Elven Timro Campaign.

[URLeader Hobbes]

This is a recap of the campaign that I am running on the weekends. I'll be updating it weekly but please feel free to add comments and opinions.

The setting is in the town Arian on the northern border of the Kingdom of Timro: The players chose to play members of the same family. Thanks to Luke getting to roll on the Knighthood family back ground table it was determined that they are new nobility from a farming background. Per the books the area is known for its tobacco farms so I made the parents tobacco farmers. They own a struggling plantation with several orc slaves who work the fields. In truth the plantation is struggling due to poor money management and bad decision making.

The Players:

Luke Elf Knight: recently attained knighthood and has been granted a fiefdom across the river from the town consisting of 10 square miles. His goal is to set up a town as he has to pay an annual tax of 1,000 gold to the crown.

Dave Elf Assassin: Member of a criminal syndicate who married into the family and brought, via his criminal contacts, a good amount of gold which was promptly sunk into the plantation. His guild (to be named later) wants to set up operations in the town while it still has a mercenary force for a police/militia.

Rob Elf Earth Warlock: Character got letters revealing his true lineage and clues to his rightful inheritance. In addition to the letters he also got a ring which will offer up clues in the game as to his family’s past. The Ring appears to be a signet ring and is in the shape of a snake eating it's own tail.

Jameous Priest of Light worshiping the Egyptian gods: He has been the assistant of the priest in the town. His goal is to expand the faith of his church as another church has opened up and luring followers.

Moe Elf Mercenary Fighter: Stands to inherit the family estate provided he is able to exert some control over it and fix some of the poor practices currently happening.

Notes on the Town: Town is a northern expansion of the kingdom of Timro. The Old Kingdom River goes along its northern border. The climate is similar to Georgia and the South East US. The land is good for farming and on the opposite side of the river is a forest that is bountiful in game. This has attracted a number of hunters/trappers. There are three inns/taverns in the town. One on the other side is more of a hunting lodge but it does offer rooms, meals and booze. The most popular place in town is The Rum House which in addition to food and drink also has gambling and ladies of the evening.

The two churches in the town are the Church of Light and Dark (AKA Egyptian Pantheon) and a second one frequented by the wilderness folks to Cigra the Bowman.

The town is comprised of a council which makes the local laws and has hired on a mercenary force to act as the town guards. There are no walls or natural defenses save the river to the north.

Game started with all of the players meeting at the family house and having a bit of a reunion dinner. The family estate is a tobacco plantation which has in the past had some serious financial difficulties due to the head of the family mismanaging and making poor decisions.

Moe related rumors that trappers in the area are being robbed. They set traps and later when they return to check them they have been taken. Most of the townsfolk suspect other trappers or hunters who happen to luck out and come back with a kill.

The group decides to investigate. They head over to a tavern on the far side of the river, there they witness a drunken brawl and a couple of party members break up the fight. After a bit they talk to a trapper who had his traps stolen. He gives them an idea to where he set his traps. (Roughly 20 miles NW)

The group heads out even though it’s after dinner.. A few hours and 12 miles later they come to a clearing with a tree. Dave who was walking 40ft to the side of the party notices an Ogre sleeping under the tree; he readies his bow and whistles to rest of the party who was advancing across the field.

This has the unintended effect of waking up the ogre who begins looking around. Dave fires a shot and hits the ogre, who cries out in anger/pain. This causes Luke, and Moe to draw weapons and go running right at the tree. Jameous yells out “It would be nice to have an ogre on our side guys.” Rob decides to circle around to flank the enemy.

The ogre reaches for a horn and blows it. This has the effect of making the party think he has allies nearby. Luke and Moe charging the Ogre’s position look about as they are advancing and don’t notice any other foes. They are running and are almost in range to start melee combat. Jameous trips on his way to help the others, Rob continues to circle around to get a better view. Dave puts away the bow and begins running towards the Ogre as well.

The ogre unleashes a fierce battle cry. Moe and Jamous both fail their saving throws and turn tail and flee the area.. Luke unaffected and unafraid rolls a critical hit on the Ogre. (He literally ran the ogre through) Rob who did not advance sees Luke doing this and then pulling his blade back out. The ogre takes a swing at Luke who parried the blow..

Luke and the Ogre go back and forth for a minute before Luke is able to land the killing blow. Rob in the meantime was looting the Ogre’s possessions.. Nothing too valuable. Some meat, a few coins and a small gemstone. Luke takes the blade. Dave joins the others in looking for valuables.

Meanwhile Moe and Jamous finally stop running. However they have drawn the attention of some Goblins. Moe hears a chant and makes his skill roll to recognize the language. He hears “The Goblins kick your ass, the Goblins kick your face, the Goblins kick your balls into outer spaaaaaace!!!!”

The two prep for a fight drawing weapons.. Four goblins arrive and two toss spears. Each of the players gets hit for 1d6 damage. Jamous realizing he is in a bad spot moves behind Moe. The goblins 2 with armor and 2 without realizing Moe is the greater threat decide to take him three on one. The other goblin without armor decides to attack Jameous.

After a few rounds Moe has taken out two of the Goblins. Jameous has managed to kill the one attacking him, but not before taking quite a bit of damage. The third goblin facing Moe seeing his friends killed decides to run away. Moe gives chase but is unable to catch the goblin who flips him the bird as he is fleeing and yells out “You suuuuck!”

The group manages to get back together and decides to make camp instead of continuing on. Dave decides to decapitate the goblin heads as well as the ogres head. He gets some sticks and makes makeshift pikes to stick the heads on. He leaves them in the clearing by the tree where Luke killed the ogre.

The night passes uneventful.

The next day they return to town as Jameous needs healing. Moe takes it upon himself to exaggerate how great a warrior Jamous was. Going as far as to make up heroic deeds he never actually did.

After the ferryman brings them back across the river they see an ogre with a large jug on the docs. After a moments panic they realize it’s the ogre who makes moonshine and lives in the town.

