Friday, September 28, 2001
Location: The Gower Cabin - Bear Mountain
Players:
Brief recap of events between sessions:
It has been four days since the group arrived at the village at the mouth of the River of Serpents on the 28th of Daronesh. Four days of relative peace and quiet.
The village is a simple wooden palisade on a earthen mound with pointed bamboo poles sticking out of the earthen works under the palisade wall. The palisade wall only protects three sides of the village with two of the walls extending many yards out into the ocean (remember that there's a very big tidal effect along the entire coast)
The village is occupied by a contingent of merchant house of Degant.
The native villagers are of the Lonjol tribe, who are primarily hunters and fishermen. The other tribal contingent is of the Dagoshi tribe who are slaves to the Lonjol. This practice of slavery between the two tribes is common and would be reversed in Dagoshi held lands. The slaves are generally well treated and relatively happy though worked hard at menial tasks.
The party is, for the most part healthy and whole (except that Zippy is still genital-less from a critical wound). Father Bo is finally returning to normal, and the rest of you have been healed and rested. There was a brief scare when several party members began to develop blue and green blotches on their skin reminiscent of the flesh of the ghoulish things you fought just before you arrived, but Nasir and the village shaman manage to cure those affected. As a group you feel you are ready to face whatever happens next.
The group is still waiting for the ship, Rafalla, to arrive with the hopes of gaining passage back to civilization. Bargis has promised that the ship will be arriving in about a week (9 days).
While we've been waiting we've done the following:
On the evening of the 33rd day of Daronsh, a wounded villager, Gatoja, stumbles into the camp with news that he was attacked approx. 5 miles North of here along the river path. Gatoja says it was Rekama Atosus, the serpent that walks like a man. He says there were many, and that something else was with them, the Tekma Toq, the spirit of the dead.
Nasir summons monkeys and crocodiles from the region. The monkeys are sent off to search the jungle and report. The crocodiles (fresh water river crocs) are sent into the jungle fringe to protect. As the sun sets and darkness falls, there is the sound of a brief fight from the jungle. No one goes to see what happened, but the party surmises the monkeys or crcodiles found something. After a few tense hours of waiting the party establishes a watch pattern and several people try to get some sleep.
Near midnight those on watch notice a disturbance in the jungles to the south. They rouse the rest of the party, and as everyone gathers (or maintains their watch positions), they are surprised to see Thrag walk out of the jungle! He walks forward into the continual light, rests his axe on a stump and proclaims, "Give back that which belongs to others". About this time Zippy's sword begins its weird moaning, indicating that there are undead in the area. No Duh!
Benik attempts to turn undead and it works! Thrag turns, picks up his axe, and walks back into the jungle. Then things start to go bad.
The continual light on the upper wall (actually Zippy's candle with continual light cast on it) goes out. I think this is when Zippy begins his patrol along the upper wall. Thyme casts magic mouth on the lower left palisade corner, to alert us if snake creatures are within 30'. Nasir begins to cast Dust Devil. Fasheen, Benik, Nasir and Zeb all take up positions near the gate.
2 Hrs pass with nothing happening (bastard GM). Nasir summons 3 monkeys and speak with animal. Thyme makes the three monkeys invisible and they are sent out to search the area and report back.
30 minutes later a monkey comes back to Nasir.
Monkey: "Many bad things in the jungle!"
Nasir: "Where?"
Monkey: "In the jungle."
Little else of worth is extracted. Good monkey!
Thyme retreats to the longhouse to rest up (along with others?). Another hour passes and then begins:
At approximately 3:30AM a horn sounds in the woods.
5 minutes later Thyme's magic mouth yells out the warning in Ancient Vichese. At the same time two serpent creatures are seen in the rear of the village swimming out of the ocean. Oh yeah, those serpent men swim.
The party quickly rouses and organizes their defense. Bo is closest to the ocean, so he leads the defense to the rear, as Zippy and Zeb move to join him. Several serpent men reach the shore and Father Bo is quickly outgunned, even with Zeb's arrival. Shortly thereafter Zeb is affected by that pesky serpent man fear ability and goes running in terror towards the front of the village.
