LGG3 Background and character creation

[rincewind]

For new people joining the campaign: You will generally start out as a native of this world. However, if your character concept is too out of synch with this world, you will probably come from another plane through a crack in the void between worlds.

I know this stuff is a lot to read, but if you want to know what happened in previous games, read it here. I'm not about to try re-telling this in session; I've spent hours typing it, and if you can't spend a while reading it, then #nutkick#

In the other world- mages and the worshippers of the "Old Gods" (those from the D&D manual) are persecuted and in the minority. The nation is ruled by the forces of the Crown and the Church, specifically the Church of The One God. There will be painful restrictions and prejudices regarding magic-users not affiliated with the One God's church, but also some additional powers.

For new characters, they'll all be twelfth level, generation will be with a 32-point buy. Experience will start halfway between level 12 and 13. It's fine worshipping "The Old Gods" (aka the normal D&D ones)- I just want to make people aware of what they're getting into. You can make a character with a racial level adjustment no higher than +2, but please get my permission first. The same goes for unusual character classes or feats, such as those from non-core books or magazines. Some things just aren't feasible in this world, such as warmages, in which case you'll come from another plane. As a general rule, if your character utterly depends on using material from 3 or more non-core books or else he's unplayable, forget about it or I will kick you in the head. For example, if you were forced to go without either feat A from one book, class B from another, or item C from a third book, and your character then sucked, it's a bad idea to make him in the first place.

[rincewind]

Alright, time for a more complete recap of session 1 which will be more understandable for those who didn't play it. Please note that I'm doing this from memory, so those who were there, if you want some detail included or if I messed something up, message me and I'll edit it. This does include typos- yes, I'm that anal. I've left my recap of session 2 below virtually unchanged, but I'm expanding on the session 3 recap in the post after it.

Session 1:
We began in a world much like our own, with science being dominant over the forgotten magics. Most people don't believe in magic, and it has not worked at the level of power it once did (or so we've been told) for centuries. There are non-human races coexisting with the humans, and most of the Old Gods (from the D&D books) are forgotten and have, at best, a handful of believers. The session began at a party thrown by California software baron Douglas Donovan, founder and CEO of Macrosoft. The company had been doing well financially, and had recently acquired a new, secretive programming contract. Some of the adventuring party were attending as musical performers (Ben), gatecrashers (Velart), etc, and some were wandering around outside, protesting the immense pollution of the software industry (huh?) or digging through the garbage cans for food (Hank). The three players whose names I remember are Olrac's Velart (Cleric of Farlagg.. er, road-dude), Nick's Hank (drunken fighter), and Vera's Irvin (some psionic thingie- Soulknife, I think). There is also Lisa's psionicist, Adam's Necromancer, and Ben's bard rounding out the players.

From the back of the house, several gunshots were heard, and when some of the party ventured back to see, they found a strange man in bloodstained robes lying on the ground, dying. Before passing away, he muttered something about "Raban." Nearby, an oval opening resembling a tear in the fabric of space/time gaped, and a shadowy figure with a gun lept into it. The party also ventured into the portal, some in search of adventure (Velart), some because police sirens were now audible and they wanted to avoid the police (Hank again).

Passing through the void, when they exited the portal the six strangers found themselves in a place darker and colder than the late summer of California. Crude huts and houses surrounded them, and the streets were meandering dirt paths. The small group of strangers began conversing in loud tones and caught the attention of some local guards, dressed in leather armor and weilding katanas and crude firearms. They were brought before a hastily-convened council of village elders, who questioned them about where they had come from and the disappearance of the village historian, Radagast, whose description matched the dying man from the party. Before too long, the conversation was interrupted by a giant attacking the village. He was held off by the efforts of the guards and some firepower from the group, but downed by lightning bolts emitted from the hands of some of the elders. It quickly became apparently that, in this world, magic still held great power. The party was educated that, for thousands of years, mages were persecuted by the Church of the One God and expressly forbidden by the government to use their powers to interfere with matters of the realm. Dealing with any non-magical humanoid affairs, such as healing, gambling, and other matters, are also taboo for magic-users.

The name Radagast muttered before dying, Raban, appears to frighten some of the village elders, and they are told to seek out the Archmage Soldan, who lives nearby to the north-east. They are guided by the Archmage's grandson, Faris. Once the party reaches Soldan's hut, he gives them some more information on Raban and the history of the world, and gives other party members some books on magic and psionics to teach them how to use their powers. While there, Velart notices that there is a faint smell of gunpowder near the desk, but its drawers are locked. Soldan takes them east to a tower where Raban's apprentice, Carnellius, has been imprisoned for fifteen years. Along the way, while he is ahead of the party scouting, they are attacked and fight off some monsters. When they get to the tower they find it is heavily guarded by the Church, and no magic can function within its walls. Carnellius appears to be bonkers, but shows great fear at the mention of Raban's name. However, the church guards will not give the group any privacy when they talk to him, and Soldan seems reluctant to discuss some matters in front of them.

