Sword Lord Report (#2)

The first Sword Lord report has gone missing...

Here's the second, written by none other than Durvil, the self proclaimed Wolf Lord of the Greenbelt.

"My honorable Sword Lords of Restov,

It is the pleasure of your servants to report the most recent discoveries in the Greenbelt.

Negotiations with the Soot Scale tribe has been completed and we are pleased to report that the tribe will now bow to your demands and accept our law.

Bridges crossing both the Shrike and Thorn rivers were found to be in good condition and access across can be guaranteed.

Additionally, a temple dedicated to the common folk has been discovered and will soon be holding services again. A new discovery, that is still to be explained, is the meeting of more fey creatures inside the Greenbelt boundary. WE have yet to determine the level of infestation, but will continue to investigate.

Your faithful servants,

The Greenbelt Guild"

Game Session 7 and 8 (Fest)

It's been a while since I've updated. Things have gotten a bit crazy in my RL job and I just haven't had neither the time nor the energy to sit down in front of a computer and update. But, there's no time like the present, right? This isn't likely to be very detail oriented due to the span of time between play and update, but it'll certainly help us keep track of time, XP and money...to a certain extent.

Session 7 saw us gaining another traveling companion in Tak Tak...the new kobold emissary. He was at one time the apprentice to Tar Tuk, the kobold shaman, so the little guy is actually pretty bright. For a kobold.

We spend the next 4 or 5 days exploring the immediate territory. That is until we meet a faerie dragon by the name of Percival. He appears unto us (sound rather religious eh?) and informs us that Tig Titter Tut, the Grig princess, has been kidnapped by a cunning race of frog men called Boggarts. Tig Gyr, the grig king requests that we go and rescue his daughter. If we do so we'd be honored among the tribe. And more importantly, he'd owe us a favor.

Sounds pretty good to us, so we let Percival lead us to the Boggart lair. Odd thing though, we travel a VERY long ways in an amazingly brief amount of time. How? We're not sure...But it was most certainly due to the faerie dragon.

Our journey terminated a marshy area on the Skunk river. The strange Boggarts had made a lair in an old ruin and were keeping Tig Titter Tut in a small cage, guarded by a stunted one of their own. After a bit of reconnaissance, it turns out that there are about 6 or 7 of the creatures in the largest ruin, looking after a monstrously huge prehistoric frog of some sort.

Now of course, all of these creatures have names, and a few of them were things like Garrum, UbbaGub, and Slurk. All of them sounding like something you might hear when a gas bubble pops in a swamp. Charming.

We plan our attack and actually carry it off w/out too much of an issue. Well, except for Durvil being nearly unseated from his horse by Garrum the chief. Slurk, the giant, prehistoric frog-thing was also giving us fits. In the end though we won through.

For our efforts we were given a hearty thanks from Tig Titter Tut and a few gems and gew-gaws as well. (Chunk of rhyolite worth 50 gp, a spinel worth 90 gp, and a blue quartz worth 25 gp.)

EXP: 3238 (total)

::FEST::

After rescuing Tig Titter Tut we continued our adventuring through the wilderness, well to the west of the Stag Lord's lake. We have a run in one evening w/ a pack of wolves. The creatures were being driven by an evil Worg. But after taking a beating the pack disbanded and decided to look elsewhere for easier pray.

On day 10 in the wilderness we stumbled across the lost temple to Erastul. J'Hod will be well pleased. An impressive affair, the temple was guarded by an enormous brown bear. Unfortunately we could not peaceably deal with the creature and had to put it down. (Not easily mind you...Durvil nearly passed this mortal coil.) But as it died, its form faded and in it's place lay an old old man, who in turn crumbled to dust at the ages finally caught up to him.

With 8 days of food remaining we decide to head for home. One evening a massive centipede appears and tries to eat Tak Tak. Kiril, who was on guard duty at the time, takes the monster down in two mighty swipes of his sword! Or so I hear...I was asleep during this so called "encounter".

On day 16 we stumble across a cave which contained a vein of gold! Yes...gold. We marked it well on our map and intend to mine it along w/ the silver mine, somehow.

Day 19 finds us tangling w/ a trap door spider. Nasty creature that. It was actually so quick that it wasn't until well into the encounter that we actually figured out what we were battling. After vanquishing our foe, we find a dessicated body of one of the Stag Lord's men at the bottom. And on it; 10 gp, leather armor, a silver stag lord pendant, and a piece of paper w/ a drawing of a dead, claw-shaped tree with an 'X' drawn in blood near the base of it. Strange...we'll have to follow up on this.

