Bluebirds and Red Herrings
Oct. 4th, 2005 12:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
terryclothSo, a session of Patrick's D+D game tonight. A little research, a little trading, a little bandit-killing, and a bit of gift economy. Never look it in the mouth!
So the party was transported back to Elthyenn (not Slytheen, sorry) by the nymph, to take care of business before proceeding to the elven lands where the seer and everyone had suggested they go.
The first order of business was to turn in the evil book to the bardic college. They were ready to give it away without reward, not expecting the bards to have much to give, but Mariss managed to get the bards to trade instead a favor with the temple of Tyche, god(dess?) of luck. The information they wanted, mostly on the elves, was free of charge as members of the adventurer's guild. But not terribly useful.
In addition, and in return for news about the seer's death and about the location of her sister's oasis, the bards agreed to cast a Legend Lore spell on the scrap of cloth they'd found at the death scene -- the thought being that the death of the seer was itself legendary enough to satisfy the spell. As a backup, the bards planned to have a gnomish psychic do an object reading if that didn't work.
In the meantime, they visited the guard (who'd gotten the bird) and told him about the seer's death as well... and the temple of Diancet to inform them of their success, which they too already knew about. And the bar, to get a little drunk before heading back to the library.
The bards were able to tell them that the owner of the cloth and six other elves had been at the death scene, and that the owner lived in the elvish capitol and knew where the missing elvish prince was! This was important news. They were also reminded to turn in the favor of Tyche that same day, as it would expire by morning.
So, that meant the next order of business was Tyche. Apparently, it was a powerful favor, as it gave each member of the party a roll or two on the random magic item table. "Do you want what's in the box, or what's behind door number 1?" Rrann got an ioun stone, Mariss a high-level scroll, Seldon a wand of summon monster II (which he traded, along with a favor to be named later, for a set of boots of striding and springing), and Vryce a dagger of plant-bane, which he donated to his temple.
That night, they figured out how to awaken the sentience of their piece of the malachite. It appeared as a little girl, called itself 'Uey the Keystone', and revealed that its previous owner had been an elven boy, who'd been kidnapped by other elves and traded to goblins for a young orc.
At any rate, after some discussion, they decided to head to the elvish lands to try to talk to the queen. Rrann agreed, grudgingly, to give back the very nice armor he'd been wearing (that used to belong to the prince) if and only if Vryce was able to get them an audience with the queen herself -- as revealing it to any other elf risked revealing it to the guilty party, which would be very dangerous.
So they bought a load (1000 gp worth) of axe heads and sawblades, and headed to the town of Varynn, a human logging outpost on the edge of elvish territory, that had a treaty with the elves to let them cut wood from the forest as long as they planted two trees for every one felled. This made it the location of the elvish ambassador, as well as the focus of much elvish dislike for humanity.
The trip was mostly uneventful -- even the visit to the nymph, who was on the way -- except for the bandits. Mariss spotted some archers hiding in the tall grass, and briar-webbed them... but unfortunately, the main threat was the spellcasters who popped out behind the party and sonic-balled them, knocking out Seldon before he could react.
Rrann and Vryce charged the casters on horseback, taking out the wizard instantly and then dueling for a good long while with the much-better-armored cleric. The cleric took out Rrann's horse, but that ironically put Rrann in a much better position to fight, and gave him time to draw his shield. Once again, Rrann made his saves against the cleric's attack spells until he ran out of them.
Meanwhile, Mariss's dog was fighting off the two archers, while Mariss herself was trying to heal Seldon while being flanked and backstabbed by a pair of gnomish rogues dual-weilding posioned daggers. It was all she could do to heal herself and her dog... but she managed to get Seldon back up, and he finished off the cleric with magic missiles, freeing Rrann and Vryce to charge in and take out one gnome and one archer. The remaining archer drank a potion of expeditious retreat and ran for his life (dodging a few arrows Rrann sent after him, ineffectively), while the second gnome surrendered.
