Wandering Monsters
Mar. 11th, 2004 12:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
terryclothThe Dragonlance game Jeff's running was moved to tonight instead of Thursday this week, because something was going to happen on Thursday that meant Jeff wouldn't be able to make it.
We spent the whole session travelling over land, running into random monsters. It was thrilling.
The party spent several days walking through the desert to the nearest town, and didn't run into anything really nasty. The night before they hit the tiny desert town the merchant was going to first do business in, though, several people on watch heard a rumbling thundery sound to the north, that went on for fifteen minutes before dying off. They decided to ask about it in town, rather than running off to investigate it right away.
The town was kind of a dive, but after a bit of asking around (it's ghosts! The ghost of the blue and broze dragon overlords that died in the desert, still fighting each other beyond the grave!) Sonnet realized that she recognized the spot as where a blue dragon (but not the overlord) had been killed and driven into the ground so hard that it collapsed part of the desert into some caves below, leaving hot springs. Acidic, boiling hot springs.
So, not that interesting after all. Murphy did find a black-robe wizard in town, who gave him a scroll telling of the Conclave in Panthalas, at least, and there were a lot of bounties offered. One large bounty was on the head of a rival thieves' guild, but the party declined to become assassins.
Instead, they decided to explore the hot springs -- caves meant monsters and treasure, right? So they travelled out there, and were fortunate enough to spot the basilisk before it saw them.
There was a very large bounty on basilisks -- 1000 steel each, and 500 for each egg. "But we'll DIE!" several members of the party protested. "But... all that money..."
So they eventually decided on a plan. Sonnet would fascinate the basilisk, looking at it in a mirror to avoid being stoned by its gaze, and while it was helpless Morgan and Thor would sneak up on it, in that order. Morgan was successfully sneaky, and got around behind it, but Thor was too much of a threat, so just as he got in charge range, the basilisk snapped out of its daze.
It was too late for it, though. Morgan and Thor attacked it viciously with their blades, while the sorceror and wizards pelted it with magic missiles from afar. It went down before it could do any harm... but there was another basilisk, which came out of the cave (which none of the party had seen until the first basilisk was dead) and glared at Thor. Thor shook off the momentary stoniness, and the basilisk-slaying process was repeated.
There were ten eggs in the nest, for a total bounty of 7000 steel, and two statues of human children, in perfect condition, which when taken back to the city proved to be the mayor's missing kids -- another 5000 steel for recovering them in a recoverable state. This was cause for some celebration (and some shopping), and then it was on to Tarsis.
Sonnet was nearly blinded by a disease the mayor had slipped into her food as payback for trying (unsuccessfully) to hold the statues hostage for more money. After the initial scare, she threw it off quickly, though.
Other than that, the trip to Tarsis passed uneventfully. In Tarsis, there was less work to be had (apparently it had a functioning government and didn't have to resort to bounties as much), but Sonnet insinuated herself into a bardic college by bragging about the Sylvan Key and her Destiny. One of the student bards was a little too curious about this treasure she'd found, so she lied and said that she'd hidden it in the basilisk's lair back in the desert...
Apparently, he didn't buy that story, because a day out of Tarsis they were ambushed by a pack of draconians, led by the student bard. The draconians attacked with bows from the top of a fifty foot cliff, slaying the merchant's useless archer guards before they could react, while the bard cast an illusion of walls of fire trapping the party in the canyon. Murphy recognized the spell as it was cast, though, and warned the others about the illusion. This let many of them see throug the fire.
Sonnet, Morgan, and Thor hung back by the merchants, returning fire at the draconians on the ledges (killing two among them) while Kijj and Murphy charged the wall of fire where the bard was casting nasty spells and his two hench-draks were tossing magic missiles from wands. Kijj wounded the bard, who was finished off by a blast from Mike's circlet of blasting, then slew one of his friends.
At that point Sonnet tried to negotiate a truce, which the draconians agreed to -- they stopped attacking, and started looting the bodies of their fallen, as well as the party's. Murphy stunned the one who'd been looting the good stuff off the bard, then disarmed him and tossed his weapons off into the forest. He ran off, apologizing etc. The two that were looting the dead archers didn't get caught, though, despite Thor's best (if horribly foolish) efforts.
Sonnet didn't tell the party that she recognized the bard as the one she'd been talking to, so all the acidic comments directed at her (by Morgan mostly) were strictly out of character.