One of the party members says hello and asks what he is up to. He tells them his brother is on his way to visit and they plan on sharing some moonshine and catching up.

The group spends the day prepping to go back out and attending to chores at home. Jameous returns to his temple and is healed by another priest of light. Moe continues to brag about the prowess he “witnessed” Jameous display.

Dave decides he needs to begin establishing the criminal presence in the town. He goes to The Rum House, and a woman named Rosie lets him know who the owner is. Dave convinces the owner to have a word in private, in the room where the kegs are stored. He tells him that he better start paying protection money or bad things will happen. To emphasize his point he shatters a keg on the ground.

The session ended with me giving out EPs and them discussing their next move. From what I can predict they plan on going back out into the wilds to hunt down whoever has been stealing the traps.

[Wōdwulf Seaxaning]

Nice..can't wait to hear what happens next.

[LJ]

You left out the part where Moe was trying to oversee the orcs making and spreading fertilizer, and because of his failed language rolls, causing them to fling manure everywhere.

[URLeader Hobbes]

Just going for the main parts and key events.. Feel free to toss in your own angles and what not..

[LJ]

Augustus Longfellow Moonhawk's journal.

After returning to the tavern and planning on locating the uncouth vagabonds that had been stealing the traps, I decided to discuss with the proprietor of the inn that I now own the land on his side of the river. Once he came to an understanding and a tax was decided upon, he suggested that I speak with the council back on the town's side of the river. I thought it a sensible idea to make haste, as I could be away from town for several days. I also wanted to bring my horse Sir Chompy Bitingsworth the 3rd back with me. As I was crossing over, my brother-in-law asked what I was doing, and I told him to tell the others to wait for me in the morning.

I first made a detour to the Temple of Cirga and discussed my land acquisition with the priest, and how I would grant him land to build a larger temple, if he moved over to my side of the river. We discussed how it would mutually benefit us. He gave me 2 conditions, 1 is that I must first hunt down and kill a Kelpie, the other was to limit the comings and goings of the Church of Light and Dark on my side of the river. I agreed. My brother will not be pleased. He also gave me a symbol of Cirga, which he blessed.

Going to the council building, I realized it was much too late. So I went to meet my brother Birch, who manages the family tobacco trade. I told him about the land, and he said not to tell Father. I agreed it would be a bad idea. I brought up the idea of growing grapes to start a vineyard and make wine. He suggested that we try for another type of alcohol instead. He said he would research into it. I also asked him to write a letter to the council for a meeting within a week's time.

I was heading back to the river when I decided I should investigate the Kelpie problem, as the attacks were late at night. After checking in with many farmers, Sir Chompy and another horse were scared of something in a barn. I told the farmer to wait inside his house as I headed to investigate.

Dismounting from Chompy and heading deep into the barn, the kelpie jumped out and we began to brawl. I got in many good hits, but he eventually knocked me off my feet. I woke up and found my sword missing, and Chompy laying on the ground, bleeding. I grabbed a mallet and ran to the farmhouse, finding the farmer slain, and the rest of his family under attack. One child was dead, while the wife and baby were cornered by the Kelpie, now holding my sword. I grabbed the farmer's crossbow, shouted at the Kelpie and fired. He came at me swinging, and we collided a flurry of sword and mallet. My armor was falling apart as we struck each other. The farmer's wife hit him with a frying pan, and he turned and struck her down.

Eventually I began to wear him down, and he tried to lure me into the nearby river to fight, but I never gave him a chance. His final option was to throw my sword aside and hope I went after it instead of chasing him. Which I did, and thus lost sight of him as he disappeared into the river.

I went to check on the farmer's wife and she was still breathing. I gathered her and the child up, put them on the back of the farmer's horse, and grabbed Sir Chompy and led them to the nearest farmhouse. There they began sealing up all our wounds, and offered to help me track down the Kelpie. We found him floating downriver. After firing a few arrows at him, I moved into the river, stabbing him, and realizing he bled out a long time ago.

The farmer offered to help me cart the Kelpie's body into town, and we went to the Temple of Cirga where the priest healed SIr Chompy and I. A nearby tavern heard of my deed and I drank the night away.

I visited Birch, and he loaned me money to acquire a new suit of armor. I put in an order for chainmail, and bought a suit of hard leather. Hopefully it will last until my chainmail is ready. I decided to try and find the Kelpie's lair in the hopes I would find much treasure. After spending several hours tromping through bogs, swamps, and watery caves, I walked away with a few weapons, some rusty armor, and what appears to be part of an ore shipment. I do not believe I will ever find its' trove. I also found many of its' victims, and what appears to be a murdered merchant. He was tied to a rock at the bottom of the river.

I returned to town, and realizing that I was supposed to be on the other side of the river with the others. Once I made my way over, I looked around for them, and found out they already left. So I decided to wait. They came back late the next night, telling tales of a dozen ogres, and armor with bear traps forged into their armor. We planned to head out the next day. Brother Adon, the Priest of Light and Dark saw the gift that the priest of Cirga gave me, and he began to berate me for switching religions. Even though I did no such thing.

The next morning we headed out with 15 hunters and trappers trying to track down the ogres, but they had split up into 3 groups. We split up to follow their trails and found nothing.

[URLeader Hobbes]

I don't mean to hijack your thread with questions but, that is some decent detail you have put into the chr. backgrounds without typing a whole heck of alot. Is that normal for your games? Its really awesome. I have developed chr.s after playing based on thier actions but never started with good background like you have.

Noramlly the players think of a motivation for the character. For this game I gave them each a task or goal for them to strive. As they all were playing 1st level characters they get to further develop in game. It also gives them somehting to shoot for when things are going slow.

That player who gets back to town unscathaed doesn't need to go for healing and has no need to get his armor reparied should have something to do other than just sit around and wait for everyone else to get ready..

Personal goals and character motivations are always rewarded in my games.

