Gnomes of Evlynn
Sep. 20th, 2005 01:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
terryclothTonight we had a session of Patrick's D+D game. Jeff wasn't there, but we pressed on regardless.
The party took the wagonload of lumber up to Evlynn, the largest city in the area, and sold it for 250gp, thanks to their little gnome hanger-on, who was a fairly good merchant -- he also got them almost 500gp for the goblins' equipment, which was more than they'd expected.
The only trouble they ran into in the shopping part of their stay in the city was in regards to a magical dagger they'd had identified as a Healing Shiv of Loviatar. It was a dagger which healed at the same time as it wounded, which made it very valuable to anyone fighting the undead, or to anyone who wanted to stab a victim over and over and over and probably not kill them in the process. They heard that the temple was eager to get such weapons back, but the evil priests would only offer a 10gp finder's fee, which the party immediately rejected, despite dire threats.
They were nearly accosted by agents of the temple on the way back to their inn, but the would-be assailants were spotted and confronted, and decided not to attack a better-armed party without the element of surprise.
After that excitement, a shadowy figure offered to buy the dagger from them... they told him to meet them during the day in a public area to negotiate, since they were done with ambushes for the night.
The person turned out to be an agent for the temple of healing, who wanted to destroy the dagger -- he wasn't willing to pay what it was worth (not that they'd been able to sell it to actual merchants anyway -- word had gotten around that it was intelligent and whispered into its weilder's dreams, thanks to Rrann's inept attempt to talk up its value) but offered a somewhat valuable magical item in trade, one that would cast restoration once a week.
He also wanted them to help him out with a bunch of undead menacing one of his outlying temples, but Seldon did NOT want to fight undead (having no spells that would affect them) and insisted they look for other work. Their gnome found them jobs helping in the war between rival thieves' and beggars' guilds, but they didn't want to get involved in that either. How about a job harassing some goblins who'd wandered too close to the city? No, still too dangerous.
Ah, bandits. They could handly bandits. They'd pretend to be a caravan carrying linen to Silver Pass to trade for silk... but why pretend? They had a cart, had they not? They had some gold to spend on trade goods, and a gnome insisting he was their man who was good at merchanting. Why not do it for real, and take out the bandits in passing? Besides, the bandits would surely wait to attack them until they were on the way back with the silk, what bandits would care for linen?
Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, these bandits wanted linen. The party spotted an obvious ambush area, and sent Mirass ahead with her dog to sniff for ambushers. Unfortunately, the obvious ambush place was a distraction, and the actual ambush sprung!
First, a druid in the brambles that they'd expected to hold the whole ambush entangled the party, then archers popped out of the bushes to either side and shot Seldon full of holes. Finally, a mage popped out directly behind the party, and shot an acid arrow at Seldon to finish him off... although he wasn't *quite* finished.
Seldon managed to drink a potion to keep himself alive (and in fact, heal himself to perfect health) while Rrann charged back out of the entangle to menace the wizard, drawing the rest of his spell load as his arrows missed over and over (not even managing to hit the wizard's mirror images, they were so badly aimed), but making all his saves, thanks in part to his dwarven heritage. The wizard was eventually forced to run away when he ran out of spells -- mission accomplished!
Meanwhile, Mirass's dog was holding off two of the archers (who'd switched to two-handed swords to fight it in close combat) while Mirass faced down the druid one-on-one... except that the enemy druid had a flame-sword spell, which should have let her finish Mirass easily. But Mirass was lucky enough to dodge most of her attacks, and slowly wear her down with conventional weapons.
The last two fighters were knocked unconscious by Seldon's color spray, then laboriously coup-de-graced. It took a lot of work for him to manage it.
Rrann, after 'chasing off' the wizard, tried to help the dog against the fighters, sending arrow after arrow whizzing past their heads, until he got frustrated and charged in with his axe, instead. In two rounds, they were both down, beheaded by the dwarf's waraxe.
At that point the enemy druid tried to flee, but Mirass -- who, unlike the enemies, had been husbanding her power -- cast her own entangle, wrapping her up in blackberry brambles. She turned into a snake to try to escape and hide, but Mirass started pelting her with little balls of flame from a produce flame spell, which lit her up for Rrann to finally start hitting with his bow, finishing her off.
The party hid the wagon nearby, leaving the gnome and Vryce to watch it just in case, and had Mirass's dog track the wizard's scent. He tried to lose them by walking in a stream for an hour or so, but they were persistant and picked his trail back up when he left. It was late at night by the time the trail led towards what looked like a campfire... Rrann snuck up close to scout it out.