With 2 days of food left we finally straggle into Oleg's keep. There we receive the items that we had ordered: Boar spears, Kiril's armor, and the masterwork thief tools. (I think...) Brother Lothar puts an order in for seed barley and hops. He's interested in growing a small garden in order to practice the earliest stages of brewing. J'Hod is going to help him.

The next few days we head out on the plains in order to explore the land closest to Oleg's. We meet Boken, the addled hermit. He's a bit mixed up but is apparently also quite talented when it comes to crafting potions. We'll keep that in mind. We've made an agreement with him as well: If we gather up two bushels of fang berries from the south, he'll give us a flat 25% off of his potion prices. Which is a pretty sweet deal actually.

On the way back we run into a very strange creature called a Shambling Mound. It is instantly attracted to Elsbeth, apparently elf brains are a favorite of these creatures. Wonderful. Well it's slow, but very hugely built, so avoidance seems best. We do so and head off for more exploration.

Not sure why, but we're always running into Benwick the ranger. I'm not complaining, mind you, he's always very generous with his campfire and whatever he's acquired during the day's hunt. He tells us a bit about the Stag Lord and his fort. Apparently Benwick used to be a bandit, serving under the Stag Lord.

His fort is surrounded by undead...Odd, I know. Why? Not sure. But it turns out that they don't bother the Stag Lord or his men. The only reason that Benwick can see is that the Stag Lord is bigger and badder and they somehow understand that and don't mess with them. But anyone else who treads on that ground is attacked immediately. Nasty business.

On the 29th of Gozerain we run across a slew of traps...Turns out there's a nasty trapper name of Breeg who's running around in this neck of the woods. He's got a nasty streak to him and apparently likes to torment his prey before skinning them. He deserves the same in my book.

While out west of Oleg's we end up running into a small pack of Tatzle Wurms. They're these strange dragon / snake hybrids that lair in trees and attack with stealth and speed. Quite ugly actually. But the upside is that Oleg will pay 600 gp for an intact head, which he intends to hang in his bar. I wonder if Svetlana knows of this.

Our fight w/ the creatures nets us two dead Tatzle Wurms and one head. Huzzah! And Oleg is naturally quite pleased. So pleased in fact that he not only pays us, but holds a feast.

During this feast a traveler appears. A noble woman by appearance, Taralisa is an agent of the Sword Lords and has come with a missive for us. She needs us to go and retrieve some honey. Sounds rather mundane until she explains a bit further.

The Ifel Donen flower blooms once every 50 years, and the honey from these highly magical flowers reputedly extends life indefinitely. Taralisa's employer has tried already to purchase some of this honey, but has been turned away. So now it falls upon us to do this thing. We'll be paid 500 gold for the vial. We've been given a magical ring of protection (+2) which is what we shall purchase this honey with. Oh, and the only way to find the bees is to contact the fae. This is also why we've been earmarked for this job.

We set off the next day with J'Hod in tow, 80 some days worth of food and an intent to find our friends the grig. By the way, there are those of us that are HIGHLY skeptical about this newest job. There's something fishy going on here, and I'm not talking about Svetlana's amazing rations either!

4 days of travel over the plains and through the woods, we finally reach the abandoned temple to Erastul. J'Hod is overwhelmed and promises that any spell he is capable of casting is ours for free. Good deal that.

After that we head to the south, hoping to somehow run into the fae. Miracle upon miracles, we find Breeg dead, caught in his own trap. And of course, who's hanging around but Percival. Luck's on our side. We tell him our mission and he gives us some information on the Honey Queen and her "daughter" Leyla.

Young Leyla is actually a human child who befriended the bees long ago. She was enamored of them and vice versa. Eventually her curiosity got the best of her and she was allowed to sample the purple honey, reserved only for fae. A deep sleep overcame her and she has since been kept by the bees, in good health, never aging, yet never waking either.

Percival agrees to take us to the queen, well "near" the queen actually. As it turns out, he's not in the best graces of the bees, for stealing some of that honey. Anyway, Kiril agrees to the magical journey this time as Percival promises to help "find" his ancestors. Not quite sure what that means, but it sounds extensive to me.

Powerful faerie magic shrinks us down to dinky little things and we travel in the span of a day, what would have taken us probably the good part of a week to cover! An AMAZING journey that I shall never forget for the rest of my life.