After looting the bandits and interrogating the gnome, Vryce offered to let him go with his life if he'd lead them to the last bandit. The gnome did, the party captured the bandit leader alive, and then Vryce fulfilled his vow by untying the gnome and cutting off his hand. "I forgive you for the sin of banditry, and instead punish you only for the crime of theft." The gnome scowled bitterly, but scurried off, knowing he was doomed if he stuck around.
The bandit leader tried to bargain for his life, offering vast rewards from his friends if the party would let him go. Vryce, of course, was having none of it, and the rest of the party was unwilling to fight him just to set free a man who'd tried to kill them all. In town, the guard was eager to offer a bounty to take custody... but Vryce insisted he be taken to the temple of Tyr to face justice instead, offering his share of the bandit's equipment to the party in recompense for the lost bounty. The priests of Tyr made sure the right hangin' judge heard his case and executed him before his friends in high places could set him free.
The axes sold well, and they were able to identify the magical items the bandits had had, although there was nowhere to sell them. There was a poisonous dagger (given to Seldon), a magic shield (for Mariss), a magic (but crappy) bow (which no one claimed), and a nice magic axe that Rrann took, since he seemed to end up in melee so often. There were also a bunch of potions of expeditious retreat, which were passed around.
Asking around about the elven ambassador, one priest of Tyr suggested they bring gifts 'of things that couldn't be found in elven lands' for the queen, if they wanted an audience. He suggested handcrafted things, to play to her fascination with humans. So the party crafted various popcorn necklaces and macaroni pictures (well, a poem, a pie, a fingerpainting, and some arrows) and went to see him.
Ambassador: "Why do you wish an audience with the queen?"
Vryce: "We bring news of her son."
Ambassador: "Then we leave at once!"
It only took a few hours to enter the realm of faerie where the elven kingdom was located, on horseback. They were fed, bathed, given nice clothing, prettied up with makeup and perfume, and escorted to see the queen, where they presented her with their gifts, and then with the story of how they'd found her son's armor, accompanied of course by the armor itself.
They also told her of the legend lore and the murder of the seer, and that Mariss had the scent of a man who had been present at the murder, and who apparently lived in the elven capitol itself. The queen was surprised to hear about the exchange -- the orcish boy sounded like the missing son of Pashnuk the gobling king, whose absence was the reason the goblins were going to war! She agreed that he had to be captured at once, and instructed them to take him alive. Accompanied by a pair of rangers from the queen's guard, the party crisscrossed the tree city searching for the scent, eventually tracking it down to a wizard's hut.
The wizard was cranky and soon, on the defensive. "You can't come through my wards!" "What are you going to do, cower there forever? Come out and explain yourself to your queen!"
Instead, he tried to cut his own throat! Mariss healed him so that he didn't die from that, then Rrann shot him down, knocking him out without outright killing him, and Seldon tossed a rope with a lasso to drag him out his door, which Vryce verified was warded with a Maze spell by trying to step through.
Even the queen's wizards were unable to get any information out of the man, though. He was known as a small-time wizard, not nearly powerful enough to craft the wards set on his mind that kept him from being forced to talk, or the Maze on his door. The elves could disable the door-trap, allowing the party to search his hut, where they found the cloak missing a torn piece -- that looked to have been torn deliberately -- and a pair of boots with salty black mud on them, that could only come from the salt marsh.
After revealing this new information to the queen, she agreed that they should leave to follow up on this, as the elf they'd caught was obviously a small-time patsy -- evidence had been planted to lead them to him, to waste their time (hopefully). The queen gave them each gifts of magic items (a wand of fire for Seldon, a wilding clasp and a torc of animal speech for Mariss, a cloak of elvenkind and quiver of elhonna for Rrann, and a mark of the elf-friend for Vryce, since he couldn't accept items) and told them they were welcome to stay for a few days in Faerie, which would only be a single day in the outside world.
