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!