[URLeader Hobbes]

Recap of game sessions on 10/1and 10/2

Luke stopped over and we did a bit of one on one gaming. He decided it was time to think about his task of developing the lands across the river, which is his fiefdom. He also realizes that coming up with 1000 gold pieces will be a bit tricky and it will be made all the easier if he starts right away. The group travels over to the inn on the far side of the river.

Luke goes over to the inn keeper and produces his document declaring him lord of the lands. He then lets the inn keeper know that he will be taxed 6 gold per week. The innkeeper then comes to an agreement with Luke. He will keep a tab open for the knight which will count towards his tax. Luke agrees and upon hearing that he has a good sized barge that can accommodate horses he goes back to the town to get his trusty steed.

While in town he stops over to the church of Cigra and speaks with the priest there. He talks the priest into moving his church across the water to the other side. However the priest has a few stipulations.
1.The church will be made of stone.
2.Other churches will not be allowed to build in the fiefdom unless he agrees to it.

The final request is that Luke goes on a hunt as a rite of passage into manhood. (Aspect of the religion) As he is a knight it wouldn’t be befitting for him to hunt a deer or boar. So the priest tells him that signs of a kelpie have been seen in the area. He charges Luke with slaying the beast. The Kelpie has been seen along the farmlands to the east of the town. Luke agrees and is given a holy symbol of Cigra and priest blesses him.

Luke sets off in the area the creature was reported to be in. After asking at a few farm houses he comes across a horse in the road. Suspicious he approaches with caution. He ends up bringing the horse to a local farm house. The farmer is thankful. He starts leading the horse towards the barn and makes a comment about not recalling leaving the barn door open.

Luke stops him, draws his blade and enters the barn. The Kelpie jumps out at him from the hay loft and a fight ensues. The fight goes back and forth until the Kelpie scores a head shot on Luke knocking him out. When he comes to he is missing his sword, so he grabs a mallet off the wall of tools the farmer had in his barn.

Hearing a scream coming from the house he runs in and faces the Kelpie again who has taken his blade and apparently has killed the farmer and one of his children. Luke sees the Kelpie approaching the farmer’s wife with a baby in her arms. He and the Kelpie go at it for a second round.
This time Luke gets the better of the Kelpie and after a bit manages to weaken him. The Kelpie flings the sword and goes running for the river. Luke gives chase after recovering his blade. The Kelpie has made it to the river and dives in.

Deciding that saving lives is more important than finishing off the Kelpie Luke returns to the farm and gets the survivors away to the next house where he assumes they will be safe. He then returns to the scene and looks for the Kelpie. He does actually find him after a bit floating down the river.

After searching the area Luke finds some rusted armor, a sword, some iron ingots, and a few victims of the kelpie. He unfortunately was unable to locate the creatures stash. He returned to the town with the beasts body (Thanks to the aid of a local farmer) and was healed by the priest of Cirga. Afterwards he spent the rest of the night drinking. The next day he gets a loan from his family to get some new armor.

While this was going on the others decided not to wait and opted to venture out into the woods in order to catch the thieves whom had been stealing the traps. Prior to leaving the tavern Moe asked one of the trappers to draw him a rough map and point out places where traps have gone missing. Map in hand they headed on out. Jameous lead the way, or rather lead them in the wrong direction. (Several missed land nav rolls.)

After marching for most of the day in the wrong direction the group finally realizes they are way off course. They manage to make their way back and continue searching in the right direction. They opt to spend the night out in the woods as opposed to returning to the town. Eventually they come to a spot where the find a trail of blood. It’s pretty clear that someone dragged something heavy away.

Following the trail they eventually come to a deer that has been strung up in a tree. (Being drained of blood and there is a gut pile on the ground nearby.) After looking around a bit, Moe decides to get a better look of the area by climbing a tree. He spies a small fire and counts 12 Ogres who have made camp on the far side of a nearby hill. Moe also notices that one of them is in full plate mail which is decorated with spikes that look like they came from the teeth of a bear trap.

The group discusses and they opt to climb the hill to get a better look at the ogers camp. The hope being that if this is a hunting party they will disburse and the group will have better odds. Sneaking up the hill Jameous fails his prowl roll and several ogers start running to investigate the noise.

Rob casts chameleon and vanishes from sight. Dave hides behind a tree and makes a concealment roll. Moe hides behind a different tree and Jamous hides behind the same tree Dave was hiding behind.

6 Ogers come into the area, two in leather armor with swords, two with leather armor and war clubs and the oger in plate mail with a two handed sword. They walk right past Rob thanks to his chameleon spell. One notices Jamous hiding behind a tree and alerts the others. A battle ensues at this point.

Rob kept casting dust storm making it hard for some of the ogers to see what was going on in other parts of the battle field. Moe ended up fighting one on one with one of the ogers with a blade. Dave ended up fighting the ogre in the plate mail.

Rob was able to disarm two of the ogers wielding the war clubs with the spell “Rot Wood”. Jameous fled the field and then returned to blindside one of the ogers from behind. Dave ended up exchanging blows with the ogre wielding the two handed blade.
Dave ends up trading blows (simo attacks) with the heavily armored ogre and his armor and SDC get stripped away forcing him to flee. Rob ends up defeating a couple of unarmed ogers with shots to the head. Moes fight seems to be at a standstill as the two seem evenly matched and occasionally end up hitting one another.

Jameous ends up face down on the ground and an ogre ends up on top of him. Rob knocks the ogre off with a shot to the back of the creatures head. Dave sneak attacks and kills the ogre Moe was fighting. Jamous heals Dave and prevents him from bleeding out.

Rob ends up facing the armored ogre. He gets a couple of good shots in and gets a couple of called shots to the hands of the ogre with his mace. This causes them to break and rendering him unable to wield any weapons. After that the armored ogre flees calling for more help from the rest of his allies back at the camp who are approaching.