Though they hadn't reached a final decision, the party was leaning towards tracking down the second part of the malachite, as it would lead them to the third part which the witch-queen possessed -- probably easier and safer than stumbling around in her swamp trying to get lucky.
last session | next session
So the party was transported back to Elthyenn (not Slytheen, sorry) by the nymph, to take care of business before proceeding to the elven lands where the seer and everyone had suggested they go.
The first order of business was to turn in the evil book to the bardic college. They were ready to give it away without reward, not expecting the bards to have much to give, but Mariss managed to get the bards to trade instead a favor with the temple of Tyche, god(dess?) of luck. The information they wanted, mostly on the elves, was free of charge as members of the adventurer's guild. But not terribly useful.
In addition, and in return for news about the seer's death and about the location of her sister's oasis, the bards agreed to cast a Legend Lore spell on the scrap of cloth they'd found at the death scene -- the thought being that the death of the seer was itself legendary enough to satisfy the spell. As a backup, the bards planned to have a gnomish psychic do an object reading if that didn't work.
In the meantime, they visited the guard (who'd gotten the bird) and told him about the seer's death as well... and the temple of Diancet to inform them of their success, which they too already knew about. And the bar, to get a little drunk before heading back to the library.
The bards were able to tell them that the owner of the cloth and six other elves had been at the death scene, and that the owner lived in the elvish capitol and knew where the missing elvish prince was! This was important news. They were also reminded to turn in the favor of Tyche that same day, as it would expire by morning.
So, that meant the next order of business was Tyche. Apparently, it was a powerful favor, as it gave each member of the party a roll or two on the random magic item table. "Do you want what's in the box, or what's behind door number 1?" Rrann got an ioun stone, Mariss a high-level scroll, Seldon a wand of summon monster II (which he traded, along with a favor to be named later, for a set of boots of striding and springing), and Vryce a dagger of plant-bane, which he donated to his temple.
That night, they figured out how to awaken the sentience of their piece of the malachite. It appeared as a little girl, called itself 'Uey the Keystone', and revealed that its previous owner had been an elven boy, who'd been kidnapped by other elves and traded to goblins for a young orc.
At any rate, after some discussion, they decided to head to the elvish lands to try to talk to the queen. Rrann agreed, grudgingly, to give back the very nice armor he'd been wearing (that used to belong to the prince) if and only if Vryce was able to get them an audience with the queen herself -- as revealing it to any other elf risked revealing it to the guilty party, which would be very dangerous.
So they bought a load (1000 gp worth) of axe heads and sawblades, and headed to the town of Varynn, a human logging outpost on the edge of elvish territory, that had a treaty with the elves to let them cut wood from the forest as long as they planted two trees for every one felled. This made it the location of the elvish ambassador, as well as the focus of much elvish dislike for humanity.
The trip was mostly uneventful -- even the visit to the nymph, who was on the way -- except for the bandits. Mariss spotted some archers hiding in the tall grass, and briar-webbed them... but unfortunately, the main threat was the spellcasters who popped out behind the party and sonic-balled them, knocking out Seldon before he could react.
Rrann and Vryce charged the casters on horseback, taking out the wizard instantly and then dueling for a good long while with the much-better-armored cleric. The cleric took out Rrann's horse, but that ironically put Rrann in a much better position to fight, and gave him time to draw his shield. Once again, Rrann made his saves against the cleric's attack spells until he ran out of them.
Meanwhile, Mariss's dog was fighting off the two archers, while Mariss herself was trying to heal Seldon while being flanked and backstabbed by a pair of gnomish rogues dual-weilding posioned daggers. It was all she could do to heal herself and her dog... but she managed to get Seldon back up, and he finished off the cleric with magic missiles, freeing Rrann and Vryce to charge in and take out one gnome and one archer. The remaining archer drank a potion of expeditious retreat and ran for his life (dodging a few arrows Rrann sent after him, ineffectively), while the second gnome surrendered.