Later that night, after they leave, Archmage Soldan announced his intention to go back into the tower to speak with Carnellius privately, without the interference of the Church. The party was left a good distance away, in view of the tower. Hours passed with little change, until a great cry rang out and many guards fanned out to search the surrounding buildings. When the party members went to investigate, Hank noticed that one of the warriors was barefoot, and followed him into an outlying barn. Inside, he saw little, and began to search it when the figure dashed by him and ran out of the door again. The church was unable to locate Carnellius, and the party is now without direction, as Archmage Soldan is also missing. They decide to venture to the ruins of Raban's tower to search for clues on what is going on.

The first session also included a wealth of background information on this world and its rulers, which I will edit in later (because I'm at work and don't have my books).

[rincewind]

Session 2:
We only had half the group- apparently some poor sods had to work or have social lives.

Alright, the small party of Hank, Velart, and Irvin reached the ruins of Shadowmage Raban's tower. Faris turned back at this point, because without a member of the Wizard's Council there to advise him, he would be acting without orders, which would violate his oaths.

Upon arriving at the ruins of the citadel, the party noted that it had been torn down to such an extent that no two stones remained on top of each other. A feeling of magical power and danger still remained, however, particularly around a stone slab in the north-west corner. When Velart investigated one of the pools of water around the ruins, a water grue attempted to spray him with its water spout, but missed everyone. Hank cut down the grue with a single hit, and a fist-sized pearl with arcane writings was all that was found of it. A similar pool at the other end of the ruins revealed another grue, another kill by Hank (with some help), and another, different pearl.

All that was found under the slab was a short passageway leading to a disused, bloody sacrificial altar and some manacles on the walls. Exiting the ruins, they planned to make for the Village of the Old Believers, to find more out about the pearls, but visited a farm a little to the south first on the way. At the farm, the party could hear some cows, apparently in pain, in the pasture.

Examining the farm, the farmhouse seemed uninhabited, and the cows were all being drained by some monstrous parasites. Hank attempted to cut one off, but missed, and the other two on the cow attacked him. Since no one else was in the field, he ended up fighting the three of them by himself for a few turns. After losing a lot of blood to the 4-foot, snake-like leeches, he got some help from Irvin and the three abominations were killed. Attempts to kill the remaining seven on the cows caused them to attack, while Hank butchered and Velart cooked one of the cows.

The swarm of parasites got in some good bites, but were eventually killed, and clapping was heard from a figure nearby. Prince Cedric introduced himself, fawned over the magic user(s), and asked as many questions as possible. The party was taken back to his manor, fed, and given some gold and supplies. While there, they learned a little more about the Dead God and the ley lines of power across the lands. Late at night, while the rest of the party was sleeping, Irvin felt a black depression overtake him, which suddenly vanished a few hours later.

Leaving the manor, they went north to investigate an ancient fortress. On the way there, they passed through some woods and were attacked by a pseudonatural brown bear, which injured them all quite badly before being put down. After some rest, they continued on to the fortress.

It was garrisoned by some of the Crown's troops and appeared virtually impregnable, with its 50-foot smooth black stone walls rising to the heavens on all four sides, and but a single pair of massive steel doors at the front. They were told that it was built by the ancients, roughly 3000 years ago, to defend against some evil invasion. Since no entry was possible without a fight, they left west to follow the river down back to the Village of Old Believers.

While traveling back, they met a small party of two warriors, a cleric of the One God, and a hasu (bought one- a Church mage, whose souls are said to be bought from the devil by the blood of the saints). Hank jumped into the river before being noticed and drifted downstream underwater, and Velart and Irvin were questioned as to whether they knew of Carnellius, the escaped mage, and his current whereabouts. The leading cleric was suspicious and overbearing, but they were left in peace.

Irvin was irritated by the cleric, and Hank believed that they were after him, so they decided to ambush the search party. A battle broke out, the mage was quickly cut in twain by Hank, and Hank in turn didn't appreciate the maximum-damage critical he got from one of the katana-wielding guards. Still, without their mage, the search party was quickly overwhelmed and killed. The bodies were carefully dumped in the river, although parts of the cleric may show up a bit downstream...

[rincewind]

Session 3:
Shortly after killing the church guards and trying to dispose of their bodies inconspiciously (with some failure regarding their cleric), the party is met by Carnellius. Carnellius thanks them for their assistance in evading the Church troops, but mentions that he wouldn't have done it in quite the same way. Carnellius gives the party some background on the void between worlds, saying that he has felt it opening for some months now, and that it has been causing cracks in the fabric of the universe, through which abominations can pass. He mentions that this is particularly the case when a hole is opened on one of the ley lines, magical paths of energy which criss-cross the world. When that happens, cracks can appear all along the line of power, and creatures from other realities pass through. He tells Velart the secret of travelling quickly along roads on the ley lines, and mentions that, to his knowledge, only he, Soldan, and the deceased Raban knew the secrets of the Void between worlds. He also tells them of a village to the north which has been having some trouble.