Once there, we get rough directions back to the temple of Erastul, which btw, is going to be our new base of operations. And Percival points us in the direction of the bees. Off we go.

A few hours later we come upon woman who is yelling up an enormous tree...."Stay still! Don't move!". Naturally we're curious. What's this woman doing out here in the middle of absolutely nowhere, and what's she yelling at. Peering up the tree we see a young boy, no older than 6 or 7 years of age, caught about 80' up on a branch. And just above him, a tangle of webs!

Rushing out we surprise the woman but Brother Lothar strings together two ropes and quickly scuttles up the tree to rescue the young lad. Kiril is quite suspicious of this whole thing and warily watches the woman.

Naturally a spider emerges just as Lothar arrives at the boy's position. Quickly wrapping the rope around his own waste, the Brother of the Empty Jug attempts to secure the boy as well. This turns out to be harder than anticipated. What with arrows whizzing about his head and a spider trying to put it's more than prodigious fangs through his exposed back.

After being bitten twice, not succumbing to the poison, Lothar finally gets the boy set and lowers him down as quickly as possible.

Kiril eventually hits the spider as does Ix w/ his magical missile. This of course causes the spider to up it's attempts to get a meal as quickly as possible. As the boy attains the ground, Elsbeth slices the rope and Ix magically mends another to its end. Durvil grabs this loose end and shouts for Brother Lothar to jump!

Not thinking about more than the nasty arachnid, Lothar does exactly that...and down he plummets. Up comes Durvil and CRASH! The meet quite solidly in mid air. Both reach the ground w/out further ado just as Elsbeth skewers the spider for good.

The grateful mother grants us a powerful blessing as a form of thanks and takes off into the woods telling us not to follow. Curious, yet respectful, we follow her wishes and stay put. Eventually, after healing up, we take off again in the direction of the bees.

Next we run into an old woman sitting on a stump and humming. What is this place? In the span of a few hours we've encountered 3 people in a place that is supposedly wild and uninhabited. The matronly figure asks for a bite of food and Lothar, the soft-hearted fool that he is readily agrees to such a venture and shares a portion of his iron rations. Not the best of fare, but something to fill the belly.

She thanks the group and imparts advice upon her leaving. Treat royalty with respect but sometimes they need to be corrected when they're wrong. The sword is not the way. Use Leyla's name to enter and she must be set free.

With that she bids us adieu and disappears around a tree. Turns out this is Baba Migori, some type of witch or spirit who's lived in these woods for years upon years. Oh, she also warns us about the hallucinogenic affect of the Ifel Donnen flower. Uh oh.

Over the next hill we come upon the valley of the Ifel Donnen. Full of bees, we know we're in the right place and the only way is across. So down we go... Seilah, Kiril and his horse Chisel are caught in the flower's hypnotic embrace almost immediately. Kiril has small plant-like friends joining him while his horse Chisel slorps through honey. All the while Seilah is having an engaging conversation with a tree.

Working together we pull the three along with us through the fog inducing valley and win through with perseverance. On the opposite side we track the bees to their hive, a huge cave of sorts under a giant oak tree.

Outside the entrance we spy a young girl twirling and dancing, and as we gain upon her she disintegrates into a swarm of bees! This must have been Leyla. Baba Migori told us of the "forms" that the young girl was wont to take.

Now fully convinced about our mission, which has changed by the way. We have found out that in order for the imbiber to gain eternal life they must trap a soul. This is decidedly evil and we've agreed (for the most part...Durvil?) to warn the bees and not say anything about the purchase of honey.

Well, the best laid plans of mice and men oft go astray....as they say. Elsbeth decides that it might be a good idea after all to open with the offer to purchase the honey. This angers the young Leyla, who is the "voice of the queen", and her "daughter" to boot. Not sure how that works really, but she's insistent. Leyla responds angrily that the honey is for the fae only and that we must leave immediately. So much for the negotiations I suppose.

Just before she again dissipates in a swarm of bees though, Lothar mentions that she should be free to live the life of a young girl. This visibly saddens her...but still, she leaves.

We sit as a group and talk and eventually decide that maybe those that are armed are not helping matters and that Durvil, Kiril and Elsbeth should probably wait outside while the rest of us request an audience w/ the queen one last time.

Our humble entreaties are met with the appearance of Duxit, the mite champion of the hive, who rides the largest bee we've ever seen. Apparently the aging mite has not missed many meals as his ill fitting armor attests. And after challenging us, and being turned down, he is visibly relieved. "I like eating more than I like fighting." says the mite. And after a brief discussion we're able to convince him that meeting with the queen face-to-face is in the hive's best interest.