The group realizes they can’t handle another wave of foes takes off. Rob goes off in a different direction than the rest. Moe, Jamous and Dave run off and Jameous is able to heal Moe and Dave. They hear the sound of the enemy approaching and take cover. Fortunately the ogres pass by and fail to notice them. Moe counts the number that goes by and realizes that the only ogre left back at the camp is the armored ogre who can’t wield any weapons due to his broken hands.

They head back and once they get close they hear quite a bit of noise. Moe climbs the same tree and notice the Ogre wielding a sword again as well as several kobolds assisting and providing weapons. Realizing the ogre is better equipped and that they have a healer among them they opt to return to town to get some help.

They manage to make it back to town without further incident. They spend the night at Teasmot’s Travelers Retreat. There they catch back up with Luke, inform the trappers of their findings and make plans to head out again. The trappers decide to go with them as they are looking forward to dealing out some frontier justice to the ogres. They agree to head out first thing the next morning.

Dave who was without armor decided to swipe a boat, go across the river at night and stop in at the local blacksmith. The place was closed so he picked the lock. Looking around he found a suit of leather armor. He left 250 gold for the smith and a note stating he took it. He then went back across the river for the night.

The next day the group headed out looking for the enemies. They tracked them and it appeared they split into three groups. The hunters and trappers followed two paths and the group followed the third.

They looked about but were unable to find the enemies. The session ended at this point and I awarded experience points. Most all of the characters made it to level 2. Those that didn’t were close and most likely will on the next session

[LJ]

Augustus Longfellow Moonhawk's journal.

After spending the night outdoors, we continued our search for the Ogres. After some time of searching, we headed back to the inn to check with the other search parties if they found anything, but they all came back empty handed. I asked my brother Talon the mercenary to come back to the house with me, and see if he could repair the rusty plate mail that I had found. After several hours, he managed to get it into a usable condition. The next morning we went to the blacksmith, and I turned the order for chainmail over to my brother. We then headed back across the river to meet with the others. On the boat ride over, we heard that the ogre in town had broken into the Church of Light and Dark, and beat the head priest down. This news did not bode well.

When we gathered together, we told Adon that the head priest was attacked. With great haste, he headed back to the temple to check in on him. While we waited, I decided that this would be the time to start work on a guardhouse, and started cutting down trees. Some of the others pitched in, and I had enough lumber to begin work on the base of the structure. When Adon returned, we headed to some ruins that we heard were in the area. The ruins turned out to be an ancient temple to the Church of Light and Dark. While investigating, we ended up getting trapped inside. Searching for a way out, the others found some gold and other offerings to the dead. They grabbed the gold and did not cut me in. Something about me converting to the CHurch of Cirga, though that never happened. I found Adon's silence on the matter especially troubling, since he had been trying to preach cooperation to the followers of Cirga all week long.

We escaped the ruins after many hours, most of which involved our brother-in-law desecrating the temple walls, trying to find a secret passage. We made note to return to the ruins later to explore further. After heading home, I decided I wanted another crack at finding the Kelpie's lair, and enlisted the help of the others.

We followed the river for a few miles, trying to locate the spots I had previously searched. We swam across the river, except for Adon, who almost drowned, and our brother-in-law who could not swim. While searching a partially submerged cave, Talon found a deep tunnel headed down. I swam down and grabbed onto whatever I could find, finding a couple of bodies at first. Later I found a magic sword that glowed, making the searching much easier. More searching allowed us to find a pocket of air and some dry ground, with several well carved statues, along with a large pile of coins from the Old Kingdom. I split the money evenly with my brothers, even though I could have withheld it.

In a few days I have meetings with the town council and the Priest of Cirga. The following day is when we must escort Birch to a fort to sell his wares.

[Wōdwulf Seaxaning]

Liking this thread alot keep the updates coming.

[LJ]

Augustus Longfellow Moonhawk's journal.

First order of business after returning home was to speak with Birch, and trying to repay his loan with some of the treasure I had found. The scabbard to the magic sword was encrusted with jewels, and after appraising them, I had more than enough to repay his loan, give him a little something extra, and still have some pocket change for myself. I also had Talon work on my plate mail some more.

Afterwards I went to speak with the priest of Cirga, and found him in a theological discussion with my brother Adon, the priest of Light and Dark. I waited until the finished to ask the priest about an estimate on how many members of his church were willing to move to the other side of the river. Soon afterwards I received word that my brother-in-law Varos was being detained in the town jail, and suspected of murder, extortion, and had been resisting arrest. After meeting with the town guard, I learned that he had previously argued with the proprietor of the Rum House, who then told others that he had been threatened, and is presently presumed dead. There is no body to speak of, and the only current hints at foul play are a room covered in blood. I set out to gather witnesses from the other side of the river to show that my brother-in-law was out of town during the time frame that the guards think the murder occurred.

During the trial the next morning, he was cleared of murder charges, was fined for resisting arrest, and is still under suspicion of extortion. Until he can be cleared of it, he will be under my custody. Following the trial, the town council held an auction for the ogre's Whiskey Jug, and the Rum House. My half-brother Logos the Earth Warlock was highest bidder on the Whiskey Jug. Talon tried to buy the Rum House, but was outbid. After the auction was all finished, I had my meeting with the council, discussed my plans and intentions for the other side of the river, and then left. Talon, Varos, and I went back to my side of the river, and continued construction of the guardhouse for the rest of the day.

The next morning, Adon followed me to the Church of Cirga to listen to a Sermon. Afterwards, I told the Priest where his followers could set up their new homes, and what they were allowed to do. My brothers and I all gathered together to escort Birch and the family wares to Fort Hilde.

Along the way, an axel broke on the wagon, and our tools for replacing it were missing. I offered to go get some, as I was the only one with a horse. Gathering my bearings, I realized we were closer to the fort, and headed in that direction. Along the way, I spotted a large pack of tusked wild animals headed in the direction of the wagon. I rode back as quickly as possible to warn them. I tried to lead some of them in another direction with some success, while Logos began building a fortress of clay around the wagon. Before he was even halfway done, Birch had cut the wagon horse free and rode off. Some of the pack followed after him, I hope he's alright.