When the party is momentarily distracted, Carnellius vanishes, and they decide to investigate that village. Once there, they find that children have gone missing, at the rate of about 1 child per week, for about two months, with the most recent disappearance only days ago. There has been no sign of forced entry. The party finds some tracks venturing north from the village along a disused wildlife trail, and follow them for about 8 miles to a dark forest, where they can hear screams in the woods and the wildlife trail vanishes. When they venture towards the screams, they fall silent. Still following the tracks, the party comes across a small, two-story house. Looking inside, they see three children seated on the left and three on the right side of a table, with an old woman at the head of the table. There is also a figure in a jester's outfit behind her, watching every movement. The woman is cutting the flesh from another child, who is lying on the table and appears to still be alive but shows no signs of awareness. As they watch the old woman feed, they are noticed by those inside... but before those inside the house can act, some of the party members crash into the house, through the door and a window, attacking the old woman (who is a Green Hag, by the way). The children, with blank, dead looks on their faces, proceed to attack anyone who comes near them with their knives and forks. The Jester in the back keeps trying to cast some spell, but it never works. The party's necromancer successully casts fear on the Jester, who hides underneath the stairs while most of the other party members attack the hag and Velart attempts to herd the attacking children out the door. The witch is eventually killed, and Hank collapses the stairs on the Jester, who fights the party after being backed into a corner. Once the Jester is killed, the children stop attacking and merely stand about listlessly. Velart heals the wounds of the child on the table, and the party explores the house, finding some minor valuables. Digging in the vegetable garden out back, the gnawed bones of two more children are found. The party then heads back to town, with the children both living and dead. The party attempts to restore the children along the way, and some of them have a small semblance of emotion and humanity returning by the time they get back to the small town the next day. Once back to the town, they are greeted as heroes by the joyful parents who embrace their children, and thanked by the grieving families of the dead. They are given some supplies, but meet with another Church patrol searching for Carnellius before they leave. The Church rangers have noticed that Carnellius's tracks met up with the party to the south of town, and they are questioned but eventually let go. When the party meets at the inn to discuss their plans, they eventually find that one of the Church rangers has been listening outside their door. After a brief conversation, he leaves to rejoin the rest of his search party.

When they leave town, the group notices that they are being followed by the Church patrol and spilts up, with some group hiding their tracks. Irvin and the Necro take a direct route to the Village of the Old ones, Velart, Ben's bard, and Lisa's psion go to another ruined fortress to the north of the village, and Hank goes to the village in a less-direct route. While the Necro and Irvin travel in a straight line through the swamp, they are attacked by some sprite who attempts to use some of his abilities, fails, and is wounded badly enough that he retreats. They then decide not to walk through the swamp in the event it has relatives in the area.

Irvin and the necro reach the Village of Old Believers first and find it nearly deserted, because Church forces have raided it and arrested all the mages on suspicion of aiding in the escape of Carnellius. They should be held at the maximum-security prison by the Realm's capitol of Angleshand. All the mages' houses are sealed with seals of the Church forbidding entry. They search some houses and then travel to the Archmage's hut. Along the way they meet with Hank.

The Archmage's hut is also sealed, but the party breaks the seal and searches inside. In Soldan's hut, in the locked drawer (after breaking it open) they find a modern semi-automatic pistol and some cryptic notes about Douglas Donovan and Macrosoft. Nothing else of importance is found, and they exit, finding themselves face-to-face with the Church's search party. The Church's forces are not amused by trespassers, and attempt to arrest them, but are killed by Hank, Irvin, and the Necro. All three are wounded by the encounter, and the Necro comes close to death, but they are victorious, loot the corpses, and move on to the north to meet up with the other party members.

At the fortress, Velart, the bard, and Lisa's psion find a ruined structure otherwise similar to the guarded fortress in the east. They explore what they can, and find some clear and some grey polyhedral crystals of no apparent use, which they take with them. They meet up with the others, who tell them that the mages have been imprisoned, and walk along some of the leyline roads to Cedric's house for more information on the mages and the prison. Cedric is able to give them maps of the capitol and the prison, but not any particular way to get in, because any direct involvement could be traced by his brother, the King. Cedric is already under suspicion, as he likes the company of mages and is the heir to the Realm, and thus he cannot take chances with his position. So the party is planning a jailbreak to get the magic-users from the Village of the Old Ones out of jail- and who knows what other secrets the prison holds. Perhaps the Archmage will be found once again...

The next session will be on Sunday, April 23rd, at Six Feet Under Games from 12-5, unless there is a major schedule conflict. Please let me know AHEAD OF TIME if this is the case.

[rincewind]

OK, now for some of the background information from previous sessions. The party has gathered this from asking some of the mages from the Village of Old Believers, from Prince Cedric, and others that they have met on their journeys. Other information I am adding to clarify things they have learned.

Distant Past:
Thousands of years ago, some terrible invasion threatened to overrun and destroy the kingdom. The people sheltered in a few great keeps from the invaders of darkness. It is believed that the king of that time, Lord Daroon, found a way to defeat the creatures so that people could once more live outside. How this was done is unknown.