Seilah is an apt negotiator and this is quite likely our saving grace. Between her and Brother Lothars pleas, the queen is eventually convinced, after a rather tense introduction, that the girl Leyla should be set free. She also takes our warning into consideration but laughs at the intent of the message. The honey is misunderstood by mortals. It will indeed prolong life, but the imbiber will fall asleep for 50 years, neither aging, nor waking until the next bloom of the Ifel Donnen flower.

As a bit of a spiteful joke, as the fae are wont to play upon us mortals, she gives us a vial of the honey and tells us to deliver it. Guaranteed that it will way lay any further requests for the stuff for quite some time. We're now free to go...and by the way, you're not welcome back, says the queen. OK...we breathe w/ a sigh of relief as we emerge under the open sky.

Brother Lothar though gasps as he realizes that a heavenly mead, well worthy of Cayden, might be made of this honey. Not the purple mind you, but the standard honey itself, which must be delightful. He summons Daxit again and the "champion" agrees to consider a possible deal for the honey. They'll be in touch.

We journey back to the temple of Erastul w/ the young girl Leyla in tow. Once there we ask J'Hod if he might be willing to take on an acolyte. Not interested says he. So it's off to Oleg's, in the hope that we can somehow find a safe and secure environment for our newest charge.

And this is where we ended it.

EXP: 5254 (Third level!!!)

Game Session Six

I suppose I'm getting into a pattern here...But on the upside, it helps my memory when I update the site the night prior to our game.

Our party grabs what's owed to us at Oleg's and prepare to set out the next day. Our goal is to get the elk cow to the blind troll seer. Lucky for us the elk is delivered that day by Benwik, the ranger. We pay the man 8 gp for his very valuable services. Can you even remotely imagine us out in the wilderness trying to track down and capture a live cow elk? No? Me neither.

The 8 gp aren't the end of our expenditures though, we also shell out 170 gp for our rations. 21 days x 6. We're hoping that we've figured it correctly this time around, going hungry isn't conducive to thorough exploration you know. Oh, and Durvil ends up shoveling out 150 gp to J'Hod, for the cure to the Red Ache, a nasty disease he picked up from battling that monstrous tick.

After gearing up, writing a short missive to our "sponsor", and requisitioning some boar spears and masterwork thieve's tools, we set out on our way to get the "cow" to the troll, the kobolds in place (returning the totem for the ring as well), and then doing some actual exploring on the way home. Our charter says something about "exploring" at least...figure we might as well get some in before that Sword Lord gets all uppity and such.

On the way to see the troll we had a run-in w/ some type of aggressive faerie folk. Of course it happened on my watch. I swear by Cayden's floating eyes that EVERYTHING happens on my watch!

Anyway, these little folk look like some kind of grasshopper people. They stand only about 8 or so inches high. But let me tell you, they're no pushovers. Unfortunately for me I told them my name. Last time I EVER do that. Apparently once you tell these little fellas your name they like to make you do stuff to entertain them. And do it till you drop dead. Yeah, that's right. Nasty little buggers.

Luckily for me, the rest of the group woke up and pulled me out of the "trance" that I was in. The Grig, that's what they called themselves, decided that it might be more prudent to let us be, than to pick a stand up fight. But we'll have to keep our eyes open, they as much as threatened me in particular when we told them to leave. They remind me of truculent children, with entirely too much power.

After a short journey the next day we found our troll seer and delivered the "cow" w/out incident. Tell you what though, we didn't stand around waiting for the giant to eat the thing...off we scampered.

A few more days journey saw us outside of the kobold lair. There we spoke w/ the witch doctor / shaman, Tar Tuk, delivering the totem and going over our plans for the tribe. One of the details that I had forgotten was that we had to challenge Soot Scale in order to officially place Nit Pick in the position of chief.

So that's what we did. And sure enough, out he comes, with his bully boy guards. A fight breaks out and things kinda go pear-shaped early on. Caught on our heels, the Chief charges Durvil (prancy pants) and deals him a nasty blow (13 hp), which in turn causes him to retreat. Well, not everyone was caught flat footed. I held my ground and waited for something to happen, and as soon as that mangey kobold charged, I sprinted to intercept.

