Rebel Without a Cause
Mar. 22nd, 2005 12:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
terryclothTonight we had another session of the D+D game David's running in the interim while we're waiting for Jeff's schedule to get less hectic. Patrick showed up this week, playing a druid, Cora, to fill the much-needed 'healer' role.
Phygtyl, Tydek, and Ignacious spent several days resting up after their ordeal, letting their wounds heal, shopping for equipment, and the like. Splitting up the treasure from the old man was easy -- Tydek was the only one who wanted to wear plate mail, and Phygtyl couldn't use either of the weapons they recovered because they were EEEEVIL and Phygtyl was good. Ignacious didn't have that problem, so he kept them both. The dagger he never used, but the cane turned out to be a concealed +2 rapier with a DC 15 1-round nauseate effect on every hit -- *awesome* weapon for a rogue. Phygtyl just kept all the rest of the treasure, which added up to be just enough for him to afford a masterwork strength bow.
When they were healed and rested, they went out looking for more work, only to find a posting that Phygtyl's childhood friend Cora had left asking him to come meet her if he saw it. So the group went to pay a social visit, and he found out that his 'uncle' was dead, murdered horribly along with Cora's mother. She'd been sent to retrieve him so that he could be present for his funeral.
Now, Phygtyl hated his aunt, and didn't really care too much that her boyfriend had kicked the bucket, but she *was* family and so he'd have to be there. Plus, Cora had liked her mother, so for her sake at least he should go. They brought the others with them since they had nothing better to do, and a series of related murders sounded like a job for a bunch of adventuring PIs to tackle.
They decided to hire a carriage to take them to Three Rivers since it was unbelievably cheap, but halfway there they ran into trouble that the carriage driver wasn't willing to help them with. The cultists were at the crossroads casting some necromantic ritual, and while the party tried to ask politely if they could just go around, the cultists insisted they pay for their 'insolence' with their lives.
Phygtyl, trying out his new bow, climbed up on top of the carriage and fired off a shot at the cult leader. It was a decently aimed blow, but it bounced off the cultist's robe, and the return fire in the form of a trio of magic missiles did bad things to the ranger. The others also stepped out of the carriage and attacked, and the minor cultists shot single magic missiles at them.
Phygtyl's dog, Cora's wolf, Cora herself and Tydek engaged the spellcasters in close combat, while Ignacious shot blindly into the melee and Phygtyl himself hid behind the carriage fearing more magic missiles that would finish him off. The leader was tripped and the minor cultists wounded, and the enemies decided to flee -- the leader by growing wings, and the others by running for their horses. Cora cast an entangle, which entangled both of the minor cultists (dragging the one off his horse, who was not entangled), but the leader escaped the planty grasp and flew up into the air, slowly.
He kept slowly gaining altitude as Phygtyl and Ignacious took dozens of shots at him, and was eventually able to fly up out of reasonable range, and then away laterally. The other cultists were pincushioned in the entangle, though, and then out of spite the party slew the leader's undead horse, although it kicked Phygtyl in the chest and nearly killed him, wounded as he was.
Afterwards, the continued on towards Three Rivers, and reached it by dusk. They saw some movement in the cemetary, and Phygtyl (significantly healed) snuck up to check it out, and saw a small figure duck into an open grave, which had a tunnel leading underground in the bottom. He informed the rest of the party, and they agreed to check it out later, when they were all rested and healed.
The next morning, rested and healed (mostly), they talked to the Constable about the murders. Both had been ambushed outdoors, on the way to work, and hacked apart with a large slashing weapon. The only clue was that the town drunk, who swore he was sober at the time, had seen a murder of crows pass overhead just before finding Cora's mother's body. Crows could not have caused the wounds that killed her, though.
Cora tried to interrogate the crows, but they were actively hostile, and the best she could manage with her druid powers was to keep them from actually attacking her. The party talked to the drunk, but he didn't have much else to say, although he did eventually mention that the crows had come from the east, which was the direction of the graveyard (and Kingsport, and the crossroads, and many many other things). So the party took that as an excuse to explore the graveyard tunnels.