Meanwhile out front Benik begins a prayer to Trian, while Galton heads back with his (reluctant) men to help Bo. Fasheen and Nasir (dust devil in tow) remain at the front gate.
Abruptly a nearly naked humanoid wielding a staff breaks from the jungle, yelling something in the native tongue (none of the party up front understand). Several humanoids appear behind the fleeing figure, obviously in pursuit. A local villager begins to open the pallisade gate, apparently letting in the fleeing person (let's call him Nyota, since that's who it is).
Benik runs back to help Bo, while Nyota makes the gate. Thyme magic missiles one of his pursuers, but all three force their way into the village!
As Benik reaches Bo he realizes the good father is in serious trouble. He's been wrapped up in a serpent man tail and is getting seriously crushed and pummeled. Benik dives into the fray and hammers one of Bo's opponents (but is himself tail-wrapped shortly thereafter). Galton fights valiantly, but appears to be outclassed.
Zippy remains on the fringes, fighting a sneaking duel with something that's climbed the wall to the west.
Nyota, who has made his way to a corner of the palisade, is shocked to see a smoky creature suddenly materialize inside the compound! Wasting no time Nyota does something odd with a tattoo on his chest and his form blurs and shimmers. Abruptly Zippy's blade starts howling again, and his sneaking abilities are seriously hampered. He runs, making his way towards the Bo/Galton/Benik melee. He manages to slip behind Benik's opponent but succeeds only in wounding himself as he fumbles. To add insult to injury the creature Zippy was stalking has followed him and hammers him from behind!
At the front gate Fasheen, Nasir and Nasir's dust devil move to engage, while Thyme hurls a lightning bolt at the three serpent men, killing two of them. The village shaman at the gate mirror images himself, and Zeb regains control of himself (near the gate now).
As Thyme magic missiles the third creature inside the gate to death and Fasheen takes pot shots over the palisade at the foes outside there is another stirring in the jungle fringe. Thrag charges forth, headed straight for the still open gate. Uh oh. That could hurt. Zeb runs for the gate, hoping to head off Thrag. They arrive about the same time, but Thrag gets the initiative and whacks Zeb REAL GOOD!
Meanwhile, back by the water, things are going poorly. Bo and Benik continue to get hammered, and Zippy begins to feel the searing pain of poison in his veins. Galton's foe finally grows tired of dealing with him and nearly rips him in half with his talons. Galton goes down for good. The mercenaries flee. As parts of Galton fly, Bo's opponent is whacked by a flying limb, and loosens its grip on Bo. Bo breaks free and flees toward the gate.
Nyota makes his way towards the Benik/Zippy melee and warns the two that there is 'something else' inside the compound. The two are kind of busy, so they only continue to fight, each dealing nice damage to their opponent. Zippy is not feeling well.
Back up front the shaman manages to magic missile the smoky figure inside the wall, and it vanishes. Thyme fires off a lightning bolt at Thrag (amidst much fanfare), but doesn't do a whole lot. Shortly thereafter the village shaman magic missiles Thrag and kills him. Fasheen notices something crawl out of Thrag's remains and slither into his axe. Ew.
Back in the rear, the party manages to finish off the rest of the creepy crawlers, though Zippy is really hurting by the end.Benik has found his idiom finally, and delivers the death blow to Zippy's last opponent.
The party quickly searches the compound, and finds the corpses of Bargis the trader and one of the mercenaries dessicated and covered with a black powder. Also Ew! Bo and Nasir go into power-cure mode, while Thyme decides to retrieve Thrag's body and axe. Fasheen objects, and there is a brief scuffle. The end result is Thyme flying out and retrieving Thrag's axe via magical means (invisible, levitate).
As Zeb and two of the mercenaries search the fallen enemy they realize the serpent men are regenerating. Uh oh. The party quickly burns all the bodies they can reach.
The party spends several hours in uneasy watch and rest. At one point the continual light in front of the palisade goes out, and one of the logs that make up the wall turns into a snake and attacks Fasheen. When these problems are dealt with the party realizes the serpent corpses outside the palisade have vanished. The party levitates Thrag's body inside the camp.