Great idea right? Yeah, I thought so too. Well, I must have not downed the right amount of wine prior to the fight. I promptly tripped just as I leapt to meet the chief mid air. Wham! He hits Durvil, I hit the dirt...Face first. Graceful.

Eventually though we win the fight. And now we've got "allies" in the kobolds. So that's done.

And that's where we ended it.

Experience:

450 exp

134 exp (for the radishes)

Game Session Five

Tuesday October 19th. (Game time: Pharast 20)

Another late one...but hey, at least it's happening before the next game!

So we're led by Nit-Pick and Nat-Pick, our new-found kobold allies, to the Sycamore tree, wherein we are to find the mites, and the kobold's totem. Brother Lothar and Elsbeth head out to do a bit of reconnaissance, but are unable to find much due to the lack of light and experience in locating such things. About the only clues are the numerous footprints as well as a small chimney located in the branches of the dying, 100' tall sycamore tree.

After the return of the scouts, the rest of the party advances upon the tree and surround it at a distance in order to watch for the mites. While we're waiting Selah dredges up some information about the lowly mite. Apparently they're related to the family of fey, but are evil and quite ugly in demeanor. They particularly loathe gnomes and dwarves...and apparently live in dying trees. Who knew?

We decided after a few minutes to be a bit more proactive in our attempt to flush the mites out. So Brother Lothar climbed the tree and plugged the chimney as the others sat in ambush. Sure enough, a small hidden door opened near the base of the tree and two hugely ugly, diminutive, blue-skinned creatures came scampering out. Chittering to one another in the language of the dark fey, they eventually figured out that the wineskin that the drunken monk had placed in the hole was the cause of their distress.

Pulling it out was step one in their demise, step two was uncorking the top and figuring out that the contents were quite tasty. Naturally! After roughly 10 minutes we had a couple of capering, drunken mites, whom we promptly tied up. Oh, all this, after watching them play some sort of twisted game that entailed them catching and swallowing caltrops of all things!

Heading down into the humid stinking hole, the party eventually makes their way through the upper reaches of the cramped mite lair. Another hole leading down was found and this is where we got a wee bit "tied up" you might say.

In short, Elsbeth falls to the bottom of the 35' shaft, falls unconscious and of course Durvil promptly follows suit, falling down the shaft himself. But the doughty warrior doesn't succumb to the damage and stays on his feet. At the bottom of the shaft though is where we find our first challenge.

It seems that the mites have gathered for some sport, and are teasing, poking, prodding and generally torturing a captive kobold (named Mik Mak). Well, all their attention was upon their cruel sport until we crashed their party. Quite literally! The fight was on...and for little guys, they were deceptively difficult to take down. (Apparently Fey are very resilient to our weapons in general. We'll have to figure out how to circumvent that in the future.)

The running battle includes fighting an enormous centipede! We'd heard that the mites had some sort of natural empathy towards insects...but this thing was something to see. Huge...with a LOT of nasty little legs. Oh, and poison too. Kiril again comes to the rescue and lays the monster low with one enormous blow. (Rolls a crit and does 37 hps!!) It was Ix though who delivers the killing blow. Ha!

Our next serious challenge was the chief of the mites, one Grabble, Lord Among Mites. Now it wasn't just the mite himself, but his mount, that truly gave us pause. He rode a giant tick, quaintly named "Tickle Back". The party eventually wins out as Durvil charges and shows what a knight can truly do...(Another crit!)

After the fight we find a bag containing:

• 193 cp
• 120 sp
• 32 gp
• The bone totem
• A cure light potion

And a few other things that we ended up giving to the new chief of the kobolds, Nit-Pick. (MW buckler, armor, and spear.)

I think our game ended w/ us having to see the kobolds home, ensure that Nit is chief and to retrieve Svetlana's ring from the Shaman in trade for the totem. On our way though we met a ranger named Benwick. He was kind enough to share his fire with us...and obviously quite the prodigious hunter. He ended up getting us our "cow" and making sure that the troll was paid what we owed it. He also helped supplement our low food stores. Which was nice.

I'm not sure if we made it back to the fort... But I think so.

Anyway:

901 EXP

Total EXP: 2004 (Second level!!)

Game Session Four

Tuesday, October 5th.

This is going to be a very disjointed / brief recap. Unfortunately the window of opportunity for doing this occurred too late for much clarity to be imparted upon this telling. Apologies.

We had a full house last time. That I do remember. Anyway to paraphrase:

The group decided that we ought to head on out and start actually exploring the land, that IS after all the charter we've been given.