The tunnels were narrow (mostly 5' wide) and twisty, and mostly ended in desecrated graves -- dug by ghouls, perhaps. The party didn't find any ghouls, but they did eventually find some kobolds. Not recognizing what a kobold was, the party tried to parlay with them, shocking the kobolds enough that they took them to their leader to negotiate.
The leader told them that while they didn't know anything about the murders or even any undead, since they'd just moved into the area, they needed the party to help them wipe out a group of evil heretics who'd driven them out of power, and no longer worshipped the Great Weasel -- they worshipped *spiders* instead! If the party would just go and murder them all, they'd receive nifty souvenier weasel-head amulets of their very own...
So of course the party agreed. The heretics were numerous, but only a few of them were strong, and after the weasel-tribe's guide led them past the traps, the party took the heretics by surprise and managed to keep up a battle-front that limited the number of kobolds that could attack them at once. The battle went very well for them until the king of the heretics got up off his scaly behind and waded into the fray, with his bodyguards.
One of the bodyguards was chopped in half with a single (critical) swing of Tydek's scythe, but the other one proved very resourceful, and the king himself was a monster, flying into a rage when his wounds threatened to overwhelm him and dropping Tydek -- just as kobold reinforcements arrived!
Ignacious used his newfound magical talents to magic-missile the king, then Phygtyl and his little dog finished him off, but the remaining bodyguard proved very resilient, and it was half a minute or more before the remaining party members could take him down, while Cora's wolf fought a holding action. It dragged on so long that Ignacious and Phygtyl were forced to take time out to bind Tydek's wounds, lest he bleed to death! [and only succeeded because they used three 'brownie points' between them]
But eventually, the second bodyguard too fell before the party, and without actually taking down anyone else, although Cora was on her last legs at the end of it. The reinforcements weren't very numerous or strong, so it was just mop up after that. Cora healed Tydek enough to get him up on his feet, and they prepared to loot the bodies... some of them (those with nominally good alignments) hoping that they'd actually taken out bad guys and not just random people that other people didn't like.
last session | next session
Phygtyl, Tydek, and Ignacious spent several days resting up after their ordeal, letting their wounds heal, shopping for equipment, and the like. Splitting up the treasure from the old man was easy -- Tydek was the only one who wanted to wear plate mail, and Phygtyl couldn't use either of the weapons they recovered because they were EEEEVIL and Phygtyl was good. Ignacious didn't have that problem, so he kept them both. The dagger he never used, but the cane turned out to be a concealed +2 rapier with a DC 15 1-round nauseate effect on every hit -- *awesome* weapon for a rogue. Phygtyl just kept all the rest of the treasure, which added up to be just enough for him to afford a masterwork strength bow.
When they were healed and rested, they went out looking for more work, only to find a posting that Phygtyl's childhood friend Cora had left asking him to come meet her if he saw it. So the group went to pay a social visit, and he found out that his 'uncle' was dead, murdered horribly along with Cora's mother. She'd been sent to retrieve him so that he could be present for his funeral.
Now, Phygtyl hated his aunt, and didn't really care too much that her boyfriend had kicked the bucket, but she *was* family and so he'd have to be there. Plus, Cora had liked her mother, so for her sake at least he should go. They brought the others with them since they had nothing better to do, and a series of related murders sounded like a job for a bunch of adventuring PIs to tackle.
They decided to hire a carriage to take them to Three Rivers since it was unbelievably cheap, but halfway there they ran into trouble that the carriage driver wasn't willing to help them with. The cultists were at the crossroads casting some necromantic ritual, and while the party tried to ask politely if they could just go around, the cultists insisted they pay for their 'insolence' with their lives.
Phygtyl, trying out his new bow, climbed up on top of the carriage and fired off a shot at the cult leader. It was a decently aimed blow, but it bounced off the cultist's robe, and the return fire in the form of a trio of magic missiles did bad things to the ranger. The others also stepped out of the carriage and attacked, and the minor cultists shot single magic missiles at them.
