Sowing Wild Geese?
Mar. 11th, 2003 10:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
terryclothTonight was Lance's high-level D+D game. We finished saving the city, then poked a hornet's nest. Then bug-sprayed the hornets. Then cast a divination, and started the process of going way out of the way on the theory that it was actually true and useful.
So, the enemy fled last time just as a flock of arrowhawks was summoned. Not wanting the waste the spell, Sarah sent them to storm the building in which the enemy was presumed to have set up shop... they were too fast for the enemy to hit, and the enemy was weak to electricity, so by the time the party caught up they'd killed off the rest of the big silver constructs. All the main enemies got away, though.
A quick Locate Object revealed that they were not within range of that spell, which probably meant 'not in the city'. Not to be daunted, the party's mage began to cast a scry spell on the near-naked lady/red dragon.
While that went on, the others searched the city for any signs or clues, or remaining enemies. They freed the rest of the population... but out of 5000 inhabitants, only 350 were left alive, with another 200 technically living but without souls. The rest were *missing*, presumably taken back to parts unknown to have their souls sucked out to power automata.
Then the scry was finished, and the party teleported to the bedroom it revealed and... killed the dragon in the surprise round. The main surprise was that the mage's 'Hold Monster' actually stuck! A silence spell muffled her cries of surprise, and the sickening crunches as a half dozen coup-de-graces eventually finished her off.
Then the room was looted, although nothing magical other than the trinkets she was wearing was found... most of it was likely blown up when the monk set off a powerful explosive trap on a chest. The monk, of course, was unharmed. Afterwards, there was a knock on the door, so they teleported back to the ruined city, taking the dragon's (human-form) body with them. It wasn't clear why the dragon was still in human form, but it certainly made her easier to carry.
They decided to animate her as a zombie and throw her to another cenotaph, to avoid her being raised. Squirrel knew a good place to send her, but the cenotaph was an hour's flight away.
Before that time was up, the mage felt the tingle of a scry spell. Sarah cast a darkness spell to try to prevent them from getting useful information (Say, enough for a teleport), but it was too late -- the monk reported a massive army (well, a couple dozen people) had teleported in a ways ahead. So they landed under cover of darkness and used the last teleport to get to the cenotaph directly. (thinking, 'doh! why didn't we think of that before?')
The zombie was dumped, and then they braced for impact. When the enemies teleported in this time, the party was ready. A blade barrier and a disjunction took care of most of the mooks (the 'mooks' being the powerful constructs powered by stolen souls) and the magical items of one of the enemies, leading the surviving enemies to immediately turn around and flee.
The party spent the night in a Modenkainen's Magnificent Mansion, and discussed what to do. Step one was to identify the items -- the only useful one being a necklace of spell storing (which was awfully useful). Step two was to cast a divination, "How do we get our friend's soul back?". The response, of course, was cryptic:
"Find the forgotten cousin that everyone ignores.
Take your place as young new lords.
Journey spinward a week times four.
The answer lies behind many wards."
Since only the 'journey west four weeks' part made sense, step 3 was to send the monk to sneak back to the ruined city to find the map they'd forgotton to check in all the excitement and look up what was located 4 weeks by horse, by wing, and 4 weeks by 'how far the disk actually spins in that amount of time'. The answer was 'a floating island', 'a giant mountain', and 'the middle of a huge-ass ocean', respectively.
Step four after resting, was to got to Verona and shop. Many spell components, and a few useful items, were purchased using the 130,000 gold the useles items from the dragon lady sold for. The last, and cheapest, was an amulet of continuous Expeditious Retreat, which the party's dragon wore while carrying the staff to which the mansion was linked.
A double-speed young silver dragon, flying twelve hours a day, hustling the whole way, can cover almost 1000 miles per day. By noon on the second day, they were at the island.
The island was 20,000 feet up, and surrounded by a hollow sphere of antimagic. The party laboriously flew up until they were above the sphere, tested the 'magic comes back afterwards'-ness of it by dropping a light spell through, then dove into it, landing softly using Featherfall.
The island was mostly empty, except for one town full of skeletons, one suspiciously intact temple, and hundreds of gopher holes. Talking to the skeletons proved fruitless, but while examining the temple they were approached by a pseudo-dragon.
"You don't look like the bad man..." started the exchange, and it continued to reveal that the bad man had killed the townsfolk and oppressed the pseudo-dragons, and was a powerful wizard, and that he lived in the catacombs, which were the gopher holes, which could be entered with the 'gift of size'. Which the pseudo dragons could give.