The night of Pharast the 10th, we hear the soldiers talking around the campfire and they're speaking of some kind of local rumor about a ghost named Davik Nettles who haunts the bridge over the River Shrike. We'll need to remember that I suppose.

There were some issues w/ the green liquor that Brother Lothar appropriated from the bandits. Seems that it's rather addictive and that drinking causes one to ... well, drink more. And next thing you know, Whamo! it's all gone. Which of course makes Brother Lothar's head hurt... For days.

After stocking up on rations (10 days I think?), we took a few extra horses and my faithful companion, Cayden's Ass, and headed south, hoping to get some serious exploration in.

First off we decided that we might as well get some coin in the process. So we'd be looking for the Moon Radishes while we explored this specific region. Turns out that a greedy little group of kobolds also like radishes. And by the time we arrived (Day 6 of travels), they'd finished off nearly a whole meadow of them!

Naturally a fight breaks out and we prevail...but leave one (or more?) for questioning. Turns out Sootscales is a "king" of kobolds and he LOVES these radishes. And if he was to find out that this particular kobold, named NitPick has eaten these then there'd be serious trouble. It's decided then that we'll accompany NitPick back and come up w/ a plan on the way.

On the way we run into a monstrously massive creature who claims to have the gift of prophesy. By way of disemboweling itself and reading the entrails!!! Here's what we found out:

• He waits in the fort who rules the Stag
• Betrayal will come from one you least expect
• Rule will not go as smoothly as you planned

All this for delivering a "cow" in a fortnight. Not a bad deal I suppose.

By day 9 we'd reached some rough country and this is where NitPick tells us the clan is hold out. Now we'd already killed a good percentage of the clan's warriors but fighting in those tight conditions appealed to nobody. So we came up w/ the plan that NitPick ought to be king. And that we'd champion him in the contest. (Well, that would be Kiril of course.) Once he's king, the kobolds will be our allies...and I use that term loosely.

On the outside of this cleft in the rock is an old sign declaring this to be "Silver-top mine". Interesting...and hanging on the other side opposite that, is a cage w/ a desiccated mite within. Seems that the mites and kobolds have a "relationship"...sorta. But the mites, who "work" for the kobolds also are a bit willful. We have to pay them a visit anyway, so we'll be doing NitPick a favor.

There was one hitch in our plans though, a shaman by the name of Tartuk. But luck was on our side and as it turns out, the Mites have stolen the clan's totem. We return that and Tartuk will back us as well! How can we lose? (Heh.)

NOTE: We're going to ask the kobolds to mine for us.

We take NitPick and NatPick, his brother, with us in order to guide us directly to the sycamore tree and the mites. Now if you've done the math, you've figured out that we're out of rations. It's now day 10, we've made it to the tree, but we've run out of food. Uh oh.

That's where we stopped.

Experience: 258

Interesting quote:

Durvil: "Savages must be dealt with as savages..."

Kiril: "Why are you looking at me?"

Game Session Three

Tuesday, September 28th, 2010
Players / PCs

• Jeff Faller / Brother Lothar
• Ray Holding / Elsbeth
• Jeff Koch / Kirill Andrayson
• Heather Koch / Selah
• Paul Reinwald / Durvil Otterson
• Ed Auran / Ixilplix "Ix" Windrunner
• DM: Wes Robinson

My last post ran on a bit, so I'll make this one much more succinct and to the point. In fact, I've had a few players complain that my posts are too long... So brevity is best I suppose.

We start where we left off last time, with the group attempting an early morning ambush of the bandit camp. Our cover is blown though as a bandit out relieving himself spots Durvil and his horse "sneaking" through the bushes to get into position. A yell awakens the camp.

Groggy bandits come pouring out of tents to join the fray. Blows are traded back an forth but the heroes win the day. Not without cost though... Brother Lothar nearly joins Cayden Caileen in the great bar in the sky...but Selah pulls him back with her healing magic. She also ends up administering to the majority of the group. Seems nearly everyone took a bit of a bashing.

All the same, the majority of the bandits are vanquished while the remainder are taken prisoner. But they eventually rue that decision...

Loot is phat for the effort, but Svetlana's wedding band is nowhere to be found. After questioning the remaining bandits it turns out that a group of mites attacked the camp a few days back and took a bunch of treasure away to their sycamore tree, 12 miles to the south of the camp.