A few days later, they passed a party of dwarves, who warned of an army of trolls and ogres in the foothills ahead between them and Thorbardin (the party's next stop). That night, a lone dwarf, who claimed to be separated from his party, approached and asked to share the fire, offering food and drink. This made Kijj suspicious, so they certainly didn't let the dwarf take a watch...
...during Thor's watch, though, the dwarf got up 'to take a piss' and was gone for about fifteen minutes, after which Thor finally spotted him messing around with the horses. Thor challenged him, and inspected the horses -- all the gems were gone, stolen! Thor sounded the alarm, waking everyone.
Murphy and Morgan spotted the thief rustling through the underbrush, invisible, and the party unloaded on him, doing a lot of damage and finally provoking him into breaking his invisibility (he *really* didn't like Morgan trying to grapple him) -- at which point he was toast, and fell almost instantly, although he had enough time to blow up a scroll of Dimension Door in his own face.
The party was split on what to do with him, after that. He'd stolen not only the gems, but nearly every magic item the party had. Kijj did some math and figured that he'd stolen about ten million times as much as his life was worth. Mike and Thor also wanted him dead. Morgan and Murphy didn't want him *dead*... although some punishment was in order. Sonnet healed him back to life.
They eventually decided to leave him tied to a tree, for Kijj to 'take care of' (his instructions were to 'tie him to the tree and leave him there', but they figured he'd kill him). Kijj didn't notice everyone leaving until it was too late to object, so shrugged and went to ensure that the thief at least wouldn't be able to come after them -- a few broken fingers, and a couple eyes fed to his familiar, and the thief's stealing days would be done.
The Sivak who'd been pretending to be nearly dead wasn't about to stand for that, though, and changed back into his true form, bursting out of the ropes. "I guess I'll have to take YOU then," he said to Kijj.
"I can take ya," Kijj snarled back, shortly before being whacked upside the head for half his hitpoints.
A few seconds later, the party saw Kijj running back at them from the darkness, screaming in terror about a huge Sivak Draconian that the dwarf had turned into! No one believed him, half the party figuring he'd let the dwarf go and made up this rather unlikely excuse, the other half figuring he'd been charmed or feared somehow. His familiar backed him up, but who listens to a stupid bird?
"He'll be back," Kijj predicted. And it was very likely that they wouldn' be ready.
last week next week
When I said I could take the Sivak, I didn't realize that he had a ten foot reach. The ten foot reach meant that I couldn't step back and cast my defensive spells. That meant that he could drop me in about... oh... one more round. Run away!
We spent the whole session travelling over land, running into random monsters. It was thrilling.
The party spent several days walking through the desert to the nearest town, and didn't run into anything really nasty. The night before they hit the tiny desert town the merchant was going to first do business in, though, several people on watch heard a rumbling thundery sound to the north, that went on for fifteen minutes before dying off. They decided to ask about it in town, rather than running off to investigate it right away.
The town was kind of a dive, but after a bit of asking around (it's ghosts! The ghost of the blue and broze dragon overlords that died in the desert, still fighting each other beyond the grave!) Sonnet realized that she recognized the spot as where a blue dragon (but not the overlord) had been killed and driven into the ground so hard that it collapsed part of the desert into some caves below, leaving hot springs. Acidic, boiling hot springs.
So, not that interesting after all. Murphy did find a black-robe wizard in town, who gave him a scroll telling of the Conclave in Panthalas, at least, and there were a lot of bounties offered. One large bounty was on the head of a rival thieves' guild, but the party declined to become assassins.
Instead, they decided to explore the hot springs -- caves meant monsters and treasure, right? So they travelled out there, and were fortunate enough to spot the basilisk before it saw them.
There was a very large bounty on basilisks -- 1000 steel each, and 500 for each egg. "But we'll DIE!" several members of the party protested. "But... all that money..."
So they eventually decided on a plan. Sonnet would fascinate the basilisk, looking at it in a mirror to avoid being stoned by its gaze, and while it was helpless Morgan and Thor would sneak up on it, in that order. Morgan was successfully sneaky, and got around behind it, but Thor was too much of a threat, so just as he got in charge range, the basilisk snapped out of its daze.
It was too late for it, though. Morgan and Thor attacked it viciously with their blades, while the sorceror and wizards pelted it with magic missiles from afar. It went down before it could do any harm... but there was another basilisk, which came out of the cave (which none of the party had seen until the first basilisk was dead) and glared at Thor. Thor shook off the momentary stoniness, and the basilisk-slaying process was repeated.
There were ten eggs in the nest, for a total bounty of 7000 steel, and two statues of human children, in perfect condition, which when taken back to the city proved to be the mayor's missing kids -- another 5000 steel for recovering them in a recoverable state. This was cause for some celebration (and some shopping), and then it was on to Tarsis.