But would they?
last week next session
So, the enemy fled last time just as a flock of arrowhawks was summoned. Not wanting the waste the spell, Sarah sent them to storm the building in which the enemy was presumed to have set up shop... they were too fast for the enemy to hit, and the enemy was weak to electricity, so by the time the party caught up they'd killed off the rest of the big silver constructs. All the main enemies got away, though.
A quick Locate Object revealed that they were not within range of that spell, which probably meant 'not in the city'. Not to be daunted, the party's mage began to cast a scry spell on the near-naked lady/red dragon.
While that went on, the others searched the city for any signs or clues, or remaining enemies. They freed the rest of the population... but out of 5000 inhabitants, only 350 were left alive, with another 200 technically living but without souls. The rest were *missing*, presumably taken back to parts unknown to have their souls sucked out to power automata.
Then the scry was finished, and the party teleported to the bedroom it revealed and... killed the dragon in the surprise round. The main surprise was that the mage's 'Hold Monster' actually stuck! A silence spell muffled her cries of surprise, and the sickening crunches as a half dozen coup-de-graces eventually finished her off.
Then the room was looted, although nothing magical other than the trinkets she was wearing was found... most of it was likely blown up when the monk set off a powerful explosive trap on a chest. The monk, of course, was unharmed. Afterwards, there was a knock on the door, so they teleported back to the ruined city, taking the dragon's (human-form) body with them. It wasn't clear why the dragon was still in human form, but it certainly made her easier to carry.
They decided to animate her as a zombie and throw her to another cenotaph, to avoid her being raised. Squirrel knew a good place to send her, but the cenotaph was an hour's flight away.
Before that time was up, the mage felt the tingle of a scry spell. Sarah cast a darkness spell to try to prevent them from getting useful information (Say, enough for a teleport), but it was too late -- the monk reported a massive army (well, a couple dozen people) had teleported in a ways ahead. So they landed under cover of darkness and used the last teleport to get to the cenotaph directly. (thinking, 'doh! why didn't we think of that before?')
The zombie was dumped, and then they braced for impact. When the enemies teleported in this time, the party was ready. A blade barrier and a disjunction took care of most of the mooks (the 'mooks' being the powerful constructs powered by stolen souls) and the magical items of one of the enemies, leading the surviving enemies to immediately turn around and flee.
The party spent the night in a Modenkainen's Magnificent Mansion, and discussed what to do. Step one was to identify the items -- the only useful one being a necklace of spell storing (which was awfully useful). Step two was to cast a divination, "How do we get our friend's soul back?". The response, of course, was cryptic:
"Find the forgotten cousin that everyone ignores.
Take your place as young new lords.
Journey spinward a week times four.
The answer lies behind many wards."
Since only the 'journey west four weeks' part made sense, step 3 was to send the monk to sneak back to the ruined city to find the map they'd forgotton to check in all the excitement and look up what was located 4 weeks by horse, by wing, and 4 weeks by 'how far the disk actually spins in that amount of time'. The answer was 'a floating island', 'a giant mountain', and 'the middle of a huge-ass ocean', respectively.
Step four after resting, was to got to Verona and shop. Many spell components, and a few useful items, were purchased using the 130,000 gold the useles items from the dragon lady sold for. The last, and cheapest, was an amulet of continuous Expeditious Retreat, which the party's dragon wore while carrying the staff to which the mansion was linked.
A double-speed young silver dragon, flying twelve hours a day, hustling the whole way, can cover almost 1000 miles per day. By noon on the second day, they were at the island.
The island was 20,000 feet up, and surrounded by a hollow sphere of antimagic. The party laboriously flew up until they were above the sphere, tested the 'magic comes back afterwards'-ness of it by dropping a light spell through, then dove into it, landing softly using Featherfall.
The island was mostly empty, except for one town full of skeletons, one suspiciously intact temple, and hundreds of gopher holes. Talking to the skeletons proved fruitless, but while examining the temple they were approached by a pseudo-dragon.
"You don't look like the bad man..." started the exchange, and it continued to reveal that the bad man had killed the townsfolk and oppressed the pseudo-dragons, and was a powerful wizard, and that he lived in the catacombs, which were the gopher holes, which could be entered with the 'gift of size'. Which the pseudo dragons could give.
But would they?
last week next session