The battle was fierce. I kept trying hit and run tactics to try and split the pack up, but was eventually knocked from my horse. Sir Chompers ran off, which drew a few of the pack away from me. I drew the magic sword and tested it out against the monsters, but found myself wishing I was using my regular blade. I made my way to the clay wall, and fought off the pack until Talon dropped a rope. While waiting for assistance, Varos jumped down onto the back of the alpha of the pack and stabbed it repeatedly. After being lifted up to the wall, I grabbed my crossbow and started firing at the pack, while Adon healed me. We unleashed many crossbow bolts and arrows to finish off the alpha and some of the pack. The pack had been fairly well dispersed at this point, as someone had ignited large amounts of oil on top of them.

Sir Chompers returned soon after, and we began finishing off those beasts that stayed behind. We must find where Birch disappeared to after we patch up a little bit.

[LJ]

Augustus Longfellow Moonhawk's journal.

My half-brother Logos the Earth Warlock and I set off on our brother Birch's trail. We tracked it southward for hours, and decided to continue on even as night fell. In the distance we spotted large pyres, and Logos went ahead to check it out. As I waited, I began to hear screams of pain and agony. I quickly spurred into action with my lance at the ready. Nearing the pyres I saw that they belonged to an ogre warband, and the screams were from human prisoners that they were tossing into the flames.

I felled the first enemy I came across with a lance blow to the face, and skewered another on my way through the camp. One tried to knock me off my horse, but failed. As I rode through, I saw a couple ogres chasing after a bound prisoner trying to escape. I dropped my lance and scooped him onto my horse and kept riding until we were far from the camp. I cut the prisoner's bindings, and he told me he was a soldier on patrol from Fort Bext, and that he and his buddies were captured. I asked him if he saw any elves, and he said I was the only one. Realizing that I was now separated from Logos as well, I was in a dilemma on what to do next. I had to keep searching for my brothers, but at the same time the warband was a threat to the kingdom. I ended up leaving a note for Logos and headed towards Fort Bext.

On arriving at Fort Bext, I was greeted cautiously until the rescued soldier presented himself. I was offered a room to rest in for the night, but I felt like none of the soldiers liked having me around. After acquiring a new lance, I set off. I came across Logos, and we decided to check back at home. Pa was sitting on the porch and we asked him if Birch came back. He said he did, and started yelling at us for not protecting him better. Logos went to talk to Birch, and I grabbed the toolkit from the barn so I could repair the wagon. Logos told me that Birch lied to Pa about what happened. He grabbed the horse as well as a couple of the orc slaves. He said they were going to help with the wagon, but I suspect he was going to use them as a distraction if we came across tuskers again. Not long after we left, it began to rain.

We eventually made it back to where we left the wagon, to find that it had been set on fire. The others were nowhere in sight, and there were giant footprints everywhere. One of the orcs commented, "can't fix this" and wanted an axe to cut down trees for a new wagon. Logos found the others' trail, and we followed it to where it ended at the river.

[PhellaOne]

Liking this thread alot keep the updates coming.

Agreed!

[LJ]

Augustus Longfellow Moonhawk's journal.

The spot where the trail ended was not an ideal fording location, so we ventured down the river in hope of finding such a location, to no avail. We then decided to build a raft, and camped out for the night in the forest. Logos had chained the orc slaves together around a tree, and they complained much of the night as it rained. When it became my turn for watch, the orcs were still awake and complaining, so I unchained them from around the tree, and instead chained one's arm, to the others' leg.

Sometime later, I saw an eerie glow coming from deeper in the forest and awoke Logos. He went to check it out. As the glow got closer, I saw an unholy abomination fly forward at me, which was suddenly crushed by a wall. Logos came back and we began breaking up camp, when the abomination appeared again. My sword bounced off of it, but luckily another wall smashed it into the ground. We put the orcs over our horses and were about to leave, when the being appeared before us a 3rd time. Logos' horse fled, with the orc slave screaming the entire time. Logos chased after it. My horse however, was frozen in place. I tried to get him to move repeatedly as the abomination tried to strike me. The beast looked at me, and all my mind could think of was getting out of the forest. I began swinging wildly at the creature, telling him to let us go, and drew blood. It was probably because I was using the magic sword from the kelpie's lair, instead of the Moonhawk family blade. And then a wall fell on it, and I believe this time it was dead. I made sure by hacking at the body, and Logos lopped off its' head.

We left the woods and went back up river for hours until we found a suitable crossing spot. On our journey to Fort Hilde, we stumbled across a patrol. We stayed with the patrol for the rest of the night, and swapped information. The leader of the patrol handed me a letter to give to the fort commander. On arriving at the fort, I went straight to the commander. Before I was allowed entrance, I had to remove my helmet and eat a pile of salt. Not sure what that was about, maybe I will find out in time. After gaining entrance, I delivered to the letter and discussed some of the current situation with him. He asked me if I had any other business at the fort, and I explained about my missing brothers and the tobacco we had planned to sell. He called for his assistant, whom told me that the last group of traders to arrive at the fort was at least a few months ago. He pulled out a map, and explained where the patrols were active, and that we should search to the West of the fort.

Logos and I bought more supplies and head out to the west.

[LJ]

Augustus Longfellow Moonhawk's journal.

On our journey westward, we came across a Priestess from the Church of Light and Dark. She said she was heading west as well, and we let her join us. On the way, Logos told her that I had left the church and decided to follow another god. I explained the situation again, and that the others were just overreacting to me speaking with a priest from another church. When we stopped for lunch, we saw a group of humans stumble towards us. I greeted them, and they explained they were part of a trade caravan from the Western Empire, and they got bush whacked in the Old Kingdom. We offered them some food and I offered to let them settle in my fiefdom. I told them how to get to Fort Hilde, and gave them some gold to get some meals while they wait for us there.