Some time long, long ago it is said that the god Nerull desired more power for himself. He saw that, although his dominion was Death, not all would eventually die, and some things could escape him. He foresaw the ending of even the gods themselves, and wished to become an eternal force with dominion over the universe entire. In a powerful ritual of his own devising, he sacrificed himself for ultimate power, the ability to have it all, even if it meant becoming nothingness himself. He is now called the Dead God, but is not truly dead, but rather the God of being dead, of entropy and the forces of decay itself. Some have learned to craft special holy symbols of him, which disrupt energies both magical and mundane. These are particularly used by the Church under special circumstances, to aid them in their battles against wizards. Magic-users find it nearly impossible to approach, let alone touch, a symbol of the Dead God, which seems to grow in power and have a more powerful effect upon them according to the power of the mage. A supposed quote from the Dead God is
"When the last of a thousand candles burns out, the darkness will always return;
though a thousand voices sing all the hymns of life, silence always waits upon the inevitable failing of their breath."

The Church of the One God has supplanted most religions in the land. It was founded after a holy preacher was tied to a tree in the center of the capitol of the lands to the east, and left to die. The entire city was soon destroyed by an enormous explosion, and nothing was left but the bare tree upon which he had hung. Since then, his believers have grown in power, and are now the dominant religion of most of the world.
Its priests, for the most part, have no special powers, but their hold over the hearts of the people is strong. The Realm is balanced between the power of the Church and the State, and the two often squabble about matters of juristiction. Leaders of the Church tend to be more concerned with worldly affairs than spiritual, as they fight to keep their temporal powers.

Although the Church of the One God condemns mages as being the pawns of the Devil, they do command their own cadre of mages, called the Hasu, or "Bought Ones", who are said to have their souls bought from the Devil with the blood of the saints.

Hundreds of years ago, there was a great battle fought against the mages of the realm over whether or not they would be allowed to influence events in the kingdom. It was bitterly fought and there were mages on both sides, some who resented the restrictions on their power, and some who saw them as nessecary. The Church, of course, fought to see their power constrained. In a settlement, it was agreed that the mages would be left alone in exchange for a vow of non-interference with other sentient beings. Little is commonly known about any other details. Since then, the magic-users of the realm have been rather insular, keeping to their citadel and offering no teaching to those who will not follow their vows. Any who do not take the vows will not receive any training and are not protected by the mages' Council, leaving them to the tender mercies of the Church.

Recent past:
About 35 years ago, Nigel Ragan, the Shadow Mage, was brought low by the combined forces of the Church and State, with the aid of a few mages. He had been widely suspected of using magic to interfere with affairs of state, although his acts were exceedingly difficult to prove. Some said that he had eyes on the crown itself, and peasants told stories of him summoning elementals to do his bidding and forcing them to do things against their will. Raban swore revenge upon the kingdom, the mages, and the Church, saying that they would all perish by his hand. He was jailed while he was tried, and visitors were limited to one at a time, to limit his chances for mischeif. On the eve of his execution, he was once more visited by a few people, including the King and the Archmage Soldan, who had aided in his defeat. The next day, the seemingly broken and spiritless Raban was burnt at the stake, with the crackling of the fire the only noise made.

For 20 years after, King Justinian II enjoyed a friendship with the mages who had helped bring Raban down, and they saw a relaxing of the laws prohibiting the use of magic. Although Soldan was formerly one of the King's closest friends, even he was now kept at a distance, for although the king was tolerant towards magic he still kept most of its users far away from himself. Then, one night, the formerly healthy and hale Justinian fell ill, and his friend Soldan visited him one last time. With a heavy heart, Soldan told the King's physicians that Justinian had lapsed into a coma, and that there was nothing he could do. The Royal Physicians were similarly unable to revive the king, nor could the doctors of the Church. His body lay drooling mindlessly for a week before succumbing to death, despite the best efforts of all around him. It is said that he thought back on old battles before dying, as his last word was "Raban."

His son, Sergius I, then became king. Sergius had always hated and resented his father's ties with mages, and blamed them for Justinian's death. Laws were quickly passed restricting the use of magic, with harsh penalties for violations. This pleased the Church, which had always held that magic damned the caster to the hells. Those close to the Archmage said that he was changed by the death of his friend, and by the death of his wife soon after. He fell into mourning, poring over his books tirelessly.

Carnellius had been Raban's young apprentice. After the destruction of Raban's tower, he was found wandering the ruins and taken in by Soldan, who taught him magics while Justinian ruled. But Carnellius was rebellious and ran away shortly before the death of Justinian, to practice in his own way. He used his magic to meddle in human affairs- healing people, building strange devices, and finally attacking the King's men. The last came when he was interfering with the king's handling of a rebellion in one of the Eastern provinces, and he was quickly captured with the help of Soldan. Justinian condemned him to a long and painful death for his crimes, but Soldan arranged for it to be commuted to life in prison, in a tower where Carnellius could work no magics. There, in the Dark Tower, under the seal of the Dead God, he was imprisoned for 15 years, and the 45-year old was rumored to be quite mad. He recently escaped, and it is felt that he could not have done so without some assistance. As a result, a new wave of persecution of the mages has begun, and most of the magic-users formerly at large in the realm are now imprisoned by the capitol.