The wizard was there, talking in goblish to a pair of goblins. Rrann snuck a little closer, then put an arrow through the wizard's eye, killing him instantly. The rest of the party rushed up to help, but Mirass and her dog were tangle-foot bagged, so Rrann had to finish the one goblin who didn't run, too. The one who did run was taken down by the dog, after it broke free of the entangle, with an expeditious retreat spell cancelling out the goopy glue stuck to its legs...
With the bandits down, the party was not willing to go through with the whole trade mission, instead unloading the linen in the next town for a small (3%) profit. The run back up to Elvynn was a lot more profitable, though, as the gnome was able to find cargo that would actually sell in the city they were actually heading to -- and the bounty on the bandits was in the hundreds of gold, not to mention what they got from the bandits' treasure -- more gold and stuff to sell, magic leather, and a very fine suit of elven chain for Rrann.
They also found a strange green rock with odd properties, that couldn't really be identified despite multiple attempts. Eventually, research at the bardic college revealed that it was likely a part of the artifact holding the Earthbound Curse -- that kept spellcasters from casting fly spells -- in place, and that if all five pieces were joined, the curse would be lifted. They tug they felt when holding it was probably leading them towards the next piece.
But before they could follow up on that, they were hired by the city guard. The news about the elven bandits working with goblins was a shock, and when a mindreader pulled the words that had been spoken out of Rrann's head, the shock was greater -- the goblins were planning something big, that would carry them across a huge swath of the continent, wiping out Blennin and at least two other human cities, including the city of the sorcerers, as they moved to join with their allied witches in the great swamp. The guard didn't want this plan revealed as it would cause panic, and so it was the party who was sent to ask the Oracle about this plan and return with the no-doubt-cryptic response.
The priest of the temple of healing still hadn't found anyone to fight the undead, so he convinced the party and the guards to accept an animal messenger spell with the oracle's riddle as completion of the contract, so that the party could head up to deal with the undead afterwards, as the Oracle's tower was close to the affected area.
Oh, also, the party was officially registered as the Black Griffons, as Mirass insisted on reminding everyone all the time constantly. "You want gold, I want glory," she explained.
last week | next week
The party took the wagonload of lumber up to Evlynn, the largest city in the area, and sold it for 250gp, thanks to their little gnome hanger-on, who was a fairly good merchant -- he also got them almost 500gp for the goblins' equipment, which was more than they'd expected.
The only trouble they ran into in the shopping part of their stay in the city was in regards to a magical dagger they'd had identified as a Healing Shiv of Loviatar. It was a dagger which healed at the same time as it wounded, which made it very valuable to anyone fighting the undead, or to anyone who wanted to stab a victim over and over and over and probably not kill them in the process. They heard that the temple was eager to get such weapons back, but the evil priests would only offer a 10gp finder's fee, which the party immediately rejected, despite dire threats.
They were nearly accosted by agents of the temple on the way back to their inn, but the would-be assailants were spotted and confronted, and decided not to attack a better-armed party without the element of surprise.
After that excitement, a shadowy figure offered to buy the dagger from them... they told him to meet them during the day in a public area to negotiate, since they were done with ambushes for the night.
The person turned out to be an agent for the temple of healing, who wanted to destroy the dagger -- he wasn't willing to pay what it was worth (not that they'd been able to sell it to actual merchants anyway -- word had gotten around that it was intelligent and whispered into its weilder's dreams, thanks to Rrann's inept attempt to talk up its value) but offered a somewhat valuable magical item in trade, one that would cast restoration once a week.
He also wanted them to help him out with a bunch of undead menacing one of his outlying temples, but Seldon did NOT want to fight undead (having no spells that would affect them) and insisted they look for other work. Their gnome found them jobs helping in the war between rival thieves' and beggars' guilds, but they didn't want to get involved in that either. How about a job harassing some goblins who'd wandered too close to the city? No, still too dangerous.
Ah, bandits. They could handly bandits. They'd pretend to be a caravan carrying linen to Silver Pass to trade for silk... but why pretend? They had a cart, had they not? They had some gold to spend on trade goods, and a gnome insisting he was their man who was good at merchanting. Why not do it for real, and take out the bandits in passing? Besides, the bandits would surely wait to attack them until they were on the way back with the silk, what bandits would care for linen?
Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, these bandits wanted linen. The party spotted an obvious ambush area, and sent Mirass ahead with her dog to sniff for ambushers. Unfortunately, the obvious ambush place was a distraction, and the actual ambush sprung!
First, a druid in the brambles that they'd expected to hold the whole ambush entangled the party, then archers popped out of the bushes to either side and shot Seldon full of holes. Finally, a mage popped out directly behind the party, and shot an acid arrow at Seldon to finish him off... although he wasn't *quite* finished.
Seldon managed to drink a potion to keep himself alive (and in fact, heal himself to perfect health) while Rrann charged back out of the entangle to menace the wizard, drawing the rest of his spell load as his arrows missed over and over (not even managing to hit the wizard's mirror images, they were so badly aimed), but making all his saves, thanks in part to his dwarven heritage. The wizard was eventually forced to run away when he ran out of spells -- mission accomplished!
Meanwhile, Mirass's dog was holding off two of the archers (who'd switched to two-handed swords to fight it in close combat) while Mirass faced down the druid one-on-one... except that the enemy druid had a flame-sword spell, which should have let her finish Mirass easily. But Mirass was lucky enough to dodge most of her attacks, and slowly wear her down with conventional weapons.
The last two fighters were knocked unconscious by Seldon's color spray, then laboriously coup-de-graced. It took a lot of work for him to manage it.
Rrann, after 'chasing off' the wizard, tried to help the dog against the fighters, sending arrow after arrow whizzing past their heads, until he got frustrated and charged in with his axe, instead. In two rounds, they were both down, beheaded by the dwarf's waraxe.
At that point the enemy druid tried to flee, but Mirass -- who, unlike the enemies, had been husbanding her power -- cast her own entangle, wrapping her up in blackberry brambles. She turned into a snake to try to escape and hide, but Mirass started pelting her with little balls of flame from a produce flame spell, which lit her up for Rrann to finally start hitting with his bow, finishing her off.
The party hid the wagon nearby, leaving the gnome and Vryce to watch it just in case, and had Mirass's dog track the wizard's scent. He tried to lose them by walking in a stream for an hour or so, but they were persistant and picked his trail back up when he left. It was late at night by the time the trail led towards what looked like a campfire... Rrann snuck up close to scout it out.
The wizard was there, talking in goblish to a pair of goblins. Rrann snuck a little closer, then put an arrow through the wizard's eye, killing him instantly. The rest of the party rushed up to help, but Mirass and her dog were tangle-foot bagged, so Rrann had to finish the one goblin who didn't run, too. The one who did run was taken down by the dog, after it broke free of the entangle, with an expeditious retreat spell cancelling out the goopy glue stuck to its legs...
With the bandits down, the party was not willing to go through with the whole trade mission, instead unloading the linen in the next town for a small (3%) profit. The run back up to Elvynn was a lot more profitable, though, as the gnome was able to find cargo that would actually sell in the city they were actually heading to -- and the bounty on the bandits was in the hundreds of gold, not to mention what they got from the bandits' treasure -- more gold and stuff to sell, magic leather, and a very fine suit of elven chain for Rrann.
They also found a strange green rock with odd properties, that couldn't really be identified despite multiple attempts. Eventually, research at the bardic college revealed that it was likely a part of the artifact holding the Earthbound Curse -- that kept spellcasters from casting fly spells -- in place, and that if all five pieces were joined, the curse would be lifted. They tug they felt when holding it was probably leading them towards the next piece.
But before they could follow up on that, they were hired by the city guard. The news about the elven bandits working with goblins was a shock, and when a mindreader pulled the words that had been spoken out of Rrann's head, the shock was greater -- the goblins were planning something big, that would carry them across a huge swath of the continent, wiping out Blennin and at least two other human cities, including the city of the sorcerers, as they moved to join with their allied witches in the great swamp. The guard didn't want this plan revealed as it would cause panic, and so it was the party who was sent to ask the Oracle about this plan and return with the no-doubt-cryptic response.
The priest of the temple of healing still hadn't found anyone to fight the undead, so he convinced the party and the guards to accept an animal messenger spell with the oracle's riddle as completion of the contract, so that the party could head up to deal with the undead afterwards, as the Oracle's tower was close to the affected area.
Oh, also, the party was officially registered as the Black Griffons, as Mirass insisted on reminding everyone all the time constantly. "You want gold, I want glory," she explained.
last week | next week