We made camp as night fell, and the Priestess offered to take first watch. Logos and I awoke to someone calling out our names, and our brother-in-law Varos stepped out of the darkness. Talon and Adon soon followed, and told us everything that had happened. Apparently a giant had wandered into the camp, and Varos tried to scare him off by setting the moonshine barrel on fire. That fire then spread to everything else on the cart. Pa is not going to be happy about that. Adon said that he received a dream from Isis that told him where we were, and that in the nearby hills is a dungeon with a piece of Osiris hidden away. We told the others that a Priestess was with us, but when we looked for her, she was gone. Our description of her matched the Isis in Adon's dreams. So we agreed to find this dungeon the next morning.

Breaking camp, we headed a few miles away to the hill from Adon's dream. Talon and I began searching for an entrance way, when we discovered a portion of hill that looked like something was buried under rock. We grabbed the slaves and had them dig their way through, until we stumbled across a massive door, 30 ft in. Varos checked for traps, and then Logos decided to make a slave open the door. Talon stood behind the slave, with shield and sword ready. As soon as the slave tugged on the door ring, the cavern began to collapse. We saw the rocks kill the orc slave instantly, and knock Talon down. Logos and Adon ran back out the tunnel as the entire thing began to collapse. They almost made it out before becoming partially pinned. Varos, the other orc slave and I began digging them out, and then worked on finding Talon. Luckily we found him still alive and breathing.

We redug the tunnel out, and worked on trying to open the door, but no luck. Logos used a spell to rot wood, and chip away at the door, to find that behind the door was just solid stone. A false entryway.....We started searching for another entrance on the hill, and I came across a spot that looked similar to the first. We began digging again until we found another door. Logos offered the orc slave his freedom if he'd open the door, but the slave flat out refused. Varos checked the door for traps, seeing it was clear, opened the door to reveal a long hallway. On our journey through, he fell down a pit and almost became skewered. Logos took the lead after that, and discovered many pitfalls along the way. He triggered them from a distance to reveal their locations to the rest of us, in case we needed to leave the place in a hurry, so we would not activate them on our way out.

As we traveled through, Adon was inspecting the hieroglyphics on the wall, and hit a switch which caused the floor to slope and send me falling into one of the above mentioned pits. Talon helped me out of the pit, and we realized that Logos and Varos had kept going. Talon went to go check on them, while Adon began to bashing away at the paint on the walls to try and find a door that he believed was covered up. Sometime later Varos and Logos came to us and said that Talon disappeared. We followed them into a room with a doorway shaped like a Demon's mouth, and another a glowing cloudy fresco. Varos said that Talon walked through the cloudy fresco, "Just like this" and walked in. We waited a while and decided to toss some rope in, and when we pulled it back, the rope was 10ft shorter. Logos almost walked into the Demon mouth, but was stopped by Adon. Instead they threw in Logos' mace which was attached to a rope. We heard a loud boom, and the entire place shook.

We decided to move back into the hallway and try and find the door that Adon was looking for. We stumbled across an archway that behind of the pits that was previously triggered, and Adon made a pathway for us to bridge the pit. Walking down the new tunnel we found a door, which Logos busted down, revealing a demon of some sort. He trapped it under a wall of stone, while I began hitting it with my sword. He and Adon stood there for a while trying to figure out what it was, but eventually gave up, and started hitting it as well. It turned to stone and tried to bash its' way out from the wall, and right as it was about to crawl out from underneath, it was hit by another wall.....along with Adon and I.

The wall vanished, I got up and moved to make sure the beast was dead. Adon was pretty beat up, so Logos moved to render first aid to him. While poking around the corpse, I found a spiked collar with a blue gem on it. I silently stuffed that into my bag. I feel terrible about it, but with the others constantly accusing me of switching churches as an excuse to stiff me, their own flesh and blood out of a cut of the treasure, I feel pushed into this position. I began searching the room and the 2 doors in the room. One led to a broom closet, while the other led into a small room with a door, which led into another small room with a door, and so on and so forth. Eventually I ended back in the room with the others. Inspecting the condition of my armor, I realized that it would just hinder me at this point, and took it off, except for my helmet.

Adon began praying and was fully healed and began preaching to me about how great his Gods are. Times like that are making me have serious consideration into switching over to the Church of Cirga. I heard laughter coming from the broom closet, and searched it again. I found a secret door that led to a room with a fresco of a garden. Adon began inspecting it while Logos left for the big hallway. After Adon did not find anything, I tried my luck, and found the way through. We came upon a large room adorned with frescos of small animals, and the laughing became louder. Arrows the size of toothpicks came out of some of the frescos, and upon closer inspection it looked like there was some room between them and the walls. I pulled out my dagger and began stabbing at the gaps. Some of those darts hurt really badly. Adon was hit by one, and I heard a strange melodic voice talk to him. He moved over to me and kissed me. He then followed the voices to a newly revealed doorway, talking about someone named Mary Zot being full of great ideas. His church is really starting to weird me out now.

[URLeader Hobbes]

OK so here is the game recap from this weekend..
Again the players
Jamous ( Elf Priest of light worshiping the Egyptian Gods)
Luke (Elf knight who has been doing in character posts online)
Rob (Elf Warlock)
Dave (Elf Assassin)
Moe (Elf Mercenary warrior)
Also with the group is Spit and Kurd two orc slaves.

Thanks to a bit of divine intervention the whole group was brought together and given a goal. In a dream Jamous was given direction by his goddess to check out a nearby hill for a missing part of Osiris. The group agrees to take a look and arrive at the hill. Some set up camp while Moe and Luke circle the hill looking for a way in. Moe finds a spot that looks like it can be cleared away. He and Luke return to camp and get the orc slaves to begin clearing the way. Jamous decides to help as well.

