Black Swamp of Black Dragons
Mar. 5th, 2004 12:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
terryclothTonight was another session of Jeff's Dragonlance campaign. We thought the two new guys were going to be no-shows, but they arrived only an hour or so late, which was before anything interesting happened.
We leveled up midway through the game, and Morgan added two-weapon fighting... and was very annoyed when he didn't get the chance to use it even once for the rest of the night, as everything we fought (of note) was flying.
Rosco's Master is named Murphy. I wrote it down this time, then remembered it anyway. Luis replaced Abiel with a human fighter named Thor.
The party took the bandits back to town to turn them in to the merchant. They were intercepted by a bandit ("Are you a bandit?" "Yes. No wait, I'm just an... entrepeneur.") who offered them a large, valuable, obviously stolen gem in return for freeing the one bandit they still had with them alive. The party declined, but decided not to rid the world of this additional bandit because he was lit up with magic like a freaking christmas tree.
So they took the bandits to the merchant, and collected the promised reward. They asked if there was any additional work to be had, and were offered a job escorting a caravan to Palanthus by way of Taris and Solace -- the route basically circumnavigated all of Ansalon. They told the merchant they were interested, but wanted to speak with the Herald first to see if he knew where they had to take the Sylvan Key they'd found.
The Herald told them that yes, the music box was the key -- or rather, the music itself was the key. The last legitimate owner of the key was Alhanna Starbreeze, who was last seen in Solace. So they could go with the caravan for a while.
Abiel couldn't go with them, though -- she was in trouble with her thieves' guild and was under house arrest. The merchant *had* already hired another capable mercenary (to go with his gaggle of incompetent fools): a human named Thor who fought with a greatsword. In the days before the caravan was to leave, the party bonded with Thor and let him join their reindeer games, etc.
The trip went relatively smoothly until they approached Sable's swamp. There were some ogres in the distance that they were far too fast for -- the merchant was a gem merchant, so they didn't have any wagons to slow them down -- then they were followed by a flying creature during the day, but didn't go after it because it was over the damn swamp. A few hours after nightfall, it attacked!
Morgan and Thor were on watch. Thor hid behind a tree and drew his bow, firing into the darkness around where they'd heard the sound of wings, while Morgan went to wake up the camp.
The creature tried to stay up out of sight, spitting acid at everyone, but was eventually illuminated by a dancing lights spell and then pegged with a lit up arrow... and then dazed, and then put to sleep -- spiral down and CRASH, and which point the ground-bound fighters rushed the dragonspawn ogre and cut it down to size. Then it exploded.
Thor, as per his contract with the merchant, claimed the right to the creature's loot, since he'd struck the killing blow. All it had was an acid-eaten greatclub, though.
The next day they entered the swamp. Sable's Swamp, although they were taking a road through the far southern extent and hoped to avoid any contact with the dragon overlord herself. They quickly ran into some of her agents, though -- the sound of drums, which Kijj's raven scouted out as a pack of 20 kobolds, led by a dragonspawn.
The party decided to approach openly and negotiate, with Sonnet singing an inspiring ditty (just in case) to announce their presence as they advanced through the mist. The kobolds' price was high -- one living, intelligent creature for Sable to experiment on.
The merchant managed to negotiate this down to four warhorses and some cash, but even that seemed a gallingly high price to pay to a pack of kobolds, Sable's agents or no. So they had the bard create a distraction with some cantrips, then charged!
The kobolds went down easily, but they were just a distraction -- the real threat was the dragonspawn, who launched himself into the air and cast a fireball! The party focused their attacks on him, but didn't manage to take him down before he got off another fireball, downing Kijj. Kijj's familiar and Morgan cooperated to pour a potion down his through, though, and he cast a magic missile, taking down the dragonspawn before it could blow everyone up for a third time.
Most of the kobolds were asleep or dead by then -- one runner was taken down by the merchant's archers.
Kijj and Thor argued over who got the dragonspawn's loot -- Kijj had clearly gotten in the killing blow this time. Once more, though, there was no loot on the body itself -- it was all hidden under the throne, which made it party treasure. There was a wand of Shatter (why?), a scroll with a bunch of spells, and a magic circlet, along with a bunch of steel.
A horrid screeching drove them to an early start the next morning, but they hustled out of reach, and soon came to the edge of the swamp, where some of the party spotted some rustling in the bushes near the carcass of a dead horse in the middle of the road. Kijj sent his familiar to scout again, but it was attacked by spitting acid. Another dragonspawn! The raven was unhurt, but very angry at being put into danger.
So, how were they to get past? Mike zapped the bushes with a sleep spell, but they didn't know whether it had done anything. So they decided to ride past at full speed, and deal with the creature if it came out to fight them. This sort of worked, although the critter picked its target carefully, aiming its acid at the head merchant and injuring him badly.
But then it did indeed fly out of the bushes to attack the party -- it was a teeny weeny black dragon. How cute! Thor and Morgan attacked it with arrows, Sonnet healed the merchant, then sang an inspiring ditty, and Kijj charged at it headlong with his spear, on horseback, skewering the beast.
Although that just made it angry. It leaped onto Kijj's horse's head and clawed at the minotaur, which drove the horse crazy. Kijj got off the bucking beast and stabbed the dragon again, aided by Thor's sword (the first time he'd deigned to use a melee weapon) and Morgan's... well, Morgan's good thoughts. Badly hurt, the dragon turned tail and fled -- but Morgan somehow managed to take it down with an incredibly lucky shot with his hand crossbow, from more than 200 feet away.
The dragon's lair had a lot of treasure -- magic rings, and more gems and steel. After riding the rest of the day and leaving the swamp behind, the items were identified and divvied up.
