Category: D&D (Page 10 of 16)

March 3, Third Age 1331

Our hero’s around midnight, emerge from the cave of the necromancer Dubois, still wondering where he is located. They have saved Burt and the 10 citizens of Stonehelm. The hero’s decide to bury Brice’s sister’s body and head to the temple district under the darkness of night. Brice has requested they take his sister’s body to “Our Lady of Sorrows” the largest temple, who are protectors of the soul as it moves to the afterlife. Duke Leopold heads back to the inn for a nights rest and thanks his companions for the adventure.

As our heroes (Lundie the Dwarf paladin of Moradin, Marcus the priest of Mars and Quintos Noble Warlock) move through the city, they encounter some town guards and deliver the two slavers who killed for money. They tell the town guards that the Stone Legion lead by Quintos has purged this evil from Stonehelm.

Our hero’s arrive at “Our Lady of Sorrows” and describe the necromancer Dubois’s evil acts. The temple adepts wake up much of the temple, including Father Archibald the head of the order in Stonehelm. Quintos has some glancing looks at the young nuns, as the head of the order ushers them out. Our heros speak to the Father and describe the acts of evil. The Father ask our heros to hunt down Dubois and join with a Ranger who has found information on a possible location of the Necromancer (Dubois). The father also says that St. Longirius (the roman who pierced Christ with his spear), was a convert to Christianity and if they Romans Quintos or Marcus ever wanted to join the order they were welcome.

Marcus watches the ritual of Gentle Repose they perform on the body of the deceased girl and trades some holy water from the Silver Chalice for a holy book, the Bible of “Volgate” a text of the Roman Catholics.

Our heroes leave on a boat, polling down with the ranger to the location of the Necromancers cave. As they enter the cave (approx. 6 hours from the city of Stonehelm, they carefully navigate through the cave avoiding vines. Then a large black form starts to rise beside the boat.

The undead ‘Necrocrocodile’

The Ranger fires his bow, as our other heroes ready actions. Then the giant necrotic crocodile a massive undead beast erupts from under the black dark waters, our heroes blast, hack, and fire arrows into the giant creature and with skill and luck, destroy the massive creature in less than 12 seconds. As the creature splashing under the water, a wave moves the boat…

The Ranger, off balance, falls into the water, Marcus drops to the ground to offer a pole to the ranger as evil creatures attempt to pull him under the dank water. We save the ranger and continue on our way.

One of advantage rolls was a ‘Sadvantage’ results — double ones!

We poll to a sandy beach inside the cave, when suddenly a strange undead skeletal serpent breaks behind the heroes. Then by surprise launches a lightning bolt down the middle of the boat, hitting the Ranger, Quintos and Nero (Quinto’s familiar). The lightning is skillfully dodged and only partially burns our two heroes, but the familiar disappears in the blast. Our heroes fight the undead serpent, during the fight Marcus is slept, but the heros finally destroy the creature with Lundie’s hammer and Quintos’s spells.

Skeletal snake!

They move quicker into the caves, find 10 people locked in a cage and free them. They tell them to stay put, until we can come back to save them. Our heros’ then break down a door into a tunnel, that looks like a trap. Sure enough as they get half way down the tunnel, green gas gets released. Lundie and Marcus rush the door to knock it down, Quintos blasts the door with Eldrich energy as the Ranger shoots into the gas vents to slow the bellows.. Our heroes break down the door before the gas can envelope them….. Seeing a vile scene on the other side….

Holy ‘Young Frankenstein’ Batman!

There in the room is a huge undead abomination, a monster created of pieces of different people and the evil Necromancer Dubios, laughing manically he yells “He’s Alive”. The monster starts to move as it’s connected to two strange magical machines on each sides of the creature, it pulls itself free…

The Legendary Actions were fun (for the diabolical GM anyway)

We fight a brutal battle, Quintos summoning the blackness of the void, to immerse the villains in a painful tentacles of death. The heroes blast the magical machine to destroy its healing power of the abomination. Quintos works with Lundie wearing the helm of true-sight and blessed by the goddess Caldrindia (the Lawful good goddess of war). And Lundie helps Quintos aim into the void to blast the Necromancer with Eldritch bolts, dropping Dubois after multiple blasts.

The Legendary Actions were fun (for the diabolical GM anyway)

Finally the Abomination leaps from the blackness, charred by cold and burned by Acid. Lundie and Marcus face off with the beast, as the Ranger fires and Quintos blasts.

Legendary actions included knocking folks prone — ouch!

Finally Lundie summons the full power of Moradin in his Warhammer and knocks the Abomination’s head from his unclean body… Silence fills the room as the heroes have defeated the deadly Dubois and his undead horror.

The killing blow!

The heroes in the black library of Dubois find a letter written to the Necromancer. It says in a Dark Tongue that only Quintos can read;

“Thanks for helping the destruction of Stonehelm, your actions provided a pivotal roles in our plans” The letter has a wax seal by an “ORC SKULL”.

Our heroes free the captured citizens of Stonehelm and return to the Temple of the Lady of Sorrows victorious over the undead of Dubois.

And once again the Stone Legion triumphs over evil.