After looting the bandits and interrogating the gnome, Vryce offered to let him go with his life if he'd lead them to the last bandit. The gnome did, the party captured the bandit leader alive, and then Vryce fulfilled his vow by untying the gnome and cutting off his hand. "I forgive you for the sin of banditry, and instead punish you only for the crime of theft." The gnome scowled bitterly, but scurried off, knowing he was doomed if he stuck around.
The bandit leader tried to bargain for his life, offering vast rewards from his friends if the party would let him go. Vryce, of course, was having none of it, and the rest of the party was unwilling to fight him just to set free a man who'd tried to kill them all. In town, the guard was eager to offer a bounty to take custody... but Vryce insisted he be taken to the temple of Tyr to face justice instead, offering his share of the bandit's equipment to the party in recompense for the lost bounty. The priests of Tyr made sure the right hangin' judge heard his case and executed him before his friends in high places could set him free.
The axes sold well, and they were able to identify the magical items the bandits had had, although there was nowhere to sell them. There was a poisonous dagger (given to Seldon), a magic shield (for Mariss), a magic (but crappy) bow (which no one claimed), and a nice magic axe that Rrann took, since he seemed to end up in melee so often. There were also a bunch of potions of expeditious retreat, which were passed around.
Asking around about the elven ambassador, one priest of Tyr suggested they bring gifts 'of things that couldn't be found in elven lands' for the queen, if they wanted an audience. He suggested handcrafted things, to play to her fascination with humans. So the party crafted various popcorn necklaces and macaroni pictures (well, a poem, a pie, a fingerpainting, and some arrows) and went to see him.
Ambassador: "Why do you wish an audience with the queen?"
Vryce: "We bring news of her son."
Ambassador: "Then we leave at once!"
It only took a few hours to enter the realm of faerie where the elven kingdom was located, on horseback. They were fed, bathed, given nice clothing, prettied up with makeup and perfume, and escorted to see the queen, where they presented her with their gifts, and then with the story of how they'd found her son's armor, accompanied of course by the armor itself.
They also told her of the legend lore and the murder of the seer, and that Mariss had the scent of a man who had been present at the murder, and who apparently lived in the elven capitol itself. The queen was surprised to hear about the exchange -- the orcish boy sounded like the missing son of Pashnuk the gobling king, whose absence was the reason the goblins were going to war! She agreed that he had to be captured at once, and instructed them to take him alive. Accompanied by a pair of rangers from the queen's guard, the party crisscrossed the tree city searching for the scent, eventually tracking it down to a wizard's hut.
The wizard was cranky and soon, on the defensive. "You can't come through my wards!" "What are you going to do, cower there forever? Come out and explain yourself to your queen!"
Instead, he tried to cut his own throat! Mariss healed him so that he didn't die from that, then Rrann shot him down, knocking him out without outright killing him, and Seldon tossed a rope with a lasso to drag him out his door, which Vryce verified was warded with a Maze spell by trying to step through.
Even the queen's wizards were unable to get any information out of the man, though. He was known as a small-time wizard, not nearly powerful enough to craft the wards set on his mind that kept him from being forced to talk, or the Maze on his door. The elves could disable the door-trap, allowing the party to search his hut, where they found the cloak missing a torn piece -- that looked to have been torn deliberately -- and a pair of boots with salty black mud on them, that could only come from the salt marsh.
After revealing this new information to the queen, she agreed that they should leave to follow up on this, as the elf they'd caught was obviously a small-time patsy -- evidence had been planted to lead them to him, to waste their time (hopefully). The queen gave them each gifts of magic items (a wand of fire for Seldon, a wilding clasp and a torc of animal speech for Mariss, a cloak of elvenkind and quiver of elhonna for Rrann, and a mark of the elf-friend for Vryce, since he couldn't accept items) and told them they were welcome to stay for a few days in Faerie, which would only be a single day in the outside world.
Though they hadn't reached a final decision, the party was leaning towards tracking down the second part of the malachite, as it would lead them to the third part which the witch-queen possessed -- probably easier and safer than stumbling around in her swamp trying to get lucky.
last session | next session