Faris is Soldan's grandson. His parents were killed fighting Raban, so he was raised by his Grandfather. He has sworn to protect him, but they have been distant in recent years- because, Faris thinks, of his failure to master any but the simplest magics. As a result, he has taken the profession of a guard, a sassenna, sworn to be a weapon of the mages with no will of his own. Faris left the group after his grandfather disappeared near the Dark Tower, and was seeking the guidance of the other mages.

Whoo, that's most of it for now, I'll add more if nessecary.

[rincewind]

Session 4:
The party, minus the two psions, the bard, and the druid, were just leaving Prince Cedric's house. He was able to provide them with some outdated maps of the St. Cyr prison just southwest of the capitol, as well as recommending that they talk with Dr. Rich Benson about magic and technology and a small fellow named Baldric about the prison design. They took the leyline road west, and suffered no ill effects. In the morning, they travelled north by conventional means, and noticed a man following them. He was eventually more or less ignored, and the Hexblade continued following them. When the reached the forest to the north, shortly upon entering it they found a scaly man-like creature devouring raw boar meat. When his mouth was empty, he offered them some boar, which other people later cooked. After some questions about what the main party was doing there, it was eventually revealed that they were planning a prison break, and for reasons of their own the half-dragon warrior and the hexblade joined them. Shortly afterwards, a large moving mound of plants was seen in the forest, which Velart decided to poke with a stick. It responded by trying to eat his face, and the battle was on. Early on in the battle, the Tendriculos badly injured Hank and grappled him with its tentacles, and ate him whole the following round. It was attacked to little effect by most party members, but the half-dragon did it some lasting damage with his acid breath and the necromancer with his spells, one of which permamently marked the creature, weakening its armor. Eventually, it was beaten into unconsciousness, particuarly by the dragon warrior (hehe), who ventured into its gaping maw to save Hank from being completely digested. He also found a gem and a small amount of gold in its stomach, but everything else had been eaten by the acid. However, despite being very badly injured, they did not take the long time nessecary to completely kill the creature, instead leaving it and travelling north. A few hours before the dawn, the watch at their encampment heard a crashing sound in the woods and woke the party, who found the mostly-healed Tendriculos charging at them again. Discretion being the better part of valor, they jumped into the nearby river and swum across, leaving the monster to flail its tentacles in agitation on the far bank.

Once across, they rested and travelled north, with nothing of import happening the first day. On the second day, however, a large grey creature was seen to their north. The travellers from California knew it as a Triceraops, which Velart promptly wanted to poke. After some discussion, it became aware of the party and charged at (and over) them, instantly knocking the dragon into unconsciousness and badly injuring most of the others. Velart quickly healed him, and they began to beat down the animal, who responded by badly goring Hank twice, nearly killing him. After the dragon dealt an immense amount of damage to it, it twice attempted to hurt him, but was unsuccessful. It perished soon after, the final blow coming from one of Malice's (the Necromancer) spells.

After resting again, most of the party (not the half-dragon) headed into town, disguised as best they could, to meet with Dr. Rich Benson. He offered them little help regarding the prison, but displayed some advanced scientific equipment of the day of his own devising, and discussed his research with artificially-created electricity and magic.

After leaving, they sought out Baldric, the former prisoner with some knowledge of the St. Cyr prison. They found a halfling (who found some gold coins in Malice's pouch) who, on questioning, eventually admitted to being the Baldric in question. After much discussion, both in the alley and in a nearby pub, they decided to pay him to help him break into the prison, although killing him was, apparently, a close second. He was taken out of town to meet the half-dragon and plan their entrance into the prison by a secret exit the warden had constructed for his own escape in case of emergency. The little thief was frequently scatter-brained, and often gave quite unhelpful answers ("Who brings the food?" "The food guys"), making some members despise him and some (the dragon) like him. He showed them to a secret entrace hidden in a hill near the prison, and unlocked the gate to lead the way inside. He was hit by some falling blocks from one trap, found and disabled a rather nasty lightning-bolt trap a little further on, and was paralyzed by a poisoned handle at the end of the passage (so not a very happy day for him). The party soon entered the Warden's basement and the thief, after recovering, opened the hatch leading into the Warden's living room. They then snuck into his bedroom (his listen roll was a 2, BTW) and killed him in his sleep before stealing everything he had of value. They are currently in his house awaiting their next move- which will, alas, not be for over a month.

[rincewind]

Session 5:

The party decided that the best way to accomplish the prison break was to pretend they were holding the (dead) prison commander hostage and make demands on the gate guards. Unfortunately, between having procedures in place for hostage situations and having a rather disliked guard captain, this resulted in one of them sneaking away to ring the alarm bells. The party then attacked the guards outside the gate, who were a half-orc in light armor and two humans in heavy armor. They killed them with relative ease, but not before a great noise had been made by the gong inside the door to the mages' prison.