March 2, Third Age 1331

The journey begins with our heroes traveling towards one of the largest cities of Threa, Stonehelm (population over 30,000).   It’s about seven thirty at night, close to sundown as they travel closer and approach the north gate.  They encounter two guards Reginald and Edwin.  Our weary travelers ask for a good inn.  The guards recommend the Kneeling Bard an establishment with good rooms, good drinks and great views of attractive barmaids.

Marcus (the priest of Mars), decides to wait 30 minutes, until these guardsmen get off duty, he wants to ask them about rumors in the city, the orc incursions.  Marcus uncovers that attacks have not been coming recently and it’s quiet now.   He offers to buy these two guardsmen some drinks at the Kneeling Bard.

Quintos (Noble Warlock) , Lundie (Dwarven paladin) head towards the Kneeling Bard, thirsty for drinks and good views..   As they enter Quintos (after his recent death experience) rushes to get a stiff drink, Lundie seeing a chance to drink some ale with his friend, grabs a brew.  A beautiful barmaid with flowing red hair provides them some drinks. They also see an interesting human in fine clothes, handling a deck of cards.   He appears to be of noble birth.

Marcus enters some time later, with Reginald and Edwin, he sees the beautiful Lorita (the red headed barmaid) and is struck by her beauty.  Marcus bows and kisses her hand, then smiling tells her of her beauty.  He then orders drinks as Lorita, tells Marcus he might like sitting with the noble man with the cards.

Marcus, comes over to meet the human, he introduces himself as Duke Leopold a man of noble birth from an island country to the north east.  He claims to come to Stonehelm to find people to help free is kingdom.  They start to play cards, as Quintos comes over and drunkenly sits next to Marcus saying he has dibs on the red head, he then staggers back to his table with Lundie.

As Marcus and Duke Leopold start to drink and play some games of chance, which the Duke skillfully wins. A dog wanders in with the stable boy, asking is this our dog.   Marcus scratches the dog and finds a torn piece of cloth written in blood HELP BART.

Marcus seeing the blood is intrigued and concerned.  He asked the beautiful barmaid, Lorita, to hold his bottle of wine and requests if the Duke likes a bit of adventure and he agrees, then goes over to get the other members of the Stone Legion (Quintos – the noble inebriated warlock, Marcus’s dear lifelong friend) and Lundie (the Dwarf Paladin of Moradin and savior of Marcus on numerous occasions).   They all leave following this strange dog.

Our hero’s head through the streets of Stonehelm, it’s about nine at night, so Marcus requests Mars to light his spear.  Eventually, they arrive at the docs, but not before Quintos almost falls into the water in his drunk state.   Lundie grabbed him prior to the splash.   The dog takes us into a cave, as the hero’s advance, Quinto’s owl Nero, sees bats and bat guano.  Our hero’s are careful not to breath or step into it.  Then Quintos in a drunken state falls backwards.   He hits the ground with a loud noise, the dog barks…

Suddenly, four groups of bats fly down from the ceiling heading towards the heroes, we then hear undead moving towards them from two caves in front.  Finally two giant dire bats spread their wings on the ceiling ready to attack.   Marcus calls out to Mars to protect our hero’s and by his name smite those that face his worshipers, as a host of spirit warriors in armor of Mars and spears appear in mist around our hero’s.

The bat’s charge, the spirits attack and wound the bats.   The other hero’s jump in and the fight begins.   During the battle, our hero’s fight with the glory and strength of the Stone Legion.   Lundie uses his power of Moradin to heal the alcohol poisoning of Quintos.   Quintos readies a massive fireball, but before he can cast is blinded by the dire bats.   But due to his skill as a caster and senses, while blind he places the fireball in the perfect location to significantly damage the dire bats and destroy one of the smaller bat groups and some undead.  Our heroes fight and win the day for Mars, for Moridan and for their personal glory.

Then they find a body, of a young woman, but it’s missing her head.   There is a note written by Dubious in black coal saying “Let this be a reminder to all none escape the cave alive”.   Then we locate a scroll that says “Good Luck Alexia, I will do my best to ensure you a path to the exit,  Love Brice”

Our heroes continue to search rooms, their newfound friend and ally Duke Leopold has a unique way of opening doors, he actually……  Picks the Locks…   This is strange to our heroes, but exciting to open the doors quietly and sometimes get surprise on opponents. As they search, they ultimately capture by intimidation two slavers and freeing 6 prisoners.   Then finding a gruesome room of two crazy men and some automated hands cutting up what appears to be people.  Our heros put them to rest.  Then finally locate BART in a prison cell and reunite him with his dog.   They also free the other prisoners freeing over 10 people from this evil place as they lead them out the front of the caves, Quintos exclaims “Well Dubios I think some people have escaped alive”.

Our heroes head back into the cave, to confront the last room.  When they open the door they see a man at a table (who we latter realize is Brice) talking to a floating, burning, skull head (we latter learn is Alexia).  Thinking burning skull heads are not good, our heros quickly focus all their efforts on damaging effects, including incredible dart attacks from our new friend Duke Leopold.    The Skull shatters and the fire goes out.  We all feel a sense of sickness, death and evil as we realize the room is filled with experiments, books of vivisection, and black potions that reek of death.   After a dispute with Duke Leopold about the value of the books, our heros decide to burn all in the room.