Thrag's body is levitated and lassoed and brought inside. A discussion ensues concerning what to do with Thrag's body. Burn it, bury it, bury it underground, or bury it at sea? Finally, Fasheen suggests we have Father Bo speak with the dead and see what Thrag wants done with his body. Father Bo does this and reports that Thrag wants to be buried at sea. Nasir disagrees and relates that he and Thrag were followers of the same deity and discussed the differences between how each race practiced their faith. Nasir claims the Thrag would have preferred to be buried in a vault underground.
Fasheen decides that Thrag's body will be taken back on the ship. However, to satisfy Father Bo's desire for a burial at sea, Fasheen suggests that since Thrag's people are affiliated with the ground, and since Thrag's boots are the closest possession of Thrag's that would have been in contact with the ground, that his boots are to be given a burial at sea.
The party maintains its watch and creates some magical defenses (fire traps, continual light arrows, magic mouths). Night falls.
An hour past sunset all three magic mouths shout out in Ancient Vichese. Nyota, at the palisade door, hears a noise on the other side and pulls the fire trap ropes. Damage is significant and something falls outside the palisade gate.
The party quickly rouses the sleeping members, and organizes itself. Unfortunately the villagers on guard are stricken with fear and flee from the wall. They try to open the gate, and set off a fire trap, even though Zeb tries to stop them. As they do, a nasty snake creature appears on the merchant's 2nd story roof with Thyme but no one (not even Thyme who is on the roof) is aware of it.
Nasir crosses to the gate and attempts to close it but there's something unseen jammed in the doorway. As he struggles with the gate, the now undead Zmar, appears on the jungle fringe and casts an ice storm that hits almost the entire party (stone skins destroyed of course). Fasheen takes one of his special arrow shots and manages to hit Zmar with a lightning arrow, while a humanoid creature appears in the gateway (being what stopped Nasir from closing it).
As the party at the gate adjusts to their predicament, the creature on the roof hits Fasheen with magic missiles and six serpent men break from the jungle headed for the gate. Zippy and Zeb attack the humanoid inside the gate while Nyota moves off to the watch platform. Mages and priests cast various defensive spells.
Multiple serpent men slither over the wall (one near Fasheen, two near Nyota). As they do, Thyme is blinded by a color spray cast by the serpent man on the roof. Bo charges towards the gate, leaving Benik guarding the rear and calling up the power of Trian.
Just as the six serpent men reach the gate, Nasir loses control of it and it swings open. He shouts for everyone to stand back, then pulls the cord on the multiple firetrapped pots he had strapped to his body. They go off (resoundingly). All opponents (and the village shaman) are slain. The gate is toast. More serpent men appear on the jungle fringes (Gatoja did say 'many').
Nyota manages to become afraid and starts to run. Thyme blind casts fly on himself. Fighting grows more intense all around as serpent men slither over the walls all around the compound. Benik and Nyota (no longer afraid) link up while the rest of the party gathers at the gate. Thyme's eyesight returns and he uses wizard eye from the jungle fringe. Thyme spots the serpent on the roof and tries a magic missile. Oopsie. They bounce. Thyme curses under his breath.
Nyota finally manages to succeed with a magma spray and deals some nice damage to his opponent, just as Benik is transformed into a garter snake!
Father Bo (wise one that he is) realizes the latest serpent arrivals are standing in a camp fire and not paying any mind. He disbelieves and they vanish (for him).
Nyota spews out another magma spray. Excellent. Unfortunately elsewhere Fasheen is becoming a eunich. Zeb and Nasir discover the enemy is susceptible to snake charms.
The attackers break off, and the party regroups (heals, search, burn bodies, etc). The party notices that the village is mostly empty of villagers and the fishing boats are all gone. Only three mercenaries remain.
Bodies are searched
More preparation is carried out, and the party returns to their watch schedule.
The group returns to the normal watch rotation. Thyme makes himself, Fasheen, and Zippy invisible so that each watch has an invisible member on the 2nd story rooftop. Sometime later, Nyota is also made invisible. Dusk falls on the 36th and the tide goes out. The sky is a little cloudy.