Inside, they found an empty hallway, and Baldric (the rogue) went first to disarm a few traps, including a net set up at the crossroads to capture the party. When others came up to investigate the doors on the far end of the left and right of the hallway, they opened and the group was under attack from two mages, two half-orcs, and two heavily armored humans. Hank ran at the mage on the left, but was quickly felled as he ran past the two warriors guarding the wizard. Most of the rest of the party was caught in a large fireball, and things were looking grim. Eventually, the group of guards on the right was polished off, between the efforts of the hexblade, the soulknife (a.k.a. "thrown-knife-to-the-forehead boy", the necro's spells, and the half-dragon's acidic breath. The remaining guards on the left were then killed while the cleric saw to Hank's wounds.

The first priority was freeing some of the mages, and upon exiting their magic-sealed cells some of the sorcerers began putting up a Wall of Force to keep the guards out of the prison. The rest of the mages were freed, some treasure was found (generally near Baldric's bulging pockets), and Malice made sure he took the opportunity to taunt those outside the wall and desecrate some corpses before leaving. The party fled via teleportation to a nearby safe house as a cleric approached from the outside of the gate with a seal bearing the symbol of the Dead God.

Once outside, they talked to the mages, who announced that they were withdrawing to their citadel in Quo, in the far northeast. There, they will be protected by many magical wards, and any trespassers would most likely be lost for weeks trying to invade. The party made their way to the east, along a ley-line, to a mountain town to rest and buy supplies. They fought an owlbear along the way and quickly dispatched it, and are safely ensconsed in the city walls.

Those of you who talk to other people you meet (probably Velart, and the half-dragon if anyone can brave it) would know from the mages that once before, a king lead an army against Quo, but they spent months wandering lost, mere miles from the citadel, before giving up and going home.

The party got some new weapons and armor, and sold others. You've found that it's rather difficult to get new magical items when most mages have vows of non-interference with other sentient humanoids. There are a few street magicians in towns, those who have not taken the council vows, but most have little to no actual power and their knowledge and spells are generally suspect.

[rincewind]

Session #6 (June)

When the session began, Malice and the Hexblade were shopping for interesting items and looking for street urchins, and Hank was wandering the bars, looking for a good fight. The cleric and the soulknife were nowhere to be seen, the dragon was lying low.

Hank found a likely bar and challenged a surly warrior to a fight, which the bartender suggested could be fought in their underground (illegal) arena. Hank found the fighter to be more of a challenge than he'd imagined (thanks to a number of "10" rolls for damage) but prevailed. An elven ranger (I think) helped him exit the bar, where many angry people had bet on his opponent.

Meanwhile, Malice had arranged to buy some black onyx rings from a jeweler, and the pair had moved on to search an old bookstore for information on the old gods and Erythnul (Malice) and genealogy (Hexblade). Malice found his book, paid, and left. The hexblade took longer, but eventually found some information which seemed to indicated that his grandmother had been some sort of athlete and his grandfather a petty thief. When he went to buy the books, the proprietor showed him something else of interest- some sort of slug, which he found rather charming (thanks to a failed saving throw) and picked up. He then became dominated by the Puppeteer and was given another slug to seek out another party member as a worth addition to the collective.

After meeting Malice, who was suspicious of the Hexblade's actions, the two slugs worked to charm the reluctant Necro, and they then returned to the bookstore to be outfitted with an additional two slugs. They went to the inn, where they found the half-dragon. He was also suspicious of them, and blasted the hexblade with acid, destroying the slug in his hand and eating away at the front of his clothing. Malice's slug then charmed the dragon (what WAS it with failed savings throws that session?) but eventually was unable to burrow beneath his scales. The puppeteers controlling the hexblade and the necro asked them to leave the building (despite the hex's lack of frontal clothing) but the dragon destroyed the slug on the hexblade, and the other two were quickly killed (but not before the hexblade showed the bar patrons what his charisma was worth "under the hood").

During this time, Hank was helped to the outskirts of the city by his new elven friend (Vera, thanks to heavy character sheet loss). The other three began searching for him before attempting to destroy the shop where the slugs had come from. They located him in a ditch outside of town, with the elf standing over him. Introductions were made, and after night fell the group firebombed the bookstore and quickly made their way out of town, interfering with the fire brigade as they did. No results of the fire are known to them, besides that it apparently spread to other, uninvolved, houses.

After leaving the town, they decided to go southwest, and fought many battles against 2 ghouls and a ghast, a three-armed ogre of some sort, and finally a Vrock who had been nesting in the ruins of a fortress. The dragon has taken up the mantle of a cleric of Io, and has been given a Periapt of Wisdom by Malice so that he may better fulfill his duties.

[rincewind]

This I've mainly copied and pasted from the July game day thread, with some additions.

Session 7 (July):
We met a new party member, Kevin's son, who is playing a rogue. Apologies to Dragonsrule for the broadening of his son's vocabulary which tends to accompany our games.

