Saturday, October 31, 2015

Dungeons and Dragons Part 12



We played DnD last week and this is what happened, to the best of my memory.

So, when last we left off, the Party was sleeping outside of the inn Ulfgar burned down.  In the morning, they continued on down the road, heading towards Gnome village of Barrelhelm.  On the way, they encountered a marching band of Orcs, but made short work of them, especially since most of them were clustered closely enough together that Ulfgar was able to take most of them out with one Fireball.  For once, Ulfgar managed to use a fireball without causing property damage or the loss of innocent life!  Hurrah!

Eventually they came to an outpost alongside the road that was being attacked by orcs, though it seemed to be held off by a valiant warrior dude of some sort.  They gave aid to this lone guardian, and defeating this band of orcs, the guy there, who turned out to be a human, gave them directions for a fork coming up in the road.  To reach Barrelhelm, they needed to take the right.

They continued on, and took the right in the road when they came to it.  Traveling down the road they eventually came to a place where the road was blocked off by several tree trunks.  It not being possible to navigate their cart around it, the strong members of the party started working at hacking away at the trunks. 

But while they were doing this, the party was soon beset by a pack of sprites, firing poisoned arrows at them, and a tall faerie woman, who excoriated the party for hacking at the trees (which really doesn’t make any sense when you think about it, because the trees were already dead). Fortunately, none of the party fell victim to the effects of the sprites arrow poison, and the sorceress fey failed to take control of Nory’s mind.  Then Nory killed her, like, right away.  Like it wasn’t nothing.  No one puts voices in Nory’s head except Cthulu!

The party succeeded in hacking through the rest of the trees, and continued on their way.  They soon came to a village, but it was a mostly human village, with little sign of Gnomes.  The party soon learned that this village had set up the road blocks, and the party kind of let slip that they had maybe sort of destroyed them.  They also quickly learned that they had gone the wrong way at the fork, that the gnome village would be reached by going the other way, and that the fellow they met at the outpost fighting orcs fit the description of someone with family in the village who had actually been beheaded by Orcs.  Curious!

Trying to be helpful and feeling a little bad about destroying the village’s roadblock, the party met with the village elders, who appeared to be kind of druidy types.  The Elders let them know that, to defend themselves from the bands of orcs roving from Barrelhelm, they had entreated the local spirits of the forest, who seemed to be the same poison-arrow-firing jerks they met on the road, and who gave the Elders a spell to cast to gain protection.  The Elders cast the spell, and one of their lot, a man named Swiller, turned into a bear covered in runes, then slashed and killed one of the acolytes of the village religion, and ran off into the woods.  The council asked the party to go off and bring him back.  The Elders weren’t angry with him or nothing, they just wanted him back.  All was forgiven.  No one deals well with being turned into a bear.  

The party set off for the nearby woods, accompanied by the second and last remaining acolyte, who guided them through the woods.  Eventually they came to a cave, from which they heard moaning.  The party ventured into the cave, leaving the acolyte outside so he would be safe.  Certain members journeyed ahead of others, and the stragglers looked behind them just in time to see a bipedal bear carrying an axe cut the acolyte in two.  Because the party can never safely protect innocents anymore, can they?

Most of the party rushed forward to do battle with the bear, who was not covered in runes, while the Bard and Ulfgar continued through the cave, coming to a room where they saw a man turning into a bear covered in runes, who then attacked them. 

Ulfgar moved back to hurl minor spells at the bear, not wanting to kill him with his magic.  The bear then knocked out the Bard in short order.  Meanwhile, the rest of the party managed to kill the first bear.  Then, joining with Ulfgar, they managed to subdue the rune covered bear, who then turned back into Swiller.  The other bear, after some time, turned back into a man, and the party deduced that he must be the first slain acolyte. 

The  party tied the knocked-out Swiller up and returned to the village.  There, they informed them that the spell granted by the spirits of the forest had turned Swiller into a werebear, so, they were going to have to deal with that, and maybe not trust the spirits of the forest anymore, on account of them being two-faced dicks. 

Saturday, October 24, 2015

Dungeons and Dragons Part 11



When we last left our heroes, they had bedded down for the night, planning to travel through the wilderness to a gnome village a week’s journey distant, to confront a band of orcs who had taken over the town, and had killed the copper dragon who had served as the town’s protector.  However, the next morning the party realized that they had no easy transport to the town, and would have to procure some.  Luckily there was a gnome who was fleeing the city who had a wagon filled with iron ore and uncut gems.  He sold these items to the party, and also made a deal with them to recover the treasure he had hidden within the city.  He told them where it was hidden, and the party promised to bring it to him when they returned, because the party is trust-worthy. 

So the party bought supplies, and Nory gave some Cthulu dolls to some refugee gnome children, and then the party set off.  They hid most of the party members inside the wagon, so that people wouldn’t know their true numbers.

The party came, eventually, upon a wagon, traveling from the gnome city.  They hailed them politely, but something seemed fishy, so Ulfgar used a message spell to communicate with the gnome driver to alert them of any danger.  The driver whispered back ‘help us.’