The fight starts with an ice storm from the jungle. Why wasn't Zmar that effective when he was with the group? Benik is hit by magic missiles from a creature out along the wall beyond the shore. Zippy's sword begins to moan (undead within 100').
The party awakens and gathers again. Various light sources go out. Suddenly three shadowy figures appear in the village and attack! Thyme is hit, but Nasir manages to send one of the creatures back to the hell it came from with a turn. Then another. Nyota casts magma spray, breaks his invisibility, and kills the third undead. Father Bo casts protection from Evil 10' radius.
Thyme enlarges Zeb, who now towers a full 10 feet tall. Zmar can't ignore the target and fires off a lightning bolt (Good thing Thyme taught him that spell!) Nyota spots him and casts a (risky) magma geyser under his feet! Zmar is staggered but prepares another spell. Fasheen puts a stop to that with a well placed lightning arrow. Zmar is no more (literally - his corpse sank into the magma).
The jungle grows still. Was that it?
In the early afternoon, THE SHIP ARRIVES!!!!!
A note about Thyme: Several of us over the last few days have noticed that Thyme is acting weirder than usual. He seems to hear sounds that are not there and is looking around in an odd fashion. We hold several discussions and come to the agreement that the Evil vial we had found in the jungle, and which Thyme has had in his possession since, might be the cause of Thyme's dilemma. We all agree that taking the vial away ought to be done but we didn't manage to act on it prior to the ship's arrival.
The captain of the ship comes ashore and is aghast at the state of the village and frustrated/dismayed at the loss of the trader Bargis and majority of the mercenaries. He seems to be unaware that we were waiting for passage on his ship and he only admits to knowing that Thyme might be seeking passage.
He finally agrees to let us board at a cost of 10 GP per person (and yes we pay passage for Thrag's body). The merchant warehouses are emptied onto the ship while we stand guard from any jungle attack. On the evening of the 37th, we set sail from the village. The party shares out the few cabins and maintain a standing watch of their own.
The crew consists of:
The estimation is that it will take 10 days to reach Seaway. From there we will have to seek passage on another vessel or some other form of travel.
The day passes without event. The party decides that when Thyme goes to sleep they will take away the vial. There was much discussion on how to best take Thyme. Sleeping potion in his food Father Bo cast hold person beat him senseless.
Finally we decide to take the direct approach and Benik and Zeb burst into his room and hold him down while the vial is taken away. Fasheen takes the vial on deck and throws it overboard into the ocean. Thyme is tied up, healed of any damage, and eventually let go. He doesn't seek retaliation and only dusts himself off in an indignant fashion before resuming his normal high-and-mighty loftiness.
Quiet sailing. During the days that pass, several things were done/attempted:
Thyme attempts to tattoo a fly spell on his leg using the magical tattoo ink. Eventually it is determined that his attempt failed.
Benik casts continual light on 5 of Fasheen's and 5 of Zippy's arrows. Fasheen fashions covers for them to douse them when not needed.
Thyme casts magic mouth on the outer bag holding the Eye of Setal. If anyone other than Nasir touches the bag it will begin yelling. Nasir is still the keeper of the Eye.
Benik continues to instruct the three surviving mercenaries on the finer arts of warfare and amusing stories of past exploits.
Sometime during our travels, we pass the town of Anku. The sailors tell us that it is a BAD town. So far all of our ship travel has been conducted within the sight of land.
On the evening of the 42nd two galleys are spotted approaching us form the shore. The orange/yellow/blue flags on their masts identify them as Orc vessels. Our ship heads out away from land in an attempt to lose the galleys. It gets dark and over the next few hours the orc vessels slowly fall out of sight. Eventually the normal watch rotation is resumed. Our ship is now out of sight of land.
The days pass quietly, and the ship is once again in sight of land.
The Orc galleys are once again approaching. They are manned by rowers and are overtaking us, one to each side of ours. The front of the Orc galleys are protected from missile weapons with a wall. They are also outfitted with ramming protrusions.
Fasheen comes into his own, firing ultra-long range shots into the Orcish oarsmen. His success is cut short by the sudden appearance of an Orc next to the tillers! The Orc slays the port steersman and the ship loses way as control slackens. The Orcish galleys move to ramming speed!
