows the group that the city is mostly carved into
the face of the mountain. Most of the buildings on the surface of
the mountain are destroyed by fire, acid, or electrical damage.
The Magistrate can provide the group with 4x4 vehicles (heavy duty
jeeps) that can hold 4 people each, comfortably. They are working on
the tank, but it might take a while to fix without the proper
parts. "Where did you say you got this tank from?"
Zoltan can get the gun from Gordon if he likes.
Milo could possibly repair any jammed or broken guns.
The city doesn't have too many suits of armor available, and the vest
Gordon seeks is definitely not found.
The town magistrate informs the group that the force field
surrounding the City of the Gods is not usually up and it appeared
less than 2 weeks ago. It is probably an automated defense
mechanism.
The storms around the mountain, those Alahandra summoned, continue to
rain down on the city of QOM. Hail, snow, and sleet shower on the
city for days following your arrival. The upper level roads are all
but washed out.
The storms are causing massive power outages throughout QOM. The
power gets restored, but is out for multiple hours each day. QOM has
massive battery backups, but they need consistent charging to keep
working regularly.
People are scared and are looking for help from the group. G'Banrak
finds a relative.....
Wild Surges appear to happen around any magic store or shop. Even
those the party doesn't visit. Most store owners are scarred to open
their doors.
The group can purchase cure patches, healing potions, and anti-
venom. Almost any medical device can be found here.
They do have personal shields, but they seem to be malfunctioning
near the massive field output from the tower.
The magistrate asks the group if they want some help, as in man-power?
The men would have to be armed by the group, "Doesn't the group have
extra weapons?" Amio frowns at this once again.
Amio tells Gordon that he has underground experience, he's a Drow of
course. He originates from a dark world.
Gordon:
I don't think we need any extra help. More over, we probably shouldn't
strip
this town of what limited defenses it has. After all, considering the
creatures wandering the wilderness, they'll likely need every gun they can
get.
I still think we should try for the hole in the shield. Even if you have
experience in this area Amio, I am wary of entrusting everyone's survival
in
the hands of one person. If something went wrong and we lost you, we would
all be in trouble then ...
Zoltan still tries to find all of the items on his list. If he can't
find the Combat Hardsuit, then he will buy basic Combat Armor. If
that's not available, then he will try to buy any type of Heavy
Armor. He takes off his current armor and destroys it as soon as
they are safe in the city. He definitely wants to buy an energy
shield, even if they don't work; the strongest one he can find. He
can use it later or if the shield goes down. Since you mention it,
he buys 5 items of Anti-venom.
Zoltan: "I think we should go for the hole in the shield. And if we
see any gigantic creatures coming out, then we HIDE and IGNORE them
until they pass. Besides, if we go underground, who knows what we
will find down there. Hell this shield might even go into the ground
as well, and we will just waste time."
|
After a brief shopping stint (along with two medical
procedures which failed! Doctors here suck) the group took a vote and
decided to head into the caverns.
Before leaving, a strange four armed man named Super-Commie joined the
group. While he has evinced no Clerical abilities, Gordon suspects that he
worships some god named Lenin.
The Magistrate of Qom burdened the group with a guide and the party
went into the tunnels.
Passing through the old city, the group soon came to deep caverns, an
area the guide apparently didn't know (some guide.)
Coming to what seemed to be a huge compost heap (think several hundred
feet across) the party set up camp on the edge.
Twice during the night Super-Commie thought he saw something moving in
the heap, but both times nothing was found.
In the morning the group set off across the muck and it was then that
several large mounds rose up out of the mush on the floor!
Slamming at the party with large compost pseudo-pods, the creatures
managed to get a few good hits. Not only that, but their over powering
stench caused everyone in the party but Gordon, Amio, and Orendil to begin
retching helplessly.
Another large blob of goo seemingly rose out of the ground and managed
to engulf the retching Zoltan, Super-Commie, and the guide.
G'Banrak, Alahandra, and Jhelai managed to hobble out of the area of
the blob of goo.
Currently the party is surrounded by several mounds, and a large pile
of goo has engulfed Zoltan and Super-Commie (it engulfed the guide too,
but he bit it.)
Everyone is still retching (and will be for some time yet.) |
Adventure 30
Journey to the Tower of Glass |
The party fought with the strange blobs back and forth.
Several members of the party retreated, attempting to get away from the
massive beasts.
Zoltan and Super-Commie remained trapped beneath the massive Flesh
Jelly, as it tried to consume them. They tried to resist, but in their
nauseous state they could barely fight back.
Gordon gunned down one of the blobs facing him while Milo began
climbing to the top of the pillar with a blob climbing after him.
Gordon, being seriously wounded, ran off to rest and heal, and began
applying patches to himself.
One of the remaining blobs struck Orendil down while Zoltan found
himself finally absorbed by the massive Flesh Jelly.
Jhelai, overcoming his sickness, began to help Amio fight off the blobs
that were attacking him. G'Banrak, also feeling better, released a Cone of
Cold, killing the Flesh Jelly and saving Super-Commie who, while still
trapped on the inside, no longer was being absorbed.
Gordon gunned down the blob climbing after Milo while Amio and Jhelai
finished up the blobs by them. Orendil, who had been dead, suddenly found
himself alive as G'Banrak uttered a Wish.
Finding the monsters dead, but their party decreased in numbers the
group started running forward. It wasn't long before they realized there
were yet more blobs surrounding them. Running past, the party soon came to
a door.
Throwing out several grenades to hopefully slow the blobs, Gordon
slammed the door as they all went off.
Moving down the cavern, the group came to an end of the filth, as well
as a metal step. Emanating from the step was a force field that the group
could not penetrate.
And then another blob began moving towards the party. |
Locating an intercom, Jhelai began to talk to a voice on
the other side, imploring it to lower the force field and let us in.
The voice complied and the group made their way through the field onto
the platform. Moving along a long, spotless metal corridor, the party soon
bumped into a cleaning robot that was apparently responsible for lowering
the field.
He offered to let the party ride up to the hatch to above ground and on
the way answered some questions.
Apparently he had been here for longer than he could count, and his job
was simply to clean. No organic life forms lived above, only robots, and
armed ones at that.
Finally climbing outside, the group found themselves accosted by an
apparently higher ranking robot. Demanding a pass-code or for the party to
turn themselves in and relinquish weapons, the robot nearly provoked
Gordon and Super-Commie into a hopeless battle.
At the urging of the rest of the party, however, Gordon and
Super-Commie turned over their weapons and the party was taken to an
interrogation chamber. The group was pumped for information, but proved to
be lacking in much.
They did discover that both the Tower of Glass and the City of the Gods
were large storage areas in which nearly anything technologically imaginable
was stored. Unfortunately, both were restricted areas, and the future fate
of the party remains unknown. |
visitors
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