After a couple of hours a walk way is cleared out. They see double doors at the end of the entrance 30 feet in. the doors are large, made of wood with pull rings, spider webs cover the ceiling but won’t hinder the players.

Dave detects traps on the doors and believes that the pull rings used to open the doors will trigger a trap. It is suggested that they tie a rope to a horse and have the horse open it safely some 50 feet away. This idea is shot down in favor of having Spit the orc slave open the door. Moe stands behind spit, Jamous and Rob stand a good 15 feet away from the doors and Dave, Luke and Kurd remain outside. Spit grabs both pull rings and gives a good tug.. Rocks dust and other debris come crashing down from the ceiling. Spit is crushed to death, Moe is buried alive while Jamous and Rob make a dash for the exit and get partially buried.

Eventually everyone is dug out and the passage is cleared of the fallen debris. Rob orders Kurd to go and open the doors. The Orc slave seeing the disastrous results refuses. Rob offers the slave freedom if he goes and does it. Again the Orc refuses. Rob then recalls he has a spell that will rot the wood of the door. He goes and rots the wood on the double doors. Then he clears away the rotted section.. Turns out it’s a false door and completely designed as a trap to thwart would be thieves.

So they go searching about again.. They do find another spot and manage to clear it out. As they spent most of the day clearing out the opening they decide to call it a night and make camp. The next day they enter. Fortunately this is the correct entrance.

Jamous is amazed by all of the intricately detailed artwork adorning the walls. Deciding to play it safe they decide to have Dave lead the way, followed by Rob with Jamous in the middle Moe and Luke brining up the rear. Dave notices on the tiled floor that there appears to be a red path laid out. He decides to follow it as the path seems to twist and wind its way down the long hallway. A bit in he falls into a pit trap. Fortunately his armor saves him from taking a lot of damage from the spikes below.

Rob pulls him out and decides to take the lead as his link to the earth as a warlock gives him a shot at detecting pitfalls. He manages to evade all the further traps and when he detects one he takes his mace, attaches it to a rope and hits the area causing the trap door to open so the rest of the group won’t be surprised as they follow.

Jamous stops to take note of one particular fresco on the wall. He notices a bronze box jutting slightly out of the wall. As he notices this he realizes the box has a hinges on the bottom and a latch at the top. He throws the latch open and feels a poke in his finger as a needle hits him. Fortunately he makes his saving throw and is only annoyed as he sees a bit of blood showing up on his finger tip. Someone in the group then asked if he was checking his blood sugar. Searching a bit further Jamous discovers a handle and give is a pull. This has the effect of dumping Luke into a pit. Fortunately Lukes armor prevented any of the spikes from impaling him.

Rob and Dave meanwhile make it to the end of the hall; they notice a large devil head carved into the wall at the end and follow the trail into a side room with an arch. Approaching the arch caused it to fill with mist and three stones on the arch lit up. The keystone at the top and the two base stones at the bottom.

Both decided to wait for the others. Meanwhile Jamous realizing the painted plaster walls could be hiding a secret passage began knocking them out with his hammer. Luke joined in the search. Moe thinking it was a waste of time joined Rob and Dave at the end.

Seeing the mist filled arch Moe walked right past Dave and Rob simply saying “Lets check it out.” He completely vanished from sight.

Jamous who had been working on removing areas of the wall discovers a mechanism which he thinks controls the trap. He calls out to Dave who returns and disarms it. The group then moves to the end of the hall where Dave says “We lost Moe, he went into the arch like this..” Dave then vanishes as well.

The group tried throwing them a line with an additional 10 feet attached into the portal, but that rope seemed to have been cut as it returned 10 feet short when they pulled it back out. Rob decided to take a look into the demon/devil mouth and thought about jumping down. Jamous stopped him and they tossed the mace down the area first.

This was followed by a loud BOOM! Which shook the area.. Fortunately nothing collapsed but Jamous did gloat a bit about saving Robs life. Not wishing to tempt fate Jamous resumes looking for hidden doors behind the plaster walls. He does find one eventually.

He Rob and Luke enter in and get into a fight with a gargoyle. Rob drops a wall of stone on him and Luke and Jamous end up attacking. After a few rounds Rob decided to drop a second wall of stone on the creature. This unfortunately also has the effect of landing on Luke and Jamous. Lukes armor was nearly completely trashed and this also did serious injury to Jamous.

Deciding he would like to have enough armor to repair Luke removes the remains of his armor with the exception of his helmet. (He has a spare set out at the camp.)

Rob applies first aid to Jamous who has some broken ribs. While they are doing this Luke snatches a collar with a gemstone on it off the corpse of the monster they just dealt with. Jamous prays to his god for healing and is restored.

Luke goes sees two doors in the room and opens one revealing a broom closet. The second leads him to a succession of doors that ultimately lead to a dead end. Rejoining the group he sees Jamous restored and Jamous says something to the effect of “See this is what happens when the Gods are with you!” Luke then hears laughter coming from the broom closet.. He and Jamous go to investigate while Rob decides to summon an elemental to assist him. Luke following the light and melodic laughter discovers a number of secret passages that lead him into long hall with some frescoes. Woodland scenes are brilliantly detailed into the walls.

Hidden are holes along the walls and Jamous and Luke start getting shot with tiny arrows. Jamous tosses on an armor spell to protect himself but one gets through and he falls under the effect of a charm spell.. The fairy who shot him tells him to plant a big sloppy wet kiss on Luke.. Jamous does and Luke yells “”THIS IS WHY I DON’T GO TO YOUR CHURCH ANYMORE!!!”

Meanwhile Moe and Dave find themselves in a room with three levers. They decide to throw them all up and a hatch in the ceiling opens. Moe looks in and sees a crawlspace. Thinking that moving the levers in another direction they opt to not take the discovered way out. Instead they try left and right with no success. Lastly they throw them all down.