The group found the Kobold caves that the half-dragon cleric remembered from his youth. However, upon arriving, the woods appeared charred and it appeared there had been some sort of battle there. The group was joined by a halfling rogue found wandering in the devastation (because we don't have a good origin story for him yet) who claimed to know something of the local caves. He told the group that they had been invaded by creatures of some sort, perhaps displaced from their usual territory.

The kobold cave nearby had a headless kobold statue outside, and many kobold bodies scattered inside. Most did not appear to have fallen in battle, but rather were the result of excruciating torture while alive. Inside, the party of the half-dragon cleric, the rogue, Hank, and Malice were repeatedly ambushed by hidden Derro, small blue-white dwarves who had apparently captured the caves from the Kobolds. The Derro put up good fights and had set many traps for the thief to disarm (or attempt to) and eventually forced the party to retreat and rest for the night, after many Derro losses.

While recovering, in the dead of night 3 Derro attacked the party, who fought them off and then covered their tracks, moved their camp, and rested again until they were at full strength. They then went back into the caves and fought two more sets of Derro, one pair guarding a treasure chest and 6 clustered together in a room waiting to ambush them. After the large battle, they once again retreated to lick their wounds before exploring further. They are currently resting a good bit outside the caves, having covered their tracks again so that they will not be found in the night. And there they hide, until they feel strong enough to venture back into the caves to face the rest of the Derro.

[rincewind]

Session #8: August.

This is a quick recap for now to hold the place.

The party returned to the Derro caves and killed their leader, a sorceror, and his rust monster pet. Some metallic objects were lost, including Dragonsrule's magical plate, and some treasure was found. They then decided to go looking for trouble in the surrounding area. Well, trouble found them, after they walked on it, mistaking it for a hill. The Tendriculos from before had grown to a very large size and was out looking for blood, and managed to eat several party members and kill the hexblade. The half-dragon cleric, being immune to the acid damage, got himself eaten to save the necro and continue to damage the creature from the inside, where he was comparatively safe. After a long and exhausting battle, it was killed for good, and a scroll was found in its stomach, bringing the Hexblade back to life.


They rested and continued to look for trouble #doh# , soon finding a raiding party of 11 orcs, 8 orcish barbarians led by 3 war chanters. The orcs were killed with much help from Malice's instant skeletal army, but they did get some good blows in against the party with their greataxes.

[rincewind]

Session 9, quick recap version:

It is discovered that the orc party had a captive, a half-orc shaman named Pigdish Gnomemangler. He is accepted into the party, although some mistrust exists. They continue travelling to the village of the Old Ones. where Malice and company first crossed over into the world from their own. Outside the Archmage's hut, they find a small gnome in a tree, who claims the house as her own. It is noticed that there are lights on inside, and Archmage Soldan greets the party (the gnome quickly changes her mind). He informs them of his fears that the deceased sorceror Raban has actually been hiding his consciousness inside his former pupil, Carnellius, and has been using the emptied shell to live on, cheating death. He tells them that Carnellius/Raban must be stopped, and asks them to handle this because Carnellius knows Soldan too well to let his guard down around him. They readily agree to hunt down Carnellius, but want to go to the Mage's citadel in the northeast first. Because it would be nearly impossible to gain access without one of the mages who created the wards, Soldan has volunteered to lead them there, and they are scheduled to rendezvous with him at the ancient fortress in the east.

They decide to go back through the swamp which nearly claimed the lives of the soulblade and necromancer earlier, and are met with 5 bog imps, who cause some of the party members to sink below the surface of the swamp and begin to drown. The half of the party remaining above the surface killed or drove away the bog imps, rescuing their sunken party members. They then passed through the rest of the swamp without incident.

[rincewind]

Quick recap, October session:

Well, travelling directly to that fort would have been far too easy, so they decide to investigate a cave they see in a hill nearby. It turns out to be an ancient temple to a water god, although it is currently far inland. It is guarded by some saguh.... er, fish-men. The thief happens upon a trap which curses him, making his rolls even worse than they have been, and the party fights a thief whose room is adjacent to stairwell down. At the bottom of the stairwell there was a room which resembled a wizard's lab, but upon close examination appeared to have many problems, such as mislabelled ingredients and expired spell components. The Necromancer's finely tuned secret door sense locates a passageway to another room, where the party first sees nothing.

Without warning, some of the party is stunned by a mind blast, and a mind-flayer attacks the half-dragon. It is quickly cursed by the hexblade, and the non-stunned party members kill it before it can turn invisible again and escape. Its former lair has been looted and its powerful despair gem destroyed, and its rogue minion remains upstairs, tied up and unconscious, for telling the half-dragon how truly ugly he is

[Rincewind]

Well, a quick recap of the early January session:

The Necromancer, the Hexblade, and the evil cleric stayed behind at the cave to fortify it as a new base while the halfling rogue, the half-dragon, and the half-orc went east, towards their meeting with the Archmage. While on their way, they met a small band of people, including a monk, a halfling, and a ranger, who had been in the area investigating reports of missing children from a nearby village. They had recently learned that the party had taken care of that problem a short while ago, and were joining them as they travelled eastwards, for the moment.