Now they just had to cross the plains of dust, and they'd be nearly to the next city.
last week next week
We leveled up midway through the game, and Morgan added two-weapon fighting... and was very annoyed when he didn't get the chance to use it even once for the rest of the night, as everything we fought (of note) was flying.
Rosco's Master is named Murphy. I wrote it down this time, then remembered it anyway. Luis replaced Abiel with a human fighter named Thor.
The party took the bandits back to town to turn them in to the merchant. They were intercepted by a bandit ("Are you a bandit?" "Yes. No wait, I'm just an... entrepeneur.") who offered them a large, valuable, obviously stolen gem in return for freeing the one bandit they still had with them alive. The party declined, but decided not to rid the world of this additional bandit because he was lit up with magic like a freaking christmas tree.
So they took the bandits to the merchant, and collected the promised reward. They asked if there was any additional work to be had, and were offered a job escorting a caravan to Palanthus by way of Taris and Solace -- the route basically circumnavigated all of Ansalon. They told the merchant they were interested, but wanted to speak with the Herald first to see if he knew where they had to take the Sylvan Key they'd found.
The Herald told them that yes, the music box was the key -- or rather, the music itself was the key. The last legitimate owner of the key was Alhanna Starbreeze, who was last seen in Solace. So they could go with the caravan for a while.
Abiel couldn't go with them, though -- she was in trouble with her thieves' guild and was under house arrest. The merchant *had* already hired another capable mercenary (to go with his gaggle of incompetent fools): a human named Thor who fought with a greatsword. In the days before the caravan was to leave, the party bonded with Thor and let him join their reindeer games, etc.
The trip went relatively smoothly until they approached Sable's swamp. There were some ogres in the distance that they were far too fast for -- the merchant was a gem merchant, so they didn't have any wagons to slow them down -- then they were followed by a flying creature during the day, but didn't go after it because it was over the damn swamp. A few hours after nightfall, it attacked!
Morgan and Thor were on watch. Thor hid behind a tree and drew his bow, firing into the darkness around where they'd heard the sound of wings, while Morgan went to wake up the camp.
The creature tried to stay up out of sight, spitting acid at everyone, but was eventually illuminated by a dancing lights spell and then pegged with a lit up arrow... and then dazed, and then put to sleep -- spiral down and CRASH, and which point the ground-bound fighters rushed the dragonspawn ogre and cut it down to size. Then it exploded.
Thor, as per his contract with the merchant, claimed the right to the creature's loot, since he'd struck the killing blow. All it had was an acid-eaten greatclub, though.
The next day they entered the swamp. Sable's Swamp, although they were taking a road through the far southern extent and hoped to avoid any contact with the dragon overlord herself. They quickly ran into some of her agents, though -- the sound of drums, which Kijj's raven scouted out as a pack of 20 kobolds, led by a dragonspawn.
The party decided to approach openly and negotiate, with Sonnet singing an inspiring ditty (just in case) to announce their presence as they advanced through the mist. The kobolds' price was high -- one living, intelligent creature for Sable to experiment on.
The merchant managed to negotiate this down to four warhorses and some cash, but even that seemed a gallingly high price to pay to a pack of kobolds, Sable's agents or no. So they had the bard create a distraction with some cantrips, then charged!
The kobolds went down easily, but they were just a distraction -- the real threat was the dragonspawn, who launched himself into the air and cast a fireball! The party focused their attacks on him, but didn't manage to take him down before he got off another fireball, downing Kijj. Kijj's familiar and Morgan cooperated to pour a potion down his through, though, and he cast a magic missile, taking down the dragonspawn before it could blow everyone up for a third time.
Most of the kobolds were asleep or dead by then -- one runner was taken down by the merchant's archers.
Kijj and Thor argued over who got the dragonspawn's loot -- Kijj had clearly gotten in the killing blow this time. Once more, though, there was no loot on the body itself -- it was all hidden under the throne, which made it party treasure. There was a wand of Shatter (why?), a scroll with a bunch of spells, and a magic circlet, along with a bunch of steel.
A horrid screeching drove them to an early start the next morning, but they hustled out of reach, and soon came to the edge of the swamp, where some of the party spotted some rustling in the bushes near the carcass of a dead horse in the middle of the road. Kijj sent his familiar to scout again, but it was attacked by spitting acid. Another dragonspawn! The raven was unhurt, but very angry at being put into danger.
So, how were they to get past? Mike zapped the bushes with a sleep spell, but they didn't know whether it had done anything. So they decided to ride past at full speed, and deal with the creature if it came out to fight them. This sort of worked, although the critter picked its target carefully, aiming its acid at the head merchant and injuring him badly.
But then it did indeed fly out of the bushes to attack the party -- it was a teeny weeny black dragon. How cute! Thor and Morgan attacked it with arrows, Sonnet healed the merchant, then sang an inspiring ditty, and Kijj charged at it headlong with his spear, on horseback, skewering the beast.
Although that just made it angry. It leaped onto Kijj's horse's head and clawed at the minotaur, which drove the horse crazy. Kijj got off the bucking beast and stabbed the dragon again, aided by Thor's sword (the first time he'd deigned to use a melee weapon) and Morgan's... well, Morgan's good thoughts. Badly hurt, the dragon turned tail and fled -- but Morgan somehow managed to take it down with an incredibly lucky shot with his hand crossbow, from more than 200 feet away.
The dragon's lair had a lot of treasure -- magic rings, and more gems and steel. After riding the rest of the day and leaving the swamp behind, the items were identified and divvied up.
Now they just had to cross the plains of dust, and they'd be nearly to the next city.
last week next week