A few other nuggets of information are gleaned from our talkative survivors:

• The bandits pay tribute to the Stag Lord, who by all accounts is a mountain of a man. (Brother Lothar has absconded w/ 6 bottles of his "green liquor")
• The Stag Lord is also a drunk.
• Their camp is located NE of the Tusk Water.
• The password (last time anyone checked that is...) was "By the bloody bones of St. Golmorg, who wants to know?"

On the way home the group encounters a famished (and just plain damned mean) Owlbear. The massive creature rips into the easiest food source, which unfortunately turns out to be the bound prisoners...4 of them are killed outright before the party can gather their wits and counter attack.

Owlbears are what are called "Apex Hunters", meaning that they are top of the food chain, and generally clear out an area and call it home. There's a reason they're the top too. All fur and feathers, beak and claws, the monster proves too much and the party retreats.

All told, 5 horses and 4 prisoners are lost. This thing was HUNGRY! (Oh, and did I mention PISSED?) Twitch and Minion are the sole survivors.

Exhausted, the group finishes the journey the next day and finds themselves at Oleg's Trading Post, just as a cadre of soldiers arrive. Seems that the plea for reinforcments has not fallen on deaf ears. 4 of the soldiers, including an engineer named Gregor, are to stay on permanently.

A priest of Erastul has also traveled with the soldiers with the intent to make Oleg's his home as well. His name is J'Hod Kafkin and he's willing to trade his services for ours...He's searching for a lost temple of Erastul located somewhere in the Greenbelt. The only thing known about the temple is that it has a guardian that was supposedly set to keep intruders at bay. An herbalist and healer, his services will be a welcome addition. No offense Selah.

And that's where we ended it. The soldiers leave on the 10th of Pharast, and we'll pick it up on the 11th of Pharast.

Loot:

• 321 sp
• 90 gp
• Silver Earrings 150 gp
• Wooden Music Box 90 gp
• Polished wooden box w/ 6 (now 4) bottles of the Stag Lord's Green Liquor (very tasty)
• Krestle's masterwork handaxes
• Studded leather armor
• potion w/ healing properties
• 4 daggers
• 115 gp
• Masterwork chain shirt
• leather armor x 8
• long bows x 8
• 156 arrows
• 8 short swords
• 80 gp
• 64 days of hard tack
• 4 horses
• 1 mule (Brother Lothar has named him Cayden's Ass)
• 1 cart

Experience: 620

Funny nugget:
Kirill "Why do you insist on calling me a barbarian."
Durvil "Because you wear rabbits as armor!"

Defending the Fort

Game Session Two

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Players / PCs

• Jeff Faller / Brother Lothar
• Ray Holding / Elsbeth
• Jeff Koch / Kirill Andrayson
• Heather Koch / Selah
• Paul Reinwald / Durvil Otterson
• Ed Auran / Ixilplix "Ix" Windrunner

DM: Wes Robinson

Day two at the fort / trading post brings Ixilplix with a "Pop" of magic...appearing out of thin air, as mages are wont to do. Much ado is made about how we're going to handle the bandits that are due the next morning.

Ideas abound. Durvil struggles to take the lead in planning, as cavaliers are wont to do. But the party is still trying to gel and everyone wants to get their idea in edge-wise. After nearly a full day of discussion and a bit of looking about the old fort itself a plan is agreed upon.

Oleg would rather that we didn't duke it out with the bandits on the inside, he's afraid that we'll do even more damage. But unfortunately, inside is about the only logical place to spring an ambush. There isn't a tree around for miles and the ramshackle building stands atop a small rise, so the choices are rather limited.

The idea then is to have Elsbeth watch for their approach from atop one of the towers. Everyone else, minus Durvil, will confront the bandits when they get inside. Brother Lothar and Selah will be in plain site, standing with Oleg and Durvil will be watching from the back wall and then repel down the outside to his waiting horse once the bandits are inside.

Somewhere before noon Elsbeth calls out that 5 riders are approaching, which is about what we'd expected. They get to the gate, spy the two newcomers, Selah and Brother Lothar and immediately become a little suspicious. But Oleg and Selah claim that we're guests, that seems to mollify the leader, and things get down to business.

That's when the trap is sprung. Durvil opens the action by charging the man waiting with the horses just outside the gate. But before he can set spur to horse the leader opens fire and the bandits charge into the courtyard, surrounding Selah and Brother Lothar. One of their blows falls on Lothar just as Ix pops up from behind a building and lays down a sleep spell...which also happens to catch the drunken monk.