Phygtyl's dog, Cora's wolf, Cora herself and Tydek engaged the spellcasters in close combat, while Ignacious shot blindly into the melee and Phygtyl himself hid behind the carriage fearing more magic missiles that would finish him off. The leader was tripped and the minor cultists wounded, and the enemies decided to flee -- the leader by growing wings, and the others by running for their horses. Cora cast an entangle, which entangled both of the minor cultists (dragging the one off his horse, who was not entangled), but the leader escaped the planty grasp and flew up into the air, slowly.
He kept slowly gaining altitude as Phygtyl and Ignacious took dozens of shots at him, and was eventually able to fly up out of reasonable range, and then away laterally. The other cultists were pincushioned in the entangle, though, and then out of spite the party slew the leader's undead horse, although it kicked Phygtyl in the chest and nearly killed him, wounded as he was.
Afterwards, the continued on towards Three Rivers, and reached it by dusk. They saw some movement in the cemetary, and Phygtyl (significantly healed) snuck up to check it out, and saw a small figure duck into an open grave, which had a tunnel leading underground in the bottom. He informed the rest of the party, and they agreed to check it out later, when they were all rested and healed.
The next morning, rested and healed (mostly), they talked to the Constable about the murders. Both had been ambushed outdoors, on the way to work, and hacked apart with a large slashing weapon. The only clue was that the town drunk, who swore he was sober at the time, had seen a murder of crows pass overhead just before finding Cora's mother's body. Crows could not have caused the wounds that killed her, though.
Cora tried to interrogate the crows, but they were actively hostile, and the best she could manage with her druid powers was to keep them from actually attacking her. The party talked to the drunk, but he didn't have much else to say, although he did eventually mention that the crows had come from the east, which was the direction of the graveyard (and Kingsport, and the crossroads, and many many other things). So the party took that as an excuse to explore the graveyard tunnels.
The tunnels were narrow (mostly 5' wide) and twisty, and mostly ended in desecrated graves -- dug by ghouls, perhaps. The party didn't find any ghouls, but they did eventually find some kobolds. Not recognizing what a kobold was, the party tried to parlay with them, shocking the kobolds enough that they took them to their leader to negotiate.
The leader told them that while they didn't know anything about the murders or even any undead, since they'd just moved into the area, they needed the party to help them wipe out a group of evil heretics who'd driven them out of power, and no longer worshipped the Great Weasel -- they worshipped *spiders* instead! If the party would just go and murder them all, they'd receive nifty souvenier weasel-head amulets of their very own...
So of course the party agreed. The heretics were numerous, but only a few of them were strong, and after the weasel-tribe's guide led them past the traps, the party took the heretics by surprise and managed to keep up a battle-front that limited the number of kobolds that could attack them at once. The battle went very well for them until the king of the heretics got up off his scaly behind and waded into the fray, with his bodyguards.
One of the bodyguards was chopped in half with a single (critical) swing of Tydek's scythe, but the other one proved very resourceful, and the king himself was a monster, flying into a rage when his wounds threatened to overwhelm him and dropping Tydek -- just as kobold reinforcements arrived!
Ignacious used his newfound magical talents to magic-missile the king, then Phygtyl and his little dog finished him off, but the remaining bodyguard proved very resilient, and it was half a minute or more before the remaining party members could take him down, while Cora's wolf fought a holding action. It dragged on so long that Ignacious and Phygtyl were forced to take time out to bind Tydek's wounds, lest he bleed to death! [and only succeeded because they used three 'brownie points' between them]
But eventually, the second bodyguard too fell before the party, and without actually taking down anyone else, although Cora was on her last legs at the end of it. The reinforcements weren't very numerous or strong, so it was just mop up after that. Cora healed Tydek enough to get him up on his feet, and they prepared to loot the bodies... some of them (those with nominally good alignments) hoping that they'd actually taken out bad guys and not just random people that other people didn't like.
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