At this Ulfgar came up with a plan.  Hannah, having aided in the defeat of Superdragon, had a cape that allowed her to fly.  The bard would cast a spell of invisibility on her, and she would fly over to the other wagon, check out the situation, and then report back to the party.  Everyone agreed to the plan, except Nory, who shot off a spell at the other wagon’s horse, killing it. 

Then a sword emerged from the driver’s chest.

Deciding that any innocents must surely be dead now, Ulfgar cast fireball on the wagon, and three orcs jumped out of the ensuing fiery blaze.  The party rushed into battle and made short work of them, only to discover that the wagon had actually been full of gnome children.  Like over a dozen gnome children.  Over a dozen charred dead gnome children.

Ulfgar punched Nory and screamed at him for ruining the plan, and how he had assumed that there was no way for there to be people still alive in there, because of course there had to be, but pretty soon the enormity of what had just happened set in and then, Ulfgar just kind of shut down. 

The party continued on, and eventually camped down for the night off the road.  Maybe they got attacked, maybe they didn’t.  I don’t remember.  However, when they tried to get the cart back on the road the next morning, the axle broke under the weight of the iron ore in it, so they ditched all that stuff, Ulfgar used Mend to repair the cart, and they went on their way. 

Eventually, they came to an inn along the road, with was empty, but the party wanted someplace warm and dry to rest, so they went inside.  The inn was empty, and the innkeep was acting strangely, and then, the drinks that two of the party drank turned out to be poisoned!  The party overcame it, but when they questioned the innkeep they realized he was bewitched, and figured out a way to lift it.  The innkeep remembered nothing of what had happened to him, but when he came to he worried about his family, and ran into the back area to check for them.  The party followed after him, just in time to see him slaughtered by orcs standing over the bodies of his dead family. 

Well, the party killed the orcs, but, due to another fireball Ulfgar cast, and complications in dealing with the blaze, due in part to Ulfgar’s bewitchment by an orc sorceress, convincing him that he had to save the dead children, the fire got out of control and burned down the entire inn, and the party had to rush out, narrowly escaping being crushed in the collapsing inferno.

They ended up spending the night in the cart again. 

That happened two weeks ago.  Tomorrow, the adventure continues!  Maybe this time they won’t fail endangered innocents!

Saturday, October 10, 2015

Dungeons and Dragons Part 10



So, we are playing DnD tomorrow but I never wrote up our last session!  This is because I am lazy.  However, I doubt I will remember what happened last time unless I start writing it up so I better try my best.

So, after the party killed Makana, they went their separate ways a bit.  Nory got some progress made on his evil toys of Madness and Darkness.  Hannah and Dragon Man were attacked by Superdragon, who was intent on kicking Dragon Man’s ass for still being in the city.  Hannah, after getting a few licks in, decided to desert Dragon Man to his fate at the hand of Superdragon.  But, just as she saw Dragon Man succumbing to defeat, she rushed back in to attack once more, and knocked Superdragon unconscious!  This allowed the freshly revived Dragon Man to cut off Superdragon’s head, so the pair could run away from the townsfolk recoiling in horror at the gruesome execution of one of their heroes. 

When the pair returned to the hotel, it turned out that one of the other adventurers had learned of a frontier city beset by evil forces to the North, and Dragon Man quickly recommended that the party travel to their aid. 

The party left the city, crossed the lake uneventfully, retrieved their animals, realized they needed to travel upriver, and thus would need to use a river transport, sold their animals, and then realized they really should tell the Sultan of Ispep they were leaving.  So some of the party returned to Ispep to talk to the Sultan, and some went about securing them passage north. 

The party in the city managed to gain a short order audience with the Sultan and his heretofore mysterious backers, who turned out to be evil Drow and evil dwarves who are willing to partner with evil Drow.  The party members hightailed it out of there as politely as they could, promising absolutely no commitments on the part if the Orebreaker Clan.  As soon as they were out of sight Ulfgar sent what amounted to an ABORT ABORT message to his fellow Orebreakers, which is to say that he explained the nature of the people wanting to draw them into business.

On the other shore of the lake, the party found passage on a strange ship run by merely a halfing and a wizened wizard who powered the craft through the steady application of wind spells.  Within a couple of days the party was attacked by huge muck creatures, one of whom almost carried a knocked out Ulfgar away in the current, but he was saved by the Useless Bard diving into the water after his swiftly passing corpse. 

Later, the party boat passed between a pack of fairies lights and a ship of pirates.  When the fairy lights attacked, the pirates stayed off to the side, planning to take the ship upon the deaths of the inhabitants at the hands of the fairy lights.  However, after Ulfgar set off a Fireball and the Useless Bard unleashed a Thunder Wave in the destruction of the sprites, the pirates decided that such magic users were too much trouble for them to deal with, and sped off. 

Eventually, the party made up to the village from which the trail led to the village they were searching for.  There they heard tales from the other people fleeing the city, saying it had been overrun by orcs or something.  There was no vacancy in the inn within the village, but the barkeep was very dumb, so Nory managed to trick him into giving him the room of someone else who had reserved one.  The party than prepped for the journey ahead! 

That’s all I remember!