Sonnet was nearly blinded by a disease the mayor had slipped into her food as payback for trying (unsuccessfully) to hold the statues hostage for more money. After the initial scare, she threw it off quickly, though.
Other than that, the trip to Tarsis passed uneventfully. In Tarsis, there was less work to be had (apparently it had a functioning government and didn't have to resort to bounties as much), but Sonnet insinuated herself into a bardic college by bragging about the Sylvan Key and her Destiny. One of the student bards was a little too curious about this treasure she'd found, so she lied and said that she'd hidden it in the basilisk's lair back in the desert...
Apparently, he didn't buy that story, because a day out of Tarsis they were ambushed by a pack of draconians, led by the student bard. The draconians attacked with bows from the top of a fifty foot cliff, slaying the merchant's useless archer guards before they could react, while the bard cast an illusion of walls of fire trapping the party in the canyon. Murphy recognized the spell as it was cast, though, and warned the others about the illusion. This let many of them see throug the fire.
Sonnet, Morgan, and Thor hung back by the merchants, returning fire at the draconians on the ledges (killing two among them) while Kijj and Murphy charged the wall of fire where the bard was casting nasty spells and his two hench-draks were tossing magic missiles from wands. Kijj wounded the bard, who was finished off by a blast from Mike's circlet of blasting, then slew one of his friends.
At that point Sonnet tried to negotiate a truce, which the draconians agreed to -- they stopped attacking, and started looting the bodies of their fallen, as well as the party's. Murphy stunned the one who'd been looting the good stuff off the bard, then disarmed him and tossed his weapons off into the forest. He ran off, apologizing etc. The two that were looting the dead archers didn't get caught, though, despite Thor's best (if horribly foolish) efforts.
Sonnet didn't tell the party that she recognized the bard as the one she'd been talking to, so all the acidic comments directed at her (by Morgan mostly) were strictly out of character.
A few days later, they passed a party of dwarves, who warned of an army of trolls and ogres in the foothills ahead between them and Thorbardin (the party's next stop). That night, a lone dwarf, who claimed to be separated from his party, approached and asked to share the fire, offering food and drink. This made Kijj suspicious, so they certainly didn't let the dwarf take a watch...
...during Thor's watch, though, the dwarf got up 'to take a piss' and was gone for about fifteen minutes, after which Thor finally spotted him messing around with the horses. Thor challenged him, and inspected the horses -- all the gems were gone, stolen! Thor sounded the alarm, waking everyone.
Murphy and Morgan spotted the thief rustling through the underbrush, invisible, and the party unloaded on him, doing a lot of damage and finally provoking him into breaking his invisibility (he *really* didn't like Morgan trying to grapple him) -- at which point he was toast, and fell almost instantly, although he had enough time to blow up a scroll of Dimension Door in his own face.
The party was split on what to do with him, after that. He'd stolen not only the gems, but nearly every magic item the party had. Kijj did some math and figured that he'd stolen about ten million times as much as his life was worth. Mike and Thor also wanted him dead. Morgan and Murphy didn't want him *dead*... although some punishment was in order. Sonnet healed him back to life.
They eventually decided to leave him tied to a tree, for Kijj to 'take care of' (his instructions were to 'tie him to the tree and leave him there', but they figured he'd kill him). Kijj didn't notice everyone leaving until it was too late to object, so shrugged and went to ensure that the thief at least wouldn't be able to come after them -- a few broken fingers, and a couple eyes fed to his familiar, and the thief's stealing days would be done.
The Sivak who'd been pretending to be nearly dead wasn't about to stand for that, though, and changed back into his true form, bursting out of the ropes. "I guess I'll have to take YOU then," he said to Kijj.
"I can take ya," Kijj snarled back, shortly before being whacked upside the head for half his hitpoints.
A few seconds later, the party saw Kijj running back at them from the darkness, screaming in terror about a huge Sivak Draconian that the dwarf had turned into! No one believed him, half the party figuring he'd let the dwarf go and made up this rather unlikely excuse, the other half figuring he'd been charmed or feared somehow. His familiar backed him up, but who listens to a stupid bird?
"He'll be back," Kijj predicted. And it was very likely that they wouldn' be ready.
last week next week
When I said I could take the Sivak, I didn't realize that he had a ten foot reach. The ten foot reach meant that I couldn't step back and cast my defensive spells. That meant that he could drop me in about... oh... one more round. Run away!