This has the effect of causing the floor to drop out from under them. They smartly held on to the levers as they expected that might happen.. Afer about 20 seconds of the floor not resetting Moe decides to fall.. Dave waits another ten secconds and follows him. They hit the ground a good number of feet below and hear the floor that just dropped out from under them closing.

After they collect themselves tehy climb teh walls to see if they can get out. Unfortunatley there is no visable way to escape. They formulate a plan to carve nitches in the walls to enable them to climb up easier and maybe grab a hold of the floor when it's resetting the next time someone falls.

The session ended with me giving out experience points. We will play again next week.

[LJ]

Augustus Longfellow Moonhawk's journal.

This quest is really getting to me. Adon followed the voice, and picked me up and carried me when I tried to stop him. He then tried to force me into a crawl space. Then he started dancing around, and poking Logos while he meditated. Logos got mad and they had a slap fight. I opened a couple doors, and almost got skewered by spear traps. I collected the spears, pulled out some rope, and made a way to cross the pit that led back to the entrance.

Walking out to my horse, I saw that the family horse was gone, along with the orc slave, and some supplies were scattered around. Someone forgot to tie him to something, and Pa is gonna be real angry. I grabbed my suit of leather armor from my saddle bags and went back into the dungeon.

Adon had apparently returned to normal, and he and Logos were investigating a room with a stone statue with a spot for a gem in its' hand. I deposited the gem found on the collar, and the hand crushed it. In its' place was a note written in some kind of language we did not know. We investigated the crawlspace and found a large room with an altar, pews, and a portal like the one that Varos and Talon walked through. The others investigated the altar while I looked at the skeleton of an adventurer, hoping to find clues. After triggering some kind of trap, Adon started inspecting the rest of the room, while Logos and I tossed a pew at the portal. It broke and money spilled out the back, so Logos and I started breaking pews and finding more treasure. Gas started spilling out of one, so we decided to stop breaking stuff. Especially after the part when I fell asleep.

I woke up and saw 2 elf women in robes, asked them who they were, and they said they were my brothers. I did not believe them at first, but I found out they tried to walk through the portal which was actually just a cursed archway. I looked around and saw that I was in a different room, and my sack of treasure was back in the other room. Headed back I fell asleep.

I woke up, found the sack, met the others, and apparently Logos summoned an Earth Elemental, sent it through the portal to rescue the others. We waited a short while, and then everything began shaking as it tunneled its' way to us. It dropped off the unconscious bodies of Talon and Varos. Adon began healing them while Logos ran off. About 5 minutes later, he came back bleeding and said he was attacked by a skeleton. I went down the way he came, saw the elemental headed my way, and found the room that Logos was in. There were a few treasure chests in the room, one opened, 2 closed. I decided to not touch them and instead picked up the sword belonging to the skeleton, and brought it to Varos.

[LJ]

Augustus Longfellow Moonhawk's journal.

Seeing as we were low on supplies it was decided that we should head back for more supplies. Adon prayed for guidance and decided to stay, Logos would not leave without him. The night before we left, Logos told his Earth elemental to find him a deer. The next morning Talon, Varos, and I set out, following the large trail the Elemental left.

Following the trail was a bad idea, as we were headed in the wrong direction for a few days. We eventually made it to Fort Hilde and I started stocking up on food, and then asked around if anyone showed up at the fort to wait for me. I learned that the travelers that I encountered previously had indeed arrived, but were put into forced labor as they were caught begging. I paid for their release, and spoke with the others. They wanted to return to Arian for replacement armor.

Arriving back home, I informed Pa of everything that had happened. He was not pleased to hear that Varos torched the wagon full of tobacco, and now thinks that he is trying to sabotage the family. I gave Pa a sizable portion of the treasure I had discovered. Talon started working on repairing my armor.

I then went to go speak with the Priest of Cirga about how the construction was doing on the other side of the river. He said it was going fairly well. I gave him some gold and instructions to distribute to the travelers that I brought with me. I will have them start up a farm that will be under my control.

[LJ]

Augustus Longfellow Moonhawk's journal.

Varos had headed off to the town of Baca trying to find supplies that could not be found in town. I began working on building a wagon, when I heard Talon screaming and yelling. I quickly moved to find him standing over a peasant, with his sword sticking out of the man's stomach. I called for someone to go fetch the priest, and told Talon to remove his sword and head home. He shouted that he would only remove his sword after the Priest healed his almost severed ear. I drew my sword, moved closer and told him to remove his sword. He pushed it in deeper, so I charged at him. He took his other sword and decapitated the peasant. I stabbed Talon, and he turned away and began walking towards the river.

I followed after him telling him to stop, but all he did was sheath his weapons. I sheathed my sword and moved in front of him with my fists up, and we began punching each other like crazy. I got in way more hits, but he knocked me out. I awoke and saw him waiting for a ferry and told him to halt as I got back up. He said no, so I began swinging at him again......and got knocked out. I awoke again, saw he was still there, and told him to halt, but the nearby peasants stopped me. The Priest healed Talon's dangling ear, walked towards where the dead peasant was, and then came over to me to heal my wounds.

After getting healed I gave the priest money for funerary rights for the peasant. I took the ferry over, and saw a couple of town guards coming my way. They told me that Talon was sitting in the Guard House, and I followed them there. We argued over what happened, while the Town council was fetched. They listened to the dispute, and said that I was the one that had to decide a course of action since it happened on my fiefdom. I talked to the other peasants about what happened, and came to a decision. It was a street brawl gone wrong, and Talon owed the next of kin 80 gold pieces and a sincere and humble apology. If the apology was not sincere, I would have him publicly flogged. I feel that I was too lenient with my brother, but I need his help if we hope to find Osiris' body part. I then went to work on a new wagon for the trip back west.

The next day, Logos arrived on a ship from Fort Hilde with dire news. The Kinnie Ger had slain Adon, and he had to hide the body for future retrieval. He also came bearing news that a large orc and ogre force was roaming around, and there was a letter from the Fort Commander asking for my assistance.