Then questioning Brice, we realize he was one of the first to be captured by Dubois the dark necromancer, who comes and goes from this place.  Lundie puts him under a zone of truth and we confirm he is a captured pawn in this nightmare, then we confirm the slavers have killed for money.   So we deliver Brice and the two slavers to the authorities for the law to handle, with the facts from their zone of truth experiences.

So as the Stone Legion entered Stonehelm the day started with smiles, flowed to drinking, we faced and created death itself and finally freed a number of citizens of Stonehelm from the evil cavern of Dubois.

The only mystery remains is where is Dubois…

February 21 – March 2, Third Age 1331

Quintos downed by a lucky assassin!

Ouch! A nat ‘1’ on a death saving throw!

“I’m dead!!”  Or so Quintos thought.  In truth, he was.  But only for a few fleeting seconds before Marcus was able to bring him back.  The assassin who did the dirty dead had already been dealt with.  Robbing Quintos of any immediate revenge.  The party set out to find the assassin’s camp hoping to find information on who had sent her.  They found the camp along with a fairly accurate sketch of Quintos and a very nice black horse, which Qiuntos claimed.  Unfortunately, there was nothing that pointed to the employer of the assassin.

Quintos Revived!

And thus ended day 4, which proved to be the most exciting part of their journey to Stonehelm.

On the 5th day, they found a pit filled with old elven bones.  Ultimately, it was nothing but a sad sight the party was happy to move on from.

They made it to Bisigath on day 8, which was Feb. 24 1331.  Being populated mostly by dwarves and filled with a choking fog or cloud, Bisigath had little, if anything, to offer the human members of the group.  So they departed early the next day with plans to pass through Vymeir on their way to Stonehelm.  They were able to purchase a diamond worth 300 GP and continue their journey.  Quintos once again talked to the leader of Bizigath about establishing trade routes.

With the exception of a chance meeting with Highgar Silvertongue, a merchant from Tengate on his way to Nimroth, the rest of the journey to Stonehelm was as mundane as it could be.  Quintos was unexpectedly eager to get to Stonehelm.  Apparently dying, if even for only a few seconds, is enough to make a man regret giving up drinking and Stonehelm promised to provide plenty opportunity for it.

Loot

• Frosti
  • 140 GP
• Ghost Dancer
  • 140 GP
• Lundie
  • 140 GP
• Marcus
  • 140 GP
  • Diamond worth 300 GP
• Quintos
  • 140 GP
  • Large Black Stallion

February 10 – February 17, Third Age 1331

Part I: Back to Nimroth

After defeating the vampire in the castle to the south of Nimroth our band of adventurers decide to rest in and around Nimrtoh for a few days.  Ghost dancer loads the large painting they found inside the castle and decides to take it to the Minotaur Inn to make sure it is the same lady in the picture.  No one seems to have much interested in the picture.  Although they do confirm that it is the lady that used to own the manor home to the south.

Marcus goes around town gathering supplies and laborers; he spent the journey back to Nimroth scribbling away.  He spends a week making improvements to the old manor house, occasionally asking his companions for various gold pieces to buy this or that.

Part II: Research does pay off…

While out of town Sophia had a chance to look through some of the books that Quintos left with her.  She found that there does appear to have been a singular great Orc leader before the Orcs were able to steal the Urthjarl Stones at Stormgate.  And it appears that there were other leaders under his rule.  Yet once the stones go missing, shortly after he seems to disappear from influence and reference.

Meanwhile, while researching and selling the picture found in the castle, Ghost Dancer finds that there was once an old citadel named Tul-Mac.  This citadel belonged to the Bat God, named Zott. Ghost Dancer makes note and feels that his fellow band of adventurers must seek out this mystery as well.

Lundie spends his days and evenings working at the smithy shop of Thoradin.  Lundie promises Thoradin a place on the lands they have lied claim to around the manor to the south of town.  Lundie prepares for the trip ahead by purchasing large amounts of rations and loading them on the wagon every evening.

Part III: On the Road … Again

It’s cold this time of year in the lands of Threa.  Our travelers bundle up for the long journey and begin the slow trek south.  Hours turn to days and the trails are hard on the souls and bones of our adventures.  Travelling Threa wears on the spirits of all who take long journeys.  Fourteen days will be a long time to make it to Stone Helm.

On February 20, Ghost Dancer finds a curious plant along the route.  He remembers it to be “Soldier’s Bell”.  Ghost Dancer remembers that this plant can ground up and inhaled to give a boost to the person taking it.

Part IV: Loot

• Frosti
  • 37 GP
  • 5 SP
• Ghost Dancer
  • 37 GP
  • 5 SP
  • Soldier’s Bell Plant (Advantage on STR, DEX, & CON for 1 hour)
• Lundie
  • 37 GP
  • 5 SP
• Quintos
  • 37 GP
  • 5 SP

Bought these 1 inch hair bands in various colors off of Amazon for about seven dollars. They wrap around the base or you can drape them on top of the miniature.