But the spell also affects all three bandits and this is the turning of the tide. The leader of the bandits fairs poorly against a raging Kirill and once Durvil gets going he shows his horsemanship by stopping his charge inches shy of skewering a shaking bandit.

In the end we get 4 captives. The deliberations about what we're to do w/ the captives once their questioned is a heated affair. Durvil wants them dead, and quotes the charter as proof. Kirill is not sold on their deaths though, while Selah and Brother Lothar are basically against it. Ix and Elsbeth are willing to go either way.

Durvil gets his way early on though and clumsily hacks one of the bandit's head from his shoulders. The others turn white at the display and instantly turn repentant. We learn that the bandits are a day and a half to the south. Just head to the river and follow it north and we'll find their camp.

Oleg and Durvil are not impressed though and hang another bandit to prove their displeasure. One of the remaining bandits swears his fealty to Oleg and is taken on to help out around the trading post. The other is dispatched...he's just too much of a liability.

We take off immediately for the bandit camp, in the hopes that we can quell the threat and win the reward. (1000gp in trade credit for the return of Svetlana's ring and 400 gp for getting rid of the bandits in general.)

But of course nothing is simple with this group, and more arguing ensues. Durvil insists that we take our time and explore as we make our way south. The charter backs up his stance. But the rest of the group, Kirill and Brother Lothar especially, want to head south to the river with all speed. Their argument is that the bandits pose a very real and imminent threat to Oleg and Svetlana. Unless they are wiped out, the trader and his wife will always be in danger.

So it's put to a vote and we head south post haste. The first night is spent at the edge of the forest, out on the open plains. It passes peacefully though... The next day we parallel the forest heading south and the country starts to turn hilly. This is where we hit the river...and an old wooden bridge.

After some deliberation we head north along the river to the edge of the woods just as dusk falls. It's decided that Elsbeth and Kirill should move through the woods while the rest of us wait at the edge of the woods. A quick reconnoiter shows that the remaining bandits number somewhere around a dozen and are led by the strange woman who wields twin hand axes.

In the center of their camp lies a small ruin, where the leader stays, which is surrounded by a few ramshackle tents. We decide to move against them in the early morning. This way we can see. Our plan is to have Durvil come in from one direction, attracting most of their attention, while we come in from the other. And as luck would have it, he's spotted heading towards his position. The game is afoot!

And this is where we stop. Here are a few photos from the night. Wes is really putting a ton of effort into the props...and it shows! Really amazing stuff:

The bandit camp...

Durvil's spotted...

Help Wanted postings...

Oleg's Trading Post...

Day One

Game Session One

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Players / PCs

• Jeff Faller / Brother Lothar
• Ray Holding / Elsbeth
• Jeff Koch / Kirill Andrayson
• Heather Koch / Selah
• Paul Reinwald / Durvil Otterson

DM: Wes Robinson

The first session was brief really. Mostly just players and DM getting used to each other at the table again. We are playing the Pathfinder rules set and the campaign Kingmaker. In a nutshell, it's a basic "old school" hex-based romp. Fun!

Day one:

The characters have answered the Sword Lord's call to arms and have gathered at a manor house in order to get a crack at colonizing the Greenbelt, which is a wilderness located to the south of the country of Brevoy. Many adventurers from Restov and the surrounding area have answered the call. But only a few are chosen.

An old crone is called forward after the Sword Lord addresses the motley gathering. She tosses the bones and selects 5 from the gathered throng. The rest are dismissed.

A writ is handed over with brief instructions on how this is to take place. Results are expected, and if they are not met, the writ will be rescinded and the offer withdrawn. A regular schedule of dispatches from Oleg's Trading Post are expected.

The main threat in the area is the Stag Lord...a self proclaimed leader of a large bandit horde. This is to be the party's first task. Rid the area of the bandit threat.

Two teamsters Kingston and Dadffyd lead the group (along w/ two wagons) to the south. The weather is mild and the journey nondescript.

Once there, we meet the proprietor of the Trading Post, a bear of a man named Oleg. He welcomes us to the shabby, run-down establishment. Seems that the place is run by only he and his wife Svetlana.

The group is told that the most immediate threat is a smaller group of bandits that have been harassing the Trading Post and demanding monthly payments. In fact, Oleg has lost his wedding band to the group for just such an outrageous demand!

This will be the first order of business. In two short days a small coalition of bandits will show, demanding the monthly payment. The plan is to have a bit of surprise in store for them...For now though, unpacking and planning are paramount.

More soon.