A plume of colored smoke was seen, and the group went to investigate. They found a deep misted valley, with the plume eminating from somewhere near the center. When they went down to investigate, they found an underground trading outpost manned by neogi slavers, umber hulks, and assorted other slaves. No trading was done, and the party went to camp nearby. During the night, they were attacked by one of the umber hulks and two of the outpost's guards, who they fought off easily, but one guard escaped back to the outpost. In the morning, the party launched an attack against the outpost, and were met with fierce resistance. Pigdish, the half-orc shaman, ventured near to the underground pool when moving to attack the slavers and found himself repeatedly grappled by a giant octopus. Meanwhile, the other party members were having their hands full, as the Neogi slaver had charmed the monk, who was then defeating the ranger in combat. The Neogi fled soon after, leaving his slaves and henchmen to fall in combat, but in the battle the Shaman cast darkness on something close to him and his combat with the octopus was obscured from view. Since it was already touching him, it had little difficulty squeezing the life out of the poor shaman, although it was knocked unconscious into the water soon after by the other party members. They retreated from the scene of the battle, dragging the shaman's body by a long rope so that they were not affected by his darkness, and are resting nearby to lick their wounds before possibly trying another assault. They still have a dominated monk to deal with, who is currently tied up and mostly unconscious, and their numbers have decreased, but some feel confident that they will prevail in the end.

[Rincewind]

Alright, a quick recap of the late January and the February sessions:

Venturing further into the cave complex, they freed some human, orc, and goblin slaves and fought more Neogi and umber hulks. Their most formidable foe was the Neogi sorcerer and his umber hulk pet. The sorcerer used his magics to control the thief and, later, fireball the party, weakening them. The ranger went up to confront the umber hulk while most of the rest of the party was dealing with the dominated thief or standing back, and although he fought valiantly, the monster dealt him a fearsome blow and snapped his head from his shoulders, sending it flying down to the half-dragon. The thief was knocked out and the rest of the party killed the umber hulk and forced the neogi sorcerer to retreat, then searched the room. In a hidden panel in the floor they found a small stash, including a scroll of Raise Dead, which they used on the ranger (after retrieving his head). They then retreated to the cave entrance to fortify their position and regroup before a final assault on the remaining Neogi.

The monk scouted ahead and found some tents and a large structure, but he was seen and was attacked before he fled. They decided to rest before they went to fight the neogi again, having been told that they were holding more slaves in the "ship."
While resting, they heard a rumbling from under their feet. Nothing was visible, but the rumbling continued, and when the half-dragon moved away, the floor crumbled beneath him and he and the thief fell into a 50-foot deep pit the Umber Hulk had dug. The monster had closed the rest of the tunnel behind him and was nowhere to be seen. They eventually climbed out of the pit using a rope, healed, and headed for the tents. There, a pitched battle broke out with 2 bugbear slaves and a dwarf neogi, who were defeated rather quickly, but an additional neogi and his umber hulk joined the fray. The sorcerer neogi made his reappearance, again brandishing his wand of Scorching Ray and targeting the half-dragon, who became rather well-done in the course of the battle. The thief was still dominated from the sorcerer, and he escaped his bonds, but as he headed toward the party the sorcerer died and he was freed from his control. He then was able to kill the umber hulk with a sneak attack, and the party was victorious. They were badly wounded, so they searched the bodies and the tents and healed some wounds. They found some magical items and a key, among other equipment.

After that, they judged themselves to be healthy enough to continue, and moved into the large structure, which looked like some sort of gargantuan mechanical spider which had crashed in the pond at the center of the mountainous valley. They entered through a large cargo door and found a dark hallway with 5 doors, two on each side and one at the back bound in iron. The near right door was ajar, the the thief was sent to investigate. Looking inside, he found a neogi thief, but was attacked from the back by a Gauth who had been hiding near the ceiling, paralyzed, and sneak attacked by the thief. The rest of the party ran to help, but the monk was also paralyzed before they finished off the gauth and the neogi rogue.

The large iron door was revealed to be the Neogi's vault, although it was locked and trapped with a strange gas. The thief took his time picking the lock, not realizing that the key he found earlier would have unlocked it, and inside they found a vast treasure hoard.

[Rincewind]

Hm, I haven't been recapping as much as I should, sorry. So most of this is from memory.

After freeing the slaves, the half-dragon wanted to find the archmage by the eastern fort, where the party had previously agreed to meet him. They did so and travelled north, to the arcane citadel of Quo. There they found a medium-sized, peaceful town surrounded by illusions. They were asked to meet some of the mages at their castle, where they were told of a missing wizard in the long-neglected catacombs beneath the fortress. The catacombs had long been used as a dumping ground for failed experiments and dangerous creations, so this was not expected to be easy.

In the catacombs, the party has faced many fearful beasts, including slimes, undead who steal their faces, and pools of living molten blood. They are still searching for the wizard, but they have been exploring for two days so far....