As the party (no seaman present except Bo), regain their footing the Orc on the rear deck crosses the ship and slays the other steersman. Zeb, Benik, the three mercenaries and Thyme all hammer the orc assassin. Needless to say he dies. The party tries to regain control of the ship with little success. The captain dispatches sailors to take the tillers over. Fasheen continues to rain arrows on the galleys that are closing the distance fast.
The party begins to take fire from the galleys in the form of magic missiles and assorted mounted crossbows. Zeb in particular gets impaled with three heavy bolts and nearly goes down. The bolts are quickly followed by a lightning bolt that hits Bo, Thyme, and the sailor who was going to take the tiller (oops). Suddenly Bo and Benik freeze in place (held). The mercenaries (who are like puppies around Benik now) drag him off the raised rear deck and out of the line of fire.
Zippy is held, and Fasheen feels the wash of energy pass him by (lucky for once). Thyme is now mad and lightning bolts the nearest galley and wipes out most of the rowers. The galley loses way. Nasir drags Bo off the rear deck.
Fasheen drops the mage in the nearer galley just in time, as he is impaled by three heavy crossbow bolts and falls unconcious. Thyme repeats the lightning bolt trick on the other galley and it also loses way.
The orcs appear to lose interest in the battle. (Not that we are too thrilled about it.)
The orcs regroup as does the party. The galleys approach again, but arrows and lighting bolts convince them to see easier prey. They head away. The party lets them go (chickens)!
This is a holy day for Father Bo and he celebrates accordingly.
This is a holy day for Benik and he celebrated accordingly.
The walled city stands on top of a 60' cliff face. Zeb has heard that the city is not a nice place. We are told that the East part of town is controlled by the Compact. The West part of town is mostly Manar. And the central part is open to everyone. Travellers are usually restricted to the central part of town. Dueling is very popular in the center part of the town. Laws are very limited.
Our ship waits out in the harbor for the local port authorities to do whatever it is they do to bring our ship in to their port.
[ed. straight copy here for posterity]
It is at this point that the log was passed to another keeper for a period of time. The recorder is not responsible for any inaccuracies or outright lies.
30 guys in some freak'in boat come up and say, "hey!, you guys wanna buy some nylon stockings?!" We are confused. Boat is boarded and the two Captains yack about this n that n the other. The other Captain checks us out - I think he's hot for castrated adventurers. Other Captain questions us speaking Manar. Thyme tries to schnooze him with calm reasonable bullshit. We are individually sent to speak with some foul mouthed-SS officer. "Name, Rank, Blood type, items to declare, Favorite game show, etc." Damn TAX MAN is what he is. Nyota gets by using intelligent gat and boyish good looks. Everyone else is charged out the proverbial yin-yang.
Nasir shows him the Eye of Setal and is charged 30GP in taxes for it - Good idea.
We decide that we better fess up with our party loot. What do we have anyway?
When the Captain sees the 3 ingots of silverfish metal - gasp! - pure Compact mithril complete with official Compact guild stamps - he freaks out.
We are taxed 1,100 GP for our collective loot. Individuals are taxed around 30-50 GP.
Asked where we wish to be taken - We say, "Take us to your compact, baby!"
Plan: Dump Thrag & all the hot loot (we're keeping the Penthouse mags, though).
[ed. End quote]
We are left out on the Eastern part of the port and make our way up the streets flanking the body of Thrag, which is packed in salt in a box that Thyme has levitated. The streets are very crowded but they seem to make way for Benik, recognizing him at a holy warrior of Trian (it's good to be the king). Eventually we make it to the gate entrance into the Compact part of the town.
We explain to the guard that we wish to gain admittance and return the body of one of their own for proper burial. We get some respect when the guard hears Thrag's family name. Off he goes to find a higher superior officer. Eventually a Captain comes and escorts us into an adjoining tower to wait for an even higher official. Simple provisions of food and ale are provided while we wait.
An hour passes and the Captain comes back with some others including an ancient female dwarf (Candala). The party gives the full story of Thrag and his fall. Candala lays Thrag's axe on his body and mumbles over it. She then invites the party to stay at the Iron Hill Inn (within the Compact grounds) and says she will want to speak with us again. She will also assist us in gaining passes through the Compact lands should our adventures take us in that direction. A guard then whispers to the lady concerning the ingots and she inquires about them. We show them to her and she is suitably impressed.
The party takes its leave and retires to the Iron Hill Inn, a nice, if simple place with good food and hot baths. The group uses several shared rooms. Note that the three mercenaries are still with the group.
The party spends the day getting themselves back in shape, eating, drinking, reprovisioning and recovering. Candala returns and mentions the Temple of Eria may be able to aid the party with any healing needed (recall Thrag was a priest of Eria), and that the local Guild of Smiths would be willing to appraise and possibly purchase items. The party goes to the Temple and after some donations and discussion the Priests agree to help the disfigured party members.
We spend the rest of the day negotiating with the various smithy guilds attempting to decide how best to exchange or use our mithril ingots. [1] Finally we decide that we will use one of the ingots as payment and the other two ingots as material to have three special items crafted. We go with the vendor that will throw in a magical shield as part of the deal.
The weapons manufactured will be of family heirloom quality and tied to the blood of the person it is crafted for. We have much discussion on our current magical items (some of which are group loot) and who should get the newly crafted items.
Benik has so far gotten no magical weapons or armor since his current gear is embossed with symbols of the Trian order. The group decides that he is worthy of a mithril long sword. The hilt of Benik's current sword is to be used as part of his new one.
Zeb will get a mithril spear. He has not received any magical weapons in the past.
Nasir will get a mithril scimitar. His +2 scimitar will be given to Fasheen. Nasir will also get the new dwarven shield.
Father Bo will get to keep the +2 longsword and +1 medium shield that he's been holding as party loot.
Thyme and Zippy have not received magical weapons to date and will get priority in future finds.
More negotiation today, and the last of the heals is performed by the Temple of Eria priests.
It is here that Zippy, Thyme, and Nyota decide to go whoring. Since Zippy and Thyme have not received any magical items, Fasheen agrees to give each of them 100 GP out of the group funds as a temporary consolation. Nyota, being a new member gets 19 GP.
Thyme first went to purchase some fancy clothes. I don't know what you get for 120 GP but it was enough to interest some pick pockets later on. Thyme and Zippy outfitted Nyota with red robes to cover his skimpy loincloth and after a scrumptious meal they set out in search of women of the night.
During their search some thugs accosted them. Thyme levitated one of them. Zippy fled into the crowds and Nyota scared the other one away with his boyish looks. It was probably during this dispute that Thyme's magical purse was stolen.
Women were procured and the three boys started to test their stamina with constitution rolls. Thyme was deflated before he got started (probably due to losing his purse). Zippy took off with two lasses and lasted for 6 rounds (however long that is). And then Thyme and Zippy waited in the lounge for Nyota to finish up. Eleven rounds later, Nyota returned to the lobby satisfied that a good time was had in the big town tonight.
Thyme, still steaming mad about the loss of his purse, gathers a group to find it. Benik, Zeb, and the mercenaries go as strong-arm backup. Zippy and Nyota also tag along. [2] After traveling to the place where the thugs accosted them the night before, Thyme casts a locate object and detects that the purse is somewhere down a storm drain. A nearby man-hole cover is found and Thyme, Zippy, and Nyota become invisible. Thyme also casts fly on himself before descending the slippery rungs of the drain hole.
They climb down 37 feet to a corridor with an arched ceiling. They are ankle deep in liquid (and it isn't just water either). After several branching corridors are traveled and at least one more locate object, the purse is determined to be down in a deeper section of sewage. Thyme, thankfully having changed into cheaper clothing before this outing, dives down the 7 feet to finally snag the purse and come up reeking of excrement.
They all climb back up and to escape the crowds of people, smelling like they do, they all get fly spells to head back to the inn and needed baths. Benik, Zeb, and the mercenaries take the traditional walking tour back to the inn.
The party loot at this point is:
[1] Note there is only one guild, but various smiths were consulted.
[2] Note that a certain mage cast forget on a certain priest when tempers flared. Thyme and Bo really don't seem to like each other much.
FINI